Virtual currency operating environment
It is illegal to issue virtual currency privately
According to Article 29 of the regulations of the people's Republic of China on the administration of RMB, no unit or indivial is allowed to print or sell token tickets to replace RMB in circulation on the market In addition, the "emergency notice of the State Council Office for rectifying unhealthy tendencies in the instry, the State Economic and Trade Commission and the people's Bank of China on prohibiting the issuance and use of various token certificates (cards)" also strictly prohibited similar issues 
extended data
virtual currency refers to non real currency. Well known virtual currencies, such as online currency of Internet company, q-coin of Tencent company, q-point and voucher of Shanda company, micro currency launched by Sina (used for micro games, Sina reading, etc.), chivalrous Yuanbao (used for chivalrous road game), silver grain (used for bixue Qingtian game), and popular digital currencies in 2013 include bitcoin, Laite coin, infinite coin, quark coin, zeta coin, etc Barbecue coins, pennies (Internet), invisible gold bars, red coins, prime coins. At present, hundreds of digital currencies are issued all over the world. Popular in the circle & quot; The legend of "bitcoin, Wright silver, infinite copper, pennies aluminum"
market formation
the Internet has led to the emergence of a new market, which is a virtual market based on cyberspace. The Internet provides a lot of communication places for consumers, and also provides business market for enterprises. Enterprises must change from proct centered to service centered to customer centered. With the development of computer artificial intelligence technology and database technology, enterprises can conveniently collect customers' information, understand customers' needs in time, change business strategies and grasp economic arteries in real time
With the rapid development of computer and network communication technology, the application of Internet technology has graally penetrated into various fields of human activities, and the unlimited business opportunities that it contains make businesses turn their eyes to e-commerce. E-commerce is penetrating into all aspects of social and economic life at a speed that people can hardly imaginethe traditional finance is also closely watching this irresistible trend of global economic integration and networking. As a result, value-added services take art as the selling point and can be regarded as commodities; The sword in the game is not a brand-new financial services business philosophy - e-finance came into being
from the historical development process, to understand e-finance, we must start from the electronic finance and e-commerce. The so-called e-financialization means that financial enterprises adopt modern communication, computer, network and other information technology means in addition to Internet technology to improve the work efficiency of traditional financial service business, rece operating costs, realize the automation of financial business processing, informatization of financial enterprise management and scientific decision-making, and provide customers with faster and more convenient services, And then enhance the financial enterprise is the behavior of market competitive advantage
e-finance is a transcendence of financial electronization. Different from the electronic finance, the main technical basis of e-finance operation is the increasingly perfect Internet technology. Due to the characteristics of global connectivity, openness, quickness and low marginal cost of Internet technology, e-finance strengthens the restructuring and innovation of financial services business based on Internet technology, so that customers are free from the restrictions of business hours and places, and enjoy all kinds of high-quality and low-cost services provided by financial enterprises anytime and anywhere
with the development of Internet, the form of money is becoming more virtual, and there is an electronic money that only exists in the form of electronic signal
reference source: Network: virtual currency
virtual currency is a currency that can buy goods and services in a specific community in a virtual space. It has the monetary function of medium of exchange and unit of account
virtual currency can be roughly divided into three categories
the first category
has nothing to do with real currency, and can only be used in a closed virtual environment, usually online games, such as world of Warcraft
the second type of one-way exchange can only be used in a virtual environment, and sometimes physical goods and services can be purchased, such as frequent flyer award program, microsoft points, Nintendo points, Facebook credits and Amazon coin
the third type of two-way exchange, which has a buying price and a selling price, is the same as "real" currency, including those issued by issuers, such as second life Linden coin, two-way exchangeable game currency, etc., as well as decentralized cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, Leyte coin, Ethereum, etc; Virtual currency & quot; But cryptocurrency is only one of the subcategories of virtual currency.
