The Bristol Pound CIC then developed Bristol Pay, which sought to both offer an e-money peer-to-peer payment platform that could generate income for charitable projects in the city and to create a range of token systems to encourage a culture change in how people thought about economic value in relation to social capital and environmental capital.

[6] Its primary aim was to support independent traders in order to maintain diversity in business around the city.

[7] Previous to the Bristol pound, local currencies were launched in the UK in Totnes (2006),[8] Lewes (2008), Brixton (2009)[9] and Stroud (2010).

[10] In comparison, sterling pounds spent at a supermarket chain typically leads to more than 80% of the money leaving the area almost immediately.

[11] As well as potentially stimulating the local economy it can create stronger bonds within the community; by increasing social capital.

The Bristol Credit Union ensured that every £1 sterling converted to a printed £B1 was backed in a secure trust fund.

[citation needed] Bristol pound was part of a larger international movement of local currencies.

These could be exchanged at a 1:1 rate for sterling at seventeen different cash points throughout the city, or ordered online through the Bristol pound website.

[6] This allowed, for example, participating small businesses to accept payments by SMS, without needing to pay for and install a credit card machine.

[22] The businesses were latterly charged 1% of the amount billed for payments made by SMS, a similar or sometimes reduced rate than with credit or debit cards, or PayPal (3%).

[7][23] The directors of the scheme could not prevent national and multinational companies accepting paper £Bs, but could decide, based on the Rules of Membership, whether a business was permitted to open a Bristol pound account and trade electronically.

[25] Paper Bristol Pounds could not be directly exchanged back to sterling unless first deposited into an electronic account.

Technically, the notes were vouchers and the first issue of the paper Bristol pounds also had an expiry date (30 September 2015).