The markets of New Eden are a fickle mistress, even on the best of days. However, with the recent announcement of a new form of currency—Pope Coins (developed by the one and only Max Singularity)—and due to its near instantaneous rise in popularity, the market is on course to be changed forever. Not only has the currency completely replaced ISK for the Imperium, it is also spreading to markets across the galaxy.
Tired of the petty squabbling of the masses over ISK, the Space Pope decided to create a currency more in line with his vision of a peaceful galaxy. One that would be incorruptible, infallible, and utterly unique in design. Pouring over ancient tomes of ages long past, an ancient technology known as “cryptometricus veritas sans propositum monetæ” (translated and shortened to cryptocurrency) was discovered. This technology, refined and mastered effortlessly by the Pope allowed him to create a currency that was free of strangleholds from powerful and rich individuals and corporate entities.
The best part, however, was the method of generation of this new currency, which was quickly dubbed “Pope Coin mining”. No longer would one have to engage ruthless pirates or engage in mass lunar body destruction. Instead, almost anyone is able to generate this currency using already popular capacitor power systems (that are found in every starship in New Eden), and a relatively small amount of processing power of a computer. Unwilling to fully part with how the currency is generated with such systems, Max Singularity is quoted as saying, “It’s part technology, part magic!”
While the new currency is officially sanctioned by the Pope, and generally seen as a blessing by those within Imperium high command, there are several downsides to its sudden popularity boost. The average cost of a capacitor in the Delve region (which was the origin point for the currency) has gone up by 50%, with all reasonable projections calling for them to rise even higher. Thousands of market orders across New Eden have been readjusted to cope with such inflation, causing ship production to drop as over 60% of capacitors bought and sold are going into these “Popeminer” rigs. This has been especially devastating to entities such as the Caldari Navy who rely upon readily available capacitors for fleet replacements.
As the currency continues to spread in popularity across the galaxy, several nefarious individuals have tried to reverse engineer the technology and produce currency of their own. From within the Imperium itself a small group tried to promote “Bee Coins”, while entities from other areas of space have in turn created “Pandemic Coinage”, “Provi Blocks”, and “Dino Coins”, among others.
Rumors have circulated that several business interests in and around Jita may be ready to place sanctions upon the currency due to the popularity and flexibility of the Pope Coin. Whether this is out of fear or as a mitigation strategy is yet to be seen.