virtual currency and electronic currency are not the same concept
the definition of e-money is to convert a certain amount of cash or deposit from the issuer and obtain data representing the same amount. By using some electronic methods, the data can be directly transferred to the payment object, so as to pay off the debt. E-money means that consumers pay traditional money to issuers of e-money, and issuers store legal money of equal value with traditional money in electronic devices held by consumers
electronic currency is the electronization of the legal tender, including our common bank cards, Internet banking, electronic cash, etc., as well as the third party payment developed in recent years, such as Alipay, fortune paid and so on. No matter what form these electronic currencies are and through which institutions they circulate, their original source is the legal money issued by the central bank
but virtual currency is the electronization of illegal currency, and its original issuer is not the central bank. For example, Tencent Q currency and other game currency, such virtual currency is mainly limited to circulation in a specific virtual environment. After the emergence of bitcoin, through the blockchain technology to better solve the problem of decentralization, distrust, to achieve global circulation, is sought after in the world. Electronic currency and virtual currency are collectively referred to as digital currency
1、 Common analysis of virtual currency (1) bitcoin solution is designed and created by Japanese programmer Nakamoto (alias) in 2009, and it is the most successful and controversial network currency at present. Bitcoin scheme is based on P2P network architecture, which has been operating in the world, and can be used for all kinds of virtual and real goods and services transactions
In theory, if the existence of network currency affects the demand for the central bank's liabilities, and then interferes with the central bank's open market operation, it will have an impact on a country's monetary policy and price stability. However, from a practical point of view, the premise of network currency affecting price stability includes the following three aspects:(1) from the analysis of the impact on the amount of money, although it is difficult to analyze the extent to which the network currency scheme creates money in the case of lack of information
However,however, most Internet money systems operate in prepaid mode, that is, issuing Internet money when the real money is exchanged in and withdrawing money when the real money is exchanged out. In the famous network currency scheme, the supply of money is stable and the supply is small, but we still need to be vigilant whether it can ensure that the money supply will maintain a stable level in the long run, and the impact of the change of exchange rate between network currency and real currency
(2) from the analysis of the impact on the speed of money circulation, the use of cash and money statistics, the impact of the technological innovation brought by the network currency scheme on the speed of money circulation is not clear
as an Internet instry, it largely depends on the number of active internet currency scheme users. If the network currency is widely accepted, it will have a substitution effect on the real currency of the central bank, thus recing the use of cash in transactions
in this case, the scale of the central bank's balance sheet will be reced, and its ability to influence short-term interest rates will also be weakened. The central bank will need to fight against risks through ways such as setting minimum reserves for cyber currencies. Substitution effect will aggravate the difficulty of monetary statistics and affect the relationship between monetary statistics and inflation, which is not concive to the realization of long-term price stability. In addition, the issuance of network currency outside the central bank and the expansion of virtual credit will have an impact on the central bank's interest rate decision in the economy and weaken the central bank's monetary control
(3) from the analysis of the interaction between network currency and real economy, network currency can act as a real commodity trading medium and have an impact on real GDP
The influence of network money on real money supply depends on two aspects: one is the substitution effect of virtual economy on real economy; the other is the substitution effect of virtual economy on real economy; The second is the crowding out effect of Internet money on real money, that is, with the increase of the total amount of Internet money, the amount of cash held by the public in real life decreases, resulting in the decrease of cash / deposit ratio and the increase of money multiplier. In reality, the network virtual currency scheme will not affect the price stability at this stage, and the money flow speed will not be significantly affected in the short and medium term. However, the interaction between network currency and real economy deserves attention (2) financial stability risk when the virtual currency scheme operates outside the banking system, the most important factor of financial instability lies in its connection with the real economy, namely exchange rate and exchange market. Obviously, the closed network currency scheme and the one-way flow network currency scheme are not affected, so we should focus on the two-way flow network currency scheme. The value of two-way network currency depends on the level of money supply and demand in the exchange market. A big difference between network currency and real currency is that the network currency scheme is not based on the country or currency region, and the influence of virtual economy intensity, trade or proction capacity on its exchange rate is limited. The price of virtual money and its fluctuation depend on five factors:(1) money supply and other actions taken by currency issuers. For example: to achieve a fixed or semi fixed exchange rate by intervening in the market
