2097 Currency

The Currency of 2097: From the Street to the Stars

In the fractured global economy of 2097, what you use to pay defines who you are and where your loyalties lie. A complex hierarchy of value has emerged, spanning physical and biological necessity.

Primary Currency: The Eurodollar (Eddie)

The "Eddie" remains the universal standard for major transactions, from buying a high-end cyberarm to funding a corporate black op. Its value is backed by the collective, albeit shaky, economic might of the European Confederation and its allied corps. While purely digital transactions are the norm, physical Eurodollar coins—stamped with the European star circle—are still minted for deniable deals and places where the NET is too dangerous or unreliable. To carry Eddies is to operate in the real, gritty world of global commerce.

Secondary Currency: Cred Chips

Cred Chips are the corporate scrip of the modern age. These disposable, pre-loaded data chips are issued by megacorporations like Militech, Biotechnica, Raven Microcyb, or Kang Tao to pay their employees and contractors. They are universally accepted, but spending a Militech Cred Chip flags you as their asset on every corporate scanner in the vicinity. They are the currency of corporate allegiance, useful but traceable. On the street, a handful of Cred Chips can buy a decent meal, a cheap fix, or a low-level bribe.

Tertiary Currency: Oxygen-Credits

The most brutal and localized currency, Oxygen-Credits are the lifeblood of Helios Orbital's Selene Prime and other off-world colonies. This is not a currency of choice, but of survival. Every breath is metered, and every liter of air is accounted for. Wages for lunar workers are paid in O2-Creds, and debt is a death sentence, enforced by remote life-support deactivation. While worthless on Earth, in the colonies, O2-Creds are more real than any Eddie. They represent the ultimate corporate control: the power to grant or deny life itself, turning survival into a transaction.