Looking beyond the hullabaloo surrounding virtual currency Bitcoin over the past few months as punters and analysts started questioning the viability and validity of the phenomenon, you have to accept we’ll be seeing more of these schemes emerging.

Such is the interest that the European Central Bank (ECB) released a position paper on virtual currency schemes in October last year. It singles out Bitcoin in a case study, but identifies others such as World of Warcraft Gold and Facebook Credits, as well as loyalty programmes such as frequent fl yer miles, as similar mechanisms.