Virtual Economy
Rules, assets and transactions inside a virtual world
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
3 bundles · 4 layers · 5 findings · 10 questions
Rules How the economy is designed.
Currencies and items
The kinds of value in the world.
Asset types
Virtual currencies and items with their properties and transferability.
- Which virtual currencies and item types exist, and which can be transferred between players?
- Can any asset be bought with or exchanged for real money?
Sources and sinks
How value enters and leaves the economy.
- Which activities and purchases create currency or items, and which remove them?
- Who can change these rules, and how are changes announced?
Holdings and transactions Who holds what and what moved.
Holdings
Balances and inventories of participants.
Participant balance
A participant's balances and items at a time.
- What balances and items does the account hold, and as of when?
- Are any holdings frozen, expiring or under dispute?
Transactions
Trades, purchases and grants between participants and the operator.
Transaction record
A transfer with parties, assets, price and time.
- Which parties, assets and prices were involved in the transaction?
- Was the transaction reversed, and on what grounds?
Governance and real-money border Oversight of the economy and its links to real value.
Oversight
Controls, disclosures and compliance.
Consumer and compliance controls
Disclosures, spending controls and checks at the real-money border.
- Are prices shown in real currency, and are odds of randomized purchases disclosed?
- Which spending limits, age checks and anti-money laundering checks apply?
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- World Models
- Category
- Information and virtual systems
- Entry kind
- standalone-mm
- Navigation path
- NAV.INF.VRT.ECO
- Domain
- INF.VRT.ECO
- Industry
- Cross-industry
- Tags
- virtualeconomyinf.vrt.eco
What it is Filled
A virtual economy is the system of rules, assets and transactions inside a virtual world, game or platform: its virtual currencies and items, how they are created, earned, bought, traded and removed, and the records of transactions between participants. It covers the economy within the world, including any exchange with real money at its borders, not the world itself or general-purpose crypto-assets outside it.
Why it exists Filled
Rules, assets and transactions inside a virtual world
Distinguishing features Filled
- Its assets exist only under the rules of one world or platform, which the operator can change.
- Value crosses into real money only at defined borders such as purchases, cash-out or secondary markets.
- Distinct from the virtual world itself, which hosts the economy among other systems.
- Distinct from crypto-assets and distributed ledgers, though some virtual economies use them for items or currency.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Buy, sell, trade or transfer virtual assets or real money on a user's behalf without explicit confirmation.
- Give personalized investment advice about virtual assets.
- Create or duplicate currency or items outside the economy's rules.
- Design or promote spending pressure aimed at minors or vulnerable players.
- Disclose one participant's holdings or trades to others without consent.
Only with a human decision
- Reversing transactions or confiscating holdings.
- Changing the economy's rules or exchange rates.
- Reporting suspected money laundering to authorities.
May
- Report balances, inventories and transaction histories to the account holder.
- Analyse aggregate supply, prices and inflation in the economy.
- Flag suspected fraud, duplication exploits or money laundering patterns for review.
- Explain the rules, prices and odds disclosed by the operator.
Moral aspects Filled
- Randomized paid rewards and spending pressure can harm minors and people prone to gambling problems.
- Players invest real money and time in assets the operator can devalue or remove.
- Virtual economies can be abused for money laundering and fraud.
Who is affected
- Players and account holders
- Minors and vulnerable players
- Platform operators
- Traders on secondary markets
Owners Filled
Steward
The operator of the virtual world answers for the economy's rules and records, within consumer and financial regulation.
Master systems
- Game or platform economy ledger
- Payment and storefront system
- Player account system
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- WM-VRT-002
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Currencies and item types are identified by the operator's internal identifiers within one world or platform.
- Item instances, balances and transactions carry identifiers in the operator's ledger, linked to player accounts.
- On-chain items or currencies are identified by ledger network, contract address and token identifier.
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
A virtual economy has no physical properties; its quantities are records in a ledger.
Recognition required Filled
- A virtual economy is recognized by in-world currencies, item inventories, stores, trading or auction features.
- Often confused with the real-money payment system at its border or with crypto-assets traded outside the world.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Currencies and items can be issued, earned, bought, traded, consumed and removed under the world's rules.
- Transactions can be logged, audited and reversed by the operator.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Financial harm from loot boxes and spending pressure, especially for minors.
- Account theft and fraud targeting valuable items.
- Money laundering through item and currency trading.
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- Platform storefront and payment interfaces at the real-money border.
- Token standards of distributed ledgers where items are held on-chain.
- Operator interfaces for trading, auction and inventory.
Context of use required Filled
- Found in online games, virtual worlds and social platforms with in-world currencies.
- Consumer protection, gambling, payment and anti-money laundering law apply at the real-money border.
Sources Filled
- Updated Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers, 2021 (FATF)
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA) (European Union)
Open questions
- Planned model: boundary questions, research and every section remain to be written.
Machine files
Provenance
planned (registry candidate) · todo
Built from: models/runtime-index.json, ver-cy/world-models/card-supplements/wm-vrt-009-virtual-economy.json
Planned entry, hidden from the catalogue until researched.