Data Space as Currency?

[LoA]

So after months of fiddling around with my map maker, I finally found a map that works for my "American City get's thrown right into a Fantasy World" setting. And I had been playing  Fallout and researching the lore. I love the idea of Bottle caps as currency, and find the reasoning behind that clever. I began thinking about my own setting, and wondering "could technological assets be used as currency?" Then I began thinking "Computers won't be able to be mass produced like it is in our world, maybe thumbsticks and other computer assets could be traded based on how much space is on them?" For instance let's say you had an 8GB Thumbdrive, but that's false advertising and it's more like 7.4 gigs. So each Gigabyte could probably be worth like 5 bucks? So that thumb drive would probably be worth 37 dollars.

There's obviously major problems that need to be addressed. Do the sticks used for money need to be encrypted by the government? Does the stick need to have an official stamp on it that says that it's legit, and functioning?

Also any ideas for currency alternatives would be pretty cool too.

[Ghostman]

The pricing would not be per GB. Ten 4 GB drives has the same storage space as a single 40 GB drive, but it's less convenient to manage ten sticks than it is to manage one. OTOH using only one drive is like putting your eggs in one basket, so people would prolly prefer 2-3 sizeable drives. Those would be in higher demand and thus have slightly inflated value.

[Rhamnousia]

Would the thumbsticks themselves be able to be mass produced? Because if not, then five dollars for a gig seems way too low a value - they'd require pretty much the same degree of expert technical skill (if not the name amount of time or resources) to manufacture, would they not? It's difficult for me to conceptualize data space as a "currency" in and of itself because as opposed to gold or silver or cowrie shells, using data space - the thing that makes it valuable in the first place - would devalue it as currency. However, having data space that you could sell or rent would be an excellent basis for an economy.

[LoA]

The pricing would not be per GB. Ten 4 GB drives has the same storage space as a single 40 GB drive, but it's less convenient to manage ten sticks than it is to manage one. OTOH using only one drive is like putting your eggs in one basket, so people would prolly prefer 2-3 sizeable drives. Those would be in higher demand and thus have slightly inflated value.

Would the thumbsticks themselves be able to be mass produced? Because if not, then five dollars for a gig seems way too low a value - they'd require pretty much the same degree of expert technical skill (if not the name amount of time or resources) to manufacture, would they not? It's difficult for me to conceptualize data space as a "currency" in and of itself because as opposed to gold or silver or cowrie shells, using data space - the thing that makes it valuable in the first place - would devalue it as currency. However, having data space that you could sell or rent would be an excellent basis for an economy.

Okay, maybe thumbsticks Specifically is a bad idea, but I still like the idea of hard technological assets as currency. I'm trying to define the city that get's thrown into my world (i'm still trying to come up with a good name for it), and I honestly thought about what factories and manufacturing facilities it would have. One thing that interested me was "what if there wasn't an electronics manufacturer in this town? How would that impact this cities development in this new world?

The city has been forced to regress back to a lot of primitive forms of technology. A dam was built to provide power, Oil  has yet to be discovered in any way that can be sustainable as a resource. So now steam power is back on the rise, but that presents it's own challenges. There is no mass manufacturing industrial force that can match the progress that happened in the 1800's and early 20th century. However the Americans have created a very profitable trading network and this has been bringing in new resources.

It's sort of like a mini apocalypse in a sense, where advanced people are forced to go backwards, only there's a better spirit about it in this world.

[Polycarp]

However the Americans have created a very profitable trading network and this has been bringing in new resources.

How do they do this using a currency that is useless to everyone else?  Or have the Americans instructed the rest of the world on the proper use of modern data storage already?

[LoA]

However the Americans have created a very profitable trading network and this has been bringing in new resources.

How do they do this using a currency that is useless to everyone else?  Or have the Americans instructed the rest of the world on the proper use of modern data storage already?

Oh sorry, It's an alternative currency among Americans. I'm still trying to figure out what the currency of the new world is.

[Polycarp]

Well, it seems to me that a currency that's only useful in a specific city and accepted nowhere else is probably going to fall out of favor.  American merchants, as they deal with outsiders, are going to need what the outsiders use (presumably gold/silver).  Any data storage money they get is going to be useless for buying goods or settling accounts with their trade partners.  That's going to lead them to start refusing payments in data storage money from other Americans, because it will have low liquidity - it will be useless for the transactions they want to make with their trade partners unless they can find people who regularly want to exchange data storage for gold/silver at favorable rates at a moment's notice.  Faced with either the refusal of their merchants to accept data storage money or the higher price of goods bought with data storage, Americans will start to switch to gold/silver.

At least, that's how I see it.  Data storage could certainly be a commodity but it's poorly suited to be a currency in a world where everyone outside of a single city has no idea what it is and has no reason to consider it valuable.

[LoA]

Well, it seems to me that a currency that's only useful in a specific city and accepted nowhere else is probably going to fall out of favor.  American merchants, as they deal with outsiders, are going to need what the outsiders use (presumably gold/silver).  Any data storage money they get is going to be useless for buying goods or settling accounts with their trade partners.  That's going to lead them to start refusing payments in data storage money from other Americans, because it will have low liquidity - it will be useless for the transactions they want to make with their trade partners unless they can find people who regularly want to exchange data storage for gold/silver at favorable rates at a moment's notice.  Faced with either the refusal of their merchants to accept data storage money or the higher price of goods bought with data storage, Americans will start to switch to gold/silver.

At least, that's how I see it.  Data storage could certainly be a commodity but it's poorly suited to be a currency in a world where everyone outside of a single city has no idea what it is and has no reason to consider it valuable.

Well that's what I mean. Computer and hard-to-manufacture mechanical parts could be bartered to the government and national defense force as a way to receive credit.

I dunno.