Community currencies (CCs) have been adopting innovative systems to overcome implementational hurdles from issuing paper currencies. Using a qualitative approach, this paper examined this digital transition of Sarafu Network in Kenya and its predecessor CCs as a case study. From the original vouchers launched in 2010, the foundation Grassroots Economics introduced a digital interface in 2016 that operates on a feature phone, and then integrated blockchain technology starting in 2018, undergoing several migrations before becoming settling on its current iteration called Community Asset Vouchers on the Celo blockchain since 2023. Using affordances from human-computer interaction, the research shows that digitalization and blockchain improved the facilitation of economic activities of the local communities, both their typical market transactions as well as traditional reciprocal labor exchanges, by offering more functionalities compared to the analog version of Sarafu. The unique contributions of blockchain include enabling automation of holding tax calculations and linking the vouchers to the mainstream monetary system via stablecoins facilitated by a series of smart contracts also known as the liquidity pool. The study also finds that there is an inherent trade-off between blockchain benefits and user interface complexity. Hence, balancing innovation and community needs remains a challenge.

翻译：社区货币（CCs）正逐步采用创新系统以克服纸质货币发行中的实施障碍。本文采用定性研究方法，以肯尼亚Sarafu网络及其前身社区货币的数字转型为案例展开分析。从2010年推出的初始代金券起步，Grassroots Economics基金会于2016年引入基于功能手机运行的数字界面，随后自2018年起整合区块链技术，历经多次迁移，最终于2023年形成当前版本——部署在Celo区块链上的社区资产代金券。基于人机交互领域的应用价值理论，研究表明数字化与区块链技术通过提供比Sarafu模拟版本更丰富的功能，有效促进了本地社区的经济活动，既包括常规市场交易，也涵盖传统的互惠劳动交换。区块链的独特贡献体现在：通过流动性池等系列智能合约机制，实现持有税计算的自动化，并借助稳定币将代金券接入主流货币体系。研究同时发现，区块链效益与用户界面复杂性之间存在固有权衡。因此，平衡技术创新与社区需求仍是持续挑战。