Federation Credit

The Federation Credit is inferred to be the basic monetary unit of the United Federation of Planets in the fictional Star Trek series, although the term has rarely been used on-screen and is thus considered non-canon. For the first 20 years of Star Trek, from 1965 until 1985, there was no indication that money was outmoded. The Original Series sometimes referenced the cost of services or objects in "credits".

It has been said in episodes like the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Neutral Zone" and movies like Star Trek: First Contact that the economy of the Federation is quite unlike the economics of the 20th and 21st centuries - almost unrecognizably so. It is a socialist post scarcity society: There is no poverty and no hunger, and the accumulation of wealth is not a driving force in society. According to Tom Paris in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Dark Frontier", a "New World Economy" began to take hold on Earth and throughout the Federation in the late 22nd century, and eventually made money obsolete. He even mentions that in the 24th century, Fort Knox is a museum, apparently to money and capitalism.

In the United Federation of Planets, Replicators and other advanced technologies provide for virtually all basic material wants and needs equally and sufficiently to all. Every citizen of the Federation has plenty of food of virtually any type they want, clothes, shelter, recreational and luxury items, and has all their basic material needs easily met. A society based around self-improvement and collectively improving the human race instead of cutthroat competition, combined with heavy automation, means labor is essentially free, menial tasks are automated, and goods are made freely available to all citizens due to superabundance. As seen in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes featuring Jake and Joseph Sisko, people are apparently not paid in credits for their work.