Economy

How money works

RootMC's currency is gp (gold pieces). It is backed by physical gold: the only way new money enters the economy is by minting gold with /mint. Breaking gold blocks or picking up gold never creates money by itself.

• Every wallet starts at 0 gp.
• Balances are stored exactly, in units of 1/18,000 gp, so every gold item has an exact value with nothing lost to rounding. A single nugget is worth exactly 1/9 gp (2,000 units). Amounts are shown rounded to three decimal places, so one nugget shows as 0.111 gp, and whole amounts drop the decimals (70 gp).
• Every transaction is permanently recorded in the server ledger, so every balance can be checked against its full history.

Gold values

1 gold ingot = 1 gp. Only plain gold items can be minted:

Ore blocks (for example, mined with Silk Touch) have to be smelted first. Mining gold ore normally gives you raw gold, which mints at 1 gp without smelting. Mining nether gold ore gives nuggets.

Minting gold: /mint

A successful mint or gold withdrawal plays a short level-up chime Untested.

Minting and withdrawing gold are taxed at 3%. See Taxes. If you have a loan, the gp you mint goes to your loans first. See Loans.

What /mint leaves alone:

• Named or custom gold items.
• Your armor slots and off-hand.
• Anything that isn't gold. Nothing else is ever taken.

Withdrawing physical gold

/mint gold turns gp back into real items. It only pays out whole nuggets, and gives you the fewest items it can: blocks first, then ingots, then nuggets. Gold you withdraw leaves the economy's money supply.

If something interrupts a gold exchange

Untested This recovery has unit tests, but a real crash test hasn't been recorded yet.

Minting and withdrawing change both your inventory and your balance. RootMC records each exchange before it touches your inventory. If the server crashes or a save fails partway through, the exchange is finished or cancelled safely the next time you join or use /mint.

If RootMC can't prove which side is correct, it doesn't guess. The exchange is held for staff, and you'll see Gold exchange requires staff reconciliation. Your wallet and gold exchanges stay locked until staff resolve it, so nothing is lost or paid out twice.

Balances and payments

You can pay anyone who has joined the server before, by name or UUID. Names are never guessed for players RootMC hasn't seen.

Typing amounts

Amounts can be whole numbers, decimals or fractions, for example 5, 0.5 or 1/9. If an amount is more precise than RootMC can store exactly, it's rejected instead of being rounded.

The server account and fees

RootMC has one server account, also called the reserve.

• Every debit goes to the server account. When you pay someone, the full amount moves from you to the server account, and the server account pays the recipient the amount minus the 3% tax, all in a single transaction.
• Claim purchases and expansion costs are paid to the server account.
• Claim refunds are paid by the server account. No new money is created for them.
• Staff balance adjustments are funded by the server account and never create money.

Tax

RootMC charges a flat 3% tax on payments between players, minting gold and withdrawing gold. Paying the server account and buying bonds aren't taxed. Every receipt shows the tax it charged, and half of all tax is shared among bond holders. Full details are on the Taxes page.

Mining stats

RootMC keeps a record of the gold you mine in survival: the actual items that drop, counted at their mint value. Silk-touched ore counts as 0 until it's smelted. Gold blocks that players have placed aren't counted again when they're mined.

The last page of /totals shows how much you've mined, minted and withdrawn. Amounts are shown in gp to three decimal places, for example 0.776 gp.

Wilderness fee

Untested No recorded test yet. Because no blocks have a set worth right now, the fee doesn't charge anything in practice.

Breaking a valued block outside any claim costs a fee of 10% of the block's worth, for blocks worth at least 1 gp. The block always breaks, even if you can't afford the fee, so the fee can make your wallet negative.

• The fee goes to the server account. If the block is inside someone's 48-block territory band, it's passed on to the bank of the nearest claimed area.
• Owners and trusted players of a territory that overlaps the spot don't pay.
• Placing a valued block in the wilderness shows a reminder of the fee.
• Only blocks with a set worth are charged. The current worth list has items only (gold ingot and nugget, diamond, iron ingot and emerald), not blocks, so ordinary block breaks cost nothing right now.

A negative wallet can't be used to pay or withdraw gold until it's back above zero.

Economy stats: /economy

Three commands each show a different view. None of them change any balance.

/economy is a short overview:

• Money supply, with how much has been minted (issued) and withdrawn as gold (redeemed).
• Where the money is: all player wallets together, all claim area banks, and the server reserve. These add up to the money supply.
• Bond liabilities and the free reserve left after them.
• Loans outstanding and how many loans are active.

/reserve shows the server reserve in detail: the diamond price, how many diamonds the treasury holds, bond liabilities, free gp after bonds, how many diamonds the reserve could buy, and money into and out of the server account, all time and this month (Hawaii time).

/totals [page] (also /economystats and /economylist) is the full ledger, about 15 lines per page:

• Money minted and withdrawn, wallets, negative-wallet debt, claim banks and the reserve.
• Totals by type, for example payments, fees, claim costs and refunds, wilderness fees and loan repayments.
• Gold mined, minted and withdrawn, with item counts.
• Loans: active and paid off, total lent, principal and interest still owed, and total repaid.
• Your own economy activity, on the last page.

Amounts are shown in gp to three decimal places. A period is always a decimal point, so 75.113 gp is a little over 75 gp.

Economy sidebar: /sidebar

Untested RootMC shows a small ROOTMC ECONOMY sidebar on the right of your screen. It refreshes on its own and shows:

• Reserve: the server reserve in gp.
• Free: what's left of the reserve after covering every active bond.
• Diamond: the current diamond price.
• Can sell: how many diamonds the treasury could buy from players right now.

/sidebar off hides it, /sidebar on shows it again and /sidebar on its own switches it. Your choice is saved. If another plugin or a vanilla scoreboard is already showing, RootMC leaves it alone.

Diamond exchange

Confirmed You can sell plain diamonds to the server treasury for gp (9.70 gp each after tax) or buy them back (10.30 gp each with tax). Full details, limits and the safety rules are on the Diamond exchange page.

Chest shops and the market

Off by default Player chest shops and a market browser are built but switched off on the live server. See Shops and market.

Loans

Borrow gp from the server account at 10% interest. Income you receive and gold you mint repay your loans first. See Loans.

Related

• Claims: spend gp to found and expand protected land.
• Commands: every player command in one table.
• Loans: borrowing from the server account.
• Taxes: the 3% tax and where it goes.
• Bonds: invest gp and earn a share of the tax.
• Diamond exchange: selling and buying diamonds.
• Shops and market: built, switched off for now.
• Feature status: the status of every feature.