Credit Stick

Sales are performed with an exchange of credit sticks, small pieces of plastic and electronics that record financial data. While the trading of goods and services still are prevalent (especially among the lower classes), credit acts as an abstract representation of a promise of goods and services. Because of this abstract representation, credits are not backed by any particular mineral, gem, or other traditional currency backing. This allows for a much less volatile economy.
Each stick is a small cylinder, easily carried about in a pocket. At one end of the stick is a small physical port that can be plugged into a docking port; on the other is one of these docking ports. When a transaction takes place, the buyer plugs his stick into a sales machine (or into another credit stick if the transaction is personal and not business), and the agreed upon amount of credits is transferred.
Credit sticks themselves come in two varieties: Unlinked and Linked. Unlinked sticks, also sometimes called throwaway or dumb sticks, just carry a credit value. These sticks are more susceptible to being stolen, but are preferred for more... morally grey transactions. Linked sticks, on the other hand, store more personal information. These sticks are useful for things such purchases as vehicles (where you need to show proof of insurance or a licensing to own). Additional personal verification is needed to use these, but the extra security comes with it's own set of cons, the biggest of which (for our adventuring heroes) is that each purchase is logged and tracked.
Cyber-security on sticks varies from company to company, but generally speaking Linked sticks will be more secure than Unlinked due to the additional information included. Regardless, wireless transmissions/reception is physically impossible to prevent tampering and cyber-theft of funds.

Item type

Currency & Deeds