Sign In

### Topic

#### Credits <--> BitCoins

There was a post requesting the ability to buy Credits with BitCoins, but the topic closed from 30 days of no activity.
I have a slightly different idea. Let players buy Credits with BitCoins, yes. But also let them cash out to BitCoins! There are lots of great things this would accomplish.
- An instant player audience, as BitCoin users would hear about Glitch within their community and shoot right over to play it - and subscribe to it!
- Players would devote themselves more to playing Glitch, since higher-value items would sell for more.
And you need more advanced skills to craft them.
- When players cash out to BitCoins, keep 10% or so for Glitch. This can cover server costs and so forth.
- That 10% tithe, in turn, would enable Glitch to feature periodic quests, challenges, and so forth... with prizes that would have actual cash value! The prize Credits' cash value would be a fraction of what Glitch received from the 10% tithes.
- Those prize awards would, of course, attract massive amounts of players to Glitch. And because Glitch would be earning money as players cashed out for all the big ticket items they'd crafted and sold (meaning Glitch would be making money as players played the game), all these new players' demand on the server would be already paid for.
The result is more players, more satisfied players, more devoted players, and a pretty solid way for Glitch to pay for its upkeep costs and then some... since most of the players' playtime would eventually convert in one way or another to 10% of the crafted items' value to Glitch. And nobody would have to pay for anything they didn't want to.
- Additionally, you could offer players a small amount of that 10% from cash outs by any new players they'd referred to the game. Advertising needs? Solved. Players would be cheering about Glitch everywhere, not just because it's fun but also to actively promote it!
All you'd have to do is implement BitCoin into this site, enable people to purchase with it, cash out with it, and deduct 10% from the BitCoin value of whatever they cashed out. That's... not a lot of coding. In-game prices would remain the same, although player demand for items would normalize to a new level.
I'd be interested to hear the Glitch staff's thoughts on this in the Replies. Not just Yes or No, but what they like about it, don't like, or what they have to consider that hadn't occurred to me.

Posted 8 months ago by Satori Tindalos | Permalink

### Replies

- My situation my be indicative of the general lack-of-response: I have NO idea what a BitCoin is. (and yeah, I suppose I'm too lazy to Google it!)
  Posted 8 months ago by Dr.Maud, Obviously | Permalink
- 1. If we create financial incentives to do stuff in the game world, the game itself will be killed by people wanting to make money. Scamming, spamming, fraud, phishing, hacking accounts … it'd be like the internet.
  2. If we pay money out to players, we have to follow obtuse tax/reporting regulations in every jurisdiction that a player lives. The cost of reporting to the IRS that Jane made $15 here, and to the German tax authority that Joe made $10 there, and so on for Taiwan and Brazil and Canada, etc., would almost certainly be higher than what we could make.
  Posted 8 months ago by stoot barfield | Permalink