(2) the network currency scheme shows network externality, and its monetary value depends on the number of users and merchants. As the number of consumers and businesses increases, their monetary value will increase accordingly. In addition, the exchange rate of network currency with small transaction volume fluctuates more(3) the virtual community with clear and transparent policies and advanced security measures is easier to boost confidence and the currency is stronger
(4) the reputation of network currency issuers in fulfilling their commitments. There is no "lender of last resort" in the virtual community, and the trust gained by the issuer is crucial to the exchange rate of internet currency
(5)
speculation on the future value of Internet money and cyber attacks on virtual communities. Due to the immaturity of the system, low trading, speculative activities and network attacks, the two-way network currency scheme is inherently unstable
qualitative. At present, the trading volume of these network currencies is small and the correlation with the real economy is low, so the stability of the financial system will not be affected. However, if Internet money becomes a substitute for traditional money in the future, it will bring instability to the financial system and even distort the relative prices of goods and services. The impact of network currency system on the financial system largely depends on the number of active users and the number of merchants who are willing to accept virtual currency for real transactions. In addition, virtual currency has only exchange value and no use value. Generally, network currency is not based on assets with intrinsic value and is not supported by central bank credit. At present, these network monetary systems are not allowed to lend
or borrow funds, so it can not pose a threat to the stability of the financial system, but we should pay close attention to its development. If there is any change in the future, it will undoubtedly have an impact on the financial system
in a specific virtual community, virtual currency payment activities have evolved into a "real" payment system, facing typical risks related to the payment system: credit risk, liquidity risk, operational risk and legal risk. The nature, scale and ration of these risks are largely determined by the design of the system or the degree of lack of liquidity, so it is difficult for the network virtual currency scheme to avoid or control these risks. According to the core principles of payment system (CP) issued by the bank for International Settlements (BIS), the network virtual currency scheme does not conform to most of the contents of CP, and does not belong to the systemically important payment system. Therefore, it will not cause
or transmit shocks in the global financial system. At present, there is no systematic risk in the network currency system outside these virtual communities
2. Lack of corresponding supervision and protection mechanism
in the real economy, the central bank plays the role of lender of last resort and has no default risk, so it can take actions in the case of payment crisis or unpredictable liquidity shortage to avoid chain reaction. However, in the network virtual currency scheme
it is impossible to use network currency as settlement asset. Because network currency simply depends on the credibility of the issuer, it can not be widely accepted as a means of payment, so network currency can not be regarded as a safe currency. In addition, commercial banks are required to accept prudential supervision, which reces the possibility of default, and the security of money in commercial bank accounts is higher than that of network currency. A fundamental risk of network currency is that the settlement institution of network currency scheme is not subject to any supervision, no institution is responsible for its behavior, and there is no investor / depositor protection mechanism, which causes the user to bear all the risks
supervision and the anonymity, invisibility and difficulty in tracking of its transactions, the network virtual currency scheme is very easy to be used by terrorist activities, fraud, money laundering and other illegal activities. At present, many government departments in many countries are considering whether to recognize or
legalize these virtual schemes and bring them into the scope of supervision, so as to support the innovation of currency and payment forms, protect the rights and interests of consumers and financial stability, and inhibit the use of virtual currency schemes to engage in criminal activities
