I'm crossposting this from another forum, because I thought you guys would be interested. You can read the original thread at the Spout forums, here:
http://forums.spout.org/threads/from-the-ashes-of-apex-crypto-currency-in-minecraft-a-new-economy-plugin.7733/Basically, I am developing a minecraft plugin for server admins to use to link their in game "psuedo-economies" with a real world backing in the form of a crypto "hot-wallet" This is basically a "Time Credit" based system, and as such I refer to the virtual currency as "TC" throughout.
Here is my design whitepaper, more or less. Constructive critisism welcome:
This is in altcoins because by default, it only supports LTC. It can easily be modified once I release it to use any crypto currency you feel like, Bitcoin/any other coin included.
1.) Generation of the TC: Two Modes:
a.) Crypto Mode:
The most interesting feature, IMO. For every 1 LTC increase in the "hot-wallet", a defined amount (10 by default) of TC (Time Credits) will be generated and released into the economy. As such, in defualt settings every TC is backed by exactly .1 LTC If players wish to "donate" to the server, the best way to do so is to mine TC. In crypto-mode, players can actually redeem their TCs for real crypto currencies, so mining is encouraged among all players. The recomended way to run this mode is to set up a LTC donation adddress, and apply a fee on the currency exchange portion of the plugin (when players redeem TC for LTC, they pay a small fee that you as server admin keep). In theory, players could also trade LTC for TC (with admin assistance anyhow), but I don't recomend this as it lowers player incentive to donate to the "hot-wallet" that mints actual currency.
Note that there are no commands to force minting of in game currency in this mode. The TC amount in the world is literally directly relative to the "hot-wallet" balance (which is visible via command by the way). If you withdraw directly from the hot-wallet, all the players will see a balance reduction, and as such, you'd better explain what you are doing lest you have angry players. (Note this won't happen if a player exchanges, because they literally will be reducing their share count in the hot-wallet balance at the same time, making only their balance dip and everyone else's remain the same). You can "create" more currency by raising the crypto to TC currency ratio, but this is just inflation and players will still be able to query the "hot-wallet" balance and see that though they may have exponentially more currency units, they are no richer in actual crypto wealth holdings.
b.) Virtual Mode:
Currency units are "minted" at set intervals. In this mode, currency "sinks" of some kind are recommended to prevent inflation. Donator gear may be quite appropriate. As currency is abstract here, there are no exchanges and admins may make/remove currency at will.
2.) TC Release:
Time credits are released based on players playing the game. The work they do slowly but surely earns them shares (think of them as "raffle tickets") in a lottery to win the whole allotment of TC (10 by default) to be released at next minting. To even out the distribution of TC's, players may form "guilds" in which their work is pooled and the result distributed either evenly or based on share count.
3.) "Share" generation:
In game shares are generated via work done in the world. "Work" is an abstract measure taking into account playtime, movement along x or y axis, blockplacement/removal, taming, animal breeding and other activities. The formula has not quite been defined, but I am confident that "afk farming" will not bean issue as the idea is you have to do a unique sequence of these events in order on a semi-regular basis, or it will stop generating shares for you (ie, youcan't sit there and place/break a torch or sit afk all day and expect many, if any shares).
