Interesting - I founded an alternative currency (not originally a crypto-currency) based on the Coast Salish traditional economic practices. Traditionally Coast Salish people used all sorts of different standard items for currency, like skeins of Mountain Goat Wool or Dentalia Shells... Our currency was used up and down the Coast of North America. And our neighbors to the north used coppers. In addition to currency, we had a complex system of banking called POTLATCH where we gifted one another with the expectation that we would recieve twice the value back or more at some point in the future... it was a "debt obligation". We had different words for money and loans, and bank. see www.tetla.org for more info. Cheers