Title: An approach to trading valuable points in a virtual wealth exchange model for closed virtual communities

Authors: Wei-Chih Hsu; Pao-Yao Wang; Chuan-Wen Chiang

Addresses: Department of Computer and Communication Engineering, National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, No. 1, University Rd., Yanchao Dist., Kaohsiung City 824, Taiwan ' Department of Computer and Communication Engineering, National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, No. 1, University Rd., Yanchao Dist., Kaohsiung City 824, Taiwan ' Department of Computer and Communication Engineering, National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, No. 1, University Rd., Yanchao Dist., Kaohsiung City 824, Taiwan

Abstract: Today, different types of virtual communities connect billions of people around the world via the internet, particularly given expanding cellular networks and the growth of smart mobile devices. For community operators, one major problem is increasing users' economic activity in virtual worlds. As such, connecting various virtual economic systems in one all-encompassing system can be an alternative posing inexhaustible potential for e-commerce. Scholars have proposed the reliable virtual wealth trading model for exchanging virtual wealth across closed virtual communities. However, the model lacks a quantity concept for virtual products that could obstruct the model's applicability. In this paper, we propose a virtual wallet concept to resolve the model's quantity deficit. Since communities can be either regular or lean, we also offer two corresponding versions of wallet processes. Ultimately, this article provides two complete implementations to serve as reference designs, as well as explains the usability of the approach.

Keywords: virtual communities; virtual money; virtual wealth exchange; valuable points; virtual trading; closed communities; web based communities; online communities; virtual wallet.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWET.2015.072354

International Journal of Web Engineering and Technology, 2015 Vol.10 No.3, pp.291 - 308

Published online: 09 Oct 2015 *

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