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Shipping Tickets

BackworldTraveller

BackworldTraveller

SOC-13
How do people get paid for passage when the passenger has a Traveller Aid Society open high-passage ticket?

The TAS issues the ticket on Regina
A free trader from Knorbes to Forboldn accepts the ticket. (Both E-Class ports)
That trader now has a ticket but there is no TAS locally - and almost no port infrastructure.
How is it exchanged for Cash that the trader can use to buy life-support?

p.s. How does the trader guarantee the ticket isn't a forgery? It will take weeks to contact the issuer.
 
I happen to have a High Passage ... One of the ones put it by FFE.
it's a coin about the size of a silver dollar, and the documentation says it's got the 3I equivalent of NFC to talk to the ship's computer and do things like open your cabin door.

I think a "generic" high passage would be physically the same. NFC with a little computer inside that does crypto to authenticate it's real, much like the chip in a debit or credit card does today. When you book the passenger in, the coin has a conversation with the ship's computer, sets itself as a stateroom key and logs itself as used

Meanwhile, the ship's computer gets a magic crypto number, kinda like a Bitcoin, that tags as payment.

Part of the "starport kit" is a point of sale terminal that can talk to the ship's computer and trade digital coins for goods, services and cash

Counterfeit passages would be awkward to make. You'd need the coin blank with an unburnt PROM in it. A small TL13 Maker that's specialized for that could do it.

Then you'd need the private keys for the issuing company, TAS or whatever. A really big computer and several years might do that. If you had a Model/9 computer and 4 years you might get lucky. You don't want to use your ship computer for this, it'll extend the time further as the machine is busy keeping an eye on life support and such

On the other hand, if you've got the above ingredients... Why are you using them on this kind of minor pissant crime? Just investing the cost of the M/9 in the stock market would have a better ROI.

The TAS does make up blank passages in bulk and sell them to starports. They're not active until the POS terminal at the port tells the coin it's in circulation. Until then, there's a block of data in them that says "for retail sale/use only by XXX starport". Stealing them and taking them to YYY port would immediately flag then as stolen goods and raise questions.
 
The high passage ticket runs on a credit system (as in credit card, as opposed to currency per se).
So think credit card, rather than debit card ... where everything gets reconciled at the end of every month.

Note that it's perfectly possible to have multiple high passage tickets "banked" waiting to be used (rather than having been sold off for cash).

Beyond that, it's a matter of "don't think about it too hard" because it quickly devolves into Business Economics, which isn't that much fun to simulate in an RPG.
 
I would see two ways-

A blockchain type database you upload every time you are in port that has authorization codes pre approved. Furthermore a TAS member could only access their HP ticket codes. The TAS member isn’t so much issued a ticket as a code becomes available for use.

Or, a precious mineral coin/bar that is literally worth Cr10000. Maybe with electronics/crypto feature as others have mentioned or linked to the TAS db above.

This makes for a 1:1 valuation, tradeable and salable outside of computer systems and TAS. TAS would be guaranteed to buy these back to avoid major shortages of tickets and requiring overminting.

The fun part of this is the idea of ticket as currency- are TAS HP ticket bars/coins a competing currency or complementary to Imperial coinage, some aspect of the TAS investment machine?

Plus shipping tickets would be fabulous riches for pirates. 10000 physical tickets per ton would be MCr10.
 
The thing about most corporations, despite the short term drive for shareholder value, is that they like a sustained business model.

The problem with Ponzi schemes, is at some point you run out of fresh customers, and the Third Imperium seems to run out of space to expand.
 
Develop one extra world in every system...

Build O'Neil cylinders...

the Imperium still has a lot of expansion potential.
 
BackworldTraveller said:
How do people get paid for passage when the passenger has a Traveller Aid Society open high-passage ticket?

The TAS issues the ticket on Regina
A free trader from Knorbes to Forboldn accepts the ticket. (Both E-Class ports)
That trader now has a ticket but there is no TAS locally - and almost no port infrastructure.
How is it exchanged for Cash that the trader can use to buy life-support?

p.s. How does the trader guarantee the ticket isn't a forgery? It will take weeks to contact the issuer.
Click to expand...
The following is all IMTU...

I use them as a multi-part ticket. Part 1 is the receipt.
Part two is the ship's receipt. They present it for compensation the next time they hit an A/B/C port (a port with a bank). Requires signoffs from the portmasters at both ends of the passage, and the passenger both at embarking and disembarking.
Part three is a life support coupon. Passenger signs, shipmaster signs, portmaster's office keeps it.

