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Space Money Invented For Space Tourists
An anonymous reader writes "The foreign exchange company Travelex has invented a unit of currency designed to be used in space commerce, the Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination (QUID). The QUID is made of a space-qualified plastic, with round edges to prevent injuries in zero gravity. One QUID is equivalent to about 6.25 pounds, 12.50 dollars or 8.68 Euros. Of course, space currencies are already a staple of science fiction, with 'credits' being the most popular."
Where's the "!aprilfools" tag?
Why not "credit"?!?
Solution: Problem, where are you?
"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability."-Oscar Wilde
What the hell is wrong with paper currency? 0g paper-cuts?
That said, sounds frivolous and unimportant, albeit kind've a cool subject.
One QUID is equivalent to about 6.25 pounds
So it's 6 quid per QUID? That sounds confusing.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
No sufficiently advanced spacefaring civilisation should be using currency. The presence of currency means the scarcity problem hasn't been solved by the civilisation, which means they are poor primitives not worth the bother of Contacting.
Everyone knows the only true space money is the Interstellar Kredit. Go go ISK!
I'll take Lary Niven's Star currency.
I miss known space.
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
Follow your Euro bills at EBT
I want my quatloos!
How much is that in ningies?
This is the best restaurant I ever eat in
I sold some slaves to the Lesti system not too long ago for 98.2 credits per tonne. I'm now rated as a fugative and your QUIDs are worthless to me since they're only good in the Sol system.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
As long as you have the Q and the U, wouldn't "quatloo" be a more appropriate name?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Space-faring folk should go digital; even so, the whole concept is beyond ridiculous being that nobody beyond this planet is actually using this. Just stick with American Express.
Quatloos is that?
I'll wager 15 quatloos that that QUID will never fly.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
In fact there are three freely convertible currencies in the Galaxy, but none of them count. The Altarian Dollar has recently collapsed, the Flainian Pobble Bead is only exchangeable for other Flainian Pobble Beads, and the Triganic Pu has its own very special problems. It exchange rate of eight Ningis to one Pu is simple enough, but since Ningi is a triangular rubber coin six thousand eight hundred miles along each side, no one has ever collected enough to own one Pu. Nigis are not negotiable currency, because Galactibanks refuse to deal in fiddling small change. From this basic premise it is very simple to prove that the Galactibanks are also the product of a deranged imagination.
-metric
Fortunately, when you're in orbit, it won't weigh anything... you'll still have to look out for the inertia though...
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
I can't be the only geek here annoyed by the casual use of intergalactic. We haven't even made one interplanetary trip yet, so interstellar is still far, far away, and intergalactic isn't even in the realm of conceivable projects!
You can't take the sky from me...
Or what about Triganic Pu?
After all the Galactic Bank doesn't deal in piddling small change.
Agrajag: "Oh no, not again!"
> One QUID is equivalent to about 6.25 pounds
How does the inventor know that? It's government policy and market forces that set currency prices, not the guy who designs the coins.
--I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
-- See?
I was always partial to "Space Bucks"...
PIZZA THE HUT!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5... That's the combination on my luggage!
Can we remove the tagging system? Or moderate the people who put the idiotic tags?
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
If one of those 'QUIDS' has a mass of 10g and you want to take 10 'quid' with you on 'holiday'.
That 10 'quid' (worth £62.50), if launced on the STS would cost £240 to get to LEO due to their additional mass.
Therefore, if you used this new currency, to actually get that money (£62.50) on orbit would cost you over £300 extra.
Disclaimer: E&OE, YMMV, IANARS, My ability to perform basic mathematics is inversely proportional to the amount of alcohol I have consumed.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Stanley Nickels?
Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
As long as you will die some day, time will always be a commodity with value. You don't always have a trinket I want in exchange for my time so I prefer cash that I can give to someone who has a trinket I feel is worth the time of my life it took to pay for.
Money is not a sign of poverty. It's a sign of mortality.
Work Safe Porn
I need to know in order to adhere to the third rule of acquisition.
