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I am making a hard sci-fi game with a focus on realism, in this game there is a need for a hard element to base money off of. Similar to how gold is used on earth.
I know there are lots of elements that only exist for seconds at a time that are technically rare but wouldn't work as a currency. What element in the universe would aliens be most likely to be trading back and forth?

Dylan Bozarth
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    Welcome to Astronomy SE! This is a challenging question. You'll have to work harder to define "stable". if something has a half-life longer than the age of the universe, will you call it unstable? If it's radioactive decay rate is so small that it's almost undetectable, is that still unstable? Also, I think you can drop "in the universe" because as far as I know there aren't "stable" elements that are known to be in the universe that are not made or isolated right here on Earth. I don't think "in the universe" helps the title or the question, it's a distraction. – uhoh Apr 11 '23 at 03:28
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    I guess adding "in the universe" helps to make this more likely to be seen as possibly on-topic here in Astronomy. Chemistry SE and Physics SE are more appropriate sites – uhoh Apr 11 '23 at 03:30
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    Please note [worldbuilding.se] where they do handle questions like this but also provide answers which may be more helpful when building a fictional setting. For example extremely rare elements do not necessarily make a good basis for a currency, something they might give advice on there, but we won't here. – StephenG - Help Ukraine Apr 11 '23 at 08:01
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    I'd vote to migrate to Worldbuilding – Rory Alsop Apr 11 '23 at 08:24
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    We don't base our currencies on gold any more. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard Why not use something useful, like energy? – PM 2Ring Apr 11 '23 at 09:05
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    @PM 2Ring Gold is not used as a base of currencies. But possibly aliens societies not as advanced as 21st century Earth might still use gold or some other rare element as the basis of their currencies. – M. A. Golding Apr 11 '23 at 17:01
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    @M.A.Golding Maybe, but I'm assuming that the OP's game involves interstellar trading, so the aliens are more advanced than us. Perhaps they use rocket fuel as a currency basis, eg deuterium. Or anti-hydrogen... – PM 2Ring Apr 11 '23 at 18:15

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Within our solar system the least abundant, stable and non radioactive element is Tantalum, atomic number 73.

Its chemical inertness,

make it valuable for laboratory and industrial equipment such as reaction vessels and vacuum furnaces

Back in the 1970s and 1980s it was popular to make electronic capacitors using tantalum because they were smaller in size than the electronic capacitors that were made previously. This made them popular for use in hand held calculators and other similar small electronic devices.

Tantalum is dark (blue-gray), dense, ductile, very hard, easily fabricated, and highly conductive of heat and electricity. The metal is renowned for its resistance to corrosion by acids.

Element 43, Technetium, is very rare, radioactive and has a short half life. On Earth it is a synthetic material and wouldn't be suitable for your purposes.

Similarly, Promethium, element 61, is rare, but radioactive. The same applies for elements 84 through to 89.

Fred
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