(Feb 12): New Orleans drinking holes are facing financial disaster as city leaders shut them down for Mardi Gras — their busiest time of the year — but a homegrown currency is offering a lifeline. The cash-fronting mechanism is cheekily named BeanCoin but it’s not a cryptocurrency, since it’s not a digital currency and its value doesn’t fluctuate. “People recognise how precarious the situation is for bars,” Devin De Wulf, the leader of the Krewe of Red Beans, said during a telephone interview. “I kept thinking, well at least for Mardi Gras I can get a little something. De Wulf sees BeanCoin as having the potential to go just as far.

Source: The Edge Markets February 12, 2021 06:19 UTC