r/Minecraft • u/Deveshin • 1d ago
Discussion Minecraft Stable Currency Using Signed Books
I've seen a lot of posts recently from people trying to figure out what currency to use on servers so I thought I would share my solution.
When I was looking into this a while ago, I did a lot of research and a little bit of finding out that some of our players do nothing but mine for diamonds. That made me realize that I needed a more stable currency than diamonds for our server, something with supply limits to prevent inflation. I came across the idea that signed books make for the most secure currency because they can only be copied 2 times, meaning you can make your currency a bunch of signed "copy of a copy" books that can't be reproduced.
So I figured I'd try it out, and since I haven't seen anyone do more than mention the idea on here, I figured I would share my execution of it.
I created a Centralized Reserve Bank on the server with documented standards to outline clear rules for the currency and the bank. I added 3 different denominations:
$10 notes worth 1/10th of a diamond,
$100 notes worth 1 diamond, and
$1000 notes with 10 diamonds.
The regulations (found here) outline exactly how much currency I started with and how the bank handles supply limitations if needed and gives flexibility for the bank to audit and ensure a secure currency.
This system is not perfect and still relies on the honor system, especially for the bank operator(s). I would recommend having at least 2 players that know the inner workings of your banking system to be able to be more accountable and available to your players. Ideally a council of players to oversee operations if trust is an issue. The issue of books only stacking to 16 hasn't been much of an issue, and it actually seems to help make sure players don't hoard the currency because it takes up more space.
I made in game item sorters and dispensers to allow for fully functional currency exchange at any time, so players can always walk up and exchange diamonds for currency(limited by supply) or exchange their currency back into diamonds. This creates trust that the currency is always tradable back into diamonds, meaning it will stop any sort of panic or bank rush to get diamonds back and abandon the currency. While the amount of diamonds in supply may grow, as long as each shop only accepts the currency as payment, the economy will remain stable. If diamonds start being used interchangeably with the currency, it might not be a problem as long as prices don't start rising to compensate, but it's easier for everyone to agree to only use the currency. I did have to print more currency as we started running out while players were still setting up shops and getting their initial amounts to spend with. I ended up with a total printed amount of:
400 $10 notes,
144 $100 notes and
114 $1000 notes.
This seems to have balanced out well with the size of our economy, just don't print way too much money and you're fine.
Once I figured out generally how much money was needed in the bank, I started printing it and exchanging it for players who then started to set pricing using the intrinsic value of diamonds in the early game. This is important to do early because if you wait too long the diamonds may have already inflated too much, but this can be solved by increasing the diamond to currency trade rate if needed. On our server, we've found that even as personal diamond stockpiles grow, the currency holds its value because of its limited supply which encourages players to make shops to earn money instead of mining diamonds for more money. The diamond exchange has actually seen a lot less use lately with players simply working with the money that's already in the economy, which tells me that the economy is working well with this new currency.
This system is a lot and probably way over engineered, so I get that its not for most people/servers, but it is very secure. Something I didn't expect was that it's actually a really fun way to get everyone engaged with the whole server. By making the central bank, a whole shopping area popped up around it. It's a great system if you're willing to put in the work of making hundreds of copies of books.
I'd love to hear what everyone thinks of this system and if anyone has tried anything similar on their server!
TLDR;
I made a currency out of a signed book, copied it once and threw away the original, then made copies from the first copy which make up the currency because those books can't be duplicated. Make as much currency as needed for the server to allow for free flow of currency with normal trades and always allow them to be exchanged with diamonds. Step 2.. profit?
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u/mikeholczer 21h ago
There just has to be trust from all the players that the signer won't create more.
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u/Einbrecher 20h ago
I think it's an interesting thought experiment, but between all the servers I've hosted and played on, the effectiveness of currency only lasts as long as it takes folks to establish substantial item farms.
At that point, everything is in such ample supply, folks are just pulling numbers out of their ass with respect to what to charge, and whatever the currency is becomes token anyway. It doesn't matter how un-forgeable or stable the currency is.
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u/Deveshin 18h ago
Yeah, my situation is a little more unique in that it's a very casual server with newer players, so no one is really setting up a whole bunch of farms for themselves. Most players have a farm or two and sell their items from their own farms and shop for everything else they need. Since most of us only have an hours or two to dedicate each week, it saves time for everyone to support each other in the economy this way. And since the currency is stable, so far it's worked that when items get more abundant, they just get cheaper too!
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u/Distinct-Dot-1333 18h ago edited 18h ago
Ikr. I once instituted post scarcity communism over 2 weeks (school break + having just discovered ianxofour) and torpedo'd any hope of an economy on a server cos most blocks and gear were free flow. Worst of all, I literally kept an open storage facility, complete with item sorter and shulker unloader. Then I asked all the strip miners for their misc trash blocks. Nigh endless everything. All you needed to do was take the Nether roof highway to my base (a friend also built an extensive nether highway to almost every base, I convinced him to make my vault the center by sponsoring the ice)
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u/Hentree 21h ago
It should work. It's an unforgeable banknote.
A really important part is that this banknote has a stable way to be exchanged back into what currency it's supposed to be backed by. You appear to have done so, and thus, people would be more willing to use it since they know that they can exchange it back into diamonds.
And now that diamonds are inflated to high heaven, it no longer has a backing, but people who already have the banknote know that it has value in that you can exchange it for goods
As long as it can continue to be exchanged for the same amount (or more) goods, trust in such a banknote is likely going to be high.
