線上遊戲虛擬資產的交易活動分析及安全機制設計

Abstract

近年來，線上遊戲的熱絡帶動起虛擬資產交易市場的蓬勃發展，讓虛擬資產的買賣成為新興的商業活動之一。然而，虛擬資產交易活動衍生出許多交易糾紛與犯罪的問題，其中又以虛擬資產交易詐騙案件為數最多，不少是買家已付款但未收到貨品、貨品的屬性內容與賣方所刊登的出售訊息不符、或疏忽買到贓物或膺品，致使遊戲帳號遭遊戲業者凍結，或遊戲參與者涉及贓物罪遭司法調查等情事發生，造成以買賣虛擬資產為標的之交易糾紛與犯罪問題層出不窮。

深究線上遊戲的犯罪及其衍生的虛擬資產交易安全問題，虛擬資產相關的保護機制不足及缺乏標準化之描述憑據是最主要的原因之一。事實上，虛擬資產的本質是一組數位資料0與1的集合，是由各個遊戲業者自行設計定義的數位內容，基本上存在容易複製、修改、偽造及刪除之特性。再加上現行的交易平台賣方所刊登的出售訊息，多數僅止於文字或圖片的說明，並無具有公信力的佐證文件闡明此虛擬資產的物件來源、物件內容、屬性值變更內容、所有權內容及交易歷程內容等資訊，因此買方常常處於資訊不對等的情況，造成此等交易糾紛及犯罪問題難以有效的改善及預防。

為改善上述之問題，本博士論文依據線上遊戲虛擬資產交易市場之實際情境進行交易活動的分析，並以個體關係模型為方法推導出虛擬資產交易活動所需的個體類型、個體類型與個體類型之間的關係類型、及其屬性內容。進一步，我們以個體類型為中心區分成10種個體關係子模型來闡述，並運用個體類型與其關係類型之概念，解釋資料庫中抽象的資料架構，再利用個體類型關係圖的圖形化方式，表達資料庫之個體類型集合、關係集合、屬性及其主鍵值的內容，具體說明線上遊戲虛擬資產交易活動個體關係模型的設計內涵。

本博士論文最後參卓供應鏈電子履歷的概念，提出一個創新的虛擬資產電子履歷的文件架構與安全管理機制，並據以建立可識別虛擬資產之物件來源、各屬性值變更的歷程紀錄、過去所有權交替、交易的內容、及最新的屬性值內容之資訊架構。接續我們依據虛擬資產交易活動之個體關係模型及其電子履歷的應用，進階推導虛擬資產的字彙與表達式，並且以可延伸標示語言作為表達式的表達語言，藉以建立虛擬資產的物件內容、交易、及其電子履歷之標準表達式的提議。此表達式的設計期望能夠成為未來政府機關、遊戲業者及交易系統營運者共同遵循的標準之一。

此外，透過本博士論文所建立之虛擬資產的內容、交易、及其電子履歷的字彙與表達式，未來可讓遊戲業者據此提供給虛擬資產交易雙方充份的交易參考資訊，解決現行交易雙方資訊不對等的情況。藉由虛擬資產表達式的設計，未來也可讓虛擬資產的表達資訊能夠被不同的遊戲參與者、不同的交易系統、及不同的遊戲平台做出一致性的解讀，此舉將有助於虛擬資產的交易與流通，也有助於遊戲業者將虛擬資產作為消費商品，活絡虛擬資產的商業活動。虛擬資產電子履歷的應用預期也將可減少虛擬資產交易糾紛及犯罪問題、解決現行虛擬資產所衍生之贓物及膺品問題、彌補現行遊戲歷程紀錄資訊不足與安全問題、並可提供虛擬資產之多元交易憑據等優點。遊戲參與者取得虛擬資產的電子履歷後，直接強制遊戲業者及交易系統營運者的責任，讓持有虛擬資產的遊戲參與者受到相當的保障，提供更安全的線上遊戲虛擬資產之交易環境。

In recent years, the popularity of online-gaming has stimulated the development of virtual property market and instigated the trading of virtual property into a new commercial activity. However, the virtual property market has derived many trading disputes and crime problems. Among them, the trading fraud occupies the largest portion of the online-gaming criminal cases. For instance, some buyers have already paid but did not receive the merchandise, or the attribute and content of the merchandise were inconsistent with the advertising information provided by the seller, or the stolen or counterfeit goods were bought due to negligence. Such dispute and fraud may lead the game account to be frozen by the game operator, or the game players involved in bribes and other abuses of receiving stolen property were under investigation by the local jurisdiction. All these trading disputes and crime issues have growing at an amazing rate and appeared endless.

After intensively studying the crime problems of online-gaming and the derived trading safety problems of virtual property, we have found that the most important factor is insufficiency of the related protection mechanism of virtual property and the lack of standardization of the description guidelines. In fact, the nature of the virtual property is a collection of a set of digital data 0 and 1, which is self-designed and set up by each game designer or operator. Basically it has the characteristics of being easy to copy, modify, forge, and delete. Plus the existing trading platform only advertises a limited description of the for-sale virtual property with the text or picture illustrations by the seller, there is no credible supporting documentation to clarify the source, contents, attribute value changes, ownerships, and trading records of the virtual property. Therefore, the buyers are often under situation with insufficient or mismatch information, resulting in the detection and prevention of trading disputes and crime problems hardly to be improved effectively.

To address the problems stated above, this dissertation analyzes actual trading activities in the online-gaming virtual property market. Using the entity-relationship model, this study also derives the entity types required by virtual property trading and relationship types—and their attributes—for different entity types. By elucidating the entity type and dividing it into ten sub-entity-relationship models, this study explains the abstract data architecture of the database based on the concept of entity types and their relationship types. The relationship diagram of entity types is also utilized to diagrammatically express the entity set, relationship set, attributes, and the primary key content in the database. This helps specify the design content of the entity-relationship model of the online-gaming virtual property market.

In reference to the supply chain electronic pedigree, towards the end of this study, we propose an innovative document architecture and security management mechanism for electronic pedigree of virtual property. This study then establishes an information architecture that identifies virtual property object sources, historical records of attribute value changes, past ownership replacements, trading content, and the latest attribute value. Additionally, combining the entity-relationship model of the trading activities of virtual property with the electronic pedigree makes it possible to derive a virtual property vocabulary and expression, with the extensible makeup language (XML) the expression language. The model in this study allows government agencies, game operators, and trading system operators to use the criteria expression of object content, trading, and electronic pedigree of virtual property to follow the expression design.

The vocabulary and expression of the virtual property content, trading, and the electronic pedigree, can also allow game operators to provide sufficient trading information to both parties in virtual property trading, thereby redressing the existing problem of information asymmetry. The proposed virtual property expression allows game players, trading systems, and game platform to consistently interpret expression information in the future. This is beneficial to virtual property trading and circulation and helps game operators treat virtual property as consumer goods, flourishing commercial activities of virtual property. The application of a virtual property electronic pedigree is expected to reduce the problems of trading disputes and crime, settle the issue of stolen and counterfeit goods, supplement existing security and insufficient gaming historical record issues, and provide diversified trading credentials for virtual property. After game players obtain a virtual property electronic pedigree, game operators and trading system operators will be compelled to protect game players who hold virtual property, thus producing a more secure trading environment for online-gaming virtual property.