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Re:Why Peter Thiel Fears Star Trek by metaphorm on Friday January 20, 2017 @01:03PM (#13445594)
from memory (so possibly mistaken) latinum is both rare and impossible to replicate (for unexplained reasons). it is suitable for use as currency for those reasons.

the Ferengi trade extensively with other civilizations that won't accept fiat currency. they need hard currency.

Re:Why Peter Thiel Fears Star Trek by logfromblammo on Friday January 20, 2017 @02:52PM (#13446506)
One wonders why the Federation never told the Ferengi about the only currency ever successfully used on Earth after the invention of replicators, Dogecoin.

I choose to retcon latinum as a device that physically encodes a cryptographic key, writes a signed hash into a subspace blockchain, and continually supplies computation power to the latinum validation network. It may look pretty, but it is actually a sophisticated ASIC that runs entirely on ambient photovoltaic energy.

So you can replicate latinum, but in order for it to be worth anything, you have to possess a specific bar that the network has designated to be split, or you have to replicate more than all the other latinum already in existence, to perform a 51% attack on the network.

Re:Why Peter Thiel Fears Star Trek by qbrass on Friday January 20, 2017 @07:06PM (#13447982)
You don't need to retcon latinum when you basically described how the Borg work. Assimilation is just adding people to their mining pool.