A Reliable Virtual Wealth Trading Model for Closed Virtual Communities Considering the Rescission of Virtual Product

Abstract

Nowadays, virtual communities not only connect millions of people but change their lifestyles as well. A virtual community is built of information and communications technology, and it associates all members with some specific purpose. Consequently, it seems a natural progression to introduce a virtual money system into virtual communities as a common means for virtual economic activities. Virtual money has tremendous marketing value because the scale of virtual communities is growing rapidly. If we can connect the virtual economic systems from various virtual communities into a huge system, it will bring us inexhaustible potentialities in e-commerce. The existing exchange mechanism is built upon the premise of a virtual community providing open access. However, there are numerous concerns for the operators opening them. To overcome the problems, this paper proposes a virtual wealth exchange model for closed virtual communities called the Reliable Virtual Wealth Trading Model. Its design considers every perspective of security such as data security, Internet security, and, especially, trading security. We also discuss the life cycle of virtual products and how it affects virtual communities and their members. Finally, we not only propose and analyze the model, but also develop a reference design of trade service, and describe necessary details for implementation.