at present, the uncertainty of the legal status of the virtual currency scheme may also bring challenges to the government authorities (5) reputation risk of monetary authority the reputation of Monetary Authority (central bank) is the key factor to determine the effectiveness of monetary policy. The public's trust in fiat money is closely related to the image of the central bank, which pays close attention to its reputation. The ECB defines reputation risk as the risk of deterioration of reputation, credit or public image. As the network currency scheme is related to money and payment, it is generally believed that it belongs to the responsibility of the central bank, so we should be alert to the reputation risk it may bring to the central bank. However, in the case of small scale, the impact of the failure of the network currency scheme is limited, but its high volatility and instability also aggravate the possibility of failure and attract extensive media coverage. If the network currency is allowed to develop continuously without
regulation, the central bank may be considered as dereliction of ty and affect its reputation (6) the risk of investors' loss
for exchange value, the public has a higher recognition of the investment value of network virtual currency, and it is investment based transactions that accelerate the formation of virtual currency market. Like other investment markets, participants in virtual money market will also face potential losses caused by market risk, credit risk and policy risk. Take bitcoin as an example: from 2009 to early 2010, bitcoin was worthless; In the summer of 2010, bitcoin trading began to enter the golden
period. As the supply was far less than the demand, the value of online trading began to rise. In early November, bitcoin was silent at 29 cents for many days, and then jumped to 36 cents; In February 2011, bitcoin continued to appreciate, and its exchange rate with us dollar
reached 1:1; In 2013, the price of bitcoin achieved a "Big Bang" growth, and hit US $1242 on November 29, 2013, surpassing the gold price of US $1241.98/ounce in the same period. Fierce price fluctuations make market participants face huge speculative risks. Unlike mature capital markets such as stocks and bonds, the depth of bitcoin market is insufficient, and it is mainly held in the hands of large investors with low degree of diversification. Bitcoin price is easily affected by large investors' buying and selling behavior, and also easily manipulated by speculators. At the same time, different countries have different attitudes towards bitcoin, Germany, the United States and other countries hold an open and supportive attitude, and Thailand, Brazil and other countries regard bitcoin related activities
as illegal. Every country's attitude and measures will have a significant impact on the price of bitcoin, especially in the short term
virtual currency is always inferior to real currency< br />
(1) virtual currency based on entity
since ancient times, all "money" made of paper is called paper currency, and all countries in the world are actually paper currency. In Marx's time, paper money was only a symbol of metal money. The actual gold content of paper money was equal to the nominal gold content. When the nominal gold content was greater than the actual gold content, the price index of metal money would increase because of too many paper money. When it exceeded a certain limit, inflation would occur. Marx called these over issued bank notes without gold as guarantee virtual currency. In Keynesian era, paper money was the symbol of GDP. He defined the issue of paper money caused by making up the fiscal deficit as deficit money, and believed that the issue of paper deficit money could promote the development of proction to a certain extent, but only cause half inflation. Zhang chunjia's research in "Introction to virtual currency" also proves that paper money without precious metal and GDP guarantee will cause price rise, and this kind of money is called virtual currency
(2) virtual currency based on virtual
virtual currency is a new type of currency emerging at a certain stage of network social and economic development to meet the security and convenience needs of users. It represents the development direction of future currency existence form. It comes from the Internet, and acts as a general equivalent in the network society completely or partially. Virtual currency is a real currency with the basic attributes of currency, but it is virtual and depends on the network virtual environment. Virtual currency is born without borders, which makes it more liquid than traditional currency in the world. Virtual world corresponds to the real world. Through the exchange relationship between virtual currency and traditional currency, under certain conditions, specific virtual currency can buy physical goods, and traditional currency can also buy specific virtual goods< Second, the characteristics of virtual currency
1. Value: users get utility value by consuming the procts and services provided by operators. Virtual currency has value by providing exchange to meet the utility of consumers. The quantity of virtual currency measures the value of general goods. The issue essence of virtual currency is credit issue, which is the creditor's right of the holder to the issuer. To a certain extent, the value of this kind of claim is the right of claim
2. Virtual environment dependence. The existence of virtual currency is based on the virtual economic environment provided by the issuers and the sustainable operation of the issuers themselves. Otherwise, virtual currency has no significance.