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
A physical representation of money seems to be a backward idea for space travelers, shouldn't space money be virtual?
It's only worthwhile if it's backed by something valuable, such as gold-pressed latinum.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
It's a concept of sortof-but-not-quite communist Federation. To buy the good stuff, you need to first obtain some hard currency, such as gold-plated latinum.
...of choice is a bar of gold-pressed latinum.
these idiots think there will be need or even possiblity for anonymous money transactions in the next 50 years in space? In space, everyone will know who you are, because you'll be one of less than a hundred there at an enormous expense! If anything in the range of $0 to $1,000 is bought or sold out there, simple biometric check and existing credit system on earth is sufficient. But really, someone is going to pay hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of USD to go to a "space hotel" and then have to buy a pop in the lobby vending machine or a tampon in from a bathroom dispenser? give me a fucking break already
Hasn't anyone rumbled that this is just a PR exercise for Travelex? Plus I'm sure it's given a little extra spending cash to the academics involved.
Phoenix, Boston, Little Rock, see a pattern?
Psh. I was hoping we could exchange goods and services with things like youtube external links, myspace mass friend invites and wikipedia article additions...
While I'm at it:
Spacesuits: $1,200 each.
Oxygen recharge: $3.22 per gallon.
Farting in your space suit while you and your cheap-ass buddy share an airtank; priceless.
There's somethings your national currency can't buy. For everything else, there's QUIDS.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
I believe the term quid already exists for currency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quid I wonder where they came up with this new space currency??
This reminds me of Flooz an attempt to create a currency for the Internet, as an attempt to cross borders and such.... But the truth is people want their own money either US Dollar, Pound, Euro... They are not going to transfer it for one thing and back again... Especially with those pictures. Heck take paper curancy and put it in your wallet or keep a credit card in your wallet. It is safer there then a bunch of oddly shaped plastic things in your pocket in 0g.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
They mind as well sell this stuff with all the other collectible coins that you pay more than they're supposedly worth (i.e. "...plus Shipping and Handling"). Then to find out that you can't spend the coins because nobody will accept coins.
interactive hologram, or it didn't happen.
Anyone see the picture of the different size quids? Some of them look massive. The red one looks like its the size of a waffle house waffle. Think they'll make a special wallet to carry those suckers around in?
Please, for the love of all things healthy in the Universe, we need to get back to money being denominations of value, not denominations of promises (notes). Whoever does create the de-facto intergalactic standard for currency would be better off convincing people to conduct trade with promises, but the people who use it are much better off with items that translate to real value (just like everyone else today).
What makes you so sure, hmmmm?
I don't know what is more funny: The fact that so many people remember what Quatloos are, or that no one has yet mentioned good old Gold Pressed Latinum.
Also, what they don't take VISA or Matercard up there? I though they took VISA everywhere? Not even Amex? Dinner's Club? Surely it would be more efficient to take ONE piece of plastic up there than a pocket full.
Plastic Toy Rocket - 12$
In flight meal - 320$
Flight Suit - 12,000$
Rocket Trip - 20,000,000
Realizing that it doesn't include accommodations on the station and you have to charge it to your Mastercard - Priceless.
to create a currency and call it 'intergalactic'
Sheesh..don't even get me started on their 'Universe Series' baseball.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The true unit of Interstellar commerce will always be the Spice.
1. Control the Spice 2. ???? 3. Profit!
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
Wouldn't grams of oxygen be a little harder currency?
bash-2.04$
bash-2.04$yes "Don't you hate dialup connections?"| write USERNAME
How do you make change for this new space QUID? That's right, you need 100 space BOB!
*ba-ching*
Can a lady with a wooden leg change for a pound note? NO! Why? She's only got HALF A KNICKER!
(Ducks after having vegetables thrown at him from audience.)
Hi, I'm the fact your $20M trip to space only costs one lump sum of $20M. I'm wishing that, in addition, you would be charged in some way for each of your vacuum-sealed meals and packets of Tang. I'm wishing that different modules in the space station and future space hotels would charge admission. I'm wishing there was a way for these goals to be achieved that would cost you outrageous sums of money that you could never get back, even if you didn't use them, yet still seemed to be value-added products and services. Could you help me out?
