Free A Timeless Journey by Elliot Sacchi

collapse of the old financial system were held partially responsible for the last world war and the destruction of the old civilization. A financial system run by humans was considered the wrong way to do business in the future. The lies, the secrets and the greed which was exposed during the collapse of the major financial institutes, had led to chaos and rioting on the streets of the main cities around the world. This turmoil had then led to politicians losing control of the situation and eventually to the last world war. 
    The personal bio microchip (PBM) and the Link were the only systems running the personal bank in this reality. Every individual was a walking, talking financial institution, thus enabling each one to earn and spend in an honest manner as deemed by the legal system. The local and global government systems were the only programs which could create, control and freeze a personal account through the PBM if they detected financial difficulties.
    The PBM would collect credits automatically while the individ was at work or earning from his own business and anyone could use the credit as soon as it was stored in the account. The credit was used to buy goods by scanning the Link over any Holo pay point, pay rent and other bills and everything else. The PBM, the Link and the Holo system integrated together was the personal account of every individual. As usual, human mind thinks of the worst possible scenario and at the time, I thought what would happen if Link or the PBM technology failed, or even worst, if Holo went off-line for a long time.
    Link assured me there was next to no chance for the system to go offline or to lose power. There was no worry for the power supply to fail. Thanks to the ZPE (zero point energy), the energy supply was infinite and easily manageable. However, Link admitted, in case of a coordinated malicious attack on the Holo network by rogue interplanetary entities, the society would be easily threatened.
    There were a lot of rules which regulated the financial system, one of which prevented anyone from borrowing from one another, or from any trading companies. The transfer of credit from one PBM to another was strictly forbidden and virtually impossible to execute in the real world. If you wanted to buy a property and you needed to borrow some of the money, the Global Artificial Intelligence government would study and approve your request form based on your working ability and the personal spending information. The money would come out of a global personal tax fund and the borrower would be charged a reasonable daily amount until the home was paid off entirely.
    As for the way business was designed and conducted in this reality was a fair one and only the talented survived. Private loans and credit were unlawful and virtually impossible to obtain. If a business had a cash flow problem, there was no possibility the system would allow anyone to invest without assessing the losses. The success of a business depended on the ability to provide goods or services in a certain high standard, synchronized with the general demand. If the business failed the market, there would be no financial help and the only hope of survival is to downsize, readapt or reinvent completely the business.
    The hard currency didn’t exist anymore. Every transaction was virtually transferred between accounts and this was the reason it was called ‘virtual currency’ or VC for short. The average monthly wage was around 3000 VC and the cost of living was always constant at around 2000 VC. This never went up or down by very much, which meant every individual had a lot of credit to indulge oneself with buying fancy things or simply enjoying a night out. There was no much difference in the minimum wage and the cost of living between the cities around the globe. Regardless if an individual lived in a megacity or a city of just a few millions, the pay and the cost of living didn’t change.
    On my first day the test was