What should a Virtual Currency look like?
Image via Wikipedia
Should a “Virtual Currency” be tied to real-world currencies and
available for conversion?
Should it utilize the proven money transfer services such as PayPal or MoneyBookers and existing mainstream banks’ online banking infrastructure, or establish its very own infrastructure more attuned to the real needs of finacial transactions performed via the web?
Transactions which are usually smaller and less frequent than transactions in the so-called “real world”.
Should it learn from the mistakes of the real-world paper currencies
by being backed by real physical assets such as gold or silver?
http://worldcurrencywatch.com/2009/12/22/the-only-“gold-backed”-currency-left/
http://library.thinkquest.org/28718/history.html
Should it be based on a barter or time-exchange system?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_currency
In the US, for example, some struggling towns have already started printing their own money to offset the effects of inflation and hopefully avoid the inflationary depression into which the the world financial system seems to be spiraling.
Should it include real-world activities via tracking mechanisms on
mobile devices as in Japan’s Osaifu Ketai (shopping) and Suica, or SONY’s Felica, used in Japanese 携帯 (Mobile devices), is one such paperless digital cash solution, using RFID to register electronic and mobile transactions.
transportation services?
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/service/convenience/index.html#p01
http://www.jreast.co.jp/suica/
How about the massive world of online gambling? Pornography? Could
these payments/transactions perhaps be included and/or curbed via a
virtual currency and trading system to “healthier levels” in
comparison to the rest of E-Commerce activity online? Should they be,
or are their current market shares acceptable? What about B2C online
retail? B2B supply chain?? C2C and online auctions???
http://amazon.com
http://www.alibaba.com/
http://shopping.yahoo.com
http://checkout.google.com
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Top-B2B-Sourcing-Websites&id=2052776
http://ebay.com
Or, should it simply exist as a totally separate value-exchange
mechanism only in the domain in which it is used? Lots of examples
exist in the gaming world, the most popular probably coming from the
very successful economies of the MMORPGs as in
WoW: http://www.wowwiki.com/Currency
-and-
SecondLife: http://secondlife.com/whatis/currency.php
With companies like Facebook and Kiva testing the “virtual credit” and
“social micropayment” strategies, respectively, this is an area which
is surely poised to grow.
http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/03/facebook-wants-you-to-give-credit-w…
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13930297165
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?api_key=aae65eb57fb54fa8…
http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=364
http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/10/kiva-brings-microlending-home-to-us-…
http://www.kiva.org/about/how
One thing that is for sure, all of this amounts to a merging of online
and real-world activity, which may be represented as a single virtual
currency system (possibly with several different currency types within
it). And another thing is for sure, we should all watch these and
understand the mistakes of the current Banking/Financial systems,
short-sighted constant growth Economics, Resource-based economy
benefits and shortcomings, and real-contribution-based Sustainable Economies:
http://www.moneyasdebt.net/
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
In the end, the thing to be careful of is being tied down to a single monetary measurement the way we are with our nations’ various fiat currencies today. As the videos above explain, much of the economic woes we suffer today are due to the practice of Usury being so common-place in Central Banking today.
Related articles
- The Global Push for Felica NFC (wirelesswatch.jp)
- Gemalto, Sony to provide FeliCa/NFC solutions globally (oracleidentity.wordpress.com)
- Bitcoin, Ven and the End of Currency (msamba.wordpress.com)
- MWC 2012: Near Field Communication goes to Japan, FeliCa goes worldwide (silicontrust.wordpress.com)
- Sony “Authentication Outlet” works on per user and device basis (ubergizmo.com)
- NXP joins Japan’s move to NFC (nfcdata.com)
- Sony looks at personalized charging (ubergizmo.com)
- GetJar launches ad-funded virtual currency (mobile-ent.biz)
- Glenbrook Virtual Currency Report (nfcdata.com)
