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Digital payments stopped when the power, terminals and networks supporting them failed. People could still have account balances without any way to spend them or prove a transaction to a merchant. Servos damaged cash machines and financial infrastructure while businesses lost access to their records. Goods and savings became difficult to exchange even where both had survived.
Some records remained on disconnected computers. That did not give people a working payment system. A shop needed a way to verify a payment and confidence that it could use the money it received. Both became difficult as communications broke down.
Barter helped people exchange useful items immediately, but it became cumbersome as communities grew. The city eventually adopted salvaged gold and silver for everyday trade. Restoring a blockchain network remains a future objective for many Corpos. Until then, an old digital balance is a record to investigate, not money a merchant can reliably accept at the counter.
