Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS)

A local exchange trading system (LETS) is a locally oriented initiative organized through democratic processes, a not-for-profit, community-based undertaking that serves to provide community information services and keeps records of members exchanging goods and services by using the currency of locally established Lets Credits. The system is also known as a local energy transfer system or local employment and trading system and is abbreviated to LETS or LETSystem. The history of LETS can be traced back to 1983, when Michael Linton first used this concept. This was in reference to the first system per records, the Comox Valley LETSystem, based in Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada, which he ran for a time. The system, which was his creation, had the objective of serving as an adjunct ...