Topic: BitCoin as an open-source game currency (Read 1741 times)

I think the transaction time that you are talking about is the time it would take to convert dollars or euros into BTC. The actual transaction time is fairly marginal.


Good point on the people who simply would not ever use the coins. Probably would want to bank them at the game's website, then allow people a cashout process if they choose.

We should start a letter writing game to all our favourite game devs!

If anybody really wants to do this I'd be willing to help, although I'm only a mediocre programmer

I wish runescape would accept bitcoins

Don't bitcoin transactions take a while to verify?

Also people stop playing games all the time so tons of money would just get lost in the system, maybe if when you logged off all the money got sent to a central wallet, then it could be redeemed when you logged back on? The game's revenue could come from banned account's cash or user's who haven't logged on in a year etc.

Electrongolf, you are right on. To add to your three key advantages, the sharing of BTC for p2p sales of game artifacts would hopefully make the "IRS Regulations" issue less murky. Of course, any game that has BTC transfers for their product is going to take a cut, so that might be an issue of it's own.

I think we could also take the concept of BitCoins to cheaper arcade style online games as well. If someone were to create a series of low CPU usage arcade games and provide winnings in BTC to high scorers each day, it may serve the purpose to advance the BTC money into mainstream. The arcade games could run BTC miners as part of the website in order to generate BTC. When the day ended, the site keeps a percentage and gives the day's high scorers a piece of the pie as well.

P.S. I'd do it myself, but I am swamped with other programming work.

I think BTC as in game currency is a great idea. It would be crazy fun, and serve as stabilization tool for the BTC economy.

Imagine if there was a Second Life, Civilaztion type game where you can earn BTC based on skill. This would accomplish three things:
1) Remove the barrier for entry for using BTC- Regular people will begin using it without thinking about the technical and political baggage.
2) Stabalize the economy- There will always be a place where BTC has a use, and a basis from which to determine value.
3) Encourage exchange instead of investing - People will see value in spending BTC, as opposed to hoarding it. Spending in game (investing) earns coins faster than waiting for the price to go up

Spending BTC outside of the game, on products like yours, could be an added bonus to using the currency.

I have asked them about adopting BTC as a deposit and withdrawal option but I've yet to receive a response.

If Entropia is already a commerce-focused affair, is there any way to start a related BTC service as is?

Also, Entropia Universe is free to play and has been running for several years so the player base and in-game market is pretty well established.  And, there is a LOT of money invested in the game already (probably several million USD worth).

The only true Real Cash Economy MMO right now is Entropia Universe.  Their in-game currency is tied to the USD (i.e. you can deposit and withdraw real USD in the game).  It would be interesting if they would adopt BTC and it would make deposits and withdrawals so much easier to do but I doubt that they could be convinced to make such a drastic change at this point in BTC history...  However, if they could be convinced it would mean a big boom for bitcoins!

potential legal issues is one of the reasons my business parter is cautious about the idea of accepting bitcoin let alone entwining it that heavily with the game.

You could get a eve monocle for btc then 

And even if EVE does not adopt such a model, it would make sense to keep pushing the idea for games that are yet to be developed. Games are not created over night and I can assure you that many game developers are pondering the idea of using BTC. Besides, gamers are obviously better early adopters.

One note, the implementation of the idea may get a little dubious for bigger corporations, especially if they need to put down some sort of accounting record on the BTC exchanges (just like they have to do for barter exchanges right now). My guess is many more would adopt if they new accepting BTC would not be a potential land mine of IRS regulations.

Sounds as though there are a few EVE players here... it does seem to fit well, is there any way you could create an in game group or something to bring it to attention?

The virtual economy of EVE is connected to the world economy through PLEX, which are purchased with real currency, and can be used up to add game time to your account, or sold for the in game currency, ISK. One way they could implement bitcoin would be to allow one to buy PLEX with BTC. Since the price of a PLEX in USD is constant, I assume they would peg its price in BTC to the equivalent amount of USD. However, the price of a PLEX in ISK fluctuates, so there would be an interesting rate of BTC/ISK depending on both the PLEX/ISK and the BTC/USD.

It could hurt lock in a little, but if the BTC are held on gameservers people who don't know what BTC actually is might just leave it there… plus, the first person to come up with a game of the calibre of Heroes of Newerth with this business model would get a huge boost in business from all the bitcoiners, who I'm guessing overlap quite heavily on a venn graph with videogamers, what with the technical knowledge required and all…

BTC would be excellent for the free-to-play game market. Although many of them, for example Perfect World Entertainment, have their own cross-platform in-game currency (e.g. ZEN) the high granularity of bitcoins make them a really nice microtransaction medium. I did see mention that it could hurt lock-in, and in fact microtransaction currencies are essentially a way for free-to-play markets to take money in and never let it out again -- much like PWE has a single currency across all their games that does not mix with other publishers.

However, looking at how Activision Blizzard (although buy-to-play) is thinking of starting a cash auction house; a free-to-play game could split its market with their own cash auction house that permitted bitcoins as an exchange currency. 

Right here, can't do anything with bitcoin with the current project though.

Develop a game and allow all the services that you permit with cash, to also permit BTC. (Game time purchases, special in-game items, even a type of elite game currency)

I don't recommend BTC as an exclusive in-game currency for a variety of reasons.

First of all, you have an economy based on how much you (or other people) invest in the game, making your digital worlds economy even more volatile than the real world economy due to the smaller market and players frequently 'cashing out' on their in-game earnings.

Second you have the problem of transaction time.  In one scenario where all the in-game currency is held on a server side wallet, you serve as a simple (and I mean really simple) money laundering service.  Making you liable, in part, for the criminal actions of your players.  The other scenario where each player has a wallet makes your game server reliant on the systems transaction time, and doesn't eliminate the laundering concern.

Thirdly, instead of providing products and services which may legitimately earn payment, you are requiring people to pay real life money for your in game items. (We are trying to assert BTC a real currency aren't we?)  This works alright if you allow free market in your game, refusing to ban or punish players who sell items for real life currency, then players have a choice to make these backroom deals with other players.  Without an in-game currency that is controlled by a centralized system (even if that system is similar to bit-coin) that does not directly equate to real life money, you have an issue where the player willing to spend the most money on their character is always the best character.  As with world of warcraft and other games, leveling up is usually an expensive process.

These are a few reasons and I'm sure there are more.  I'm not even sure that a game that utilized BTC as a direct in-game currency is what the OP meant, but here's another little insight.  If this was a good idea to do with real money, it probably would have already been done.  Keeping track of fiat currency digitally is nothing new.