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.
Comment on Anon makes games
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
I’m making a mars-themed luanti modpack (it’s FOSS and available here btw), and i intend to use water as the currency, if i ever get to trading.
Water is a scarce and useful resource on Mars. That’s all it takes to make a meaningful currency out of it.
resting_parrot@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
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.
Garbagio@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
[deleted]dzsimbo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
It is telling, isn’t it?
To pivot I can also imagine information and energy scarcity, be it real or artificial.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
And to follow up on my own comment, imagine this:
- Extracting water from the martian landscape would literally be seen as “printing money”, 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 would represent 1 kg of water, which means 1000 cents = 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.
ftbd@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
For the love of god, don’t call something a cent (1/100) if it is worth 1/1000
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
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.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
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.
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
“Bury your water, kids.”
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
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.
Valmond@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Just store it in the bank and use paper notes worth 1 water! (Some Swede a long time ago).
EldenLord@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Expect a mod to change it to piss lol
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
I’d be glad if anybody actually paid attention to my mod pack xD
so i’m fine with this :D