Payment options on the (SF) frontier

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

Australia has the largest unrealised gold reserves of any country in the world and there are plenty of gold deposits that are known (confirmed by drilling) that companies are sitting on without exploiting. It is not a given that every gold source will be exploited as soon as it is discovered.

Remember that the gold doesn't have to pay for the refining. You'll be getting the whole platinum group, some silver and the simple industrial iron and nickel.

Demand or advantageous costs of any of the components could drive the industry with every thing else being icing on the cake. A major revaluing of gold could be just a side-effect of demand for something else.

[tshiggins]

Given what we know now, about the limitations of current technology and space transportation infrastructure, I'd say that, if space mining can be done profitably, at all, then any market impacts will take place slowly, over the long term.

However, in a space setting, where a sophisticated and inexpensive space transportation infrastructure exists, then gold is just another useful metal.

[Anaraxes]

The timescale under consideration, and the setting tech, is certainly an important point. Debating the value of gold in IY 1120 (5638 AD*) is completely different from suggesting that Planetary Resources today must of necessity be cutting their own throat because they're making their own product worthless.


--
* Meant to suggest the Traveller Imperium, for those that don't recognize the numbers.

[thrash]

I realize that this has morphed into a more general discussion, but for my setting the timeline and space travel tech are next century and relatively realistic -- approximately Transhuman Space. The obvious differences are the introduction of a stardrive (c. 2034) and the retarded computer tech.

One of the major drivers for outworld development, along with exotic biologicals, is access to high-grade deposits of chalcophile and lithophile elements concentrated by processes on habitable worlds. Siderophile elements are mostly still being mined in the Solar system, though there may be some small outworld mines for local use.

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by thrash

I realize that this has morphed into a more general discussion, but for my setting the timeline and space travel tech are next century and relatively realistic -- approximately Transhuman Space. The obvious differences are the introduction of a stardrive (c. 2034) and the retarded computer tech.

One of the major drivers for outworld development, along with exotic biologicals, is access to high-grade deposits of chalcophile and lithophile elements concentrated by processes on habitable worlds. Siderophile elements are mostly still being mined in the Solar system, though there may be some small outworld mines for local use.

What did you end up deciding on for currency?

[thrash]

Some combination of "bank in a box" for legit transactions and a collage of other options, mostly on an "everything is negotiable" basis, for off-the-books stuff. I'm still open to suggestions, however.

[Boomerang]

What about coins made from opals for high value amounts? Every coin is unique (opals are amorphous) and its details recorded when it is first minted. Coins are verified against the coin database whenever a transaction is made to make it difficult to introduce fakes into the system.

I have a particular fondness for this idea because opals are the national gemstone for Australia.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

What about coins made from opals for high value amounts?

I foresee two potential problems: verification and counterfeiting.

What would be required to verify the coin against the register? If you can (e.g.) slide it into a camera box with an array of single-frequency LEDs and get a reliable match, fine; if it takes (e.g.) a scanning electron microscope, it is a lot less useful on the frontier.

With a descriptive entry in the database sufficient to identify a specific coin, what is to prevent someone from 3D printing copies? Looking into their structure a bit, I imagine that it might be possible to assemble a pretty convincing copy from pre-made spheres of SiO2 and various contaminants. If "high value amounts" are high enough, it would be worthwhile to try.

Now, it might be possible to resolve both these issues by making artificial opal coins that diffract light in specific patterns. If the internal structure that produces a particular pattern is unambiguous but difficult to reverse engineer, the result would be a hard-coded public key signature. The database and light box would tell you that this coin is authentic, but not how to reproduce it.

How about it, physicists? Is it possible to produce the photonic equivalent of a public key cipher?

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by thrash

Now, it might be possible to resolve both these issues by making artificial opal coins that diffract light in specific patterns. If the internal structure that produces a particular pattern is unambiguous but difficult to reverse engineer, the result would be a hard-coded public key signature. The database and light box would tell you that this coin is authentic, but not how to reproduce it.

How about it, physicists? Is it possible to produce the photonic equivalent of a public key cipher?

In my opinion cheap verification technology would stay ahead of 3D printing technology provided the thing being copied is complex enough. I think everyone would agree that you can't 3D print a human being (at least not by TL10) but you can easily uniquely identify humans. Maybe a better option is to use genetically engineered extremophiles as currency that are impossible to print and easy to verify.

Going back to opals, does the system have to be foolproof? Maybe a counterfeit coin appeared on the frontier and was discovered when it was exchanged for goods on Earth (where the testing is more rigorous). The PCs could be hired to track down the counterfeiters.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

Going back to opals, does the system have to be foolproof?

Not necessarily foolproof, but solid enough to make abuses the rare, newsworthy exception rather than the rule. Humans are more complex and obviously individual than amorphous gemstones, so your analogy doesn't tell us anything. Identifying a life-form as unique presumably requires DNA analysis, which is the sort of thing I can't see being practical even with ultratech.