the economy // 21 billion minted, never again // pe 8128
The coin is held, not earned.
UCASH is fixed-supply: 21 billion were minted, and about 16 billion remain accessible. Inside the gold-and-black border it is post-scarcity, matter and energy effectively free, and what cannot be copied remains scarce. No normal being earns 1 UCASH in a lifetime.
the economy // 01
The ladder divides by a hundred million
1 UCASH = 100,000,000 UNITS, the day-to-day currency. 1 UNIT = 100,000,000 Subunits, the micro and display denomination. So 1 UCASH = 10^16 SUBS. The ladder accreted over time: UCASH is the oldest name, UNITS came later, and the Subunits were introduced after the 6th fracture to serve the growing volume of everyday usage.
1 UCASH
the civilization-scale and irreplicable
Tier 3. Not minted again; held. Skilled wage is upwards of 1,000 UNITS a year, and most of the galaxy earns less than 100: a skilled lifetime is a few thousandths of a UCASH. The Controllers' prophecy-granted stakes are each 1 UCASH in trust.
against the outside, roughly 100,000,000,000 UPD
a drink
400 SUBS
the post-scarcity basics ride the bottom of the ladder. A meal runs about 1,200 SUBS.
1 UNIT
~1,000 UPD
against the United Planets' inflated fiat. 1 UCASH is roughly 100,000,000,000 UPD.
the dust
many holders
most actual UCASH holders, those holding only the dust of Units and Subunits, are outside the Corporation: the holders many, the holding little.
the economy // 02
What cannot be copied remains scarce
A Kardashev-baseline economy and molecular-scale replication make matter and energy effectively free, so prices tier by irreplicability: Tier 1, the near-free post-scarcity basics in Subunits; Tier 2, tech, craft, and mid-luxury in UNITS; Tier 3, the civilization-scale and irreplicable in UCASH. What cannot be made more of is what is paid for.
the past
Causality cannot be minted. Provenance, the unforgeable causal history of a thing; antiquity; first-discovery rights; witnessed events. The Unremembering burned the founding data past even the deeper record: that past is nowhere at all now.
the unique
The one-of-one: the rings and every Uncestral work, pre-fracture relics, Earth itself, and position: one Resonance Core, one galactic center, one homeworld, past them all one Prime Universe. A place among them is held, never made.
the grown
What compounds only at time's own pace: a trained mind and a master's hand, an old-growth biosphere, a three-century vintage, a lineage, and above all trust. Mastery is stored time, trust is stored past, and neither can be minted.
the living
Life and its bandwidth: a finite lifespan, birthrates low and bounded, and attention, the hours of a mind. Every hour is spent once. Even the Ultimate's attention is bounded. And a being's ussence does not copy, in any branch, by any power.
the withheld
What is kept rather than made: secrets, sealed records, the unspoken, and the Deep Secret at the bottom of them all. Knowledge withheld does not copy, and it is the one form a single sentence can spend forever.
For value flows always to the irreplicable.
the canon, section 1
The Corporation adds its own designed scarcities atop these: UCASH's fixed supply, the .u namespace, and membership itself. They were designed, but the design has hardened into fabric, and they are no longer the Corporation's to unwind.
the economy // 03
Beyond the border, the Wild's ladder
Beyond the gold-and-black border the currency is Bitcoin, on a four-rung ladder, one rung deeper than UCASH's three. The first fracture burned the unguarded wealth first, and so Bitcoin is more concentrated than UCASH.
Out there too stand the conglomerate civilizations, powers grown vast outside any ring network, and the Thirteen Independent Stars, who never wanted another way. The map keeps their ground.
the economy // 04
The lattice beneath it all
The Unnet carries the coin: the fracture-proof lattice perfected in the first recovery, quantum storage, error-corrected encoding that survives a vacuum breach. It is woven into the Uantum lattices, the deep lattice of the Univirse, and what the lattice carries, the lattice keeps.
No fracture and no war has ever unmade the record whole again, and no claimant has ever captured the ledger: the fighting could not seize what would not centralize.
06
membership
The stake the coin buys a hold on: the Auction, the standing, the seat that returns if the stake drops.
01
the record
The two threads that never broke: the coin named UCASH still, and the lattice that carries it.
05
the territory
Where the border runs, and what the post-scarcity abundance spreads across.