Timeline for Why would a technologically advance space-faring civilization still use physical currency?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 2, 2019 at 14:10 | vote | accept | TheSlavMan | ||
| Nov 28, 2019 at 16:26 | comment | added | cegfault | @TheSlavMan also, as far as other currencies becoming prevalent, I'd encourage you to do some research in the history of money - this type of thing has happened, and these are issues which have been addressed. Granted not as "digital" money, but definitely as to the theory of money | |
| Nov 28, 2019 at 16:26 | comment | added | Matthew | @TheSlavMan, you're basically describing modern cryptocurrency. That said, with a space-faring civilization, you'll probably also end up with the equivalent of Switzerland; some bank/government that even criminals trust because they don't care what you do and you aren't in their jurisdiction. Again, that's how Honorverse does things. (BTW, you can read about it here; in the titular Chapter 10 — note that the HTML labels it "11" — look for "Banco de Madrid".) | |
| Nov 28, 2019 at 16:25 | comment | added | cegfault | @TheSlavMan anything can be a currency if people trust it (silver and gold being the obvious examples). The government may issue physical currency for any number of reasons: (a) THEY are the crooks looking to hide their own money, (b) they believe in freedom and think people have the right to be anonymous, even if it means a minority will do illegal things, and so on.... really that's another question you could ask. | |
| Nov 28, 2019 at 16:19 | comment | added | TheSlavMan | Concerning distrust, if people want to stash/hide physical currency from the government and other parties, then why would the government issue physical currency at all? Would some other form of currency not backed by government bodies become prevalent instead (and who would accept this as legal tender)? | |
| Nov 28, 2019 at 16:18 | comment | added | cegfault | @Matthew I'm not familiar with Honorverse, but I've always thought the only way for a digital currency to irradiate cash would be for the option to encode it onto physical media; like a prepaid bitcoin card or something - only not prepaid, not credit cards, and not bitcoin, but the idea of digital-on-physical | |
| Nov 28, 2019 at 16:11 | comment | added | Matthew | Anonymity/crime is the number one reason why physical currency will still exist. Short of a perfect, money-free utopia, there will always be people that want to pay other people without leaving a digital paper trail. Weber's Honorverse has physical (it's actually sort of a hybrid; digital monetary certificates encoded on physical media) currency for exactly this reason. | |
| Nov 28, 2019 at 15:56 | history | answered | cegfault | CC BY-SA 4.0 |