From Financial Times:
China has issued restrictions on the use of “virtual money” from internet games, warning such currencies could threaten real-world financial stability.
The ban on using virtual money to buy “material products” is part of a wider tightening of controls that includes a renewed crackdown on the cafes where many of China’s estimated 137m internet users go online.
Beijing’s move highlights the blurring boundaries between online and offline worlds. Governments and judiciaries elsewhere are also struggling to decide how to regulate online economies that have spawned multi-million dollar businesses trading virtual items and currencies for hard cash. But few view them as a threat to the world financial system.[Full Text]
