Archive for September 2000

Virtual Currencies

virtual currenciesVirtual currencies haven been around for a very long time. In essence most customer loyalty programs fulfill the criteria of virtual currencies. So, Coca Cola’s ‘free drink vouchers’ issued in 1887 might have been the first. Digital versions seem to have first apperaed when Flooz came online in 1999.

I think virtual currencies can be viewed as a form of ‘electronic money’ or area of payment system technology that might be evolving in the next decade expand over just game worlds. I came across a somewhat insightful hearing memo on the Future of Money before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services which is worth reading.

It seems very strange to me that we can now send emails for free but have to pay a bank tributes for the privilege of moving bits.