Virtual currencies are not used only in social games. The virtual currency Ven, traded among a closed online community of individuals and businesses, hopes to have 80 million in circulation by this time next year, up from about eight million today. It is backed by a basket of commodities, currencies and carbon futures. The currency exchange now has 25,000 members, up from 22,000 members in the spring of 2011.
One Ven was trading for $9.35, or €13.35 in September 2011. However, users can’t exchange Ven to other currencies at present, because of the regulatory issues this could cause, according to Stalnaker, and the risk of money laundering. Instead, the currency can be used to pay for goods and services.
There are two lines of thinking about "virtual currency." One line of thinking is that tokens, points and credits used exclusively within social games and environments should be used carefully, in ways that do not invoke the regulation that applies to "currency" transactions. In other words, "real money" can come in, but cannot come out of the game.
Others want to create virtual currencies where real money can be used to buy credits, points or tokens within a social game, but also can be exported out of those settings and exchanged for value in other settings, up to and including use as a prepaid instrument in the real world of shopping or commerce. In other words, money can go in, be converted to some social value store, but then also come out of a social game as a real currency again, or as a store of value that can be used in other settings, whether online or offline.
That is a more-challenging notion precisely because many regulations and rules related to banking, payments and prepaid instruments likely will have to be followed. But as online and offline commerce begins to fuse in new ways, the issue of virtual currency will have to be addressed.
Virtual currency, part backed by carbon
