MALETS began in February 2006 as a way for people in the Mount Alexander Shire to exchange goods and services in the local community. MALETS uses its own unit of currency, called a “pod”, without reliance on the mainstream economy. Eighteen years later, MALETS has grown into a strong and stable trading community with more than 580 account holders. Each month, MALETS has about one thousand transactions with a value of approximately ten thousand pods.
How does MALETS work?
Each member is assigned a member number that is used to identify them whenever they make a trade. A trade occurs when a member exchanges a product or service with another member. The seller can use the pods earned in the trade to purchase from other traders. All transactions are recorded in the MALETS database and members are provided with a regular statement showing their trades and their current balance in pods.
Trading takes place at regular trading days, where members meet up to exchange fruit, vegetables, home cooking and second-hand goods. Skills and services can also be traded through MALETS. Members are provided with a directory which lists the skills and services offered within the group. A member can contact another member directly to arrange a trade.
MALETS operates differently from the mainstream economy and everyone needs to contribute. An exchange economy only works when all members are both buyers and sellers on a regular basis. Experience has shown that the ideal trader has an account balance that regularly trades through zero (moves from positive to negative and back again). That is, at some periods of the annual trading cycle, a member will have a positive balance and other times they will have a negative balance. It’s not good for the long term health of the system for any member to persistently maintain a significant credit or debit balance.
MALETS 