Fortune specialists have calculated that the gold in the game World of Warcraft is currently worth seven times more than the bolivar - the monetary unit in Venezuela. The South American country is currently experiencing inflation.
These are difficult times for Venezuela. The country has been in the throes of an economic crisis for several years - its people have to contend with food and medicine shortages, recession and hyperinflation. The monetary unit of this South American country, the bolivar, is losing value against other means of payment at a dizzying rate. In the first quarter of 2018 alone, the price of goods in Venezuela rose by as much as 897.2%. Significantly, the bolivar is falling behind not only "hard money", but also virtual money. In this case, it's not just cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but also cash... gained in games. As Chris Morris of Fortune calculated, one piece of gold in the game World of Warcraft is currently worth seven times more than the Venezuelan bolivar.
The inhabitants of Azeroth have nothing to complain about - their currency is doing quite well.
The value of gold in World of Warcraft Morris calculated based on the prices of Tokens, which are special items with which you can extend your subscription once and, for more than a year, purchase any game or add-on in the Blizzard store. One Token costs $20 or 202,647 gold pieces (the current value on the American market). This means that in the world of World of Warcraft for a dollar you would get 10,132 gold pieces. However, according to the current conversion rate, the same bill would be exchanged for about 71,428 bolivars (at least officially; it is said that on the black market the price of one dollar reaches as much as 636,771 bolivars). The math is therefore simple and merciless.
The value of the bolivar continues to fall and there's no indication that this trend will be reversed anytime soon.
Interestingly, the Venezuelan government recognizes the benefits that can come from the virtual money market. However, it's not about the statutory order to "farm gold" in World of Warcraft. At the end of February this year launched Petro - the official cryptocurrency of this South American country. On the first day of its sale, the Venezuelan treasury received $735 million. Despite this success, experts still believe that the Petro should be viewed only as an act of desperation by a financially bankrupt country.
