CREATION, REDEMPTION, AND ACCOUNTING IN A VIRTUAL CURRENCY SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A method for managing a virtual currency, the method comprising:
- storing an account for each of a plurality of participants of a virtual economy;
receiving a plurality of requests to create new credits of the virtual currency;
for each request to create new credits,recording in a data store a number of credits created and a set of attributes of the credits, wherein the attributes include an internal value representing a rate of real currency received per credit created and an external value representing a rate of real currency to be provided per credit upon redemption,assigning the created credits to one or more accounts of participants, andassociating the credits with their attributes;
receiving a plurality of requests to transfer credits from an account of a transferring participant to an account of a receiving participant;
for each request to transfer credits,deducting an amount of credits from the transferring participant,adding the amount of credits to the receiving participant, andassociating the credits added to the receiving participant with their attributes;
receiving a plurality of requests to redeem a number of credits from the account of a participant;
for each request to redeem credits from the account of a participant,deducting the redeemed credits from the account of the participant, andproviding an amount of real currency to the participant, the amount of real currency provided determined based on the external value of the redeemed credits.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A virtual currency system keeps track of virtual credits, which can be owned, transferred, purchased, and sold by participants in a virtual economy. Each virtual credit has an internal value and an external value, which define, respectively, the exchange rates for creating and redeeming the virtual credits. Upon creation of new virtual credits, the internal value for those credits is the rate for which real currency was paid per credit. The external value sets the rate at which the virtual credits can be redeemed for real currency. Each virtual credit may further have a face value, which is an apparent value of the virtual credit within the virtual economy, giving users a baseline impression for valuing the virtual currency. These features of the virtual currency enable a number of useful actions within the virtual economy, including currency seeding, couponing, and chargebacks.
33 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A method for managing a virtual currency, the method comprising:
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storing an account for each of a plurality of participants of a virtual economy; receiving a plurality of requests to create new credits of the virtual currency; for each request to create new credits, recording in a data store a number of credits created and a set of attributes of the credits, wherein the attributes include an internal value representing a rate of real currency received per credit created and an external value representing a rate of real currency to be provided per credit upon redemption, assigning the created credits to one or more accounts of participants, and associating the credits with their attributes; receiving a plurality of requests to transfer credits from an account of a transferring participant to an account of a receiving participant; for each request to transfer credits, deducting an amount of credits from the transferring participant, adding the amount of credits to the receiving participant, and associating the credits added to the receiving participant with their attributes; receiving a plurality of requests to redeem a number of credits from the account of a participant; for each request to redeem credits from the account of a participant, deducting the redeemed credits from the account of the participant, and providing an amount of real currency to the participant, the amount of real currency provided determined based on the external value of the redeemed credits. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method for managing a virtual currency, the method comprising:
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storing an account for each of a plurality of participants of a virtual economy; creating a bucket of credits comprising one or more credits, wherein the bucket of credits is associated with an internal value that represents a rate of real currency received per credit created and an external value that represents a rate of real currency to be provided per credit upon redemption; assigning credits from the bucket of credits among one or more of the accounts, wherein the credits in each account are associated with the internal and external values; transferring credits between the accounts of one or more participants; tracking credits transferred between accounts, wherein the transferred credits retain their association with their internal and external values; and redeeming one or more credits from an account, wherein the redeemed credits are deducted from the account, and wherein the participant associated with the account receives an amount of real currency according to the external value of the redeemed credits. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification