New Money: 10 Virtual and Alternative Currencies

Image Credit: Getty Images, Hunter Wilson Photography/Flickr

No matter how complex and diverse our online communities are, and how sophisticated and evolved the new ways in which we interact with one another seem, buying and selling still remains at the fore of the online world. Though the basic act of commerce has not changed, many entrepreneurial minds have envisioned new ways to facilitate our transactions, and bring business beyond cash and coin. Here are ten currencies we’ve been tracking:

The Renmibi

In China, the QQ Coin—a currency attached to the massively popular QQ chatting and social networking service—has broken out of the virtual world, and is increasingly used to pay for real-life goods and services. Use of the QQ Coin has become so rampant that it has begun to affect the value of China’s official state currency—to the extent that the People’s Bank of China is actively seeking to crack down on QQ misuse.

M-PESA

The idea behind the M-Pesa digital currency is to permit branchless banking in the third world—allowing for loans and money transfers in areas where many have no access to a physical bank. M-Pesa enables basic bank transactions executed entirely via mobile phone. The M-Pesa service has carried interesting sociological consequences; one university study has explored the role the service plays in granting women greater financial freedom, as well as allowing their husbands to keep mistresses paid in secret.

Ven

Collaborative business network Hub Culture in London has its own Ven currency which its members use to trade services and also buy goods like coffee at the physical spaces that Hub Culture creates.

Ecopup

A concept by Ashwin Rajan, a student at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, about a green-loyalty scheme where earned points for environmentally friendly behavior can be used as currency.

Image Credit: Getty Images, Fursov Aleksey Photography/Flickr

Berkshares

BerkShares is a program supported by the E.E. Schumacher Society that has had success in the Berkshire region of Massachusetts. People can go to a participating bank and purchase BerkShare currencies at a discount and then use them to make purchases at local businesses enrolled in the program. Businesses can use BerkShares to make change (keeping them in circulation) or sell them back to the banks. The currency comes in several denominations and features designs by local artists.

The Totnes Pound

The Totnes Pound is a ‘real world’ currency that was created in a small transition town in England to support local business and keep finance from leaking out.

Threebies

Threebles takes the concept of a credit rating and applies the principles of a triple bottom line. The program uses external feedback loops to measure social and environmental impacts and then creates financial consequences. For example, if a company earns a poor environmental rating, it would have to pay a higher rate of interest to obtain a loan.

World of Warcraft Gold

In World of Warcraft, players earn Gold as they advance through the game. The currency has become so sought-after that it is bought and sold on a black market, experts said.

Low-wage workers in China are known to play the game for a living and then sell the virtual currency they earn to avid “World of Warcraft” players in the West. This despite the fact that the game’s maker prohibits such activities.

Pay With Facebook

Facebook has rolled out its much-vaunted “Pay With Facebook’ system, as an alternative payment method for in-app purchases. The system has the obvious advantage of starting off with a massive potential base, but it’s unclear what any Facebook user’s incentive is to pay via the platform as opposed to say, Visa or Mastercard.

e-Gold

The e-Gold system was founded on a general suspicion of the American dollar and a steadfast belief that currency should be grounded by the gold standard. Established way back in 1996, e-Gold was eventually felled by its popularity with credit card scammers, and its founder has been embroiled in a legal battle with the government—though he does promise to clear his name and restart the service.