But neither do they evince any particular hostility toward the concept of decentralized virtual currencies.
FORBES: New Money Laundering Guidelines Are A Positive Sign For Bitcoin
An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment when asked about the agency's concerns regarding virtual currencies.
Ewallets will also blur the line between simple loyalty points and more widely-accepted virtual currencies.
FORBES: The Race to Control Your Wallet and the Future of Commerce
The rules don't apply to individuals who simply use virtual currencies to purchase real or virtual goods.
Treasure hunts turn up empty, cows die and virtual currencies are even more volatile than their real-world counterparts.
These stored value cards give kids without credit cards a way to buy the in-game virtual currencies with real money.
FORBES: PlaySpan Scores $18M In Series C Funding, Nearly 50M Unique Users
Facebook continues to bring order to the wild and woolly landscape of virtual currencies and payment systems on its social network.
FORBES: Facebook's One Bling To Rule Them All: 5-Year Credits Deal With CrowdStar
The new scrutiny comes at the same time federal regulators are attempting to rein in illegal activities made easier by virtual currencies.
The rise of virtual currencies has been exemplified by bitcoin, which lets Internet users create new money by solving complex math problems.
WSJ: U.S. Alleges $6 Billion Money-Laundering Operation at Liberty Reserve
Instead, criminals are often using virtual currencies like the Russian service Web Money and, until its founder was indicted last year, E-Gold.
Facebook Credits has faced some unpopularity among game developers, who are used to managing their own in-game virtual currencies and taking a larger cut of the revenues.
FORBES: Facebook And Social Game Companies: The Honeymoon's Over
Similar to merchant processors for credit and debit cards, BitPay is a Payment Service Provider (PSP) specializing in eCommerce, B2B, and enterprise solutions for virtual currencies.
FORBES: Largest Bitcoin Payment Processor Raises $510,000 Angel Round
It evokes an image of central bankers huddled comfortably on the safe shoreline as they look out into the horizon and see the dangerous, unstable virtual currencies approaching.
FORBES: ECB: "Roots Of Bitcoin Can Be Found In The Austrian School Of Economics"
In the case of bitcoin, a strong case can be made that, even with secondary markets, certain virtual currencies lack the legal elements of material value and property.
FORBES: WinPoker Becomes First Major Gambling Operator To Adopt Bitcoin
For example, the usage of virtual currencies, online bartering marketplaces, and time banking brokers that match skills to needs and allow prices to be set mutually and in non-monetary units.
Still, law enforcement, regulators and financial institution have expressed worries about the hard-to-trace attributes of virtual currencies, helping trigger this week's move from the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCen.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCen, last month issued a three-page memo that effectively lays the groundwork to regulate firms that issue or exchange virtual currencies.
Hiro estimates that the potential market size for sales of virtual items in the U.S. is in the billions of dollars, but that issues like too many virtual currencies are roadblocks for potential customers.
FORBES: Facebook's One Bling To Rule Them All: 5-Year Credits Deal With CrowdStar
Creating clear-cut rules for virtual currencies is difficult.
The Chinese government has repeatedly curbed virtual currencies.
As I outlined in Virtual Currencies and Roach Motels, in-world economies are the perfect crucible for launching unrestricted currency competition and that competition will enable further opportunities for transporting virtual world earnings to real world value.
One of them is how much impact virtual economies and currencies will have on real world ones.
"I think we're seeing right now the first wave, with virtual goods and currencies limited to a certain game or context, " says Matt Berardo, vice president of product management at social-games platform GameHouse Fusion.
Although this system is not governed by a formal treaty like the one that binds the 17-nation eurozone, it has given rise to a virtual bloc of currencies that are unnaturally tethered, even while the underlying economics are drifting apart.
FORBES: Germany And China Have The Gold And Will Make The Rules
An important part of the elimination of criminal anonymity in the future will be making emerging digital, virtual, or private currencies illegal.
Developers are getting better control over payments, including working across multiple currencies and selling virtual goods and upgrades while inside the apps.
Bloomberg terminals, for traders, are virtual ecosystems on which they can negotiate contracts, research currencies or read a restaurant review.
WSJ: J.P. Morgan Asks Bloomberg for Data on What Information Reporters Had Access to
How could a PhD in economics think that a Keynesian currency system that has failed so badly in the real world be the desired path for currencies like WoW Gold and EVE Online ISK in the virtual world?
应用推荐