Bitcoin on Salt Spring Island?

[Katrina Elisse Caudle]

I was telling a new friend about Bitcoin today and he told me about one of the islands off the West Coast here in Canada called "Salt Spring" that use their own currency! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Spring_dollar

I thought it was pretty interesting! I wonder how open they'd be to also adopting Bitcoin?

[Kluge]

The purpose of local currency is usually the exact opposite of one of Bitcoin's greatest benefits. Whereas local currency is used to promote a form of localized protectionism (keep money in town), Bitcoin permits easy transactions cross-country and even overseas.

An alt-coin could be a reasonable alternative to Bitcoin, though, if it were only accepted within one province. For example, ChinaCoin was popular for a while, but offered nothing particularly exciting, so died. If it were given some purpose (like protectionism), it might be viable. However, local currencies generally don't attract a high level of enthusiasm and usually die out within a few decades, given the benefits are moreso for local merchants than consumers. This tends to be true of protectionism itself.