I'm playing Command & Conquer 3 and I got to wondering, how does Tiberium relate to wealth? It's a resource that is use to 'buy'/ 'build' things, but I've never really understood how. Is it used in the materials to actually build things? Or is it used as a currency?
I get that you mine it, take it to the refinery, and you have 'resources' but how do they equate to actually being able to make anything?
Best Answer
Tiberium is used to build things, but it is also valuable as an energy source
According to the command and conquer wiki, Tiberium is valuable because it holds concentrated minerals and metals. These minerals were leeched out of the soil by the crystals themselves and are much easier to get to a usable state as compared to old-school mining and smelting of ores.
Emphasis added by me.
For the first few games (Original C&C, Tiberian Sun, and Tiberium Wars), the useful materials refined from Tiberium were used to build structures and vehicles, and the industrial waste was sometimes used in weapons.
In later games (Tiberian Twilight), Tiberium was used for energy rather than raw materials.
Tiberium is valuable, but is it used a currency?
Probably not. Raw Tiberium is toxic and corrupts/kills living tissues, so it's not something that you would want to receive in exchange for goods and services. Processed Tiberium is safe enough to use to build things, but probably not inherently more valuable than the steel or alumnium or tungsten or other materials that would be used if Tiberium were not available. They still have value, but the value is not concentrated enough to be everyday currency.
As Nate Kerkhof pointed out in a comment, raw Tiberium is likely valuable enough to back a currency, much like the US dollar used to be backed by silver and gold. The currency traded day to day would not have the toxicity challenges of the raw Tiberium backing it.
Tiberium is useful because it is relatively time and energy efficient to go from crystals in the ground to building materials; once you have the building materials they are just that: building materials.