Text

[a_shadow]

Money is a cornerstone of a successful society. Right now we have to barter for favors if there's a job that needs done. It's easy to lose track of who owes who for what. Physical currency solves this problem and makes it easier to determine how much a unit of cost (an hour of work) should be worth.

Those of us who are working on the planet are being paid in physical currency. I think that once we return to the ship, we should all agree to honor this currency for goods and services rendered.

[ Attachment: A photo of a pile of hexagonal brass-colored coins, each with a geometric grid etched on it and a hole punched out of the center. A small group of the coins has been strung together with a cord. ]

Make sure to cash out for these coins so we all have the same thing. They have cloth bills but I don't think those are worth shit. We'll handle distribution for the people who aren't working once we figure out how much money we have on board.

Comments

[beautifulspaceraptor]

It wouldn't be a bad idea. Suppose we'll have to work on some way differentiate fakes after a while, though.

Do you know the value of these coins outside of the hunting town?

[Nihlus is just sitting here wondering if this was going to tank like most small currency systems tended to do. As old as his civilization is, there's probably be several Turian reiterations of systems like E-Gold.

Not to mention the negative reactions from the crew so far.

Oh, well. He's mostly just inserting himself as a monitor early on in case this all takes an unsavory turn- as most money related things tended to do. The fact that currency is being obtained from this town was already worrying enough.]

[a_shadow]

It costs two of them for a beer. But since we'll have a limited supply it can be worth more than that.

[beautifulspaceraptor]

How many are you planning on donning out per participant?

[a_shadow]

We'll have to see how many coins we end up in comparison to how many people we have on board. Those of us who worked for it will have a bigger share but there should be some kind of distribution so we don't have half the people broke right off the bat.

[beautifulspaceraptor]

Reasonable. Are you going to give them to everyone or just interested parties?

Additionally, I am somewhat concerned about the increased value, especially since you're planning on using pre-existing physical currency that cannot be further divided. Just one coin for a bottle of beer is going to get very expensive as value increases.

[This is going to be one big game of Space Monopoly.]

[a_shadow]

This is going to be kind of a hybrid system. Food and drink is free now, and I don't think that'll change. This is for stuff we have to trade for between ourselves now.

[beautifulspaceraptor]

I meant the beer more as an example. We're using physical currency and there is a possibility of population influx every time the Ingress opens. By the time we have, say, five hundred people, there might not be enough currency to go around to actually be useful. The worth of one coin is going to be...

Well, it's worth a lot more than one beer.

[a_shadow]

I'm sure we'll be able to bring coinage in at other stops. Mix-and-match denominations.

[ Tex is not phased by people's objections, she just wants this to stick. ]

[beautifulspaceraptor]

True, although you'll have to be very wary of the possibility of inflation then, especially with an uncontrolled stream of incoming money from multiple sources and no way of regulating them.

[This was a lot more complicated than the economy sims he used to play as a kid.]