1990 John was the first person living in the Southern Hemisphere to sit and pass the stringent oral and written Certified Trade Broker Accreditation Examination laid down by the *International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA, based in USA),
Participating in the use of alternative currencies for over 35 years
1990 John was the first person living in the Southern Hemisphere to sit and pass the stringent oral and written Certified Trade Broker Accreditation Examination laid down by the *International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA, based in USA),
1990 John was awarded the industry’s professional designation of Certified Trade Broker (C.T.B.).
1991 At IRTA’s annual convention in Los Angeles John was also awarded IRTA’s most prestigious Barter Ambassador Award for his dedication and ongoing promotion of IRTA and the reciprocal trade industry.
1986 Whilst managing his construction business in Auckland New Zealand John was introduced to the use of *complementary currency and joined a Barter/Trade Exchange.
*Complementary currency was the earliest form of alternative digital currency ("alternative currency")
1987-1988 John was so intrigued with the concept of alternative currency he commenced study and research into the management and operation of barter/trade style exchanges in the USA, Canada and Switzerland.
1989-1991 John and his childhood friend Gary Karena founded the Reciprocal Trade Industry in Australia, by establishing the countries first Barter/Trade Exchange, the Australian Contra Banc. The Contra Banc enabled business operators to use complementary currency as a payment method inducement to increase sales, reduce operating, purchasing and borrowing costs and improve bottom line profits.
After operating the Contra Banc for two years John and Gary could see the model was not commercially viable with high operating costs and the membership base was sold to others who wished to enter the industry.
The founders of Bartercard, BBX, and BBX UK, where all either members, brokers or licensees of the Contra Banc.
1992- 2021 John has been a presenter at business educational seminars and workshops, in many countries and throughout Australia enlightening attendees in the many reasons why and how business operators use their own private issue paper money and complementary digital currency to achieve their marketing and purchasing objectives.
John has consulted to numerous independent operations in the commencement and operation of a Barter/Trade Exchange. He created the worlds first brokering service for the sale, purchase and exchange of complementary/digital currency
Present John and his son Tylor Bunting co-founded the Alpha eMarkets, "The World-First Multi-Purpose Centralised eMarkets" which includes the only known Customer Loyalty and Interest Free Finance Program that enables businesses operators to use alternative digital currency as an added value reward to retain/gain cash paying customers in off-peak periods and improve timely payment of receivables.
John advocates the principals of “lassez faire” an economic doctrine that opposes governmental regulation and interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free enterprise system to operate according to its own economic law.