Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis By Vili Lehdonvirta, Edward Castronova The MIT Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9525.001.0001 ISBN electronic: 9780262323314 Publication date: 2014 How the basic concepts of economics—including markets, institutions, and money—can be used to create and analyze economies based on virtual goods. …
The early Internet was a lawless place, populated by scam artists who made buying or selling anything online risky business. Then Amazon, eBay, Upwork, and Apple established secure digital platforms for selling physical goods, crowdsourcing labor, and downloading apps. These tech giants have gone on to rule the Internet like autocrats. How did this happen? How did users and workers become the h…