virtual currency

Definitions

1. 1

   A type of unregulated digital currency that is restricted to a specific community or…

   A type of unregulated digital currency that is restricted to a specific community or purpose, such as in-game purchases.

   • Virtual currency is the offering of virtual monies that can be spent to buy services (or virtual goods) inside of an application. This is a new trend that has been used primarily in game-like social network applications.
   • Unlike fiat currencies like the United States dollar and virtual currencies like Facebook credits and the one invented by Liberty Reserve, bitcoins are not created or controlled by a central authority.
   • Gas is not ether–it's a separate virtual currency with its own exchange rate against ether.
2. 2

   Any digital currency.

   • When he was a Yale Law School student, Reuben Grinberg wrote one of the first academic papers about Bitcoin, a novel virtual currency that uses sophisticated cryptography to validate and secure transactions that exist only online.
   • People say it’s a Ponzi scheme, it’s a bubble,” said Cameron Winklevoss. “People really don’t want to take it seriously. At some point that narrative will shift to ‘virtual currencies are here to stay.’ We’re in the early days.”
   • Those payments are typically made in cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies like Bitcoin, which the gangs then need to convert to standard currencies, like dollars, euros and rubles.

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