Backwaters can ask the IISS mail courier to convert the LSC. If the ship has the reserve cash to do so, they pay it upon presentation. If not, they mark it pending, and put dedicated cash on the next scoutship.

If you're going to be away from banking enabled ports, you can see if the IISS will cash you out..

I long ago decided that the IISS was the point of contact IMTU for both issuance and redemption of passage coupons, IMoT puts it through the mail branch of the IISS.

Of course, being the 3I, they're made the same way bills are. When practical, they'll be reunited, cleaned, and reissued. Outside the 3I, the Zhodani have a similar system, but less secure, as the portmaster can often check, and most Zhodani are so honest that they'd panic if they weren't certain the ticket was valid. The rare forgeries are more interesting, because the user is almost never the forger... so the why a forgery is being made and circulated is itself explorable.

Arden and Darrian both simply pay the 3I to issue their official ones. Similarly any number of client states in Gateway...
 
Cashing out makes this a bearer bond, since if the passages are respected beyond the borders of the Imperium, presenting one to an authorized repayment agency would require an automatic pay out.
 
Or:

bo8TBEj.jpg
 
Like many things, I see this as a "IMTU" thing.

IMTU, the TAS has a massive bank account.

The High Passage is a digital financial instrument(read credit card combined with Bearer Bond)
When a passenger "pays for" a High Passage using a TAS-issued voucher, the Operator of that ship can then claim payment at any Bank.

Now, (based on the real world Banking structure), if that Bank has no relationship with a bank holding TAS funds, they establish a relationship with a "Correspondent Bank" who does. That Bank either pays the funds from the TAS account they hold or present the 'cash demand' from the first Bank to a Bank they are related to which does hold the TAS account.

Example:
I use my Credit card from my local to buy a diseased monkey from Woohan, China...
My local Bank does not have a relationship with any Bank in Woohan, China, so they pay a small fee to pay the bill through Bank of America...
BoA has no direct connection to Banks in Woohan, China, so they pay a small fee to make the payment via the Bank of China...
The Bank of China has a relationship with Woohan, China and pays the bill to that bank.

I spent 5 yrs of my life supporting electronic payment systems for large international banks :D
I am glad that experience works out here :D
 
Commander Truestar said:
Like many things, I see this as a "IMTU" thing.

IMTU, the TAS has a massive bank account.

The High Passage is a digital financial instrument(read credit card combined with Bearer Bond)
When a passenger "pays for" a High Passage using a TAS-issued voucher, the Operator of that ship can then claim payment at any Bank.

Now, (based on the real world Banking structure), if that Bank has no relationship with a bank holding TAS funds, they establish a relationship with a "Correspondent Bank" who does. That Bank either pays the funds from the TAS account they hold or present the 'cash demand' from the first Bank to a Bank they are related to which does hold the TAS account.

Example:
I use my Credit card from my local to buy a diseased monkey from Woohan, China...
My local Bank does not have a relationship with any Bank in Woohan, China, so they pay a small fee to pay the bill through Bank of America...
BoA has no direct connection to Banks in Woohan, China, so they pay a small fee to make the payment via the Bank of China...
The Bank of China has a relationship with Woohan, China and pays the bill to that bank.

I spent 5 yrs of my life supporting electronic payment systems for large international banks :D
I am glad that experience works out here :D
Click to expand...
Yes, except we have the comms delay issue, so maybe EFT isn’t quite so simple.
 
kilemall said:
Yes, except we have the comms delay issue, so maybe EFT isn’t quite so simple.
Click to expand...

Actually, there is precedent in the OTU
Recall that the official collapse of the Second Imperium was noted as when one of the Imperial Regional banks refused a funds transfer from another Imperial Regional Bank.

This bit of historic information suggests the method GDW used was dead on.....even if it was also a Slow boat method.
 
kilemall said:
Yes, except we have the comms delay issue, so maybe EFT isn’t quite so simple.
Click to expand...
It's still "simple" ... what it isn't is "instantaneous" anymore.

Instead, what you have is something similar to the circumstances that any reader of the manga Spice & Wolf would be familiar with, where information moves at the speed of couriers between merchant guild houses. There's CREDIT, DEBT and REPUTATION in play, along with the actual currencies and the goods (collateral for loans) involved.

After that, things get messy. :oops:
 
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