Currency

 A well functioning financial system is fundamental to a modern economy and banks perform important functions for a society within that economy. They are often the repository of individual wealth and offer various financial products and services to the public, businesses and governments. They are usually secure places where a currency can be deposited with the expectation that you may increase or decrease your holdings while maintaining the currencies value.

A currency is a tangible, tradable unit of economic measure usually associated with a nationality and is backed by the issuing government. It is relatively stable on the global market and takes many forms during trade such as the Swiss franc, the Canadian dollar, European Euro, the Japanese Yen, the British Pound or the Russian ruble or rouble for example.

This type of tangible currency can be traded physically or digitally for commodities or products and services while retaining its government backed value. This type of currency is usually referred to as Fiat money, is backed by trust in the issuer, and it is not usually backed by a commodity such as gold.  Fiat money gives central banks greater control over the economy because they can control how much money is printed.

A crypto currency is a type of intangible currency which uses digital files as money. Usually, the files are created using the same methods as cryptography and use a 'decentralized control' method, which means that their value is not controlled by one person or government.

Crypto currency value is only backed by the community using it and not by any tangible commodity or nation or physical fiat currency. The potential for crypto currency to become speculative and inflationary is very high, thereby loosing or gaining value in wild valuation swings.

An example of crypto value swings is the Bitcoin which over a period of 5 years was valued as low as $417 to a high of over $55,000 USD for a single unit of measure, or coin. By comparison, during the same period, the US dollar value changed by only 13 cents. Other crypto currencies also experience wild fluctuations.

It is obvious by these facts that trying to build a stable economy on a wildly swinging crypto currency valuation is not a good option.  Considering the vast distances between Earth and off-world colonies, utilizing an existing fiat currency and banking system or even digital money transfers is also problematic. 

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