Chapter 209.1: Second Generation Currency, Medal System

Well, that wasn’t to say that Chu Guang was running out of money.

As a game developer, how could he be short of money? He just needed to move his finger and change a few values, and money wouldn't be a problem for him again.

The foreign currencies such as Boulder Town's chips, Enterprise's CR, and the Army's Dinar were another matter. In terms of silver coins, it was really just a number to Chu Guang.

He could give out as much as he wanted, as long as it was needed.

Of course, in order to prevent hyperinflation, he still asked Little Seven to help make a report, to count the production and material consumption of the shelter on a monthly basis, and to make a budget table in a planned way to ensure that Shelter 404, their growing organization, could run smoothly.

The problem was that while silver coins could be issued at will, he no longer had enough physical currency!

At first, because there was no shortage, Chu Guang adopted a method similar to that of Boulder Town, using coins as an equivalent exchange.

The coins they were using were similar to chips. Its surface texture and pattern were recognizable to a certain extent, and the exclusive currency and logo design had a strong regionality. In addition, it could only be found in a specific video game city, and this game city was just located outside Clearspring City. Since it had been used on a small scale, it was unlikely to be picked up by scavengers from other areas.

And most importantly, the coin had a special design, and like Boulder Town's chips, it had a certain anti-counterfeiting mechanism.

With the production process in the wasteland, it was definitely not worthwhile to make an identical one.

However, the shortcoming of the currency was also obvious. The inability to reproduce meant that it couldn't be issued at will.

Chu Guang couldn't cut one out with magnetically confined plasma. That cost would be too high if he really tried something like that.

Whether it was the inert gas used as a cutting fluid or the fusion battery that powered the equipment, it was considered a nonrenewable source in the wasteland, the more he used them, the less he would have.

When he ran out of both, only God knew when it would be available again.

But fortunately, Chu Guang gained level B2 permission of the shelter back then and found the VMs piled up in the warehouse. He later implemented currency electronization through the VM, recovered some of the currency from the players, and solved some of his problems.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

However, with the influx of new players and the gradual flow of silver coins into the hands of the surrounding survivors, his hundreds of thousands of coins were evaporating at the speed of light recently, and there were only a few thousand left!

No matter what, he would need to pay the survivors with physical currency the next month as he couldn’t possibly write an IOU to them.

It would be hilarious if he had piles and piles of resources in his warehouse but he failed to pay their wages!

Therefore, the issuance of the second-generation currency was imperative!

At present, the gold reserves of the outpost were about 500 kilograms, and the silver reserves were relatively high, reaching 4,000 kilograms; so he could try to make some precious metal currencies.

The problem, however, was that precious metals in the wasteland were not scarce, and this could be seen from the Army's gold standard monetary policy.

The weight of a Dinar was 9 grams, and the net content of gold was about 4 to 5 grams. In the current market, buying a strong non-instant clone slave would require 1000 to 2000 Dinar, in other words, 8 to 10 kilograms of gold.

A brigade commander could pay a ransom of 200,000 Dinar, which was equivalent to a ton of gold. If that was calculated according to the price of the players’ world, it would probably be worth hundreds of millions!

Obviously, the gold reserves of the pre-war society in the wasteland world were not of the same order of magnitude as the gold reserves in the players' world. It was at least ten times or even more than a hundred times more, and the per capita holdings were even more incomparable.

Otherwise, a brigade commander would not be able to take out a full ton of gold.

Therefore, the precious metal standard was difficult to work on the wasteland, and it was diametrically opposite to that on Earth.

The Army chose to solve this problem with quantity, relying on quantity to support value.

Enterprise on the other hand used a pure credit currency. It used banknotes with a high anti-counterfeiting mechanism, which was similar to the mainstream currency system of various countries in the players' world, and it was convenient to adjust the money supply at any time. The reason why Ideal City's financial industry was developed was also inseparable from the loose monetary policy.

However, that also led to CR's purchasing power and influence, which was always erratic outside the East Coast.

Even Enterprise's caravans preferred to barter, and some even preferred the Dinar of the Army over a pile of colorful paper.

After all, in their industrial system, gold was still somewhat useful, but the supply was a little bigger, so it was not worth much.

In fact, no matter which route he chose, there was no optimal solution, but only the option that best fit the needs of the moment.

After some trade-offs, Chu Guang synthesized some ideas put forward by players on the forum during discussions and exchanges, and added a certain scarcity attribute to currency under the premise of adopting a credit-based currency system.

The currency of the second generation would still follow the setting of silver coins, but it was no longer the silver coins found outside, but silver coins designed and minted by the shelter.

The new silver coins would have a tentative weight of 10 grams, were made of 90% silver and 10% copper, and were circulated with banknotes that represented 100 silver coins.

As for copper coins, circulation would be gradually suspended until they were completely withdrawn from the market.

Old players could pay electronically, but new players and most NPCs couldn't, nor could the wastelanders and passing caravans.

The new version of the currency was mainly launched for those people!

At the same time, in order to prevent the value of silver coins from seriously exceeding the value of the metal itself, Chu Guang intended to actively inflate it by around 50% within 2 game versions.

The specific plan was to increase the purchase and sale prices of NPC shops for agricultural products, prey, garbage, and other raw materials while maintaining the same resurrection fee, and raising the smallest transaction unit to more than 1 silver coin.

As for weapons, bullets, and other industrial products, prices would remain unchanged.

Since the establishment of the new industrial zone, the cost of industrial products has dropped significantly, just to offset some of the impacts of inflation.

Allowing more players to consume bullets and better weapons was also a disguised enhancement.

At the same time, with the increase in raw materials, the wages of NPCs and the basic income of players' missions would also increase with the trend, and the prey that hunters captured would almost double the value in the new version.

After all, those were considerations to balance the income gap between different gameplays and professions.

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