Wine Funding

(Sorry it's been awhile again guys, been juggling other concerns and had little time to nail down more H-Rep ideas. If you want to see what I've been up to and keep supporting me, go ahead and check out my YouTube channel here. There's even some Actual Play episodes on it, including one of EP)

Given the prospect of relative immortality, investing in the future is very important for many Transhumans. You can't live forever if you can't provide for yourself forever. While many Outer System communities and cultures work toward this by pooling resources, in Capitalist economies one has to think of things to do in order to preserve and generate that capital. Investing in stocks, bonds or rare materials remains popular, and is how many continue to do it. But for certain customers needs, there are other investments which can be made, such as in works of art, morphs, or even Wine. This is known as Wine Funding or Wine Investing, and can have quite positive returns in AF 10.

Wines can be held for a long period if stored properly, and tend to appreciate in value. They can also be difficult to fake properly, while one can fabricate something with a roughly similar composition to a fine wine, but also doing the work to make it pass various authentication tests as to it's appropriate date and history are often more trouble than it's worth. Wine Funding is not without drawbacks, however, as a physical investment it needs to be stored and insured while also not generating any profit until actually sold, so these costs will need to be offset - leaving only large banks and the wealthiest private individuals to manage these funds. Investing in this way can either be done by buying and selling wine (cases) directly, usually for investment these are sets of 3, 6, 9, 12 or 3, or by investing in a pool which takes all the capital of investors and places it in the appropriate wines. These are usually done with the consultation of brokers or other experts, and surprising amounts of literature circulates the System on the subject.

Historically, the highest quality of Wines which were acceptable for funding came mostly from the Bordeaux region in France, though "cult wines" can also make investments if one guesses the trends and vintage Port also being a solid choice. Naturally, Earth Nostalgia drives the Wine Fund market these days - Bordeaux is still the most popular, but any wine of Earth and of sufficient quality can become a solid investment due to limited supply. This also makes Wine Funding ideal for money laundering - one can easily lie about the source of Pre-Fall Vintages from Earth given the destruction of data and simply say one came across the case and then sell it when you need liquid cash again. Some extraterrestrial vintages have become "cult wines", but in general anything produced after The Fall is too new to have properly appreciated in value to show a return on any investment, leaving the future of the market still with plenty of room to explore.

As noted above, Wine Funding is usually handled by ultrarich hyperelites personally, or through various banks and investment firms. It is most popular in the LLA, the Morningstar Confederacy and on Mars, though most limited on Mars due to the PC's attempts to downplay Earth Nostalgia. Firms will arrange the purchase and storage of wines for their customers, and then can be directed to sell on demand, or when certain thresholds are met. They take their cut of the sales, and usually handle any insurance costs. When allowed by local laws, they tend to use predictive AI systems to track values and physical locations of wines, as well as their overall rarity - to optimally predict the best times to buy and sell. Some funds offer this information freely to all customers, others prefer to only offer it to those who pay for the service. They also have access to all the best authentication technology to determine the proper age and value of a wine. Though often smaller, do not think of Wine Banks as easy targets - due to the rarity and physical presence of their goods, their security systems are some of the sharpest in the Solar System.

And, as noted above, there is still sometimes fraudulent wine investments. Forged wines are rare, and thought of as a sucker's bet, it's hard to produce a high-quality forgery and make your money back. More often you get the usual fraud, lying about the value of wines or selling low-quality wine which is not investment grade at a high price which the investor cannot return. Doing this can depreciate the value of the market, so wine funds tend to take investigations into fraudulent wines and sales seriously. While this is mostly done by individual con men or organized crime outfits in the Inner System, some of this fraud can be linked to anti-Capitalist agitators attempting to "redistribute wealth". Even more of this type of fraud is attributed to anti-Capitalist agitators in an attempt to drive animosity toward the Autonomist Alliance.

While not wholly opposed to it, the non-hierarchical nature of Anarchocapitalism makes Wine Funding a less useful prospect - space is often at a premium price in ancap habitats, which can make investing hard for both individuals and firms, and tends to be done by contracting with "off-site" services. It also can make fraud protection harder depending on fine-wording of contracts, altering legal repercussions which make outside investors wary of the climate.

Interestingly, a similar system can be pulled off in the Reputation Economy - though obviously not for the purpose of investing or returning on capital. Instead the idea is usually to hold on to a wine or similar product until it (or it's maker) gets a certain reputation or level of reputation, then by sharing, trading, using or gifting the wine at the right time one can increase their own reputableness. One can even capitalize on the "investment" in different ways, such as by remixing it, or making XP of it. This is a precarious path, however. Holding on to a product too long without intent to utilize it in some way is often seen as hoarding resources, and will tank your rep.