all they do currently exist. Consumption points systems (hotels, airlines, credit card usage) act in some ways as private currencies. The monopoly owners issue as many points as they wish (I guess they need to get them from somewhere first, though) based on what behaviors they wish to reward. You can borrow points or purchase points using other currencies and there have been attempts to consolidate and create point exchanges. The one thing private currencies do accomplish is velocity. Private currencies by design must have a short life cycle -- a solid private currency will be hoarded as bad private currencies drive out good. The history of the US is the history of state chartered banks which basically issued private money -- short life cycles and periods of extreme velocity (which is uncontrollable once it starts) were its hallmarks. It was tried and didn't work then. What is going to change now? "2. I have yet to hear 1 rational argument why private non-convertible currency would not work." It would work fine. Starbucks issues a "private nonconvertable currency" when it credits your Starbucks card. (They don't issue refunds on unused balances, so it fits.) If Starbucks set up a payments system and convinced everyone in the worl to use StarBucks, everything would be fine, since Starbucks could always honor any draft on the system. But when you talk about "competing" systems, you are slipping convertibility in through the back door. If I have StarBucks but I don't like how they're