3. Short sighted currency. As the highest price in the process of commodity exchange, the form of currency value can be regarded as the real currency. Because of the limitation of circulation scope, virtual currency can not be used as the general equivalent of all commodities; But in a certain range, it has the function of monetary value scale and circulation means. Therefore, it can be considered that virtual currency is similar to the form of money value, and it is a primary form of money, which is similar to money< The issue and circulation of virtual money is limited, but it will enlarge the money supply through the money multiplier effect, and affect the difficulty and accuracy of macroeconomic regulation and control. The issuers of virtual money need to report their circulation and circulation to the central bank, and obey the unified management of the central bank at any time
5. Virtual currency, which is issued by non-financial entities outside the financial system, aims to obtain business opportunities and competitive advantages. It is a market behavior and will inevitably lead to competition among issuers. This kind of competition will proce unfair competition behavior or obtain competitive advantage through rent-seeking, which determines the need to regulate the market behavior of the market subject according to the laws and regulations
6. Virtuality: as a kind of approximate currency, virtual currency is virtual existence if it only exists in the virtual world and can purchase the virtual property in it; If it is linked with sovereign currency, it can exist in the real world and purchase real assets, then it is a virtual thing of sovereign currency. Virtual currency is actually a series of data files existing in the computer system. It has the meaning of virtual currency only after the issuers explain the system. Therefore, the existence form of virtual currency is virtual< In general, virtual currency can purchase the procts and services provided by the issuers, and it can also be exchanged with the issuers outside the scope of issuance at a certain rate to purchase the procts of the alliance. For procts outside the alliance, virtual currency has no value significance; Similarly, when virtual currency is only authorized to buy different procts in different sales cycles, the use of virtual currency has limited application in time and scope, unlike sovereign currency, which can be completely freely exchanged
8. Separability: virtual currency has no physical form and is a digital storage information. Unlike traditional paper currency, it needs to consider the balance relationship between the circulation of main currency and subsidiary currency and the proportion of various currency values. It can be split infinitely. For example, although the total number of dark coins is only 2300, each bitcoin can be split into eight directions of ten< Although virtual currency exists in the virtual world, the process of new technological revolution has closely linked the virtual world with reality, and the virtual world has become an important part of people's spiritual life. It can promote the development of real economy, for example, a large number of entertainment application projects provide people with rich spiritual wealth and real wealth, and more and more people invest in virtual currency, which represents a trend, and the more successful ones are bitcoin, Leyte coin and the new domestic King coin; On the contrary, money laundering, gambling and network theft in the virtual world will have a negative effect on the real economy.
The main background of net currency is the difficulty of domestic micro electronic payment. Online game operators use this channel is not cheap vouchers to charge fees. Originally, only RMB was allowed to be exchanged for net currency, but reverse exchange was not allowed. However, with the development of online game instry, people spontaneously exchange various kinds of online currency, and even use online currency to buy physical procts or services that only RMB can buy, forming a purchasing power similar to currency. The boundary between virtual currency and real currency is graally blurred
in fact, in countries with developed financial environment, virtual currency has appeared for a long time, and its purpose is to make profits. For example, the virtual currency "Wangdou" first introced by beenz. Beenz has reached an agreement with MasterCard that consumers can not only save their online beans into smart cards, but also use them in traditional stores. This business model is to sell virtual net beans to some websites for 1 cent each, and then send them to netizens or let them win through various ways. These virtual currencies can be consumed as cash in online stores. In the end, beenz will buy it back from the website operator for 0.5 cents each for a profit. In 2000, there were about 750 million beenz beans in circulation, equivalent to 60 or 70 million yuan. It was also at that time that China's online currency appeared. China bonus provided virtual currency to consumers in the form of points. Points accumulated to a certain amount, can be used to exchange phone cards, network cards, T-shirts and other prizes
in online games, virtual goods such as virtual gold coins, virtual equipment, virtual animals and plants, and virtual people have great attraction for players, which promotes the consumption of these virtual goods. However, e to the backwardness of domestic electronic payment methods and security concerns, players often use cash in advance to buy the virtual currency issued by operators, Then use these vouchers to buy virtual goods online. As long as the content of the game is attractive enough, players will buy the virtual currency issued by the game operator through various channels. The development of online game instry has led to the surge of virtual currency types and circulation
