digital cash

Several people on this list seem interested in the idea of setting
up a digital cash system.  A while back someone was dumping legal
info on the legitimacy of running your own bank.  I have an idea
that would allow for "fun" use of digital cash systems while 
allowing a platform to test out ideas and put the system into
a somewhat "real" environment.
  All that is needed for a digital cash environment is a way
to earn money and a way to spend money.  The ideas proposed
so far seemed to be "send me real money and we'll give you
credits."   How about putting the digital money in a game/bbs
environment?  Example:  mud's could allow people to transfer
their funds between different games,  to give away some of
their game money electronically to others, etc.  BBS's might
let you spend your digital cash earned from a MUD for more
time or other services.  Maybe they'll let you earn money from
them in special ways.  A bank could be set up, and fixed sized
donations could be sent out to each service (BBS, MUD, etc)
participating.  Each service could then award its participants
with earnings as they play.  
  How could something like this actually come about?  Banking
routines for transfer of funds would have to be written
in portable code,  with an easy interface for software authors
to use in their packages.  Most people running BBS's, MUD's
and other services on the net have the technical knowledge
to patch something this simple into their programs.

  I am not a big fan of MUD's, and hardly BBS around, but
I think this might be a good way to get a system up and
running.  This will enable flaws in the system to surface,
and even under very bad circumstances, no one loses real
money.
                          Tim

>How about putting the digital money in a game/bbs
>environment?  

I had a talk with a fellow named Joichi Ito at CFP about this subject.
He's a total MUD addict and told me, "I would pay real money for MUD
money."

The legal issues involved in setting up a real world money system are
enormous.  Doing a game environment implementation would allow the
technical issues to be worked out without having to hire lawyers.  And
if some people transact for real money, we can't help that.

For MUD's in particular, there's a problem with conservation of mass,
er, gold.  It's really easy to create more MUD money.  However, if
there were a currency exchange system available between MUD's, you
would have a classical free banking environment.  Everyone issues
currency, and as gamemaster your money deflates to the extent that you
allow more gold to exist in your game.  I can't think of a better way
to get people to learn about monetary effects in macroeconomics.

I also spoke with Pavel Curtis at CFP, but only enough to interest him
in talking further.  Pavel runs the largest MUD on the planet.

Eric