Is virtual money the same as digital money?
A lot of confusion exists around the terms virtual money and digital money. When we are talking about digital money, this concerns the categories M2 and M3 of the financial system (M1 are the physical notes and coins in circulation). Worldwide, more than 95% of the currencies is digital. Virtual money originally only referred to the currencies that did not live in the real world and were only exchanged online (typically in gaming systems). In a later phase, virtual currencies started to expand to the physical world and blurred the line between virtual and digital money.