Digitization, standardization and institutionalization of a local currency

Since 2010, dozens of local currencies have been created in France, initially in the form of paper coupons. Some of them are now also circulating in digital form. The article is based on the case of the eusko, created in Basque Country in 2013, which took on a digital form in 2017. Drawing on an ethnographic survey within the non-profit association Euskal Moneta,’the Basque currency’, the article traces the main stages of the introduction of digital means of accounting and payment. It analyses the role of this digitization in the institutionalization of local currency. We show that this process leads to a twofold normalization of the currency, by adjusting its functioning to the common uses of money, and by a certain recognition of digital tools by the regulatory authorities of the banking sector. Along with this marginal entry into the payment services sector, those in charge of the currency work to preserve its activist roots and the nature of its political project.