Pod Academy

'Virtual economies' are all around us, from social media, to bitcoin, to the games on our smartphones. But what exactly is a virtual economy?   And is there anything that these virtual economies can teach us about 'real world' economics? Pod Academy's Alex Burd returned to the Oxford Internet Institute to speak to Vili Lehdonvirta, a research fellow there.  Alex previously interviewed Vili about Bitcoin for us (podcasts: Bitcoin 1  and Bitcoin 2). This time he went to talk about Vili's new book, Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis (by Vili Lehdonvirta and Edward Castronova, MIT Press, 2014)     In developing digital games, designers often develop an economy within the game itself.  These economies can drive the game, just as an economy does in the real world.  Then there is bitcoin - is that developing into a useable currency?  And can we learn anything about economics from understanding what is involved in clicking 'like' or 'retweet'? Vili became intrigued by what these virtual economies might teach