54
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
Yes
What is the oldest Profession in the world?
Providing sexual favors for resources.
Ah - but I hear you ask: All the local prostitutes in my area charge an hourly rate and for Cash.
Penguins - ...
- 32.7k
45
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
It's not going to have any real effect really.
It will just mean that the "thrupeny" coin will be treated as tuppence in all transactions regardless of its current colour.
If you offer a ...
- 9,683
30
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
Disguise your transactions.
You don't have to use fiat currency. You can use other valuable commodities. However, that doesn't mean you can't use "real money." You just have to be careful ...
- 11.5k
26
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
The Great Recoinage
Since you're imagining a place like 17th century London, let's take a look at what actually happened in 17th century London for our answer!
The year is 1696. Most of the coins in ...
- 40.8k
22
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
gift cards, or paper checks
A gift card or paper cheque will create a trail at the end points, but not necessarily in the middle. For example:
Person A buys 4 gift cards for ☼5 each.
Person A then ...
- 15.5k
12
votes
Could time (in the sense of a labor-hour) be a stable commodity base for a currency on the modern city-state level?
'Unskilled' labour isn't unskilled
There's enormous variation in how fast or effectively you do various tasks. A skilled fast food cashier might reliably upsell products or handle orders efficiently, ...
- 41.6k
12
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
could the Mafia or the Mob find another way to operate clandestinely?
Yes, they can use something else in place of the official money. There are many possibilities. Precious metals and jewelry come ...
- 5,549
9
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
This is not deflationary.
What the setup in the question describes is just that there is a penny coin, a tuppence coin, and a notionally threepence coin. Since the threepence coin is of uncertain ...
- 94.4k
9
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
A couple things come to mind:
Trade — all black market transactions involve some good or service being exchanged between individuals. I buy a crate of guns, and trade it for something which I can ...
- 1,012
8
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
As a lot of people already mentioned, barter becomes the next best thing, assuming all other payment instruments are surveilled. But in society before banking, there was also credit (like delayed ...
- 191
6
votes
Accepted
Could time (in the sense of a labor-hour) be a stable commodity base for a currency on the modern city-state level?
A fiat currency with a fancy name.
While assorted nutcases tend to rail against it, a modern economy desperately needs a fiat currency managed by a national bank ... theirs or that of another major ...
- 119k
6
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
First and foremost: BAD COIN PUSHES GOOD COIN OUT.
SO if your 3p coin is something that devalues fast, it would be uses extensively and dominate trade, while "good" coins that do not devalue ...
- 6,950
6
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
Barter
If the value of your money is variable, then you will find that Black Market trading and Bartering will increase in usage, with people reserving money for the type of transactions where it has ...
- 32.7k
5
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
In Germany there are private "regional currencies" issued as a substitute for the euro.
Most of these are depreciative in nature and known as schwundgeld (I think this can be literally ...
- 11.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Do you know any traditional non-electric Gold measuring devices?
In practice there were never all that many types of gold coins in circulation; for example:
The stereotypical gold standard British system (1817 to 1937, with an interruption during WW1) there were ...
- 94.4k
5
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
A black market currency would develop.
It could be recorded in the ledgers of some organized criminal enterprise.
Cash alternatives, like physical gift cards, might be used in criminal operations. ...
- 16k
4
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
This is really just a meta-answer covering all of the existing answers. Challenge your system as an adversary would. How would someone really tackle such a system and its lack of anonymity?
This ...
- 133k
3
votes
Do you know any traditional non-electric Gold measuring devices?
Frame challenge
What's wrong with scales? And by that I mean simple balance scales. In your post you mention it being impractical to weigh each individual coin, but you don't actually need to do that. ...
- 14.6k
3
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
This is kind of like imagining using Trading cards such as MTG or Pokemon as a currency. Already there are people who collect rare coins (Numismatics ) and if you have coins that devalue themselves ...
- 7,476
3
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
Inflation originally meant increase in money supply. If nothing else happens, money valuation changing from 3p to 2p would be deflationary in this sense, since there is effectively less money to go ...
- 171
3
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
Very easily explained.
"this thruppence coin devalues after too much skin contact"
It is entirely and totally about how long that takes to happen.
This is the absolutely normal nature of ...
- 1,301
3
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
I feel like a system of credit will be developed to avoid using your currency.
If I setup a bank account, and have all my money in there except for a small amount of pocket change. I could then setup ...
- 2,826
3
votes
How would shopkeepers deal with a nine percent tax?
Shopkeepers will try to minimize the tax that their customers pay, because if they don't, a competitor will and thus take their customers. As part of that, inexpensive items will start being sold in ...
- 25.6k
2
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
Money like this already exists in real life. Though it applies to all forms of money, and not a single coin. It is called Inflation.
- 1,756
2
votes
A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?
People will use the other coins
If you want people to use devaluing currency, then ALL of your coins need to devalue, and the amount they devalue has to be proportionally equal, measurable, ...
- 101k
2
votes
Do you know any traditional non-electric Gold measuring devices?
Frame challenge. There may not be the great, winged, fire breathing ones of legend (at least not around these parts), but what there is is what we got:
Wyvlets.
Well, course we have, Harve is a fine ...
- 26.5k
2
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
Sure. Trade.
Trade of "items", "time", "aid" or whatever.
I give you a mango you give me a bottle of tea, or a dose of some drug.
Or perhaps a favor: I give you the ...
- 131
2
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
Why not just make an underground bank?
Its surprisingly easy, a bank can be as simple as a reputable institution that maintains a record of transactions. This could be as simple as a room full of ...
- 690
2
votes
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
Yes.
There are two different questions asked here. 1. Can the Mafia still exist? 2. Can a black market exist? Let me address just the first question.
The Mafia in America run many "legitimate&...
- 6,155
1
vote
Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
Would Ebonia be free of organized crime thanks to its cashless society? Or could the Mafia or the Mob find another way to operate clandestinely?
No
Of course not. Where there's greed, there's crime. ...
- 128k
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