Merits case 3

A local currency to manage public subsidies

We are developing these experimental projects with different stakeholders like health authorities or groups of little/medium cities. They all have in common some key facts:

1. They provide subsidies in euros to disadvantaged part of the population
2. They have the need to have a better control, understanding and report on how the subsidies are spent
3. They would like to create synergies between different public policies and use the subsidies given to individuals of disadvantaged categories also to support local businesses

Merits platform is able to “connect all the dots” with the following general model (still in co-creation and with different flavours with different stakeholders). 1) the local government (municipality or group of little municipalities) delegates Merits to issue merits tokens and distribute them as subsidies (sometimes given as reward for volunteering for the community, sometimes just as social support); 2) individuals can spend the merits at local businesses to buy goods and services; 3) local businesses can pay local taxes with the merits received or be refunded with euros.