Recap from the Democratic Currencies & Technological Innovation Conference

Last week, the Trustlines Network was a proud partner for the “Democratic Currencies, Technology, and Innovation” conference, part of the ongoing Lebanese virtual event series The Democratic Economy.

This event series is designed to stimulate action around socio-economic issues and foster connections between social innovators, technologists, grassroots community actors, researchers, activists, and designers. Panelists spoke in both English and Arabic, and live translations were available in both languages.

The Democratic Economy is organized in collaboration with Daleel Tadamon. This initiative supports and encourages solidarity initiatives, collectives, and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to empower and increase the resilience of local communities.

Members of the Trustlines community joined panels on day two of the event, themed Blockchain and Democratic Currencies.

First, Aleeza Howitt joined the “Overview of Existing Digital Currencies” panel to talk about Trustlines and blockchain-based community currencies. The discussion circled around the possibility and challenges of launching something in Lebanon.

Next, members of the Trustlines Venezuela community, Tomas Rodriguez and Daniel Knobelsdorf joined the panel “Democratic currencies: Zooming in on Blockchain for Trade & Investment.” In this panel, they discussed the case study of Trustlines in Venezuela, informal credit money, and their experiences on the ground. The discussion made it clear that there are many parallels between the economic environment in Venezuela and Lebanon, and Trustlines may hold a lot of promise in Lebanon.

For video clips of the talks the Trustlines members gave, check out our playlist on the Trustlines Foundation YouTube channel.