Cykoh77, That falls into the second category of options I mentioned: to balance the introduction of currency with a currency exit. Unfortunately, the method proposed (Buy at 150, sell at 120) would fail to balance the economy because you're still creating an unlimited supply of diamonds from an outside source. Besides, people will be hesitant to flip their diamonds for a loss.

Matt, I think this is a good idea as well. Removing the MTC>Diamond conversion would ease the inflation rate. Instead, make MTC only exchangeable for certain goods or services with a lesser economic impact.

If you choose MTC as a main currency, you have to give everyone other ways to obtain. Then, you're forcing people to donate money or vote daily. Even with voting daily, it would take over a month to buy a sheep egg (I think I calculated about 73 days to obtain that much MTC JUST FROM VOTING). If you do that, you seriously will inflate the economy. Doing so would create mass debts, and you'll see a market crash. Seeing lower prices is good. It means there is a large supply, and a lesser demand than the supply (from an economic standpoint). If you make MTC the main currency, you have to seriously drop prices on everything that is worth MTC. Besides MTC is just a bonus on top of the currency. There are certain things you can only buy via credits. It's not the economy dropping the MTC value. It's the *everyone going to buy diamonds for cheap* that is dropping the economy. If you say the minetown economy is going under deflation... why aren't we seeing any goods dropping in price? I still see logs being sold at 16 for 1 at almost every store I go to.

Please tell me how the economy would be balanced while using the MTC? All those people who DO vote daily and have NOT donated... what about them? This proposed idea actually promotes separation of *status.* You'll have "Rich people," just like you said. I mean... do we really want to diversify Minetown? About a month ago there was serious talk about reuniting the Minetown community to make it more social with one another. That's actually one reason why the monthly build events started. Using the MTC as the main currency will make ALL prices skyrocket. Why? When you buy things at the credit store, the following happens:

you type /money

You have 175000 MTC

right click sheep egg

type /money

You have 0 MTC

What happened to the MTC when you put it in the CS? Well... it literally DISAPPEARS!!!! I'm serious. The mods/admins do not get this MTC for their own use. How can you have a currency just disappear, and be the main currency? That means, for example, if we take the USD: You have 1 million dollars in the local economy. 500,000 USD disappears. Each individual dollar is now twice as strong. In doing so, prices double for goods and services. You are then promoting inflating prices, but a deflation in rotating currency. Basically, that = economic collapse at one point. Usually, when a currency becomes three times as strong and you have three times less rotating currency (same as circulating currency, I just use different words), is when you see the collapse happen. So, with all our 1000 USD donators... congrats, you're now the holder's of Minetown's fate, if this idea is passed.

I mean no offense, but I hope this idea is truly not considered, unless you plan to revise the ENTIRE credit based system. For this idea to work, ALL the credits that the CS receives MUST circulate back into the economy. However, you MAY subtract however many credits are given out via voting from the CS income, as that won't then depreciate the economy. All items will then HAVE to be reduced in price at the CS by a SIGNIFICANT amount. i.e. the 175k MTC sheep egg will have to cost about 17500MTC (which can be gained within 20 days of voting every day).

There has to be many other changes, but I don't want to make this post too long.

Again, I'm not trying to go against you or talk down on your or insult you. I'm merely offering my input, as I'm minoring in accounting, so I've taken plenty of economic classes. Great idea, yes. However, it needs many revisions on the application of such idea. Application of it and the thought of it are two different things. Your thought, me likes.

EDIT: Please don't downvote me just because you think I'm shooting down his idea. Don't downvote me because I'm offering revisions. I'm offering positive input into his idea, even though it may seem like ill-mannered input. I meant no disrespect while writing this. If I was going to be disrespectful, this post wouldn't be longer than three sentences.

EDIT 2: So you know, I upvoted your question, to help prove I'm not trying to talk bad towards you. <object class="emojione" data="https://resources.enjin.com/1489581540/themes/core/images/emojione/svg/1f642.svg?0" type="image/svg+xml" standby=":)">:)</object>

dunsjohn... that was.... inspiring! lol

mattgehring123... I just got back from my accounting midterm too... ugh, now my head hurts so much. Took me about 20-30 minutes to write the above out, haha. It's all true, though. Anyone who doesn't believe me may look into this issue. Of course, you won't find anything on Minecraft economy online, but you can find out about real life instances. Look at Germany, pre-world war 2. I'm not going to advocate the Holocaust. However, look at Germany's economy at the time. The Holocaust was EXACTLY what Germany needed at the time to jump-start their economy. Yes, the Holocaust was bad and I'm against the Nazi ideals. I'm just saying, from an economical standpoint, it fixed their economy. What happened in Germany that made the economy crash? There was constant wages... prices of EVERYTHING skyrocketed. Addition of currency did NOT happen. ALL currency is to expect 10% loss in circulation (by many means: cocaine, toilet paper , accidental trash, getting too wet, burning in fires, etc.). The banking system just failed in Germany, at that time. Germany was also one of the leading producers for many military goods. This affected most of Europe at the time, which led to the Great Depression. Funny story: All countries, at the time, were not actually adding currency, while prices kept inflating.

