Social Digital Currency and Basic Income – the Development Strategy of the Future? : A case study of social currency, basic income and local business in Maricá, Rio de Janeiro

Abstract: This study is based on interviews with local business owners in the Brazilian municipality of Maricá, Rio deJaneiro, conducted in November 2021. The municipality receives royalties from the rich oil reserves that werefound in the bottom of the pre-salt area of the Atlantic Ocean, and has implemented a basic income programcalled Renda Básica de Cidadania (RBC). The RBC benefit is paid through a social digital currency via the localcommunity bank, which is a model developed by the Conjunto Palmeiras in Fortaleza that has spread throughoutBrazil as the ‘Palmas model’. The Palmas model does not include a basic income but uses community banks todevelop a ‘solidarity economy’ with a local social currency, whose circulation is restricted to within thecommunity. This thesis discusses how the RBC interacts with the Palmas model and considers potentialproblems and solutions arising in the case of Maricá in relation to local economic development, political trustand political participation. The study uses previous research about basic income, social currencies, solidarityeconomies, political trust and political participation to look at how public institutions and civil society interactwith the local market in Maricá. The study also investigates how this relationship is affected by the basic incomeprogram and by the move toward a solidarity economy with a local social currency.The study finds that the business owners who were interviewed participated in the implementation of the RBCthrough their usage of the social currency Mumbuca. They have accepted the social currency and the use ofMumbuca is well consolidated and normalized as a currency among the local business owners interviewed.They do not participate in any more active way in the community bank, but the study shows that through theiruse of the currency they are important actors for the consolidation of a solidarity economy in the municipality ofMaricá. The study shows that the respondents did not see the RBC as a basic income, but as a cash-transfer tothe poor. The majority of respondents believed that the implementation of the RBC and the social currency hadcontributed to the local economic development of the municipality, but that the main factor in the localeconomic development was the wealth of the municipality. The study shows that the respondents' level of trusttoward public institutions was considerably high.