User talk:Czubul

Latest revision as of 11:48, 1 April 2008

[edit] A Currency that Pays a Divident

The OpenSim project should have a currency that pays a divident. If users earn a divident just by using the game currency this will be a great incentive not only to participate in the game but also to use the currency in real life. Thus this increases the possibility that a market of things of value will develop in the game and maybe the currency will be used for real life transactions as well. A currency that pays a divident will prevail over any other form of virtual currency by means of the strategic advantage of directly benefiting the user. Convertibility to real currencies will depend solely on free market ability of the currency to provide goods and services and not some convertibility obligation undertaken by the company that hosts the server.

Implementing a currency that produces a divident would require suitable financial institutions, capital markets, and a mechanism to liquidate a part of current value of financial instruments. Through liquidating a sustainable part of current value of financial instruments the company that hosts the server would earn the game money funds which when converted to real currency would pay for its operational costs plus the funds needed to pay a divident. It would be in the best interest of the company that hosts the server to ensure that the financial structure operates efficiently for the benefit of the users so that the game currency has maximum value of convertibility to real life currencies.

The financial structure required could be as follows:

1. Central Bank

THe Central Bank would oversee the monetary volume, the amount to be liquidated and the keeping of individual money accounts of users free of charge but free of interest as well.

- All users would be shareholders to the Central Bank, owning no more and no less than one share each

- The monetary volume would be a fixed amount of currency for each share, say 100.000 units, which would be the nominal value of the Central Bank share.

- All financial transactions of users, Investment Banks and Capital Markets would be processed through the Central Bank's server software and console

- The Central Bank will determine how much of Investment Bank's current stock value must be held in liquid reserves

- The Central Bank will determine how much of those liquid reserves will be contributed to the Special Account in order to be distributed to the users as divident and to the company that hosts the server

- The Central Bank will have the power to dispense payments through the Special Account to the company that hosts the server, to shareholders and to in-game political institutions such as elected moderators

- Ideally the Central Bank management would be ellected by users, even better by Invesment Bank managers

- Any increase or decrease in monetary volume would be achieved solely by depositing or withdrawing funds to/from each user's account

2. Investment Banks

The Investment Banks would be the main user operated financial institution.

- They would be the only financial instrument users would be able to directly buy shares of.

- They would be the only vehicle available for investment in Capital Markets.

- They would be able to structure and trade financial instruments through the Central Bank console

- They would be able to lend money for projects

- Any user or group of users would able to open an Investment Bank through a console provided by the Central Bank if they provide capital equal to say 10 Central Bank Shares worth

- An individual who wants to trade the financial markets with his own money, should come up with enough capital to open an Investment Bank

- Investment Banks would freely be able to raise capital by issuing shares

- Their shares would be floated and traded in a separate market than Capital Markets through the Central Bank console

- They would be under obligation to keep a part of their investment portfolio in cash so the Central Bank can deduct a contribution to the Special Account

- The holdings in their investment portfolio would be open for every interested investor to audit

3. Capital markets

These would be the Exchanges where financial instruments are traded

- The Central Bank would provide the console for the Exchanges and handle the payments

- Anything of value could be traded on the Exchanges

- The financial instruments would be structured freely by the Investment Banks

- Individual loans would be structured as financial instruments and traded freely

- The coding of financial instruments would be open for everyone to audit

- An Exchange would be a user-managed institution, the user-managers would be able to charge a commision on transactions as compensation for managing the exchange

- The Exchanges would all be interconected, so the most efficient ones get the most business

Supporting Environment

The financial structure's legitimacy and effectiveness would benefit the most by a functional political proccess within the game and the development of legal and political institutions that would oversee its implementation. In this way the company that hosts the server would have relegated most of the work too the user community. In a maybe utopian scenario the company itself could be owned by the users. A lot of reated economic activity could evolve alongside the main structure such as auditing companies, programmers etc

Kickstarting a Project

Once the software is implemented as above this could evolve as essentially a game where the collective purpose of the users would be to develop and increase the value of the game currency and spread its use. A group of people willing to kickstart such a project would need to set up a server and a rudimentary mechanism to buy and sell shares to the Central Bank and thus opening user accounts. Integration with a payment system such as Paypal would help. A new user would be able to either:

- use real money to buy enough in-game currency from other users or the central bank as a provider of last resort to purchase his share to the Central Bank and so be entitled to a divident

- or start free and offer services or anything of value in-game so as to accumulate enough in-game currency to buy his share in the Central Bank and then be entitled to a divident

When a new user opens an account and purchases his share to the Central Bank, new in-game money is created up to the value of one Central Bank share and deposited to the Special Account for the benefit of all users. In this way the monetary volume is increased as new users come in and all all users benefit from attracting new users. A de facto mechanism for the convertibility of the in-game currency would thus be achieved and setting up a server for the game could prove profitable. Ideally various groups would be able to start different projects but all grids should be interconnected and maybe their currencies floated on a common exchange