in order to gather popularity, expand the number of game users, and improve the interest and loyalty of players, all game operators provide a considerable amount of free virtual currency, and players can win virtual currency through the game process. Therefore, online game operators actually have unlimited rights to issue virtual currency. If virtual money is only used to buy virtual goods, because the supply of virtual goods is artificially set, and the manufacturing time can be almost ignored, even if there are transactions between different types of virtual money, it will not have any impact on the real economy. However, if virtual currency can be used to buy real goods and services, excessive issuance will certainly cause inflation. At this time, whether the virtual currency is converted into real currency is not important
many domestic network enterprises have broken through the boundary between the virtual economy and the real economy. For example, Netease popo rewards users with money according to their online time. This virtual currency can pay for SMS. The exchange rate in this application can be calculated with the payment capacity of a short message worth 1000 yuan equal to 0.4 yuan; In addition, it can also be used as a voucher for purchasing physical goods in Netease mall. Holders of Shanda point coin can buy paid download services on the Internet. In addition to the company's paid services, q-coin can also be used to purchase other game point cards, virtual goods, and even some video and software download services
the emergence of money is an abstract unit of quantity for the convenience of exchanging different resources. If there are enough people to recognize the value of a virtual currency, it may become a substitute unit of material exchange. For example, with the popularity of QQ, Q coin has graally become a circulating equivalent exchange unit. Adam Smith, a famous economist, used barter to explain the origin of money in 1776: "the armor of Diomedes is only worth 9 cows, while the armor of glaucus is worth 100 cows. In Abyssinia, salt is a common medium of Commerce and trade; More than 200 years later, many people are exchanging various kinds of game currency for real life needs, and the Internet world has begun to dece the origin of currency again
已经运行了8年了，现在基本都在做的流转，可以在一些知名的没有手续费用的地方流转，快乐比特币期权可以
According to the definition of the European Central Bank in 2012, "a kind of digital currency that is not legally binding, issued and controlled by developers, and accepted and used in specific virtual community members."
at the 2013 congressional hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that "in the past two decades, virtual currency has been regarded as an electronic currency, or a payment system technology field that has been developing."< In 2013, the financial crime enforcement network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury defined it as: "virtual currency is a medium of exchange that operates like real currency in some environments, but it does not have all the attributes of real currency." It also has no legal tender status. In 2014, the European Banking authority defined it as "a digital form of value that is not issued by central banks or government departments and is not necessarily associated with legal tender, but it is accepted by natural and legal persons as a means of payment and can be transferred, stored and traded electronically
in Chinese mainland refers to the currency that runs on the Internet, and the famous virtual currency, such as Tencent Inc's Q coins and the grand company's roll, also has virtual currency in online games. Virtual currency is usually used for users to purchase virtual services on the network, such as QQ membership function of Tencent's QQ coin, online game equipment, etc. Virtual currency is usually a means of payment. For example, the Ministry of culture of the people's Republic of China defined it in 2009 as a virtual exchange tool that is issued by online game operators, directly or indirectly purchased by game users using legal tender in a certain proportion, existing outside game programs, stored in servers provided by online game operators in the form of electromagnetic records, and expressed in specific digital units
data source: virtual current from Wikipedia
virtual currency can be roughly divided into three categories:
the first category is familiar game currency. In the era of stand-alone games, the protagonist accumulates money by knocking down the enemy, entering the gambling house to win money, and using these to buy Herbs and equipment, but it can only be used in his own game console. At that time, there was no "market" between players. Since the establishment of Internet portal and community, the realization of game networking, virtual currency has a "financial market", players can trade game currency
the second type is the special currency issued by the portal website or instant messaging service provider, which is used to purchase the services in the website. The most widely used is Tencent's q-coin, which can be used to purchase membership, QQ show and other value-added services
the third kind of virtual currency on the Internet, such as bitcoin (BTC), Wright currency (LTC), Fuyuan currency (FTC), etc. bitcoin is an electronic currency proced by open-source P2P software. Some people also translate bitcoin as "bitcoin", which is a kind of network virtual currency. It is mainly used for Internet financial investment, and can also be directly used in daily life as a new currency.