Dennis Vile, despite what his last name would suggest, was actually quite a kind, caring, and respectable individual. He'd never had much of a connection to Animalia, but he and a small group of friends had noted that Animalia had gained a LOT of attention. At times the attention was bad, such as when the first Dinotopian attacked Lyre High School and injured a high school student there, at others it was just weird in how so many people seemed to think that Animalia was just a community where furries went to have sex, but there was a lot of it that had also been reasonably good. Now, granted some of the things that were "good" was also connected to what lead to some of the things that were "weird," but for Dennis Vile, that ultimately all added to some of the interest. Particularly as he and his friends had also observed over the past administration on how Animalia often resisted efforts by the past US administration to try and have its way. That was something that did play to things that Dennis and his six friends did look into.
"So... here we are," Edmund Warson, one of Dennis's friends commented as they looked up to the Horizon building, where they would get their conversions.
"Yeah," a second friend nodded, "Do you think they'll accept the payment?"
That was something that Dennis didn't know and had largely shrugged at. The payment was something that would be a potential issue, largely given what Dennis and his friends had put together over the past few years. For many of them had actively looked for a new way to create wealth and get away from the state-run financing that paper money that had been done for years across the world. That then came from the buzz that had come around Bitcoin and how it's stock rose. Dennis and his friends then figured that cryptocurrency would then be the perfect avenue to change and improve things and get away from "state run" financing. And Animalia seemed like a perfect inspiration for it, as Animalia had earned a fair amount of attention that remained fairly attentive, and so they worked out the coding for "AniCoin."
The spreadsheets for the currency had various rankings that would then be represented by a stylized print images that represented the sorts of denominations in a way that Bitcoin didn't. The "one AniCoin" would go with a picture of Clara and Robbie, as the first Animalians. The "five AniCoin" would have Abby, Jessica, Sarah, Malice, and Sophie (in her human form) for the image. The "ten AniCoin" would have a map of the globe that marked Lyre/Animalia, Mieni, Vilcabamba, New Zerzura, and Maelewano. They'd recently added the "ten AniCoin" denomination that also showed a map, but had more of the newer colonies marked, like the two in the UK, one in France, Dino City, Dinotopia Aquatica, and Heiya Island. It all brought things together, that Dennis felt would help change how a lot of finance things went, particularly as they also put a set scarcity on how many openings on the spreadsheets that people could get in on.
And the popularity Animalia had helped draw some attraction to it, even if it was only for the image that one would get in an email once they'd gotten in on the spreadsheet that was the basis for how pretty much all cryptocurrencies worked. That was something that helped them get off the ground and compete with Bitcoin and some of the other cryptocurrencies that were out there, and their own independent management of how much to open up and provide for had helped AniCoin avoid getting into trouble in 2018 when the entire cryptocurrency market tanked. It was still there, and Dennis and his friends had survived... but the 2018 crash in crypto also exposed where even AniCoin still ran into issues. Not every business accepted cryptocurrency and while an increasing number of banks did and there were ways to turn cryptocurrency into hard currency as things went, that could rely on someone being smart about how they invested in it, though Dennis and his friends knew that a lot of that wasn't going to be in their hands, and the success that they'd had setting up AniCoin had been enough that if Horizon didn't accept it, they had the funds to pay by other means. Though, the obvious hope was that their cryptocurrency would be accepted by Horizon and provide a potential boost to then rival Bitcoin and increase demand to a level that more "AniCoins" would be needed.
They entered and carefully approached the secretary in the waiting area to then set up notice that they had arrived. The secretary looked to Dennis as he approached but didn't say anything.
"Hello, I'm Dennis Vile, these are Edmund Warson, Francesca Fyne, Julio Hemenez, Ezri Ismail, Paul Wunder, and Lyle Limm," Dennis gave the introduction, "we're... here to convert."
"Okay," the secretary spoke, though her voice sounded a bit surprised as she looked to the others, wondering why only Dennis had spoken.
"We all agreed to convert as a group and filled out the initial request and scheduling forms together," Edmund spoke up noticing the secretary's confusion, "they should have all come in under Dennis' name."
