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Comment by ubercore | Hacker News Reader

Can't you exchange ISK for dollars? How is that not fraud, in the real world?

Game companies make absolutely sure that in-game currency isn't the same as IRL money, because then players would have to declare in-game property on taxes etc. and the game servers would be like banks or something. It's much better for everyone if you can't do that :)

And yet it is possible to exchange ISKs to BTCs, then dollars.

That's only a step up from barter, though. You could exchange ISK for live chickens if you could find someone interested.

The liquidity of BTCs is notoriously better than that of live or dead chickens...

On german Ebay, you get 1,000mio isk for 25€ so it sums up to 25,000€ which is according to google something like 34,000 US$. but yes, it is not legal.

No, you can only do the opposite, and even that's in an indirect way, you can buy more game time/hats for other people who pay you in game currency for game time/hats. Or monocles.

There seem to be quite a few sites where you can sell ISK - though after quick research (not familiar, since I have never played the game myself) I see that the forums explain that it is not allowed by EVE, yet people still do it.

The "market rate" seems to be approx 0.40 USD per 1M EVE ISK, but it fluctuates on various sites with some being up to 0.65 USD.

Sources:

http://www.gameusd.com/eve-isk.htm

http://www.virdeal.com/sell-EVE-online-isk.php

http://www.mmopawn.com/sell-24.html

http://www.selleveisk.com/sell-eve-isk.html

Selling ISK is explicitly forbidden by the EVE ToS. Buying ISK without going through CCP (by buying game cards) is also forbidden.

If caught, CCP will debit your in game wallet for the ISK you bought twice -- once to reverse the transaction, once as a penalty fee.

That corresponds to what I read and good to have confirmation on that - but that doesn't mean it isn't happening.

No, I didn't mean to imply that unsanctioned ISK sales weren't happening -- you are right, they most certainly are happening.

I just wanted to add a bit more information to your post :)

What jurisdiction would it be in ?

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