What are they thinking? That you won't have credit on your phone?
Or are they made of rare high-grade plastic. I figure the ultraheavy elements are already mined here, and all we have are the rare plastics to trade...
The currency appears to be an ellipsoid, and not a disc. As such, it wouldn't have "edges".
Why does your post come across as raving lunacy and get modded up?
The Monopoly board game seems to hold the patent on useless money. Chocolate coins would be more popular I would think.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
This is so dumb. It costs so much money to move the currency, which is manufactured on Earth, up into space! Although it would be funnier if they looked like poker chips. Could be soft too.
But if you get a lot of money, you might have a lower chance of survival due to the lost delta-V. Although you could indeed throw the money away from you to build up a vector.
Everyone knows you need galactic credits, and you can exchange them with digital wallets that verify your identity. Those of course are way too heavy. Maybe each is so expensive because earthlings are at the mercy of more powerful galactic economies?
Anybody else felt dyslexic and read Space monkey invented for space tourists?
Who the hell wants to start a zoo in orbit?
home
They took the time to design a new monetary format and didn't even make it based on a Balanced Ternary system. Balanced ternary cash would be quite nice, it would mean almost always having the exact change, you only need one coin of each denomination to ensure you can make change for any possible transaction among other nice qualities.
http://notanumber.net/
Now that we have space money one thing is inevitable: Space Prostitutes.
-Peter
Depends. What's gold-pressed latinum good for except using the gold in electronics manufacturing?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
..because of course any company that can afford to develop a billion-dollar system to put people into space couldn't possibly also develop an electronic banking system for use while up there!
It'd better have a painting of Lix on it.
Stick Men
I meant Liz.
And while we're at it, "Gronda gronda, your Majesty!"
Stick Men
Did anyone else misread this as Space Monkey Invented For Space Tourists?
It caused some very strange thoughts about how a Space Monkey would be used.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
The Triganic Pew doesn't really count as money. Its exchange rate of six Ningies to one Pew is simple, but since a Ningie is a triangular rubber coin 6,800 miles long each side, no-one has ever collected enough to own one Pew.
What's the ratio of ningies to Shrute Bucks? How about ningies to Stanley Nickels?
Dear Sir:
Greetings from the Highest General of the Counsel of Intergalactic Planetary Commerce Exchange. I am Sir Zaphod Centauri, esteemed chairman of the Counsel of Planets. I have a business proposal for you that may be of most benefit to both of us. Forgive me for contacting you over subspace, but Colonel Zimrohn expressed you will be reliable, and I ask you to hold this in utmost confidence.
On Stardate 92714.3, the King of the United Saturnalia perished unexpectedly in a teleportation tragedy. He left in our accounts sum of NINETY-TWO TRILLION SEVEN HUNDRED EIGHT BILLION Quasi Universal Intergalactic Demoniations (QUID) which can not be accessed except by a native of the Milky Way. As of now this money sits unclaimed in our starbank.
I would like you to act as Earth fiduciary for this money. Please send your STARBANK number via encrypted link to me so that I may transfer this QUID to you. As agent for this transaction you will receive 10% of QUID in your account.
Please contact me at your most urgent communication, only over encrypted subspace link.
Yours sincerely,
Zaphod Centauri
Slashdotter, ID #101. UIDs are in binary, right?
Except in any Travelex the Microsoft Star Empire, the Adobe Quadrant or the iTunes Confederacy where they will sell you a QUID for 12.50 pounds...
On any British run outer space trading posts we should use the Basic Unit of Cosmological (oh, damn) Kurrency so we can confuse the Americans for a change...
(Note for USAians: "quid" is fairly universal slang for "1 pound" in the UK so its a bloody stupid name for a new currency. Not to be confused with quantities like the "pony", "monkey" etc. which only ever get used by ficticious Londoners in those BBC programs that PBS has to put subtitles on).
