Agreed! I'd like vanilla to prohibit the use of other people's credit in your own stores as a "currency". That way fake global currencies in the form of credits wont be able to exist until a real currency exists. And yes, I dont mind that it will be easier to create a currency for a settlement.
Bartering was always very rare even in real-life; various credit systems predate actual currency, and were extremely common. Barter economies tend to be a sign that the economy has broken down. The whole point is that credit systems are built on trust, which fits the game much more nicely than simple barter, or a magical global currency (with magical buy and sell orders to manage the supply and demand), or a minting system. Why should there be a specific class of people who are the only ones who can provide currency? That's a horrible concept for a game _and_ for real life. I also don't see how this is a problem for you; if you want to barter, you can always trade by selling exactly as much to get the credits you need to buy what you want. Why have a separate barter system when you can already do this? Do you really need to limit others?
this sounds fun, anybody know of a privately hosted server that does this?