[afiori]

The difference is that those other are not meant to be used as a money replacement. In Pokemon Go there are coins and they are nothing but points to spend in store.

If I could transfer them to other player, become a certified shop that accept payment with them, or do any of the many other thing you can do with money that would be probably a legally grey area.

(moreover I am not sure how you would tax such a currency)

[squiggleblaz]

You don't tax currency, you tax transactions. And you tax transactions based on the value of the transaction. So if I sell a widget for either $10 or 0.01 BTC, and the tax rate is 10% of the value of the transaction, then I'll have to pay $1 in tax for either of the transactions. If I sell a widget for 0.01 BTC and no other amount, then we can establish the value of the widget from other sources, for instance, someone else might sell the widget for around $10 (implying that it the tax is around $1) or someone else might exchange 1 BTC for $2000 (implying a the tax is around $2). Naturally, if you put the decision of the tax into the hands of the government, they'll take the best rate for themselves. You can avoid this by pricing things in terms of the tax rate i.e. using the government's currency.

[smsm42]

> The difference is that those other are not meant to be used as a money replacement

That'd be a big surprise for me when I'll try to book my next flight with miles. I certainly thought they'd replace money.

> In Pokemon Go there are coins and they are nothing but points to spend in store.

That's literally definition of money - abstract points that you can spend in the store. Well, the definition of fiat money, to be precise, but we're not going back to gold doubloons anytime soon.

> that would be probably a legally grey area.

Transferring money to other person can certainly land you in legal gray area if it against the laws (money laundering, tax avoidance, fraud, etc.) So what's new here?

> (moreover I am not sure how you would tax such a currency)

The same way you tax any other goods. If you receive income, you are taxed on its value. You think if non-USD payments weren't taxed, nobody would have a bright idea to be paid is silver bullion? IRS is not stupid, you owe taxes on any income, and better believe it, if they don't know the exact value proving it to them will very soon become your problem, not theirs.

[afiori]

>> In Pokemon Go there are coins and they are nothing but points to spend in store.

>That's literally definition of money - abstract points that you can spend in the store.

Better move all my savings to pokécoins then, I am sure they can then be used for money replacement.

Jokes aside there are innumerable difference between real money and an in-game credit both from practical and legal viewpoint.

> That'd be a big surprise for me when I'll try to book my next flight with miles. I certainly thought they'd replace money.

Again credit with a company of a consortium is incomparable to money with a legal standing.

What libra tries to do here is to create a new worldwide concurrency that can in principle subsume most national currencies in the world (maybe except the dollar for technical reasons).