The secretary continued checking and did find the request and found that things like the instinct tests were there as well, and also filed under Dennis's name. It only added to the questions and made her ask a question out of curiosity.
"Can I ask why you all filed for conversion together?" the secretary asked as she began to pass the final forms that would allow the seven friends to fill out to set the order for their conversions and everything else, "as you aren't all related, and since there's seven of you... you can't all be dating each other..."
"We aren't dating," Dennis laughed as Francesca stuck out her tongue as if to say "eww," and continued with the answer to the question, "but we've been friends for ages, majoring in economics and finance at Northwestern. And that close working together has stayed with us fairly well that, while we aren't family or romantically involved... we are close in a way that might as well be family."
"Sounds like quite a friendship," the secretary commented.
"Not just friendship, but a business partnership," Julio commented, "and one that's managed to endure a hard year in 2018 but hasn't been hit by the worst of the issues some others have run into."
"I see," the secretary managed, and then turned to Dennis, "well, Mister Vile, since you are the primary person sponsoring your friends' conversions, that would bring the primary responsibility for payment to you... which I'm afraid we don't have a payment method given in the initial request forms."
"Don't worry, we aren't going to rob you," Dennis spoke, "your scientists provide a lot of work and effort with these projects and have created a lot of opportunities... so you've well-earned payment. It's the exact method that I wanted to test on..."
"Test on?" the secretary asked, "sir, we don't engage in a barter economy."
Dennis nodded as she listed the prices for conversion, noting that these were the standard prices. They were prices he understood and accepted, as he really didn't know how much effort went into the genetic science that went into the Animalia Virus likely had some cost to it, particularly in an economy savaged by resource shortages.
"It isn't barter," Dennis answered, "I wanted to ask on where you stood on crypto."
"Crypto?" the secretary asked.
"As an alternative to paper money," Dennis answered, "We've put together the AniCoin, and it's been pretty strong. Not as big as Bitcoin... but we also haven't had the problems that Bitcoin has had either, which I'd argue puts us in a stronger position than them... at least so long as the present trends hold out."
"It'd actually make for good advertising for you," Ezri added, "Look at it... Horizon ditches inflated and worthless paper money for an alternative that isn't regulated by anything besides the market and proper investment and has had lots of input on the AniCoin's resources to see demand. You'd come off quite well..."
"I'm afraid that Horizon will only accept payments in cash, credit, or from a credible bank account," the secretary spoke, "we're not wanting to get involved in a payment system that has proven to have its own set of complications in recent years. You may be in a "stronger" position than Bitcoin, but in many ways, they're wrestling with their own sets of issues at this time. We don't want to get into anything as potentially volatile as the cryptocurrency bubble is."
"That volatility is because it's all new and too many agencies are too wedded to things that have a lot of state involvement in it," Dennis countered, "the volatility will drop once people get on board and use it. And the abuses will stop with crypto replaces paper money and central bank notes. Because things will be two decentralized to make many of the present financial crimes worth-while."
"Well," the secretary spoke, "in pure theory, you may well be right... BUT that's again theory and not something has appeared yet. Thus, the volatility is there and there are problems that are there with ALL cryptocurrencies. Your AniCoin might not have been hit as hard as Bitcoin in recent years, but the base flaws, weaknesses, and other issues are likely still there. Particularly while most businesses are looking at cryptocurrencies as things OTHER than an actual currency. That's where theory meets reality and reality almost always wins. Perhaps in time crypto will replace paper money, but that day is NOT today. I would ask that you pay via cash, credit, debit, or a check."
Dennis sighed and nodded. It appeared that Horizon would accept a cryptocurrency as a payment, but to a degree, he was prepared for that because of how new the whole cryptocurrency shift was and because of the issues that Bitcoin had been hit by since 2018. He and the others had done well with getting AniCoin going and had managed to grow its value and avoided collapse, and that was enough to keep things relatively stable for them. As such, he could pay by means other than crypto, he just wanted to see if Horizon was willing to accept crypto first.