[IDEA] In-character common conversion unit

[Walneria]

Hello dear wurldbuilders!

I would like to propose canonisation of a common currency unit for Eurth countries to better organize the international trade. As I have noticed, we use the USD and GK$ as a OOC conversion standards, even though there are no United States on Eurth. I would like to propose the creation of a arbitrary conversion unit which may help the trade to be shifted to in-character roleplay. The positives of this approach would be, that the trade negotiations and currency conversion could be kept entirely in-character, and that the stats, such as factbooks or iiwiki pages can be written with a understandable unit and yet still in-character rather than each player pegging it to OOC USD or stating it in their national currencies.

In real life, many currencies are transferred using the virtual currency equal to the United States dollar. Country A's currency is equal some dollars and Country B's currency is equal other amount of dollars, and the trade proceeds  by both countries' currencies' relation to the common currency, which is equal to one United States dollar. This trade doesn't really necessitate the conversion of the amount payed through the United States dollar, but it goes directly from Currency A to Currency B without any transfer state through a third currency (the USD), but the third currency (USD in our wurld) is used as a general comparison tool for trade. You technically do not trade with dollars, because there is no point in the transaction, where you are paying and/or recieving dollars, but there is a virtual conversion unit. In our wurld, it is the USD, because the United States are the superpower with a strong and relatively stable currency, while on Eurth, there is no such nation, so I would like to propose a general virtual currency for better conversion rates (literally creating the equivalent to the virtual transaction example just with the real existence of the common conversion unit removed)

Few options I would like to propose are:

• Canonisation of a standard unit, which would be equal to one irl USD, so is only a canonic renaming of the value for Eurth lore, to which the International Dollar equivalent could be linked
• Canonisation of a standard unit, which would be equal to one irl EUR, so is only a canonic renaming of the value for Eurth lore, to which the International Euro equivalent of the International Dollar could be linked

This unit could be creatively named, such as the "United Standard Dollar" (USD), "United Standard Currency" (USC), "United Standard Unit" (USU), "Eurth Standard Currency" (ESC or EUR), "Eurth Currency Unit" (ECU or EUR), "International Currency Unit" (ICU), "International Common Currency" (ICC), "International Currency Standard" (ICS), "Universal Currency Standard" (UCS) etc.

The simple short-hand signs could be the one of the Dollar $ - for "standard", the one of the Euro € - for "Eurth", crossed C letter ₵ - for "Currency", crossed I letter Ɨ - for "International", or the crossed U letter Ʉ - for "Universal".

I would personally suggest the "Universal Currency Standard", with the code UCS and a symbol Ʉ, equal to one United States Dollar and the "Relative Currency Standard", with the code RCS and a symbol ℞, equal to one International Dollar.

I would like to hear some opinions for sure, but I feel like creating a common conversion point for the Eurth nations to better orient in would be helpful for trade realisticallity.

[Tagmatium Rules]

It's a good idea, certainly.

As has been said before, our biggest stumbling blocks have been a lack of an IC justification (lack of superpower or such a wurld-dominating economy or a historic colonial superpower) and just squeaking by without one.

Either way, I'd be happy to have a solution to this.

[Walneria]

@Tagmatium Rules honestly, there may be many IC justifications, such as countries hoping to avoid conversions scams. Before the currency in real wurld was established, there were cases of people who managed to use the conversion inconsistency for their benefit. If they found, that conversion from currency A to currency B was easier through currency C, they did so naturally, which simply complicated trade sanctions or barriers in the first place, while in general the conversion unit didn't set this profit, so even when the countries' citizens evade the sanctions set by their government, they may not stand to profit by a conversion loophole to the extent they would had there not been a common currency.

There have been talks about a common currency unit in real life far before WWII, for some time, there have been even a British pound based local system for some countries.

Simply said: it is profitable for the government to have a rigid conversion rate with as many nations as possible, because that may prevent fraud and solidify possible trading power of the country as well as prevents unforseen problems, such as inflation by unit conversion.

[Prymont]

Thanks for bringing this up, it's good to read over some ideas. As I've already told you on Discord, it's in hand with staff and we already have a couple of solutions we're looking towards. We'll let the community know once we're getting somewhere.

As I'm sure you'll understand, it's a big task to implement a globally recognised standard currency that we then have to work with to make retrospective amendments, include it in new guidance so newcomers are aware of it, and ensure it's fit for purpose.

[Iverica]

Definitely ditto what Prymont said above. To add further-

PSA: This is on Admin's agenda. Some proposals are in hand at the moment. I would provide detail if I were not busy right now.

 

Admin will consider what's been discussed already above. For the sake of setting expectations I must caution any speculation that might follow in this thread. It's nice to see enthusiasm though and we have this issue on priority. Take note that Eurth staff works to find the best time we are all free to meet since most of us have day jobs/school, so issues usually get addressed on a weekly or monthly basis (for bigger canon concerns).

[Kolhar]

If I may, this is an idea that was adopted in a previous MTRP I was in.

Basically, they set up an IC currency equivalent to the USD in terms of rl value and assigned it to an uber-powerful superpower NPC nation that, while there was influence from members, was mostly under admin control. IC context was that it normally has isolationist policies, but would get involved when a single nation gets too powerful.

This not only was used to solve the currency exchange problem, but it was also decided that companies from this nation would have made stuff that is internationally ubiquitous. For example, this nation was responsible for their version of Microsoft Windows, Android, etc. Countries were allowed to RP that they had their own things going on, or adopted standards from other nations. This was more for those who didn't want to bother with going in detail with stuff like that so they could be like "We use the Windows equivalent OS in our country" and call it a day.

It was also used as a measure to try and stop any single nation from getting too powerful, kind of as a balancing force.

Now I'm merely bringing this up because it's an idea. Personally, I'm happy with what we have now, and am only mentioning it as a possible option should admins decide something has to be done. I know there will be various pros and cons to this idea that will inevitably be debated by admins. There's no need to rush any of this, and I'm not about to tell anyone to do any one thing. I just think that all options should at least be considered.