Facebook completes real currency transition

Another nail has been put in the coffin of our future galaxy spanning civilisation using those space age sounding “credits,” to pay for everything. Facebook has completed its transition from using the non-localised currency back to real world money.

While credits had its advantages, such as allowing Facebook users to deal only with the social network and not give payment details to a myriad of online game firms, it caused huge headaches for anyone outside of the US, where the dollar and credits were quite closely matched. As Techcrunch points out, while a digital item might cost you 20 credits or $2, in some parts of the world that would be a much less rounded number. When exchange rates change as well, that also sends prices flying all over the place.

One and the same

Bitcoin has a similarly difficult issue, as prices for that need to be carefully monitored to make sure you're buying at a rate not much over the going price and sold at something that's not too far below it.

With Facebook moving internationally and generating millions of users in overseas markets, it makes sense to switch to a real world currency, as it really simplifies the system, cutting out the middle ground of buying credits to then buy something else – you just buy what you want. Consumers can also tell what something costs just by looking at it, instead of doing some mental maths to calculate what the credits are worth. Developers targeting local buyers, can also price items directly at them too, instead of trying to come up with a unified price for the whole world.

KitGuru Says: What do you guys think of this? Do you reckon it'll be easier with the local currency or were we better off with credits?

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