The Virtual Economy

The Virtual Economy will provide an opportunity for people to smooth or augment their real-world income through a non-native economic system. This has profound implications for global wealth and income inequality.

The virtual economy is the newest example of many technoogies converging to facilitate the emergence of a new labor market. Young people, unable or nwilling to access the upper echelons of traditional careers, are finding ways to earn income and build a reputation through novel activities unique to virtual spaces.

This system of fair exchange drove extraordinary improvements in global equality, poverty and innovation over decades. But since the early 1990s, social mobility has slowed considerably. According to the OECD, it now takes at least five generations for a child born into a low-income French, German, Korean, British or American family to reach averag... See more

We will emerge from this global quarantine to see new icons, influencers and entrepreneurs within virtual worlds. They will come to prominence at a time when people question the fundamental usefulness of traditional institutions, protocols, and the social contract.

By any measure, conventional or otherwise, the volume of microtransactions shows that the significance gamers attach to their virtual items and achievements can be a real source of economic value.

The Virtual Economy is an opportunity to short-circuit that system failure. It is an environment where entrepreneurs, prospectors and skilled agents can generate significant wealth very quickly without the need for startup capital. Esports players, streamers, skin designers, level boosters are just some examples of the creative new ways that people... See more