Most Successful Dogecoin
Digital currencies have now been slowly gaining in maturity both in terms of their functionality and the financial infrastructure that enables them to be used as a credible option to non-virtual fiat currency. Though Bitcoin, dogecoin the first and most popular of the crypto-currencies was created in 2009 there has been forms of virtual currencies utilized in game titles for significantly more than 15 years. 1997's Ultima Online was the first notable attempt to incorporate a sizable scale virtual economy in a game. Players could collect gold coins by undertaking quests, battling monsters and finding treasure and spend these on armour, weapons or real estate. This was an earlier incarnation of a digital currency in that it existed purely within the game though it did mirror real life economics to the extent that the Ultima currency experienced inflation as a result of the game mechanics which ensured that there was an endless way to obtain monsters to kill and thus gold coins to collect.
Released in 1999, EverQuest took virtual currency gaming an action further,
allowing players to trade virtual goods amongst themselves in-game and though
it was prohibited by the game's designer to also sell virtual items to each
other on eBay. In a real life phenomenon which was entertainingly explored in
Neal Stephenson's 2011 novel Reamde, Chinese gamers or 'gold farmers' were
employed to play EverQuest and other such games full-time with desire to of
gaining experience points to be able to level-up their characters thereby
making them more powerful and sought after. These characters would then be sold
on eBay to Western gamers who were unwilling or unable to set up the hours to
level-up their own characters. On the basis of the calculated exchange rate of EverQuest's
currency as a result of real life trading that took place Edward Castronova,
Professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University and a professional in
virtual currencies estimated that in 2002 EverQuest was the 77th richest
country in the world, approximately Russia and Bulgaria and its GDP per capita
was greater compared to the People's Republic of China and India.
Launched in 2003 and having reached 1 million regular users by 2014, Second
Life is possibly the most complete exemplory case of a digital economy
currently whereby it's virtual currency, the Linden Dollar which can be used to
buy or sell in-game goods and services can be exchanged for real life
currencies via market-based exchanges. There have been a recorded $3.2 billion
in-game transactions of virtual goods in the 10 years between 2002-13, Second
Life having develop into a marketplace where players and businesses alike could
actually design, promote and sell content they created. Real-estate was an
especially lucrative commodity to trade, in 2006 Ailin Graef became the first
Second Life millionaire when she turned an initial investment of $9.95 into
over $1 million over 2.5 years through buying, selling and trading virtual
property to other players. Examples such as for instance Ailin would be the
exception to the rule however, only a recorded 233 users making significantly
more than $5000 in 2009 from Second Life activities.
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