Credits

Credits are the currency in the Starborn universe. At a time when humanity has cast aside, for the most part, centralized governments and relies upon loose coalitions of colonies there is no central treasury to print physical currency. But more importantly, there is no need.

With trade and commodities passing through space daily it would slow to a crawl if banks and financial institutions were forced to wait for shipments of bulky hard currency.

Credits are stored on personal digital accounts at a person's banking institution of choice. Unlike in years of old there are few fees and charges associated with moving the digital currency, the cost of such transactions and record keeping being non-existent in a wholly digital age.

Transactions

Transactions between two private parties are done with hand-held registers. These small computers come with a semicircular depression for a fingertip. The small metal band inside looks for DNA signature and a strong pulse. A passcode is also required from both parties. Given agreeing signatures from both sides, any amount of money can be transferred from one account to another at any time from anywhere.

Tracking & Security

Non-physical money has a more easily maintained money-trail. Still, this does not mean the system is fool-proof. Thanks to banks, primarily those interested in operating as havens providing money laundering, not participating in the "transparency" allows for some trails to grow stale with numerous gaps in exchange. These are the exception however, and most money is easily tracked and maintained.

Sent and received only through highly secure biometric encrypting the transfer of funds is engaged in non-stop across the universe. Even the most untrusting individuals are forced to operate within the digital market, as few places are equipped or willing to handle physical currency or barter. Thankfully for those few who cannot adopt the system by choice or necessity some localized communities and merchants do facilitate trade through private hard-currencies and barter markets.

Transmission Control

While some people still question the safety and security of digital transaction most experts agree that the medium is a safe and stable method that will be used for the foreseeable future. Unlike early Earth digital transmissions where account information traveled freely to be intercepted along the way or at infected end-points, modern digital exchange has numerous layers of security.

First and foremost is the very nature of the grid's communication network. Messages sent are exchanged at FTL speeds and encoded in wide data-streams that make it difficult even for intelligent autonomous data-mining suites to filter content.Next are the beginning and end stations as well as the interconnected banks, which also employ their own learning software suites. These points of contact each employ unique encoding mechanisms, the strongest of which rests in the now-common biometric registers that begin all trade.

For those interested in digital theft the going is tough if not impossible, even skilled hackers meet with more headache than success. Worse their activities will be met with equally skilled counter-attacks from security specialists. Most modern hacking fraud demands that the perpetrators target third-parties such as employers and smaller players to steal and manipulate identity information for gain and sale. Information has value, as such the biggest affront to a person is not direct theft but the seizure of his or her personal data.

Bartering

Most portside alleys are crammed with passing traders looking to offload a portion of their goods. Usually these merchants buy a shipload of something at a lower price, and strike a deal with a corporation to sell all of it at a low price. A bit of it they keep for themselves, and a bit they try to sell off dockside at a price just below the store's.

Sometimes stolen goods are dispersed thinly in these makeshift marketplaces. Selling a bit off at a time, these sorts of tradesmen are usually pirates or smugglers. In this way, no trail of credits can ever be traced back to them.

Money banks house servers & memory banks, as well as material exchangers. Mostly metals and building materials, banks rely on a set price per kilo on items they buy, rather than quantity or quality. Other localized markets exist in mirror to this highly structured goods market, where parties interested in exchanging personal production are connected. Markets like this operate much like Earth's Farmer's Markets from more than a millennium ago, the concept being so strong it has remained a part of the modern world. Art colonies and universities are also known for their large impromptu markets. Kivians is a successful chain of markets that has spread to over a half-dozen worlds and colonies helping people escape the digital economy and find something more meaningful. Shoppers beware, be ready to strike a hard bargain.

Illegal Dealings

For the large part any crime related to monetary theft has vanished with the advent of digital currency. Without hard currency many petty crimes passed by the wayside as criminals, for the most part, wised up to the fact that not much stood to be gained from the activity.

However, despite this slump in petty crimes the switch to digital currency has not eliminated the criminal desire for monetary gain. In cutting out the market for simple crimes criminals were forced to evolve and many other activities rose alongside organized crime to take up the slack. Extortion, blackmail, identity manipulation and theft, coupled with heavy-handed scare tactics such as kidnapping and assault have allowed criminals to remain active players in the money market.

It is no longer "easy money", but the payout is often much higher than had from simple hold-ups and muggings, both of which still occur but generally only for expensive goods.

Many captured criminals have gone on the record to say that the easiest way to part with your money is to be in a field or engage in trade that forces you to hard-goods and or raw material exchange. Often times its easier to jack a small transport or surface liner than to go after the non-physical currency.