Contracting in Virtual Worlds

In my last post, I discussed inworld “property rights,” which (to prove that yes, I can learn) I am now going to call “permissions.”  Every virtual world grants or withholds a variety of permissions to players, including permissions to transfer, copy or modify inworld objects, to know the attributes and properties of those objects, to enter land and buildings, etc. 

In this post, I want to ask readers about the state of contracting in virtual worlds.  What worlds have gone beyond the plain-vanilla simultaneous transfer, in which one player gives up a permission in exchange for another (like paying cash for a weapon)?

In the real world, even exchanges of cash for goods can be pretty complex.  Consider the following examples:

• Credit sales:  I give up permissions today for the promise of permissions later on (I give you a weapon today, you promise to pay me $10 next week).
• Puts and Calls:  I promise that if you give me $10 in the next month, I will immediately give you my weapon (in finance parlance, I have written a “call option” on the weapon).  I promise that if you give me a weapon in the next month, I will immediately give you $10 (I have written a put option).
• Futures Contracts:  I promise to give you a weapon in 10 days, and you promise to give me $10.  (This is different from a put or call because neither of us has the option to cancel the looming trade).

Cash-for-goods exchanges are only one form of contract.  Employment contracts exchange permissions (usually cash) for effort, which is not a permission at all.  Equity-investment contracts allow people to exchange cash now for a claim on another party’s future income. 

To the extent the contract is governing the exchange of permissions, contracts like the ones above can be objects (either programmed by the developer or scripted by a user) that automatically enforce contract terms, dramatically reducing the need for dispute resolution for routine commerce.  The auction houses in World of Warcraft and the “pay bot” terminals in Second Life serve this function for simultaneous transfers.

So here is my question to Terra Novans:  what are the most sophisticated programmed/scripted contract-enforcement tools in the metaverse?  Have you seen credit contracts, puts, calls or futures?  What about equity/profit-sharing contracts.   If not, why not?