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LifeCoin: A New Virtual Currency for Sharing Leisure Activities in the Smart City Nadal Cros, Pol and Uribe Pérez, Noelia Abstract — The concept described here represents a novel project of a virtual social currency: LifeCoin. It focuses on the exchange of leisure activities among people. Leisure activities represent an important part of our free time. They not only produce relax but also contribute to our personal development. In fact, the Institute of Leisure Scientific Studies has defined the advantages of doing leisure activities in 5 big groups: social, economic, physiological, environmental and psychological benefits [1]. A lot of these activities can be considered as “services” that one individual can offer. In the same way, these ones can be also seen as services that one might need. Consequently, as a whole it can be seen like an interchange of services. By introducing a virtual currency, non-profit interests are eliminated but the aim of people offering services keeps alive, since users get virtual coins in return, which can be changed for other offered services. This model inspires a social network of leisure services exchange and promotes sharing what people can offer since they will get something in return, in form of LifeCoins, as well as the inherent satisfaction of sharing and socializing. In addition, as a consequence of getting LifeCoins in return, people will be encourage to enroll in another activity so the concept also aims for people doing more leisure activities. 1
With the dramatically grown of internet users, especially in the last decade, it have been a consequently proliferation of virtual communities. Some of them have created and circulated their own virtual currency for goods and services exchanges. So, at its core, virtual currencies act as a way of exchange and as a unit of account within a particular virtual community. The goal of the currency itself remains; it is the format the one that actually changes. Virtual currencies, as any other form of money, meet three different functions [3]: ·Medium of exchange: they are used as an intermediary in trade which implies a coincidence of wants between the parties. · Unit of account: they act as a standard numerical value that measure the value and costs of goods. · Store of value: they can be saved and retrieved in the future. The European Central Bank (ECB) had compiled different kinds of money, as can be seen in Table 1. MONEY FORMAT
Index Terms — Virtual currency, social, community, leisure.
I. INTRODUCTION
T
Unregulated
Physical
Digital
Certain types of local currencies
Virtual currency
he format of money had changed a lot since it LEGAL E-money appeared. In the middle age there existed just the STATUS interchange of things as way of payment. The first Banknotes Commercial Regulated and coins official money coins appeared in Turkey, between 680 and bank money 560 a.C. While early money had an intrinsic value (in form of (deposits) gold, animals, etc.), modern economies are mostly based on money without value itself, since it consists of items Table 1. Money Matrix. (Source: ECB) representing the good (for instance banknotes). The main advantage is the portability: there is no need of carrying the Although it is difficult to classify virtual currencies since its gold ingots since you can use a piece of paper equal to a fixed diversity and quantity, ECB has sorted them in three different quantity of them. Actually, most of the money in use is groups [3]: designated and issued by a central authority. It is considered 1) Closed virtual currency schemes. Users pay a as “legal tender” and there are 180 currencies in the world. subscription fee and then earn virtual money based However, this list only includes paper, cotton, or polymer on their performance. The money can only be used in banknotes and metal coins and excludes currencies used by the virtual community. It is typical in games, such as non-state entities [2]. World of Warcraft. As with many aspects of society, money has also been affected by recent technological developments such as internet. 2) Virtual currency schemes with unidirectional flow. Users buy virtual currency according to a specific exchange rate but it cannot be exchanged back. The Paper submitted on Jan 21, 2015. money is typically used for virtual goods although P. Nadal Cros, and N. Uribe Pérez are currently enrolled in the Smart Cities sometime it is also possible to get real ones. An Master at the University of Girona example of this group is Facebook Credits. Campus de Montilivi, E17071 Girona, Catalonia (EU) 3) Virtual currency schemes with bidirectional flow. polnadal90@gmail.com, noelia.2407@hotmail.com. Copyright (c) 2009 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, Users can buy and sell virtual currency according to permission to use this material for any other purposes must be obtained from a specific exchange rate. With the money users can the IEEE by sending a request to pubs-permissions@ieee.org.