The Nevada City
Healthy Community Pilot
What would Nevada City look like if more of what you spent actually stayed here — with the people you know, the businesses you trust, the families trying to build something that lasts? That is the question behind our Healthy Community Pilot. Every card transaction sends roughly 3% out of town. We are testing whether a community coin — backed one-to-one, accountable to an open ledger — can keep more of that wealth at home.
This is the lineage E.F. Schumacher drew in 1973 — economics as if people mattered, at the scale of a town. The Federation runs this pilot itself, among willing merchants. No city funds, no council approval, no endorsement required. The reserve is ring-fenced for Nevada City alone. Every vendor has a guaranteed 48-hour path to dollars. The ledger is real and open.
The Approach
Spend Here · It Stays Here · Already Live
Healthy Community
The doorway: what would Nevada City look like if more of what you spent stayed here? The Federation runs this pilot among willing merchants — no city contract, no council vote, no permission. The city is invited to adopt, not asked to permit.
Sustainable by Design
The substance: a community coin backed one-to-one, with a reserve ring-fenced for Nevada City alone. Every vendor has a guaranteed 48-hour path to dollars. Wealth that regenerates, stays local, lasts generations.
Sovereign Dignity
The voice: the data — local spend percentage, vendor count, coin velocity, coin retained versus cashed out — is captured from day one and delivered to the city free. This economy answers to the community, not a distant institution.
The pilot runs now, among willing merchants, with or without the city. What the city is offered — once, on a first-come basis — is the founding-node position: the perpetual royalty every later city pays back to Nevada City. That offer stands until another city takes the seat.
The Problem
The Drain No One Has Measured
Every card transaction sends roughly 2.5–3% to Visa, Stripe, or Square — corporations that contribute nothing to our community. No city in America has measured how much drains out in a year. Until now.
~3%
Taken from every card sale
Visa, Stripe, Square — leaves town
Every
Transaction, every week, all year
A steady drain no one has measured
Unknown
Total lost to processors annually
No city in America has measured it
48h
Vendor cash-out guarantee
Reserve ring-fenced for Nevada City
The Study
A Healthy Community Economy, Measured
The pilot runs on the Nevada City community coin — backed one-to-one, ring-fenced for this community alone. Residents receive 10 free coins to spend at participating merchants. Merchants get a $1 Steward test-send at onboarding to verify the receive-and-cash-out path, then earn coins through real sales. Every vendor has a guaranteed 48-hour path to dollars. Every transaction is on a public ledger, all measured in real time — local spend percentage, coin velocity, coin retained in circulation versus cashed out.
The live trial is currently running on shared community coin; the formal measured study deploys the isolated Nevada City community coin.
How the Community Coin Circulates
Step 1
Get 10 Free
Residents receive 10 free community coins — backed one-to-one, restricted to the pilot. No purchase needed.
Step 2
Spend Local
Pay merchants via QR. Zero fees. 3-second settlement. No card reader. Every coin stays here.
Step 3
Vendors Cash Out
Vendors exchange earned coins for dollars within 48 hours, guaranteed from a reserve ring-fenced for Nevada City alone. The loop stays local.
Step 4
Measure & Graduate
At the end, every returned coin is burned. The data — velocity, retention, local spend — proves circulation. Nevada City graduates to its own permanent community currency.
Coin Velocity
How many times a coin changes hands before leaving the local loop
Local Spend %
Percentage of coin retained in the community vs cashed out
Retention Rate
Community wealth kept at home — measured on the open ledger
Leakage Reduction
Processing fees avoided — dollars that stay in Nevada City
Timeline
6 Months · 4 Phases
01Baseline Measurement
Weeks 1–4Survey participating merchants on current volume, processor fees, and customer retention. Establish the fiat leakage rate and circulation count.
02Pilot Deployment
Weeks 5–20Onboard 8–12 merchants and 100–200 residents. Participants buy SFT and spend at local merchants via Xaman QR. Zero processing fees, 3-second settlement.
03Data Collection
Weeks 5–24Every SFT transaction recorded on the public XRPL ledger. Track circulation velocity, retention rate, and leakage reduction in real time.
04Study & Presentation
Weeks 21–24Compile findings into a public study. Present to City Council with policy recommendations. All data delivered to the city in open format.
For the City
What Nevada City Receives
The first empirical dataset on community coin circulation in an American small city
A published study with policy recommendations — owned by Nevada City
A public presentation to the City Council
All raw transaction data in open format — local spend %, coin velocity, retention
Civic identity: Nevada City as the first measured healthy community economy in America
A founding stake in the national community network — ongoing royalty from every city that follows
The Larger Vision
If the pilot proves that a community coin retains more economic value within Nevada City than card payments, the implications extend far beyond one town. This is the lineage Schumacher drew — economics as if people mattered — and the practice the Schumacher Center has run in the Berkshires since 2006 with BerkShares. What is new here is that the idea finally has the tools to be measured, sustained, and handed to the community to hold itself.
By hosting this pilot, Nevada City becomes the first American city to produce empirical evidence on healthy community economics — and the founding node of a national network. Every future city that replicates this model pays a licensing fee. A portion returns to Nevada City, in perpetuity, as the founding city.
And once Nevada City proves its coin circulates, it graduates from the burned test coin to its own permanent, self-named community currency — sovereign money, issued with a ceremony, accountable to the community, designed to last across generations. The pilot is the rehearsal; the community currency is the launch.
Spend here. It stays here. The data is worth more than the study. The founding position is priceless.
Pilot Status
Community Interest — Live
0
Merchants
0
Residents
0
Total Signups
Value Retained in Nevada City
The Circular Economy, Measured
Every coin spent here stays here. These numbers show wealth kept in the community that would otherwise have leaked to card processors — measured on the open ledger, updated weekly.
$0.63
Processing Fees Avoided
Dollars that would have left town to Visa/Stripe — now retained here
1.50
Coin Velocity
How many times a coin changed hands locally before leaving the loop
100%
Wealth Retained
Coin still circulating in the community vs. cashed out to dollars
21
Coin Distributed
3
On-Chain Spends
$0.00
Vendor Cash-Outs (honored)
$2500.00
Reserve Ring-Fenced
1
Vendors Onboarded
1
Active Resident Wallets
Snapshot 2026-W37 · 2026-09-07 · Reconciliation: pending
Leakage avoided = coin distributed × 3% (typical card fee). Velocity = on-chain spends ÷ gifts sent. Measured on the XRPL.
Local Merchant Directory
0 merchants · 0 SFT-readyNo merchants match your filter.
Join the Pilot
Be Part of the Study
Whether you're a resident, a merchant, a city official, or press — sign up and we'll reach out with next steps.
Claim your free 10 coins now
Live now — enter your Xaman wallet and your steward sends 10 community coins to spend at local merchants. The formal pilot deploys the isolated Nevada City community coin.
Join the Pilot
Sign up to participate in Nevada City's sovereign economy study.