Timeline for Why do the Ferengi still use latinum as currency?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
18 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 29 at 0:09 | comment | added | pdxleif | Re: trust in the issuer of fiat currency - the 17th Rule of Acquisition is: "A contract, is a contract, is a contract... but only between Ferengi.". Doesn't that mean they can trust a contract between each other? | |
| Apr 29, 2016 at 7:33 | comment | added | Emerson | @PaulJohnson: In the US, the law is a little murky on the specifics of that - the Liberty Dollar suffered from being more counterfeit than anything. The continued existence of other local currencies indicates it would not be a high priority to deal with (and the information I can find indicates that, so long as you are not attempting to defraud anyone, conduct business that is illegal even with US Dollars, or evade taxes it is probably legal). Either way, if my currency is a form of scrip then it is perfectly legal, albeit still a poor investment choice :). | |
| Apr 24, 2016 at 13:17 | comment | added | Paul Johnson | @Emerson: "I could invent my own currency right now, and legally I could issue it and trade in it" - actually you couldn't: it would be a "money services business", which requires a license pretty much anywhere in the world. Bitcoin avoided this problem by not having an issuer. | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 5:19 | comment | added | Emerson | @ToddWilcox That is a reasonable offer, but unfortunately I can only convert in increments of 100000EBX at a time. @ Random832 - You can get 1 Stanley Nickel per 1million EBX, but the only known location to make the exchange is in the Q Continuum. | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 4:58 | comment | added | Emerson | @djechlin That would be a whole different question, but ultimately a) the Ferengi are thieves, b) at some point in their long past they were civil (DS9: Prophet Motive), c) the Prime Directive is pretty unique among Humans/the Federation (some other race could have sold the tech to the Ferengi) | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 4:55 | comment | added | Emerson | @SevenSidedDie As far as I am aware it is untraceable (after all Morn managed to smuggle a whole bunch in his stomach without being caught even by his co-conspirators). And I fully agree with your your FerengiCoin analysis. | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 4:24 | comment | added | djechlin | Which of course raises the question of how they advanced into the space age at all given their civilization is barely civil at all. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 18:22 | comment | added | 16807 | @SevenSidedDie That sounds reasonable. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 18:17 | comment | added | SevenSidedDie | @ Emerson Isn't latinum an untraceable currency, too? I would think the Ferengi would appreciate that property very much. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 18:05 | comment | added | SevenSidedDie | @16807 Interplanetary bitcoin is harder than it looks. In Star Trek, whoever controls the subspace relays that make the distributed work viable would be able to undermine the currency strategically (introducing delays, etc.) to make physical-goods purchases with bitcoins that are destined to be invalidated. The same trust/counterfeiting problem of fiat currency returns. Since Ferengi don't trust each other, FerengiCoin based on even modern cryptocurrency technology + FTL comms is not feasible. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 17:58 | comment | added | 16807 | @MartianInvader No, I'm saying we shouldn't create shaky in-universe excuses to obscure a clear out of universe explanation. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 17:54 | comment | added | MartianInvader | @16807 So you're saying the writers of Star Trek should have invented bitcoin 15 years earlier than the actual researchers did for the purposes of a fictional TV show? | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 16:52 | comment | added | Random832 | @ToddWilcox What's the exchange rate to Stanley Nickels? | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 16:19 | comment | added | 16807 | All the issues in point 2 are directly addressed in bitcoin. Lack of trust is handled by consensus across a distributed network. Fiat value is determined by the market and not the issuer. Issuance is not possible in any form besides mining, which itself is an incentive to maintain the consensus of the network. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 16:07 | vote | accept | Kevin | ||
| Dec 3, 2015 at 15:10 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | I'll give you USD 0.50 right now for 10,000 Emersonbux. (EBX 10 000) | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 4:36 | review | First posts | |||
| Dec 3, 2015 at 4:37 | |||||
| Dec 3, 2015 at 4:31 | history | answered | Emerson | CC BY-SA 3.0 |