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Originally Posted by Mike Wightman
A variation on bitcoins perhaps?
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As I understand it, bitcoin relies on an exchange of authentication and ownership data that would be difficult to manage with lags longer than the time between changes of ownership.
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Originally Posted by David Johnston2
Company scrip isn't inherently more problematic than other currencies. You just go to your friendly currency exchange...
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Back on Earth? That's not terribly practical. The setting is not at the point where there are banking and exchange facilities on the frontier separate from the corporations themselves.
The problem is whether Company B will accept the scrip you got from Company A as payment when you visit their outpost. Now, if the "scrip" were more like bearer bonds, it might be worth the risks for Company B to acquire some leverage over their rival.
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Gold is gold. Can't fake it very well beyond adulterating it a bit.
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There's something to be said for cash and coin, especially for "the payroll was on the ship that disappeared" type adventures.
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But the more modern approach is to use a hard-to-crack app on your phone that keeps track of what you get and what you spend and identifies itself as authentic licensed software.
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I'm having a hard time picturing a way to anonymize those transactions, however. It also requires a certain level of standardization (protocols, possibly hardware) that I'm not sure is justified in this case.