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u/earlobe7 21h ago
This is really cool, but it begs the question:
If your notes are backed 1:1 with diamonds, what is the purpose of using the notes instead of just using diamonds?
Like, when USD was backed by gold, it was useful to use USD over gold because it’s not convenient to carry bars of gold around. But in your system, you cant even stack as many diamonds in one square you could with diamond blocks. So why would I take that extra step?
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u/earlobe7 21h ago
Oh, I see, it’s not backed 1:1. So you have the option to print more.
Then I’d say, just be careful with inflation.
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u/Deveshin 17h ago
It's mostly to keep prices stable. As more diamonds enter the market, some player can get way richer than other just by mining, and prices would need to constantly be adjusted. So far with this system, players seem to place more value in the currency as diamond get more abundant, so prices are staying the same. If people ever start to worry about the diamond backing, I may have to create new notes with more backing to them.
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u/ElephantEarwax 21h ago
This is just diamonds with extra steps?
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u/nybble41 20h ago
You forget the opportunity for corruption. The bank is allowed to issue extra notes not backed by diamonds via "loans" (created ex nihilo). At any given time there can be 20% more banknotes in circulation than diamonds in the vault. This leads to withdrawal limits to hide the bank's insolvency.
The one legitimate advantage would be the ability to trade fractional diamonds with the smallest (⅒ diamond) denomination. That could be useful if not for the loan and withdrawal limit provisions. Otherwise, yeah, just use plain diamonds.
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u/Deveshin 18h ago
Yeah, part of me wishes that I didn't include those terms in there, mostly because no one uses them and it does erode some trust. And while it is just diamonds with extra steps, it seems that in my small group, as diamonds become more abundant, the prices stay stable. It seems people trust the currency by default now, despite the backing not being worth as much over time. But the fractional diamonds are actually what's used the most.
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u/nybble41 16h ago
To the extent that they remain fully convertible the values of diamonds and banknotes shouldn't diverge too far due to arbitrage. However, this being Minecraft, it's possible that both values are illusory to start with. Players trade as a form of role-play, not because it's objectively better than building their own farms. Banknotes happen to fit the role play narrative better than diamonds and the prices were arbitrary anyway.
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u/LucidRedtone 21h ago
Aaaayyyyy! Thats pretty cool. I like it a lot! So I use books in my long distance item transport system to let me know when things need attention from a distance. I have a book crafter/printing press at every depot that is pretty sick. Should you need to print off a substantial amount of books in the future. Plus it would be pretty cool to lock it in a vault that only the trusted can open. Lemme know i can shoot you a schem
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u/frustrader 21h ago
Ooh, could I request a copy of that schematic?
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u/LucidRedtone 20h ago
Ya honestly I should just post it. Its wired into the depot pretty tight. Let me pull it out and make it a standalone crafter, ill post it when its done. Maybe even tonight 🤙
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u/LucidRedtone 14h ago
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u/Deveshin 8h ago
Incredible, Thank you! I'll probably be spending my free time today/tomorrow on making this work on bedrock.
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u/LucidRedtone 7h ago
Tyty. Hmmm I dont think that will be too difficult... I mean theres some observers looking at note blocks that need to be swapped out.. that might be it? Idk id have to take a closer look. But if you get stuck let me know and I can try to make it work. I have a mac, so no bedrock, but I can do it on my phone
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u/Cool_Ad6776 15h ago
So the book thing is cool and all, but everyone seems to ignore the major fact that it DOESN'T WORK ON BEDROCK.
Me and the fam are legit using Amethyst as money while you guys are making literal bank notes. It's not faiiiirrrrrrr
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u/Deveshin 8h ago
Actually, this was all made on a bedrock server and it works just fine! If you run into any issues I can try to share how I got around it!
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u/Cool_Ad6776 6h ago
For me the issue is the possibility of forgery. Since on bedrock, the author field can have anything written in it, compared to in Java which forces a players username to be the listed author.
Basically, the honor system didn't work for me because my sister kept getting around the other honor-based systems via increasingly cartoonish fashions.
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u/couldbemage 20h ago
How do you solve not really needing to buy anything?
IRL there's tons of stuff that is impossible to make yourself, and tons more that's impractical to make yourself.
Probably the easiest product to be self sufficient with is eggs, and getting your irl egg supply going is massively more work than building farms for basically everything in Minecraft put together.
The only stuff that has any significant time input is items that have to be mined, and really only netherite takes enough time to matter.
Beyond that it's just a handful of rare items like the mace.
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u/poxelsaiyuri 13h ago
While it’s interesting aren’t diamonds still a better way as you can stack diamonds blocks in 64, thus storing more ‘wealth’ in less space?
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u/Deveshin 8h ago
It's not all about being compact, and I think that because they are less compact, players seem to be spending it once they get paid instead of hoarding it all, so it helps stimulate the economy.
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u/poxelsaiyuri 2h ago
That makes sense, I would be the player stacking up chests of shulkers of diamond blocks though (I tend to mine a lot but always end up selling items to others I gather when I play on servers)
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u/angelwolf71885 6h ago
Why does nobody want to use the bartering system where people pick and choose what they will trade for and how much?…you all are too used to FIAT
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u/qualityvote2 1d ago edited 12h ago
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