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How Much is a "Bit" Worth?


Stalliongrad

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Alright, I think this topic is over! Soooo..... Thank's? I guess...

Ooooooh, I'm not done yet. ;)

 

You see, what this means is that if you ever hear the ponies say something along the lines of 'I don't give a buck!', what they are saying is that they don't think the topic is worth eight bits.

 

Okay, I'm done now. :)

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Ooooooh, I'm not done yet. ;)

 

You see, what this means is that if you ever hear the ponies say something along the lines of 'I don't give a buck!', what they are saying is that they don't think the topic is worth eight bits.

 

Okay, I'm done now. :)

I always thought it was a reference to that one word which is profanity.

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IRL, the value of currency is based on the C(onsumer) P(rice) I(ndex) which is based on the average price of a "market basket" of things the average consumer buys (Economics 101).  Their "market basket" is too different than ours, I don't think they are convertible.  (For instance, the average pony probably spends little on clothes & (at least in Ponyville) has neither electricity nor phones)

 

In the cartoon "bucking" refers to kicking a tree so the ripe fruit falls out.  In fanfic, often used as a profanity substitute like "dang" or "heck"

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Well I watched the scene from "best night ever" where one of the wonderbolts buys an apple pie from Applejack, although it was a quick shot I believe he gave her 2 bits, try and compare that to how much an apple pie would normally cost in the U.S and then you might have an idea of exchange rates.

Edited by chirox the pony
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   It could be similar to Hellenic or Roman economic theory, it was based on the amount of Bits paid, rather than the face value of individual coinage, that the Chinese begun during the Han Dynasty called Cash. It was during the Dutch Golden Age, when Europe begun to create varying value of each coin or banknote, which were basically receipts for the amount of gold or silver submitted, however, it is just a hypothesis, the Equestrian Bit is a curious object, almost like Rupees in the Legend of Zelda, nevertheless, it would be interesting to see how much each pony's liquid assets is worth in Bits.     

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I'm gonna use the 2 bits for a mug of cider as an example.

 

A local fresh market opens up every summer near my parents house,many they just happen to sell fresh cider.... An equivalent size bottle to the mugs shown in MLP costs 3 bucks (worth every penny), which would put the value of a bit at $1.50, or very close to one Pound in UK money.

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I have a theory... That when doctor whooves landed in equestria he had crated a rip in space-time ultimately merging our two worlds (that would probably how  star swirled the bearded got the ideas for inter dimensional  portals) any way, before the rip was mended the dollar symbol made its way into there world. And somehow got related to money... I am working that part out.

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  • 2 years later...

I've used some of the information here to calculate a range of values based on the price of a bushel of apples as priced straight from the farmers who grow them. I'm using the price of a bushel of apples because we can assume the cost isn't as affected by transportation costs as the other possible items. I'm not calculating the cost of an individual apple, but rather the cost of bundles in both worlds, because buying in bulk usually means there is a good discount, so dividing into individual apples does not give an accurate value. The price of a bushel in Equestria is between 4 and 8 bits. The prices in America can range from $10 to as high as $72 from what I can find. $16 seems more reasonable to some of the people that were discussing it, so that is the value I'll focus on for my own uses of bits in RPs. With these prices, the range is somewhere between $1.25 and $9 if a bushel is worth 8 bits, and between $2.50 and $18 if it's worth 4 bits, which is a very wide range of values, but at $16 a bushel, 1 bit = $2 to $4. The price of the cherry can be disregarded due to the fact that it was the last cherry and cherries aren't local. The other prices all seem reasonable at the $2 per bit value with 3 tomatoes being between $2 an $4, and an apple pie being $4, as is an apple fritter, and a mug of apple cider. I also think $6 for a bag of apples seems fair.

 

1bit = @$2

 

P.S. I realize that this is an old thread, but the information here helped me reach a conclusion, so it's only fair that I share it here.

P.P.S. I just did some extra research, and that pricing actually seems to match the price of tomatoes as well, where three tomatoes generally weigh a pound, and a pound of tomatoes can go for $3 to $4.

P.P.P.S. I made some corrections because I was mixing up my numbers and somehow I was calculating from the 8 bit value when I'd typed only the 4 bit value. I like to imagine that the 8 bit value is more accurate to the value of a bushel because Granny might be strict about the prices in Ponyville, and she might not be keeping with the times. Applejack imagines selling a bushel for 8 bits because she likely believes that's what it's worth. I know that if it were anypony else, it would be likely that they would imagine selling at a higher price than it's worth, but Applejack is the Element of Honesty and would likely only imagine selling it for what it's worth.

Edited by Seamore Sandwich
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if we base it on 2 bits for a mug of cider, then: Assuming 1 mug = 16 OZ, its non-alcoholic, the closest comparison we have is Musselmans Apple cider in gallon jugs,which are 7.56 a piece. 1 gallon = 128 OZ which is 6 cents per ounce. 16 OZ * 6 cents per OZ = 96 cents for 1 mug.... SO based on these assumptions 1 bit is approximately 50 cents.

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