I think a universal "currency" would need to be backed on something "real" at the beginning (like gold in the ye olde times) to be taken seriously for competitive commerce, because "secret deal" trades and favors just seem to be a superior kind of "banknote" to me. It's secret and more reliable - it's not some abstract numbers floating around without meaning, it's something someone has actually committed to do or has at least said they would and an empty banknote doesn't have that on its own.
Maybe have it be equivalent to a vote or something? All (typical) nomics have votes, making it universal. On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 8:27 AM, Owen Jacobson <o...@grimoire.ca> wrote: > > > On Sep 11, 2017, at 5:05 AM, Gaelan Steele <gael...@icloud.com> wrote: > > > > Idea: a “universal” currency that can be used across Nomics. I’d propose > the name as “Subers,” but I’m not super attached to that. I’d implement it > such that each Suber always belongs to one nomic. A nomic may internally > allocate their Subers however they wish, but that isn’t visible to other > nomics. This allows us a lot of freedom with regards to things like > Contracts owning Subers. In terms of record keeping, I’d have each nomic > track the Subers in its possession. Wording would vary across nomics of > course, but I figure around here Subers would be assets, and we would have > something along the lines of “A player CAN create any number of Subers in > their possession by announcement if an equal number of Subers were > destroyed in another nomic with the intent of transferring them to that > player in Agora. The Subers in the other nomic must be able to be traced > back to a Suber Creation Event that was authorized by Agora. Any player CAN > destroy any number of Subers in their possession. If they do so, they SHALL > create the equivalent number of Subers in another nomic, citing this > destruction as the source, within the next two hours. If they do not do so, > the Subers are recreated and are not considered destroyed for the purposes > of foreign rules.” > > > > I guess the most important question is whether there is another nomic > that would be interested in such a mechanic; it seems like something > BlogNomic wouldn’t be willing to keep around for more than a dynasty; I > don’t know FRC well enough to know how they would react to such a thing. > Are there any other nomics around that have overlap with our player base? > > I’m not sure this would work, but I like the bones of the idea. > > The underlying issue is that any Nomic is generally reasonably sovereign > over its own state. If BlogNomic enacted the right changes to create an > additional Suber in their collective possession, who’s to say we can > meaningfully refuse to acknowledge it? You propose making Agora the Central > Bank of Subers, but I see no reason another Nomic should accept that, on > the face of it. Cooperative rule-making solutions might be workable with > two Nomics involved, as we could keep the rulesets reasonably synced up, > but it gets hairy very quickly with three or more Nomics. > > Instead, look to what currency exchanges do: they buy up local currencies > in each interesting jurisdiction, then set exchange rates. Supposing you > were a BN-Agora exchange merchant, you could buy up Shinies on Agora, and > Stamina on BlogNomic, using whatever local mechanism you believe to be > profitable, and then set an exchange rate. In turn, as a customer, I could > propose to offer you 10 Shinies here if you promised to repay me with your > chosen exchange rate in Stamina on BlogNomic, for example, and then use > either Agora’s or BN’s rules (as well as simple social obligation) to hold > you to that agreement as far as is possible. > > The major fly in this ointment is that Nomic currencies and currency-likes > tend to be far, far too volatile to meaningfully trade in. Agora moves > relatively slowly, but even so, Shinies have existed for less than a year. > BlogNomic churns even faster, and a currency trader holding any significant > inventory in BN currencies is taking on considerable risk - probably enough > that facilitating the exchange isn’t worthwhile. > > I never expected to be dealing with foreign policy or international > finance in a Nomic, so, well done! > > -o >
