Money, Cash and Credit Cards

[Tenacity]

We cant really know, tbh.

However, I like to think of things as mass effect's codex explains...

In mass effect's universe, credits (electronic money) are the standard. Physical money is extremely rare, and the authorities restrict and even prevent the use of actual physical 'cash' because it's harder to track.

Every transaction that occurs via credits (electronically) can be recorded and investigated. Crimes are more easily stopped that way, because there's always electronic evidence. Of course, a good hacker can manipulate electronic transactions, and even forge credits, but that kind of skill is extremely rare.

Cash does still exist, however, and is primarily used by criminal sorts in order to make shady transactions where evidence on the "neuralnet" (to put it in freelancer terms) might be recorded. It's impossible for police groups to track your transactions when the transfer is being made in person, using solid cash - an 'under the table' payment, as it were.

I think in freelancer things are probably similar. Every citizen and lawful uses electronic credits through the neuralnet - they never actually hold their money. This allows the house military, government, and police groups to keep tabs on every transaction made - everytime something is bought or sold using electronic credits, the lawfuls know about it. Unlawfuls probably prefer to use commodities or 'physical credits' - perhaps in the form of credit cards - in order to make their exchanges, as those transactions cannot be tracked and effectively keep the cops off of their backs.

Among unlawfuls, buying and selling is probably less common than bartering. The use of various commodities, including food, water, sidearms, ship materials, and raw resources like metal ores and chemicals as bartering chips prevents any tracking of one's business at all, and these materials are as valuable, if not more valuable, than electronic credits - they are real, can be held, and cannot be forged.

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