The Dangers of Online Currencies
The dangers of online currencies such as FP$, other forum types of points/cash and especially bitcoins are actually quite high. While it may not seem much on a forum like this, that perception is wrong. While ForumPromotion.net is a teeny-tiny-microscopic economy compared to any country or even city, the same rules and patterns can/should be applied.
Most recently you may have heard chatter about people wanting to go back to the gold system instead of using the currencies we do now. I mean they really are fake. A country can establish a currency or have one already in use and the leaders can print off as much as they want. Yes I know, while we have detailed formulas and everything to figure out how much money to print off each day, the ability for people to print off more for personal use is always there. (I'm sure it is very difficult to do, though it could happen). The same is true for forums like this one and elsewhere. The website has a type of currency set up for its members to use and it starts to actually become worth something.
Another example that is actually a full on internet economy spreading across many areas of the internet, not just one forum at a time, is Bitcoins. You can get Bitcoins and send them to anyone and in return receive services, products etc. Most commonly these are being used for 'sketchy' deals and businesses, but the point of bringing them up is this:
So you have bitcoins right? Obviously someone started formulating the idea a while ago. Then he/she creates the service and it spreads and now its pretty huge (getting news coverage, etc). So who is stopping the creator(s) and managers from just adding any number of bitcoins to their own personal accounts? It would be easy for them to do it and not illegal as it is the same thing as forum points. It is not regulated by any government, it is not taxed or anything like that.
Hopefully you have connected the dots that when forms of fake money (forum points, bitcoins, even dollar bills) come into use it becomes very dangerous. No longer do people need to actually obtain a physical piece of gold to get something. They can just press a few buttons, ta-da! Now a forum owner is buying graphics tutorials for free; staff member getting posts on their forums for free; Bitcoin manager getting cars and iPhones for free; people sectioning off millions.
I am not really sure where I am going with this as I am really just writing to get my ideas out on this, but hopefully it has made you think a little bit about online currencies and point systems and how they can be abused. Hopefully you realize that this will happen forever unless online and 'fake' currencies are absolutely abolished (that will not happen).
Anyways, discuss.
