PsiTraveller said:
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Imperial_Currency
They should come up with a verison of this instead of the cash only system the article holds as canon.
The issue with a cash only society is at some point there is a stagecoach carrying a trillion credits of new bills for the planetary payroll, unless the planet has been allowed to make currency on planet.
Free traders need enough cash on them to repair a ship in case the engine is destroyed, or jump drive fries. So a family trader is either rich enough to have 10 milllion at every port of call in a local branch, or it carries all its profits on the ship, and is now a bigger target.
Preventing wire transfers opens up a lot more heist style jobs for the "lets be bad guys"style of campaign. It also highlights the issues of the slower than light communication system.
The virtual mining software offers an option, but coming up with a crypto that allows virtual cash, but not e transfers in mobile wallets is a little odd.
Thanks for the link. I agree that a cash-only high tech society would not occur, as it goes against everything humanity has learned about finances.
I went to the link and I'm re-posting so we can discuss it further (in italics below):
Imperial Banking
Within the Imperium, banks exist only as deposit accounts, safety deposit boxes and investment groups, requiring an in-person visit to the same, or nearby, branch every time.
This results in an essentially cash-only economy, though local banks may provide electronic banking services on an intra-planetary level or within a single star system.
Interstellar banking has not proven feasible without faster-than-light data communications, at least not in the sense that banking was understood on ancient Terra. There are factors preventing this:
In the absence of near-instant faster-than-light data communication, there is no way for a local trader to accurately assess a balance in a distant account at any given time and no way to quickly transfer money to distant accounts. Archaic methods of electronic funds transfer such as direct deposit, direct debit and wire transfers do not work.
Local time does not synchronize with distant time. Time is only constant locally; time may pass faster or slower at a distant bank, relatively speaking. Therefore it is virtually impossible to enforce expiry dates on credit guarantees, and unwise to assume that a distant financial institution is still liquid, if indeed it still exists. Cheques and credit cards (in their old Terran forms) cannot function. See also Offices of the Emperor with regard to the Office of Calendar Compliance.
Data encryption is problematic. Certainly by the time of the Reformation Coalition's founding in 1200, data encryption had become essentially worthless for financial purposes, and therefore one could not rely on some method of portable money transfer device similar to the old Terran prepaid debit cards since there would be no way of electronically authenticating either the user or the sum available. Essentially, widespread quantum computing negates data encryption. See the discussion under Talk:Imperial_Currency#Banking .
Imperial Standard Credit Card This card is effectively a portable bank teller. A microprocessor unit tracks the account and contains information for personal identification. Made of plas-steel, the card is practically indestructible. It is nearly tamper-proof, in that most attempts to tamper with it merely result in blanking the card.
Merchants in systems with a technology level of 13 and higher accept this card. It may be used in any Imperial starport to get Imperial credits, local currency or debit cards drawn on local banks if local technology supports it. Identification information consists of a thumbprint activator and a record of the owner's retina print. The latter is checked for verification on all transactions over Cr100,000.
Only the very wealthy may obtain the Iridium Edition of the card. It contains the owner's DNA code, allowing for positive identification and unlimited reliability. Starships have been purchased on these cards.
A few points -
1) I was not aware of the presence of planetary, or even megacorp script being part of the gaming setting. Both make sense, and actually can be very useful in a gaming setting. The idea of megacorp script goes back as far as currency goes - governments, companies, private citizens, carnivals, etc, all have created their own local currency that is useful only within a limited number of vendors. It's also a way for companies via a company store to keep their workers locked into their jobs and location.
2) A cash-only economy is not feasible for such a large polity. Electronic currency is just too useful, especially when needing to transport large sums of currency. And if trade is the lifeblood of the Imperium then electronic banking, letters of credit, etc, are a must.
3) The issue of STL banking is bunk. This was resolved in the age of sail on Earth. Yes, there opportunities for fraud, but there are today with near instantaneous banking. This reflects a very poor understanding of history and the banking system. Everything we have today as far as banking would be available in a STL setting. The issue becomes one of trust. A person you have never met presenting a letter of credit for MCr40 and asking to withdrawl in cash isn't going to be honored. It would be deposited and then a request back to the issuing bank would be sent via X-boat. Until a confirmation was received they would receive little to no money. Which is why a company with trade on multiple worlds would establish letters of credit at each world. And the same for traders. Heck, the same was present just a few decades ago here. A person could try to use the same asset to scam multiple banks out of loans. It worked, sometimes, but usually not. And it's still going on today, but it's getting harder to do it with the speed of verification.
4) I would argue that widespread quantum computing makes encryption easier rather than harder. We already know with quantum computing you can create a file that if altered is immediately noticeable. Plus there is blockchain which didn't exist until a few years ago. The thing we have seen with encryption is that it's a constant race between security and hacking. Usually hackers win their bouts because security people are (a) lazy, (b) cheap, (c) stupid, (d) all of the above.
5) If the Imperial credit card is near tamper proof, how can they not figure out how to extend that to banking? That makes no logical sense.
6) The TL acceptance of Imperial cards... silly! I can go to any country in the world and they have the ability to accept my AMEX card. That tech comes from a higher tech world, but it's certainly omnipresent globally. The issue would be travel outside a location that is very low tech and the people there choose to not interact via electronic interchange. Then I'd need some gold coins to buy my supplies. Out in the boonies, or on a low-tech world I would assume that my purchase of a phased plasma rifle in 40-watt range via Imperial credit card would be somewhat problematic.
