A record of the economy as it's built (28 October 2026; output, supply and local prices added the same day), kept up to date as it changes (Mark: "we definitely should keep a record of how this economy works"). The design documents say why and what's next; this says what's there now, with the real numbers. Everything is virtual: no real money goes in or comes out.

When you change the economy, change this page in the same pull request.

The moneys at a glance

1. Credits and the markets

Classic markets are 1984's, from the original price tables. Modern markets are alive (src/economy/market.ts):

• Each station has its own stock and price for every good, set by what its world makes and needs. Prices settle back towards that level with a 30-minute time constant after anyone trades.
• Big trades move the price. Selling a lot pushes it down as you go: what you get is worked out unit by unit (proceedsToSell, costToBuy).
• NPC traders haul goods between systems, and their deliveries arrive on the station's board. World events (crises, booms) move prices for days.
• Shortage and surplus: below 0.8× its usual stock a good is short, and above 1.25× it's in surplus. Stations post orders for what they're short of.
• Danger pays: a premium of 45% at anarchies, 32% at feudal worlds, 16% at multi-government worlds and 7% at dictatorships.
• A floor and a ceiling: whatever trading does, a good's price stays between 0.5× and 2.5× its undisturbed price (priceBounds). The server checks sales against this.

Prices in local money. On the exchange, every price and total also shows in the station's own money, at its pool's rate (or the fair rate, for another market on screen). You still pay in credits.

Limit orders

• At the station (src/economy/orders.ts): name a price. Your credits (for a buy) or goods (for a sell) are held until it fills or you cancel. Orders fill in parts, against the market's price history: when the price reaches your limit, the market takes as much as it can without going past it, so a big order can't flatten a market in one go. Filled goods wait in station storage if your hold is full.
• At another station (sendOrder): the broker takes 2% of the order's value when it's sent, and the order arrives after the news delay (light-years away means hours). The range is 25 light years.

2. Bitcoin

src/economy/bitcoin.ts.

• Priced from the real market. The Worker's /btc relays the live price, and a quote more than 5 minutes old counts as stale.
• Counted in satoshis (100,000,000 to the coin). Buying or selling costs 0.1%.
• Limit orders fill against the real price, even while you're away. The Worker's ship's log fills them from price candles.
• No hold space, and it can't be taken from you: not by pirates, police or losing the ship. It's the way to keep what you've earned.

3. System currencies

src/economy/currencies.ts and src/economy/money.ts; the design is system currencies.

Every system but the anarchies has its own money, generated from its seed: a name taken from the system's name, and a three-letter code that's unique in its galaxy and never a real currency's.

Policy follows government

Money follows what a world makes

• Output. World events move a world's output: a boom raises it by 25%; a famine, strike, plague, war, blockade or Thargoid incursion cuts it, by 5% to 30% (output in src/economy/events.ts, outputAt).
• Floating money follows. For inflating, printed and Bitcoin money, the same money chases fewer goods when output is down, so each unit buys less: the rate moves by 1 ÷ √output. A war's 30% cut weakens it by about a fifth, and a boom strengthens it by about a tenth. It recovers when the event ends. Pegged money holds its peg, official rates stay fixed, and basket money follows its neighbours.
• Supply is published. The money in circulation is the world's productivity × 1,000 × its output × its rate (supplyOf). The issuer mints as output grows and burns as it falls, and a printing press or a broken peg mints far more. The Money tab shows the supply, what was minted or burned in the last day, and any change in output.

Crises leave scars. When a peg breaks or the presses run, the money recovers over a few days, but only partly: it re-pegs lower (scarred()). Buying the bottom is a bet, not a sure thing.

The pools

• Every station has a pool for its own money: constant product (local × credits = k), with a 0.3% fee. A big swap moves the rate against you, and the rate drifts back to fair over about an hour as other traders arbitrage.
• Pool depth grows with the square root of the population (40,000 × √population). A stablecoin's pool is 6× deeper, because anyone can redeem it at the peg.
• Stablecoins (Corporate and Feudal money) are taken at any station at their rate, less 0.3%. That's the way out when a system's money fails.

Company stablecoins

• Hexon Holdings, Vorg Industries, Carriers' Mutual and Wexley-Yorozu each issue a coin, held in the wallet as co:<company>.
• Backed by Bitcoin locked up at 150% of the coins' value, like DAI.
• Mint at a credit each, less 0.3%. Redeem at any station.
• Worth one credit while the collateral covers it. That holds unless Bitcoin falls by a third from 80,000 Cr (to about 53,000); below that, each coin is worth what its collateral is.

Providing liquidity

• Put credits and the same value of local money into a station's pool, one position per station (addLiquidity). You need the matching local money in your wallet.
• You earn a share of the pool's fees. The yield is higher at smaller stations: 8% + 30% ÷ √population a year. In galaxy one that's 20% to 42%, about 24% at a typical station.
• Impermanent loss is real. If the rate moves, you come out holding more of whichever side fell. The Money tab shows what the position is worth now against simply holding.
• Withdraw any time (withdrawLiquidity).

The wallet

Balances are kept by issuing system ("galaxy:index") or by company ("co:hexon"). They take no hold space and they survive the ship.

4. Honest money: the ledger and the server's checks

src/game/ledger.ts and server/src/ledger.ts.

• Every change to your credits goes in a ledger, as one of: sell, buy, fill, back (an order cancelled), scoop, btc, yard, fx (a currency swap), lp (liquidity) or other.
• Each entry is hash-chained to the one before, so an entry can't be changed or removed without breaking the chain.
• The save carries a checksum, so an edited save is spotted.
• The server replays the ledger when a save is uploaded. It checks:
  • the chain is unbroken, and the balance adds up;
  • each sale is within the good's price bounds;
  • goods didn't come from nowhere: it keeps its own count of every good bought, filled or scooped, precious goods (gems, gold, platinum) and goods by the tonne alike, and flags a sale of more than was had;
  • currency swaps only spent money you had, at a rate within bounds. Company coins are never worth more than a credit; reserve, Bitcoin and basket money get a 4× bound, because Bitcoin moves;
  • other credits, plus liquidity gains (not your stake coming back), stay under 400,000 Cr a day.
• A flagged account can still play; a maintainer looks before it's trusted with anything rare.

5. Spending: the shipyard

src/game/shipyard.ts; the design is ships and classes.

• Spec a concept ship and put down a tenth of the price. It's refundable until she's ready, and the price is held at the quote. Production takes the yard's standard time.
• Special editions are by invitation (Mark): not sold. Contributors are given one, signed over at the maker's yard; nobody can reserve one with credits.
• The price is the hull, plus the fit-out (scaled to the hull: ×price ÷ 100,000, at least ×1), plus the finish: special colours, glow (Deep 28,000 Cr, Blazing 65,000 Cr), two-tone trim (16,000 Cr plus the colour) and luxuries.
• On collection you pay the balance, less a trade-in of 60% of your old hull's price and 50% of its kit's. A gifted ship has no trade-in value.
• Repainting at any yard: labour is 10% of the hull's price (at least 2,000 Cr, ×1.5 for Blazing), plus only what changes.
• A spec from the website's configurator waits at the next shipyard. The game takes the deposit; the site never touches credits.

Where to change it

Think something here should change? Say so on the ideas board, where others can vote it up, or email hello@witchspace.org.uk. If you code: this page is docs/economy.md on GitHub, open to pull requests.