Boondollars are the currency used throughout the Incipisphere. The symbol for the currency, , is the letter "B" crossed with two vertical lines, appearing to be derived from the dollar sign. They are stored in a piggybank-esque container called a Ceramic Porkhollow.
The name is derived from the words "boon" which, in a gaming context, and as used beforehand in Problem Sleuth, is a helpful reward gained from completing a challenge, and "dollar", which is the name of several currencies. It is also reminiscent of "boondoggle", a word used as a noun and a verb meaning, "work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value" and "waste money or time on unnecessary or questionable projects" respectively; an aptly cynical and tongue-in-cheek commentary on the object's purpose.
Sources[]
Boondollars can be earned through various means, including scaling the echeladder and completing sidequests. Dave Strider uses his time-travel abilities to play the Land of Heat and Clockwork Stock Exchange and earn a massive sum of them, controlling his planet's economy. Boondollars can be transferred between people, time, and different sessions of Sburb - there's an app for that.
On post-scratch Earth, boondollars were produced by Crockercorp as "BCCorp Funbux" (which coincidentally happens to be a valid troll name) to play with for kids. As the heir to the empire, Jane already has 110,110,110 boondollars before even beginning to play Sburb.
Uses[]
- Pays for fines
- Parking citations, 10,000 boondollars (placed by Authority Regulators.)
- Buying stock on the LOHACSE
- Used to buy clothing from consorts on LOWAS (specifically haberdashery)
- Rumpled Head Object: 1,000 boondollars
- Even Rumplier Head Object, 2,000 boondollars
- The Rumpliest Head Object Of All, 5,000 boondollars
- Used to buy food from consorts on LOWAS
- Cone of bugs, 5 boondollars
- Onion, 10 boondollars
- Tasty mushroom, 10 boondollars
- Jar of bugs, 15 boondollars
- Mushroom shake, 15 boondollars
- Bigboy mushroom, 25 boondollars
- Grasshopper, 100 boondollars
- Used to buy Fraymotifs from consorts on LOWAS
- Feathercadence, 10,000,000 boondollars (John's Fraymotif)
- Pneumatic Progression, 100,000,000 boondollars (John's Fraymotif)
- Breathless Battaglia, 1,000,000,000 boondollars (John's Fraymotif)
- Ivories In The Fire, 10,000,000,000 boondollars (John and Dave's combo Fraymotif)
- Mixolydian Maelstrom, 200,000,000,000 boondollars (John and Rose's combo Fraymotif)
- Fantasia's Inhale, 1,000,000,000,000 boondollars (John and Jade's Fraymotif)
- Used to convert items to grist (using a Gristwidget)
- Dunce cap, 10 boondollars
- Aranea Serket's exposition stand
- Discussing one troll, –5,000,000 boondollars (that is, she gives you money to tell you the information)
- Used in the sale of illicit troll blood
- Most costs 420,000,000 boondollars
- Sollux's blood costs 840,000,000 due to his dual nature
Denominations[]
Coins[]
In smaller denominations, boondollars are distributed as colorful coins in a variety of sizes. It is probable that the denominations of these coins increase with their size. In this case, possible configurations that the coins represent, from largest to smallest, could be 50, 25, 10, and 5; or 100, 10, 2 and 1.
Graphics on the Homestuck Adventure Game Kickstarter page seem to indicate the values as, from largest to smallest, 100, 50, 10 and 5. However, this is likely inaccurate, as the same page uses boonbucks and booncases as 400 and 5000 boondollars respectively, rather than one million and one trillion.
Boonbuck[]
A boonbuck is equal to one million boondollars. John Egbert accumulates a full boonbuck after reaching the Ectobiolobabysitter rung on his echeladder. The heavy bill crushes his poor little Ceramic Porkhollow. Vriska Serket and Tavros Nitram discover a chest full of boonbucks in one of their side-quests in the Land of Maps and Treasure.
The physical size of a Boonbuck seems to vary, as one crushes John's porkhollow, which is shown to be only slightly smaller than John himself, while Vriska and Tavros find some much smaller ones in a chest. It is possible that, like the boondollar coins, a larger buck is worth more. However, due to the largest one seen so far being worth only one, smaller bucks may be actually worth less than one whole million. However, this may also be a case of artistic license.
Booncase[]
A booncase can be found by John in Egbertbound, and, judging by his reaction, it's a hell of a lot of money. Alas, it was empty, and booncase's actual worth remains unknown, but it is probably the geometric average of boonbucks and boonbonds, one trillion (1012), though it is unknown if there are more. It also appears in this page in Dave's hands, presumably filled with boondollars, but its worth remains unknown.
Boonbond[]
A boonbond is equal to one quintillion (1018) boondollars. On Terezi Pyrope's instructions, Dave transfers 413 boonbonds (4.13 × 1020 boondollars) to her in the past after his dealings in the LOHAC Stock Exchange (which from the trolls' point of view is the first contact between humans and trolls).
Boonbank[]
During his conversation with Terezi about the money transfer, Dave offers to give her “an even boonbank”, implying its value to be at least 500 quintillion (5 × 1020) boondollars, if not 1 sextillion (1021). At the time, Dave had accumulated upwards of 216.314 septillion (2.16314 × 1026) boondollars.
Boonmint[]
Andrew has suggested that a boonmint should be larger than a boonbank, as in the real world a mint holds more money than a bank. According to Andrew, the denominations may rise in increments of a thousand instead of a million after some point.
Transfers[]
Dave Strider transferred a large number of boondollars to Terezi. Vriska transferred a smaller sum to John. John transferred an even smaller sum to Dave.
NPCs | Sprites • Underlings • Denizens • Consorts • First guardians • Carapacians/Exiles • Leprechauns |
Locations (starting planet) | Command stations • Forge • Frog Temple |
Locations (Incipisphere) | The Medium • The Veil/Ectobiology labs • Skaia • Prospit/Derse • Planets • The Seven Gates |
Concepts | Prototyping • Ectobiology • God tiering (Mythological roles) • Grist/Ultimate Alchemy • Boondollars • Fraymotifs • Dream selves • Phernalia • The Scratch • Null sessions • Internet • Session glitch |
Related concepts | Sylladex • Skaianet • Crockercorp |