Le Cairn
Local complementary currency of the Grenoble basin in the French Alps, launched in October 2017 and run entirely by a volunteer association. Cairns circulate at parity with the euro as secured paper notes and as the digital e-Cairn across a network of local businesses that commit to a charter of local, social and ecological values. Grenoble became one of the first French cities authorized to pay part of municipal salaries, indemnities and subsidies in its local currency, and the association keeps an active calendar of markets, workshops and money-literacy events.
Le Cairn is a textbook French citizen local currency: a debt-free, full-reserve euro voucher circulating among Grenoble businesses committed to a social-ecological charter, with partial municipal acceptance and a durable volunteer community. As money it is deliberately un-sovereign — euro unit of account, euro reserves, association custody — so it scores low on independence while scoring well on inclusivity and civic governance. Its M69 relevance is as living infrastructure for local monetary citizenship rather than as an autonomous monetary system.
M69 Score
Scored against the Money2069 Manifesto — see methodology. Higher = more aligned.
Detailed Rating Breakdown
Issuance Model3x3.0
Full-reserve euro conversion: cairns are issued only against euros deposited with the association — debt-free (IM-02 high) and elastic in both directions via reconversion (IM-05 ~4) — but issuance is controlled by a single association and carries no real-economy signal beyond local euro demand (IM-01 ~3, IM-03 low).
Spending Power Stability2x3.0
1:1 euro parity backed by full reserves has held since 2017 — a hard, simple peg with a clean track record (SPS-04 high) — but stability is entirely borrowed from the euro: no own benchmark, no mechanism against euro-area inflation (SPS-01/02 low).
Fiat Independence & Interoperability2x1.0
Unit of account is the euro and reserves are 100% euros held at banks; the currency is a local circulation layer on top of fiat with no independence path (FI-01/02/03 at floor). Local composability is what it consumes, not what it offers others.
Traction2x3.0
Eight years live around Grenoble with a few hundred accepting businesses and a four-figure user base; the city pays part of salaries and subsidies in cairns, adoption is organic and values-driven, and the 2026 events calendar is active — but scale plateaued after 2020 and the network is in relaunch mode (TR-01 4, TR-04 ~3, TR-05 ~2, TR-10 ~3).
Sovereignty2.0
Association-run under French law: digital accounts are custodial, reserves sit in banks, and a prefecture could end it (SO-01/03 low) — though bearer paper notes give everyday transactions cash-grade privacy (SO-08 mid).
Governance3.0
Associative one-member-one-vote democracy with a public charter and general assemblies; participatory and transparent for its size, but informal — monetary rules like the euro peg are convention, not enforced structure (GO-01 ~3, GO-07 ~3).
Resilience2.0
Volunteer-run on thin funding; survived COVID and a post-2020 slump that forced a digital relaunch. Full-reserve design removes run risk (RE-06 mid), but organizational continuity depends on a small collective and grant-level finances (RE-07 low).
Inclusivity4.0
Open to anyone in the territory at near-zero cost; the cash option needs no bank account or smartphone, the nonprofit structure returns all benefit to the network, and identical rules apply to every member (IN-02/04/05 high). Membership registration is the only gate (IN-06 ~3).