virtual currency

Noun

virtual currency (countable and uncountable, plural virtual currencies)

1. (originally) A type of unregulated digital currency that is restricted to a specific community or purpose, such as in-game purchases.
   • Virtual currency is the offering of virtual monies that can be spent to buy services (or virtual goods) inside of an application. This is a new trend that has been used primarily in game-like social network applications.2009, Lynne Grewe, OpenSocial Network Programming, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 320
   • Unlike fiat currencies like the United States dollar and virtual currencies like Facebook credits and the one invented by Liberty Reserve, bitcoins are not created or controlled by a central authority.2013 July 31, Kate Murphy, “Virtual Currency Gains Ground in Actual World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
2. (broadly) Any digital currency.
   • When he was a Yale Law School student, Reuben Grinberg wrote one of the first academic papers about Bitcoin, a novel virtual currency that uses sophisticated cryptography to validate and secure transactions that exist only online.2013 April 8, Noam Cohen, “Bubble or No, This Virtual Currency Is a Lot of Coin in Any Realm”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   • People say it’s a Ponzi scheme, it’s a bubble,” said Cameron Winklevoss. “People really don’t want to take it seriously. At some point that narrative will shift to ‘virtual currencies are here to stay.’ We’re in the early days.”2013 April 11, Nathaniel Popper, Peter Lattman, quoting Cameron Winklevoss, “Never Mind Facebook; Winklevoss Twins Rule in Digital Money”, in New York Times