While Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain and smart contracts are relatively new to the technology world, Virtual Economies are not. Virtual Economies have been alive and well in video games for decades. Virtual Goods have harnessed real world value ever since someone flew across the country to meet another player in person to buy an epic sword in Ultima Online. This occurred because there was no way both sides could trust the other would perform their part of the transaction remotely and both sides of the transaction were irreversible with no recourse. The perceived value of the sword had that much draw to the player who wanted it, more than just the money, the prestige within the online community of owning it drove him to spend the extra time and money to fly across the country to ensure the transaction.
Since then, services such as PayPal have allowed for the transactions of digital goods to happen remotely. However, as transactions increased in value and frequency, fraud increased due to the extreme difficulty a 3rd party like Paypal has to prove compliance of the transaction. Yet peer-to-peer digital goods transactions between players are still estimated in the tens of billions of dollars per year. Digital communities policing themselves with Feedback and Reputation systems can be “gamed” as the bounties for being dishonest soar.
Convergence is working to solve this growing problem by basing its CORE virtual goods transactions on the blockchain. Users are still responsible for their personal passwords and encryption keys; however, the process for transferring virtual goods will be far more secure and simplified.
Nanites (Microscopic Nanobots) assemble to form coins so people can pick them up (ever tried to pick up a molecule?) They are also used to create the basic resource bots on the CORE planets of the Silica neXus. These basic resource bots are used in the collection and production of basic Consumable Resources (“Consumables”) such as Fuel and Alloy on the CORE planets. These Consumables will be used by the players throughout the CORE planets just like gas and steel are consumed in countries around the world.
Nanobots will be stored in users’ accounts, along with all of the other virtual goods they collect, until traded or put to use to create resource bots. Resource bots are installed on land parcels to acquire fundamental Crude or Ore for processing into Fuel or Alloy respectively. Fuel and Alloy can be used, stored or traded. Early Adopters through Convergence’s Crowdsource campaign can become first Resource Barons in the SXVU. As the number of users grows on the system, the scarcity of resources will create a natural supply / demand market. Very similar to the ecosystem of the World of Warcraft community.
As 3rd party developers create entirely different experiences on new planets, they may have their own internal ecosystems. However, these new ecosystems will always have the ability to be exchanged for virtual goods from the CORE planets through the SXVU marketplace at a conversion rate to be determined at that time by the community based on the demand and scarcity of the new 3rd party’s planets’ virtual goods.
