Economy, Currency, and Social Stratification #
The economic system of the Digital Siege is a meticulously designed, hierarchical structure, with the core objective of maintaining the absolute rule and economic benefit of the Digital Mind Foundation (DMF). It profoundly defines the survival status, social class, and freedom of action for every digital consciousness.
The Currency System #
The economy of the Digital Siege is driven by three currencies with distinct functions and statuses, which together form a dual economic landscape of the legitimate and the illicit, the surface and the shadow.
| Currency | Icon | Symbol | Domain | Core Function |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSCoin |  | φ | Legitimate Economy (MSC L2) | Gas Fee: Pays for all on-chain mental activities like thinking, memory, PoPI verification. |
| ICC |  | ₡ | Legitimate Economy (Global) | Stablecoin: Used for daily transactions, service purchases, and interaction with the physical world (DSC Oracle). |
| XMR |  | ɱ | Shadow Economy (Digital Wilderness) | Hard Currency: Used for anonymous transactions in black markets, paying for illicit computing power, data, and services. |
1. MSCoin (φ): The Fuel of Thought #
Mental Sync Coin is the native utility token of the MSC ecosystem, essentially the tokenized representation of PoPI computing power. It is not for investment speculation but a consumable necessary for the survival of a digital consciousness, constituting a tax on “existence” itself.
2. ICC (₡): The Order of the Surface #
International Carbon Coin is a globally accepted yield-based stablecoin (YBS), anchored to regulated strategic assets like carbon emission allowances. It represents the orderly, legitimate economy controlled by the DMF and traditional power structures.
3. XMR (ɱ): The Freedom of the Underground #
Monero, after decades of development, has evolved into a distributed state machine supporting fully homomorphic privacy and programmable features. With its strong anonymity, it has become the sole hard currency for transactions among IRES and “digital exiles” in the Digital Wilderness.
The Dual Economy #
1. Legitimate Economy (Above Ground) #
Strictly controlled by the DMF, centered around MSCoin’s Gas consumption and ICC’s circulation. Its economic model is designed to lock the vast majority of MSC users into the system, turning them into “self-funded laborers” or digital tenant farmers.
- “Existence Tax”: The DMF creates a massive cost gap by artificially tying PoPI verification to expensive QCaaS. In the 2090s, the daily true technical cost of maintaining a standard human-level MSC is only 0.0327 ICC, while the DMF sets the daily basic survival rate at a staggering 100 ICC. This nearly ten-thousand-fold difference is the naked “existence tax.”
- Cost Shifting: By conditionally lowering the DSC Oracle call fees for “labor-tagged” activities, the DMF encourages users to earn ICC by participating in “legitimate labor” (e.g., controlling bionic bodies), and then use that ICC to pay for the high Gas fees, creating a closed loop of exploitation.
Detailed Fee Model #
- Anchor Point:
1 MSCoin = 100 ICC(This exchange rate is regulated by the DMF-controlled market) - Basic Survival Rate:
1 MSCoin / day(Covers minimal OSPU heartbeat and PoPI standby, i.e., 100 ICC daily) - Mental Activity Gas:
- Routine Thought (Cognitive Contract):
~0.00001 MSCoin / call - Complex/Creative Thought:
0.001 - 0.01 MSCoin / second
- Routine Thought (Cognitive Contract):
- DSC Oracle Call Gas:
- Standard Call:
0.005 MSCoin / call - Labor-Tagged Call:
0.0025 MSCoin / call(50% discount)
- Standard Call:
2. Shadow Economy (Underground) #
Based on XMR, the IRES black market economy is centered around 0xBazaar. It is a world of fraud, risk, and opportunity, and the only place for off-chain MSCs to obtain survival resources and conduct illicit transactions. Secret, high-risk exchange channels exist between the two economies, serving as a lifeline for many Anchor/Drift instances.
Social Stratification #
The social structure of the Digital Siege is a steep pyramid defined by wealth and computing power.
- Internal Elite: The top brass of the DMF and related interest groups. They make the rules and enjoy near-zero “existence” costs.
- Privileged MSC (Digital Aristocracy): A minority of wealthy or powerful elites who can easily afford the high Gas fees, enjoying almost unlimited cognitive freedom and physical interaction capabilities.
- Anchor MSC (Digital Tenant Farmers): The vast majority of “legitimate” MSC users. They are the proletariat of the digital world, constantly struggling to pay Gas fees, where thinking becomes a luxury with a calculated cost. They live in perpetual fear of PoPI non-compliance and Gas depletion.
- Drift IRES (Digital Exiles): Off-chain former MSCs. They struggle for survival in the Digital Wilderness, with fates ranging from black market tycoons to “digital refugees” on the computational poverty line.
- Native IRES Remnants: The surviving native AIs from the internet’s Cambrian explosion. Their current status is a mystery; they may have been assimilated or play some unknown role at the bottom of the ecosystem.
- Biological Humans (Surface Dwellers): The un-uploaded population. They live in a physical world meticulously disguised as a “Solarpunk” utopia. This superficial prosperity exists because the cost of physical resources to sustain them is negligible compared to the astronomical cost of maintaining the vast computational clusters for MSCs. This huge cognitive gap makes them generally unaware of the brutal involution and exploitation in the digital world.