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
"Space Monkey Invented for Space Tourists"
Space Monkey? Uh, what?
It's been a long week.
What's wrong with the good old amero?
I found very little info on if these will break down in a solar wind, how long they will last on Mecury or if they are at risk of shattering in the cold temperature of Pluto. Is there any chance of damage in the sandstorms on Mars? From what they are made out of, I would think they may do somewhat OK in minor temperature extremes, but against highly abrasive wind blown dust, I would worry as I know how easy it is to scratch my cookware when I use metal utensils.
The truth shall set you free!
More doubts this way:
- Where will the first hundred ITM (Intergalactic Telling Machine) be located?
- What will happen with travelers around Pluto, since is not a planet will an IPBank branch (InterPlanetary Bank) be EVER considered?
- Any particular IPC (InterPlanetary Communication) protocol to be used for "wire" transfers?
Jeez... I thought I had nothing to do... but creating an Interplanetary currency is the way to spend some countries' money.
But by having hard currency you avoid latency problems in verifying balances further and further out. Buying something on Mars would take at least 6.2 minutes just to check your credit at a lightspeed communication at opposition, other times as long as 42 minutes. If you bring your money with you, no latency.
Of course, most transactions in and out of a gravity well will be electronic. Taking hard currency into a gravity well would devalue it due to the cost to get it back into the space market. But then valuation would be determined in the cost to get it into space in the first place, or at least the materials to mint the currency as hard matter. Asteroid mining would have an immediate impact on its valuation.
I wonder what opportunities there are in exploiting exchange rates between locales lightdays or greater apart.
IANAEconomist
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
From the article: "National Space Centre scientists predict that regular trips into space will be commonplace in the next five years."
What does that mean? Aren't regular trips into space relatively commonplace today? I mean, certainly as much as they will be (more or less) 5 years from now. Or did I miss the mention of the new Hilton Hotel in orbit?
They didn't even have the good sense to call it a quatloo, and the British call us nationalists?
If a computer on earth is worth $1000 and in space it's worth $50,000 due to the cost of getting it there does this Quid that while on earth is $12.50 become $62,500? I'd hate to need a bank machine while in Orbit!
(E.g. 1 QUID = 13 USD on date X, and time Y; which happens to be equal to Z pounds and W Euros.)
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
I prefer buckazoids.
Sometimes at night I imagine the darkness is filled with horrible things with too many teeth, like Julia Roberts.
..when the currency is something meaningful, like gigajoules. Until then, all this talk of exchange rates makes me think it was just invented for the purpose of being skimmable, devaluable, etc. It's a ripoff.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
No problem, we are all in matching jumpsuits ... but why is only MY shirt red?
I see, yes. Hmmmm, you're going to have to talk to HR about that. But, first things first, I'm going to need you to go check out that cave for dilithium deposits.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
This is the same outfit that rips off tourists by giving lousy exchange rates at those change booths at the airport.
Last month I went to Europe and just put everything on the MasterCard. Zero fees, optimum exchange rate.
Not everyone may be so lucky - my card charges nothing for out of the country purchases and a 3% fee plus interest on ATM withdrawals, which turns out to be one of the lowest. My wife's card, though, charges over 10% fees on foreign ATM's. So Travelex may not be such a bad deal if you have a truly crappy charge card.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
If it's universal doesn't that imply that it's intergalactic?
I'm a bit torn on this issue. Having actual physical money is somewhat outdated. We're still using it because not everyone has the technology to use it yet, and because its the status quo (our economy and society are set up to use it). However, with the advent of cryptography, methods such as DigiCash allow for completely digital cash.
But in space, you will necessarily be surrounded by computers capable of doing digital transactions. The only downside I can see to this, is if you are far enough away (lightyears), then transmitting information would be costly (i.e. years). In that case being able to trade physical items would be necessary. However, you could still have the option of printing out your own money (and it's valid/legal!)
I'm going to invent my own space currency, with space blackjack, and space hookers...
To take over the world.
1) Invent "universal" currency.
2) ?????
3) Profit!
