Money

This page is intended as an open discussion board for ideas regarding an in-world financial system - Ezekiel.

Motivation

In order to be successful, any new world simulator needs to allow for financial transactions. While many residents enjoy the creative and social aspects of virtual life, others are there to provide them with the necessary means - and usually intend to be compensated. Metaverses without a business component (allowing residents to make money) depend largely on the creativity of the makers and tend to fall into disuse as soon as competitive simulators with better graphics and better entertainment come along (e.g. Active Worlds).

Play Money vs. Serious Money

There are two types of financial systems and currencies: one is purely an in-world affair (play money) and supports roleplay, the other is convertible into hard currencies (serious money). While it is commonly agreed that implementing a serious in-world currency system (with all the security implications) is out of scope at least for the current phase of the OpenSim development project, there are still some functional decisions to be made.

There are serveral possible ways of handling money in a grid:

• no money support
• in-world play money for roleplay
• in-world currency supported, protected and converted by the grid owner (like SL)
• off-world payment implementation, no in-world currency
• in-world play money plus off-world payment capabilities (might be confusing)

OpenSim should allow for an implemention of any of those alternatives.

Off-World Implementation

These are crucial in-world functions for off-world financial transactions:

• put a price tag on a prim, specifying amount and currency
• notification event (LSL) that resident X agrees to buy item / pay amount Y.

These functions are not crucial, since they may be implemented off-world:

• an in-world currency (use an internet payment provider or an e-currency instead)
• avatar account (use an internet payment provider or an e-currency instead)
• receive payment (can be handled off-world through osLoadURL - for most providers)
• give money (can be handled off-world through osHTTPRequest - for some providers)
• notify avatar of payment (can be done through IM or e-Mail)