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Encointer

Encointer is a Swiss non-profit association (based in Zurich, founded January 2020) that builds an open-source proof-of-personhood protocol and mobile wallet enabling local communities to create and distribute their own demurrage-based community currencies as a form of universal basic income. It runs on a Kusama common-good parachain and serves community organizers, NGOs, local governments, and unbanked or economically underserved populations worldwide.
Zurich, CH

Description

Encointer enables communities anywhere to generate and circulate their own autonomous local currency to stimulate local economic activity, without requiring state-issued identification. Its protocol establishes unique personhood through in-person key-signing ceremonies held simultaneously at random locations, preventing Sybil attacks while distributing currency equally to all active participants each cycle. The currency is subject to demurrage to discourage hoarding and encourage local spending, and the underlying technology runs on a Kusama common-good parachain, also offering Sybil-resistance-as-a-service to other projects in the ecosystem. Encointer provides a free mobile wallet app (iOS, Android, F-Droid) that lets users join a community, register for ceremonies, receive basic income, and pay merchants. It serves grassroots community organizers, NGOs, and local officials seeking to fight local recession, hyperinflation, or seasonal liquidity shortages, with active community currencies including LEU (Zurich), Nyota/NYT (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, via partner Jukumu), and PayNuq (Zaria, Nigeria); an earlier community currency in Green Bay, Wisconsin has been discontinued.