Loan-Granting Closed-Circuit Credit

Decentralized Monetary Protocol

An institutional monetary protocol in which a cooperative bank issues non-convertible credit to member businesses against collateral, circulating exclusively within a closed circle of members. The credit is pegged 1:1 to the national currency for accounting but is structurally distinct: it cannot be exchanged for national currency, and circulation is bounded by membership. Prototype: WIR Bank (Switzerland).

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Details

License Closed source — proprietary banking software.
Dev Status 🟢 Active
Dev Status Detail Released — over 60,000 SME member businesses; CHF 1+ billion annual circulation.
Owner WIR Bank Genossenschaft (cooperative bank).
Country Switzerland.
Start Year 1934
Stack Proprietary banking infrastructure.
Funding Cooperative member capital; profitable banking operations.
Last Investigated Jul 1, 2026

Use Case Domains

Platform Evolution & Sovereignty

Decentralized Monetary Protocol Attributes

Origins Depression-era credit mutualization; Gesellian monetary reform tradition (though WIR itself diverged from mutual credit).
Data Formats Standard banking ledger formats; WIR-Franc denominated accounts.
Terms Cooperative membership required; member dues; loan terms per cooperative rules.
Funds Approximately CHF 4+ billion in total balance sheet (recent figures).
Based On Original architecture; differs from Gesell's mutual credit theory through its loan-granting design (Blanc and Rogers analyses).
Permissions Membership-based; loans subject to cooperative bank credit assessment.
Smart Contract No — institutional implementation.
Development Tools Not applicable — closed institutional system.
Protocol Maturity / Standardization Production-grade; ninety-year operational history.
Trust Framework Cooperative bank institutional reputation; collateral requirements; member governance; Swiss banking regulation.
Target Application Domain SME-to-SME credit clearing; counter-cyclical business credit; cooperative finance.
Game-Acceptance Position Modify-Additive — operates alongside Swiss Franc; designed for indefinite coexistence.
Accumulation Regime Enables (uncapped principal) but limited by non-convertibility — accumulated WIR-Francs can only circulate within member network.
Coordination Mechanism Bounded-trust at entry (member admission); price-aggregation within member circle.
Issuance Model Algorithmic plus collateral-based — bank issues credit against collateral; not peer-to-peer mutual credit.
Value-Signal Type Single rational unit pegged to Swiss Franc.
Federation Pattern None — single closed circle; non-convertibility constrains federation.
Substrate Independence Institutional / off-chain native.