Topic: Can Bitcoin Foundation succeed lobbying Valve to use Bitcoin as ingame currency? - page 2. (Read 2982 times)

Anyway, it seems that they are going on this way:
http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/27/valve-economist-sees-the-future-discusses-ar-tech-hardware/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/13zn4l/valve_wants_to_develop_a_single_currency_across/

In that case they will simply create another private-central-bank system similar to Linden Labs linden dollars for Second Life. The players and other companies deploying games on the Steam platform would have to trust Valve not to abuse or manipulate the system, also to provide stability for the exchange rate Steamcoin would have to be pegged to USD, which is not necessarily optimal for world-wide deployment.  If all they wanted to do is emulate Linden Lab's second life, they wouldn't need economists advising them. 

It will be enough if they make something like Steamcoin and some good API to exchange them between users, nothing more

Using bitcoin for in-game currency is a great idea but it could only be made viable if game developers actually retained *some* control over movement of money.  If players are the only ones in control of their private keys that prevents the game developer from taxing the economy, the other extreme of the game developer controlling the private keys would essentially be a just another roach-motel scheme where rather than using bitcoins the players would be using *promises* to redeem to bitcoins and would have to rely on the game developer to honor those promises.  A hybrid system where balances are held in 2-out-2 multisig escrow account could potentially allow the game developers to tax the players without allowing them to run away or inflate the money supply.

Online game economies are an endless repetition of hyperinflation after hyperinflation. Compared to online game currencies bitcoin is rock solid.

Just as world governments endlessly produce more money to keep the ponzi scheme from collapsing online games produce more and more currency until its population is happily accumulating worthless bits.

Take control of the currency away from the game designer and not only is the economy hyperinflation proof but they can incoorperate numerous ways to siphon bitcoins from the economy with in game perks.

I think there is a very strong business model here. You let people play for free but they enter the game with no money. They can send bitcoins to become rich in the game or they could gather resources or do other services for other players to earn currencies. The revenue for the game servers comes from certain expensive resources that can only be bought from NPCs who pay the game authors.

Online games lack poverty, they lack the power for the rich to dominate the poor. I think that dynamic is an important part of an immersive role playing game. The face that you could be a great merchent in the game and then buy real gold coins with the profit is just gravy.

It is the difference between a poker game with a $2 buy in and a poker game with a $500 buy in. In the $2 game you really don't give a shit so you are reckless, the game is less intense. In a high stake game you really act with more caution creating a dramatic standoff.

Same goes for an in game world with real world stakes, people will act with strategy instead of attacking with abandon.

How is using a volatile currency going to encourage a stable economy?

Using bitcoins as an online currency in a MMORPG would be brilliant. The game could be free but charge a small 1% fee on withdrawing bitcoins from the game.

The one thing that has ruined role playing games was their failure to maintain a stable economy. By using real currency this is solved.

However, I think in some areas this may be considered online gambling?

I agree, this should be a no-brainer.  Help to get a pre-existing community to accept Bitcoin, with whatever software they might require.  Nothing too fancy, just make it work.

Can the Bitcoin Foundation succeed at lobbying Valve to use Bitcoin as ingame currency?

Well, if the Bitcoin Foundation can't make this happen then they should just disband.