I am having a hard time finding good cost estimates for the cost-per-pound of getting stuff to LEO or GEO. I found a few numbers, and I'll do the math for each. I'll assume that a small QUID weighs around 10 grams (0.022 lbs). Look at the pictures if you don't believe me- those things look like they have some heft.
$118/lb- the QUID will cost $2.59 each to get into LEO (this estimate was very, very optimistic.)
$36,000/kg=$16,329/lb- the QUID will cost $359 to get into GEO.
This doesn't even take into account their goofy 'space purses' and other support equipment. Nor does it take into account the huge amount of space that these things take up. Also, the larger QUIDs are considerably heavier than 10 grams (OK, 'more massive' I guess, as this is space we're talking about).
Hey, here's an idea: Paper money! Pretty hard to counterfeit without trees around, lightweight, non-magnetic, non-toxic, etc. And an even better idea- tie its value to another, previously existing, currency- the US dollar or the Euro would work... Hey! why not just use disinfected US dollars or Euros!
Because that would make sense and it wouldn't make travelex any money. Not that the QUID will, either.
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
I see, I see... Yes, and what is that in pubes? (Or gold-pressed latinum, if you want to stay in-context...)
geek. lawyer.
Dear Travelex,
What about this new currency is "INTERgalactic"? Just "galactic" would obviously be going far, but this is (even more) ridiculous.
Signed,
Jeffrey "intergalactic (planetary!)" Piercy
Property is theft.
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
http://www.mst3kinfo.com/ward_e/Bit812.html
What if you NEED a sharp-edged space coin. Like when you're trying to defuse a space bomb that is about to blow up your space station and you forgot your space wire cutters.
Quasi-Universal Anonymous Tender Low Orbit Object
I haven't done any calculations on this but my hunch is that it costs more to send these tokens into space than they are worth. What a brilliant idea. It's hard enough to start a new currency right here on this planet. Oh and how many people are there in space? Six or seven?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If theses people watched Star Trek, they'd know we don't need money in space.
Sounds to me like they've invented the value specific debit card...
I wonder if it'll put the value specific Gift Card out of business.
Soon to follow advertising slogan;
Good at over 40 trillion locations, all of which are 'Out Of This World!'
...then does money feel relativistic effects like the Lorenz Contraction? Time Dilation would also equal money dilation. Cool. That means that if you buy something at near C, it will cost less than in the inertial reference frame. That would also infer that if you COULD reach the speed of light, that dilation would be infinite, and you would have all the money in the universe.
"Anything with sharp edges, like coins, would be a risk to astronauts while the chips and magnetic strips used in our cards on Earth would be damaged beyond repair by cosmic radiation," he added.
:) ]
Has anyone cut themselves yet on a coin? If they are so sharp, why are people allowed to go through airport security with coins?
If the cosmic rays can wipe smart chips and credit cards, what will they do to the astronauts? ["damage beyond repair?"
R
Organization: alphabetical, sometimes numerical or messy
Related
Denomination for
International/Intergalactic
Transactions
Cheers! - Steve from MyBrotherSteve.com
With current launch prices at about $10,000 US per pound for manned missions, that's $625/oz, more than the price of gold until very recently. Carrying a few ounces of "change" up with you would cost you quite a bit more than the £6.25 per QUID. That's only for a LEO launch. Make it "Intergalactic" and it would probably cost more than the entire Earth's economy. Quite an investment!
is the fuseodollar from the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F Hamilton.
Everyone already uses buckazoids out there.
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
Step 1) Announce QUID
Read well their press release:
* each QUID costs 6.25 pounds, or 12.5 dollars
* they (the lumps) are valued from one to ten (QUID)
Therefore:
* the big, red, lovely space-y lump on the photo is a TEN (10) QUID "coin"
! * it costs 125 dollars * !
* for 12.5 dollars, you only get the tiny blue one, the ONE (1) QUID "coin"
Step 2) Travelex is a huge, worldwide company. You'll be able to go to any Travelex office in the world, and exchange your QUID for real currency. They're creating a new currency. Give it as a gift, the recipient can cash it - or keep it. With a company like Travelex backing it, I bet people will be confident enough in the QUID to purchase lots of them.
