What's the best way to keep collateral in a bank in an mmo?

Jxb1a

Just a question. In just about every mmo where you can gather resources and store the stuff in a bank, what's the best way to keep collateral? Of course, the assumption is that what you're carrying is valuable. So for ex which would be best to have handy (I'm going to assume, items can be broken down too):

 

Keep 4 gold ores in raw form?

or

Refine the 4 gold ores into 2 gold bullion?

or

Craft the 2 gold bullion into some miscellaneous jewelry?

or

Does it make no difference? Hard Currency is still the best bet?

 

This leads me into another question about precious metals specifically gold.  if you can make gold bullion, and gold is the currency in the game, would it be logical that the gold bullion can be used as commodity money?  Does any material or item in any MMO truly "have its weight in gold?" 

 

Anyways, I was just wondering, been meaning just to ask what people think for a while.

rothbard

Collateral?  For what?  Are you taking out a loan from said bank?  I honestly don't understand what your question is about.  

 

As for the gold, yes you would think that gold bars would equal some sort of gold coins.  However, in all MMOs (that I am aware of) the "gold" used as currency is purely imaginary.  It has no actual existence in the game world.  So, the "gold" that is used as currency is totally different than the gold bars in your bag.  

Vrika

I think allowing to convert crafting material into currency or vice versa would be a bad idea. As the game matures and suffers from inflation the ingredient prices would be screwed up. In a young new server with little money but lot of players eagerly hoarding it one one gold bar might be worth 10 platinum bars, whereas in old server where gold is plentiful one copper bar might end up being worth 10 gold bars. It's better to allow currency price move freely.

As for the collateral, for what? If it's for money loan, then using equal sum of money as a collateral would be easy, even if really stupid. If it's for something else, then what does the guild need and what can the person giving the collateral produce?