The Honest Answers, Not the Sales Pitch.

Why do you think you will survive, where Bristol Pound failed?

Bristol Pound ran for 11 years with working digital payments — it didn't fail from lack of skill. It failed because the cost and complexity of scaling into full e-money outpaced a revenue model that depended on grants and community funding. That's the real lesson, and it's the one worth taking seriously.

EcoEconomy's structural difference: it's built on top of Inte.Team, a profitable business that's operated for 13+ years already. EE isn't dependent on grants to survive — the build happens regardless of how fast the Founding 100 or hardware partnerships come together, it just moves faster with support. That doesn't make success guaranteed. It means the downside is bounded in a way Bristol Pound's wasn't.

Is ECO Credit legal / regulated?

We're designing EE to operate under the UK's Limited Network Exclusion — the same regulatory model historically used by schemes like the Bristol Pound, which allows a closed-loop local voucher/reward scheme to run without full FCA e-money licensing, as long as it stays within a clearly defined local merchant network.

Being straight with you: this legal positioning is well-researched but not yet confirmed by a solicitor — that review is a deliberate next step, not skipped. We won't state legal compliance as settled fact until it actually is.

What happens to my ECO if EE shuts down?

Every ECO Credit is backed 1:1 by a real GBP reserve or verified green energy generation — it isn't just a number on a screen. Any OorHQ Member can see EE's finances directly through Open Books, so this isn't something you have to take on trust alone.

We won't overstate this: EE is an early-stage local scheme, not a bank, and ECO balances aren't covered by government deposit protection (FSCS) the way a bank account is. That's true of every voucher-based local currency, not just this one — worth knowing plainly rather than assuming otherwise.

Is this a cryptocurrency?

No. There's no blockchain, no trading, and no speculation — 1 ECO is always worth £1, not a floating price you could gain or lose money on. ECO Credits only work within EE's defined local merchant network in West Lothian, closer to a community voucher scheme than a tradeable asset.

Why only Livingston? When do you expand?

Deliberately. We're proving this fully in one place — with complete processes behind everything we do — before opening anywhere else. That's not just caution: it's part of what keeps EE inside its current legal exclusion in the first place, not only a trust-building choice.

Expansion is Stage 4 on the roadmap — each new town gets its own isolated, locally-sovereign setup once Livingston has proven it works, not before.