I think you might be considering Rep as slightly more of a tangible currency than I do. When someone in my game has a particularly high rep with a faction, they do not necessarily know exactly how high it is, or even that they hold that rep. More, it is how well known they are within that network, and how much pull they might be able to influence here or there. An example today would be, essentially, any celebrity. Someone with an extremely high reputation with the Argonauts might be as well known as, say, Carl Sagan. Most people who have any interest in science, especially physics, are aware of who he is, and many consider him a well respected person. If that particular person wanted to exchange his rep for money with an Inner System bank they bank itself might put out feelers within the Argonaut community, and they would respond in turn that he was respectable and worthy of attention. A good example of this might be the Reddit community. For people unaware, Reddit is a news aggregation website much like Digg (But Better! :D) and it has developed a fairly good representation of a primitive reputation based economy. A few months ago a well known user known as P-Dub posted that his family was having money worries, and in response Reddit users donated to the cause to help pay for bills and his mothers houses mortgage (or something, I forget the exact details). P-Dub would be a good example of someone with a decent rep using a favor. In fact he is also a good example of burning rep, as for a few months after the post he was lambasted as attempting to scam Reddit for money. Now, if I had tried to get Reddit to help me out, as a fairly low rep member of the community, I would have been laughed down and gotten nothing. (If you are curious, it is for this reason that I do not involve myself with the Rep thingy people do on these forums. I do not see the need for them. If you do enough to begin to become noticed people will learn your name. Attaching a number to that attention is, in my mind, unnecessary)

Besides, it allows a quick perception of what kind of things someone does in the community. Thus someone with f-rep may be known for drawings or such, while someone with c-rep could be known for making new rules, or things like that. In any case, and returning to the original point, I handle it as favors as well in my game, but the favor to ask would depend on where you are. In Extropia, probably a favor would render as much money as it is supposed to (thus, a Moderate would give you around 1000 credits); meanwhile, in much more capitalist Mars, it would probably render half, as it has to be a good business for the bank, and money is much more valuable as the alternative economic system is less developed. As for what to do in case you don't pay, probably banks wouldn't necessarily resort to modern day actions (thus, sending people after you, or taking your goods), they could also resort to forcing you to ask for additional favors to repay your debt (thus, forcing you to burn it), or even spreading memes against you that damage your rep.

root wrote:

root@Banks and rep [hr] So the exchange itself is a favor? That does makes sense with our current foreign exchange markets. When trading currency currently, banks trade "pips", which are something like .0001 cents on a dollar (I'm not sure which currency the pips are based on), and a standard lot increment is something like 100,000 (for dollars). But I'm working off of Wikipedia here, so my knowledge is limited. Would the bank then be collecting Trivial favors, or does it charge higher favor rates for individuals?

There are pips for all currencies. Essentially, a pip is 1/100th of the smallest denomination of whatever currency the trade platform works in. Japanese banks trade in .01 yen, US stock markets work with .01 cents, and so forth. Recent electronic trading platforms actually work in smaller pips of 1/1000th of the smallest denomination.

root wrote:

Another question: how does a new rep get established? Is there some interplanetary consortium on rep markets that decides which reps are work monetizing? Or do reps start out as only valuable for rep exchange, and then get big enough for the banks to notice? I've been playing with a set of extra rep networks over at the Darkcast site (mostly splitting out sub-rep networks), but I haven't figured out how a new rep would take hold.

Essentially, rep is self-creating in that a reputation record will form whenever an entity begins to participate within a reputation network. In essence, a rep is basically a resume that is peer-written to keep track of the things you do, good or bad. You can see the start of rep networks all over the internet... the backlash of Cooper Lawrence's statements against the game Mass Effect can be seen as a sort of rep backlash due to a poor choice. As soon as you appear on people's radar, you reputation begins to form... to turn a classic phrase, it can very much precede you.

Overall I think Codebreaker has it right. The way I run it is the bank converts your Rep into something tangible, and gives you market value for that. So for example, suppose you have major rep with argonauts, especially a group modifying wheat genes. The bank would find a demand based off of your network, say a group of gatecrashers trying to establish a new colony on an exoplanet. They would generate a request, approved by you, to send to the argonauts and request wheat DNA modified to their requirements, that they can immediately invest in the gatecrasher's team. The bank then counts the value of the wheat, subtracts their fees, and credits you with the remainder. Most of this process would be handled automatically, as supply, demand and personal dossiers are tracked by computers and reviewed by AGIs or AIs for the best available deal. Banks are in competition with each other to provide the most efficient conversion. If one bank can only get you 100 credits for a moderate favor, by flipping your contacts with the argonauts to produce a superior guppy for pet shops, and another can get you 500 credits by flipping wheat DNA, it's pretty clear which deal will be favored and who will get more contracts in the end.

New Rep Networks are structures that develop themselves slowly, and they almost certainly have to have fairly strong links to other Networks to gain credence, at least to start with. So, for example if I was a person with a high reputation with the Anarchists in particular (Lots of “@@”rep) and I went to a bank wanting a quick injection of cash they might begin asking around known clients who are themselves well known within the @@ circles. If they couldn't find any such clients they might ask an extremely well known @-lister if they know anything about the @@ network, and if they can get them in touch with a trustworthy point of contact. Its all about having people who are well respected in the right circles also being in your own. So, at least with the banks, it is just a new way to figure out someones credit rating. Instead of how well you personally have been doing in paying back all your debts in a timely manner, it is how well you, your contacts, and the person who vouches for you has been doing in paying back all their favors. Any new Network would need to build up a new line of credit or have someone in the know vouch for them. And on banks honoring g-rep – Why would they? At least the banks that are on the up-and-up (or at least those who are careful with their money) are not going to want to deal with the criminal scum. Those are the kinds of people who steal from the vaults, not borrow from them. If you want to use your g-rep to get a quick injection of liquid funds you would go to a loan shark, and those tend to come with a whole mess of troubles.

There's nothing wrong with new rep networks forming. All they require for common acceptance is a sufficient, dependable population, and effective advertising/PR. In EP, a new social network can probably become large and competitive within a matter of months or perhaps a year ago - assuming it can find a niche to exploit. Banks are encouraged to discover and leverage these networks as soon as possible, since it gives a bank a competitive advantage. In general, these sorts of dealings mean that I, as a bank, want to know as many people you, my customer, are connected to and how much you are worth to each of them. The more I know, the better a deal I can negotiate, beating out the competition.