With the proposed idea given here, we'll see the same thing happen. Prices would inflate, and we'd have a depreciating economy. We'd see a loss of users, most likely, if the current plan was implemented.

I'd be happy to work with you, cykoh77, on a revised plan. Or, if anyone wants to work on a plan for making the economy more "balanced," I'd be happy to help. However, these lower prices we see aren't really a deflation (and to everyone who calls lower prices an inflation... inflation means that prices get higher, not lower. We all get to learn one word every day, hehe)... they're just competing prices. Yes, everyone wants MTC... but given the current gold/diamond costs... they're losing money by selling diamonds for such a small amount of credits. Sure, they'll get a sheep spawner, but they won't be able to make enough money back for at least a few months, to be worth it. Yes, within a few days of having a sheep spawner, they'd have sold enough wool to get the costs back... IF they worked constantly. However, they don't have the time... and you have to take time:cost into account. I'd say every five minutes of time is worth about 1 gold, if doing nothing. If you're getting wool, I'd translate every minute to being worth 20 diamonds (you should be able to make about 21 diamonds every minute with a sheep spawner, if you create a harvesting schedule efficiently). There is actually much more you have to take into account. Is wool going to be the only thing being sold by a person buying credits for just one sheep spawner? If yes, then nothing more needs to be taken into account. If there will be more, you actually have to add money to the time:cost ratio. I know... it doesn't sound right, but many times you take a loss for time:cost, but make a very small profit in sales (in fact most businesses barely make a profit. If you want to know how businesses make a ton of money, just message me on the forums and I can make a more in depth explanation).

Hope this helps. <object class="emojione" data="https://resources.enjin.com/1489581540/themes/core/images/emojione/svg/1f642.svg?0" type="image/svg+xml" standby=":)">:)</object>

dunsjohn, dont worry. i blif you. I am accountancy graudate..

Ooo... cykoh77... I now claim you as my tutor should I ever need one. <object class="emojione" data="https://resources.enjin.com/1489581540/themes/core/images/emojione/svg/1f642.svg?0" type="image/svg+xml" standby=":)">:)</object> You can't resist... I am like the Borg, it is futile. Haha.

I'm not an expert, though. Just stating what I learn in my courses to help give better ideas in relation to the economy. <object class="emojione" data="https://resources.enjin.com/1489581540/themes/core/images/emojione/svg/1f642.svg?0" type="image/svg+xml" standby=":)">:)</object>

I'll stick with Diamond and Gold. I prefer the "hard" currency that I can physically move around and put in chests. MTCs were originally intended for use with just the CS but have since expanded to practically all parts of the economy. If people want to sell Diamond for $35 or buy it $30 then that is on them. Don't base the worth of diamonds on the "official" rate of $150 buying and $50 selling. If any of you have ever played an MMO or something with some semblance of a shop/economy, then you know that when you sell an item back to the game/server, you ALLOWS sell it back cheaper than what you got it paid for it. Because of this you sell to other players.

All currency is fine, hell, I even pay some people in wood or food. Use what prices you want in your shop, if more people go shopping with credits, then use credits and vice versa. Minetown is a truly capitalist economy. Financial success is based solely on you. You must find a way to sell what you want to sell and buy what you need. You don't even have to participate in the economy at all. Just gather everything yourself if you want.

Oh and one more thing:
Gold and Diamonds don't rely on plugins or bukkit.

dunsjohn, tutor? no problem. Just remember pay me gold per question...lol

To be honest

I think that credits are a stupid currency

It was only ment for buying in the cs

But now there is no sure 'value' for MTC and gold

Really I think it is good that players can use mt creds for something's like getting monster spawners from the cs but I only use gold and diamond for player trade

There are exeptions like if I see something I was after for a while gong for creds then I will go for it...

I am quite happy with this current economy!

I liked the discussion but that's all I have to say on it

Unless someone has a question...

There is something pushing the price of diamonds down in regard to mtc, possibly fortune pickaxes and the price of diamond ore. Gold is tied to diamonds via the bank. If diamonds can no longer be converted to gold, the price of gold will restore to normal levels as it will become rare once more(gold still convertible to diamonds). Or raise the price of diamond ore in terms of credits.