Beki / Sikoba Cooperation Agreement
Sikoba has agreed with De Kär, operators of the Beki regional currency, to integrate the digital Beki into its platform.
De Kär is a non-profit organisation that manages the Beki regional currency in the canton of Redange, in the West of Luxembourg. The Beki is backed by the euro on a 1–1 basis and currently exists only in the form of paper currency, with denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 Beki. More than 100 local companies accept payments in Beki, and there are over 200,000 in circulation. Consumers can exchange 100 euros for 103 Beki, in effect giving them a 3% increase in purchasing power when buying locally.
For some time now, De Kär wanted to introduce an electronic version of the Beki, the “e-Beki”, that can be used via a mobile app. This will reduce printing costs as well as eliminate the need to handle and count paper notes. Until now, De Kär had not found a suitable partner, as previous proposals all involved setting up a dedicated IT infrastructure which is not realistic for a small non-profit organisation.
De Kär has now decided to work with Sikoba to create the digital Beki. The Beki will be added as a new (optional) currency to sikobaPay, so that De Kär will not have to manage any IT systems. Beki users will see a co-branded “Beki dashboard”, even though they will be using the exact same app as all other sikobaPay users. This will be made possible via the creation of a specific “context” for Beki users — this is somewhat similar to a “skin” in an app. Later on, we will be able to add additional contexts for other local partners.
Watch Max Hilbert, the coordinator of the Beki, speak about the Sikoba/Beki partnership on Youtube.
