In recent months, "virtual currency" has been making
headlines. Most of us don't really think about what
"virtual" currency means and often confuse it with other
forms of money. That said, there is good reason for confusion and
concern. Like many other technology-driven innovations, lines are
blurring and we know blurring lines means opportunity and danger.
So Legal Bytes will tackle this in two parts. The
first (below) attempts to describe what all these new terms mean
and how they are used. Legal Bytes part two (later
this week) will summarize current events – the confusion and
concern over exactly what all this means to our economy and why you
should care.
Virtual currencies got their start in virtual economies that
exist in virtual worlds. For example, in massively multi-player
online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as World of
Warcraft, players "earn" credits and have the ability
to exchange, use or "spend" this virtual
"value" in the game environment, to
