Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Virtual World, Real Banking

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-wait-for-the-virtual-bailout dept.

The Opposable Thumbs blog brings news about MindArk PE AB, a Swedish game developer whose MMO Entropia Universe has an in-game economy based on real money. It seems the company has been "granted preliminary approval for a real banking license by the Swedish Finance Supervisory. ... MindArk's going to be just like a bank in the real world: it will be backed by Sweden's $60,000 deposit insurance, offer interest-bearing accounts for its clients, feature direct deposit options, let players pay bills online, and apparently will offer loans to customers." An Associated Press report adds that "The economic activity in Entropia Universe was worth about $420 million last year, about the same as the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, population 110,000. The game has 850,000 player accounts, though not all of them represent active players."

2 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. A logical and synergistic extension... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

    As we've all seen, the financial sector has thousands of man-years of experience playing games with other people's imaginary money. They should find this new line of business a natural fit...

  2. Digital cash by geekgirlandrea · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now I want to write a cypherpunk-themed MMORPG, and set up something like this as cover for connecting an cryptographically anonymous digital cash system to the real-world banking infrastructure.