A word about banking, funds transfers, and the "backoffice"
or, how money gets to Ella without Unizone accounting knowing about it
When one makes a typical space bit transfer, it seems as if one is giving a “thing” from one captain to another.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The messages we see here in public are formally known as “acknowledgements of intent” – holiday greeting cards, if you will. What instead happens is a set of interlocking transactions between outside parties that, collectively, we call “CharybWire.”
As befits a young galaxy with a chaotic birth, the CharybWire is a still developing, chaotic overlap of legacy systems: Crucially, there is no central “organizing authority,” despite Unizone’s aggressive efforts to control the payment system. Note NIilah’s ability to place massive bets on the slugraces right under Unizone’s nose and then collect her winnings
In these communications, we have been been speaking casually about Unizone credit and personal transfers as if these where one and the same, but there are many ways to move money (and other things) around Charybdis that escape Uinzone’s touch, or even notice.
For those using the community banking service, payments to Ella are invisible to Unizone accounting. Money is moved from the community bank to Ella’s banking portal (a different place entirely than her storefront) physically. The community bank board has deep experience with “deliveries” and knows how to get a few envelopes to Ella without attracting Unizone’s attention. Crucially, no money or credit ever touches any element of the CharybWire system. Thus, Ella is happy: she has the money. Unizone accounting doesn’t know: their CharybWire realtime monitoring system never sees an asset in the system to seize as payment.
The fly in the ointment is that the community bank is running an enormous risk on your behalf. The ability of the bank to keep Unizone at bay depends crucially on captains repaying their debts upon completion of their missions.
This is where the community aspect of community banking comes in: we have a stake in your success, unlike Unizone, which just wants your money. But we are depending on you to help us, when you have the ability to do so.
Self-interested Co-operation is the basis of all success
@patrace, when this thread locks, I will post over at Duck’s my understanding of all the transfers that happened this round. I know it’s a lot to keep track of, and the creakiness of the CharybWire system can make it maddening to get everything to work smoothly. Thanks.
