Nigel Brown has lived as a Guelphite for over 13 years. The father of two is a local entrepreneur who’s known for selling minerals, crystals, and frequency generators at a weekly market at Guelph’s own eBar.
However, Brown is making a name for himself in an expected way. Brown is the inventor, designer, and chief lender for a fascinating invention: The G Dollar.
As Brown explains it, the G Dollar is a debt-free currency that’s meant to work alongside the Canadian dollar—not replace it.
“It’s really important to differentiate [between the G Dollar and other currencies],” explained Brown, in an interview with The Ontarion on Dec. 7, 2015. “Canadian currency, and the majority of the world’s currency, is debt-based. When [global currency] is created, a debt is created. If you’ve got a Canadian $10 bill in your pocket right now, someone is $10 in debt somewhere.”
More than just creating debt, international currency exists in a complex state of flux. A country can’t entirely pay off its debt, simply because doing so would entirely collapse its money supply.
“I call [the G Dollar] a complimentary currency, because its role is not to destroy any other currencies, it’s to work in concert [with them],” explained Brown. “So the G Dollar compliments the national currency.” Though Brown is the G Dollar’s creator and chief lender, he thinks of the currency as community-based.
“I run it and I back it, but I would say it’s community-based too,” explained Brown. “Because I’m a member of the community, and that’s the intention behind it—to empower the community.
Brown explains that he’s spent quite a bit of time researching international banking standards and regulations. Three summers ago, Brown attempted to explain international currency laws to his father, and came up with the idea to implement a local currency.
“I became aware of the nature of the international banking system and, therefore, the fee and debt-based banking system, and how that system has been used for an incredibly long time to achieve the aims of those who are the masters of it,” explained Brown. “…At the end of the conversation [with my father], I came to the conclusion that the only thing to do is to create my own currency, because I understood the socio-political and socio-economical system and how it operates.”
Thanks to Brown’s network of friends, fellow entrepreneurs, and socially-conscious members of the community, he was able to begin the G Dollar initiative.
Today, the G Dollar is traded almost exclusively at the G Dollar Market—an independently run collection of retailers who sell their unique wares on Wednesdays at Guelph’s eBar.
“Once I realized that I needed the market to back up the currency, I realized that I needed to give an incentive to vendors to use the G Dollar,” explained Brown. “That’s how I decided that anyone who comes to the market would get a certain amount of G Dollars for free at the start of the market. If you’re a vendor at the G Dollar Market, you’ll be receiving G Dollars and Canadian currency…so you can get strong inter-vendor trading at the market.”
Brown recognizes that the G Dollar is an initiative to get members of the community interested in recognizing the limitations of already existing currencies.
“The G Dollar is my currency,” explained Brown. “Ultimately, I back it up with my reputation and the trust that people put in me.”
Brown hopes that the people of Guelph will adopt the G Dollar as both a means of improving access to goods and services, but also as a way to remain connected with the community-at-large.