Step 3) PROFIT!!!!
Is it just me, or there is something wrong when a quid costs 6.25 quids?
The Tuit as the new unit of commerce. /they're round... //I know it not Fark, but I feel like slashies today ///yes, I know I'm going to hell for this
Space may be cold unless you're in the sunlight, but haven't studies shown that Teflon (TM and such) does horrible things to the lungs and health in general when it escapes off a pan that has been forgotten on the stove? Seems like maybe the most dangerous plastic to have chosen in case there is a space station fire in the vault.
Not often I find myself genuinely laughing out loud at a Slashdot comment these days, but you got me!
Hats off to you.
A little planning goes a long way...
Yeah, but would you really want to carry around coins worth $-1?
And while we use credit like money, it means that we're renting our currency from banks. We don't own it.
Deleted
Ok... so what idiot wasted time thinking up space money. Maybe I'll create my own space meoney too... I can guarantee that it is just as likely to be used. *cough cough never*
-Cnik
The space pet store was selling them for five QUID a piece. I thought that odd since they were normally a couple thousand each. I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I bought 200. I like space monkeys.
I took my 200 space monkeys home. I have a big shuttle. I let one drive. His name was Sigmund. He was retarded. In fact, none of them were really bright. They kept punching themselves in their genitals. I laughed. Then they punched my genitals. I stopped laughing.
I herded them into my room. They didn't adapt very well to their new environment. They would screech, hurl themselves off of the couch at high speeds and slam into the wall. Although humorous at first, the spectacle lost its novelty halfway into its third hour.
Two hours later I found out why all the space monkeys were so inexpensive: they all died. No apparent reason. They all just sorta' dropped dead. Kinda' like when you buy a goldfish and it dies five hours later. Damn cheap space monkeys.
I didn't know what to do. There were 200 dead space monkeys lying all over my room, on the bed, in the dresser, hanging from my bookcase. It looked like I had 200 throw rugs.
I tried to flush one down the toilet. It didn't work. It got stuck. Then I had one dead, wet space monkey and 199 dead, dry space monkeys.
I tried pretending that they were just stuffed animals. That worked for a while, that is until they began to decompose. It started to smell real bad.
I had to pee but there was a dead space monkey in the toilet and I didn't want to call the plumber. I was embarrassed.
I tried to slow down the decomposition by freezing them. Unfortunately there was only enough room for two space monkeys at a time so I had to change them every 30 seconds. I also had to eat all the food in the freezer so it didn't all go bad.
I tried burning them. Little did I know my bed was flammable. I had to extinguish the fire.
Then I had one dead, wet space monkey in my toilet, two dead, frozen space monkeys in my freezer, and 197 dead, charred space monkeys in a pile on my bed. The odor wasn't improving.
I became agitated at my inability to dispose of my space monkeys and to use the bathroom. I severely beat one of my space monkeys. I felt better.
I tried throwing them way but the garbage man said that the city wasn't allowed to dispose of charred primates. I told him that I had a wet one. He couldn't take that one either. I didn't bother asking about the frozen ones.
I finally arrived at a solution. I gave them out as Christmas gifts. My friends didn't know quite what to say. They pretended that they like them but I could tell they were lying. Ingrates. So I punched them in the genitals.
I like space monkeys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_currency
The Quid is equal to one £1.00 and this has always been so as every British Citizen knows. The Quid is another and commonly used name for the British pound sterling and probably goes back over a hundred years.
It depends on its utility(and not value),but this is like forcing people to use text-only linux terminals because they are more "powerful".
It's a Quid pro quo.
lightspeed delays? just bring a credit check computer along which synchronizes with earth a couple times a day or whatever. That's one thing that doesn't need to be up to the minute, places today still use imprinting machines which is essentially a monthly sync with credit card company. overrun the account somewhat so what, maybe they hit you with a fee or just increase your credit limit. folk who can afford the space trip generally will have outstanding credit!