The problem with using water as currency is that it is heavy. It is not reasonable to carry around large amounts. You’ll need some kind of representational currency.
You’ll need some kind of representational currency
yep that’s exactly what i think would make sense in the real world. basically a paper currency backed by real water. one dollar represents 1 kg of water.
it’s like the gold standard, just not backed by gold but by water.
in the game that doesn’t matter though since you can just carry around a lot of water bottles before your inventory space runs out.
Extracting water from the martian landscape would literally be seen as a source of wealth, and it gives people a strong incentive to extract as much water from the landscape as is reasonably doable, thus giving society a steady source of water, which drives society forward.
Maybe, 1 martian dollar ($1) would represent 1 ton of water, and 1 cent (or “bit”) would represent 1 kg of water, which means 1000 cents/bits = 1 dollar.
So you might have paper money representing 5c (almost a gallon) or 50c (let’s call it a barrel) for everyday use, so when you go to a market to buy some food, you might pay for it either by paper money or by literally handing over water bottles.
The paper money would have to be handed out by banks that store the water or at least are able to hand it out if somebody wants to redeem their paper money.
That works until someone starts manipulating the market by redeeming their dollars for water, selling the water on the market, getting dollars again, redeeming for more water and continuously profiting from the endless cycle.
This is actually why the gold standard ended. Money and real world materials will fluctuate in value and are sold on different markets. Having money pegged to a real world material means someone can take advantage of a treasury by manipulating those markets. This was happening with the US dollar, then the Nixon shock happened and no more gold standard.
Why would people in the future use a currency system that’s similar to one that we used in the past and stopped using because it was fundamentally flawed and vulnerable to manipulation? I suppose if it’s set in a small community where there isn’t anyone that would work out how to manipulate the currency it might work. But if there were bad actors, you’d expect a water based currency system to be manipulated same as the gold based system was before the Nixon shock.
the gold market wasn’t “manipulated”, that was just a lie that Nixon came up with to justify ending the dollar-gold exchange system.
actually the US government just wanted to have complete control over the dollar, including the ability to print more dollars if needed. if the dollar is bound to gold, that’s impossible because you can’t just print gold. by declaring an emergency (“to protect the dollars against the speculators”) they had enough reason in the eyes of the population to make the dollar a pure fiat currency.
If you put all of the US dollars in the world in a pile on the left and all of the gold in the world in a pile on the right, the pile on the left (the dollars) would be worth 10x more than the pile on the right.
There simply isn’t enough gold in the world for a gold standard to work without there being some kind of manipulation of either the value of the dollars or the value of the gold, or both. And if you’re manipulating the value of gold and/or the value of the dollar, what’s the point?
The gold standard stuff is just conspiracy bullshit meant to create discontent and distrust in institutions based on ignorance of what money is. You’re told money should have intrinsic value so you feel like your employer is rewarding you with something of value when you’re paid. The reality is money represents debt, you did work and the money represents what you’re owed by your employer, not a reward. A system based on borrowed money matches the reality of your employer is borrowing your time and skills with that debt being paid once you’ve spent the money. A more realistic system based on money being debt isn’t as prone to manipulation as one based on a belief that shiny bits of metal have magical properties that you’re rewarded with because you’ve a good loyal servant.
Caves of Qud uses water as currency. I think it explains this by making all of its characters weirdo radiation freakazoids that can teleport and fly around and stuff.
The problem with using water as currency is that it is heavy. It is not reasonable to carry around large amounts. You’ll need some kind of representational currency.
Just store it in the bank and use paper notes worth 1 water! (Some Swede a long time ago).
yep that’s exactly what i think would make sense in the real world. basically a paper currency backed by real water. one dollar represents 1 kg of water.
it’s like the gold standard, just not backed by gold but by water.
in the game that doesn’t matter though since you can just carry around a lot of water bottles before your inventory space runs out.
Kinda fucked up that when coming up with a SciFi dystopia the worst we can think of is the Nestlé-buck.
It is telling, isn’t it?
To pivot I can also imagine information and energy scarcity, be it real or artificial.
And to follow up on my own comment, imagine this:
For the love of god, don’t call something a cent (1/100) if it is worth 1/1000
xD it’s to confuse the romans, in case they invade again
That works until someone starts manipulating the market by redeeming their dollars for water, selling the water on the market, getting dollars again, redeeming for more water and continuously profiting from the endless cycle.
This is actually why the gold standard ended. Money and real world materials will fluctuate in value and are sold on different markets. Having money pegged to a real world material means someone can take advantage of a treasury by manipulating those markets. This was happening with the US dollar, then the Nixon shock happened and no more gold standard.
Why would people in the future use a currency system that’s similar to one that we used in the past and stopped using because it was fundamentally flawed and vulnerable to manipulation? I suppose if it’s set in a small community where there isn’t anyone that would work out how to manipulate the currency it might work. But if there were bad actors, you’d expect a water based currency system to be manipulated same as the gold based system was before the Nixon shock.
the gold market wasn’t “manipulated”, that was just a lie that Nixon came up with to justify ending the dollar-gold exchange system.
actually the US government just wanted to have complete control over the dollar, including the ability to print more dollars if needed. if the dollar is bound to gold, that’s impossible because you can’t just print gold. by declaring an emergency (“to protect the dollars against the speculators”) they had enough reason in the eyes of the population to make the dollar a pure fiat currency.
If you put all of the US dollars in the world in a pile on the left and all of the gold in the world in a pile on the right, the pile on the left (the dollars) would be worth 10x more than the pile on the right.
There simply isn’t enough gold in the world for a gold standard to work without there being some kind of manipulation of either the value of the dollars or the value of the gold, or both. And if you’re manipulating the value of gold and/or the value of the dollar, what’s the point?
The gold standard stuff is just conspiracy bullshit meant to create discontent and distrust in institutions based on ignorance of what money is. You’re told money should have intrinsic value so you feel like your employer is rewarding you with something of value when you’re paid. The reality is money represents debt, you did work and the money represents what you’re owed by your employer, not a reward. A system based on borrowed money matches the reality of your employer is borrowing your time and skills with that debt being paid once you’ve spent the money. A more realistic system based on money being debt isn’t as prone to manipulation as one based on a belief that shiny bits of metal have magical properties that you’re rewarded with because you’ve a good loyal servant.
“Bury your water, kids.”
Caves of Qud uses water as currency. I think it explains this by making all of its characters weirdo radiation freakazoids that can teleport and fly around and stuff.