Economy

The economy is a system that revolves around PCB's virtual currency system. It was implemented in late 2011 (?), shortly after the Survival server launched. Over the years there has been a variety of ways to earn and spend currency. Currently, the economy has been removed in PCB due to disinterest and lack of use. There are no plans to revitalize it in the future. 

Economy Stats

At the peak of the Economy's popularity, the website listed detailed statistics of player wealth and item trades.

The Market

The marketplace was the primary method for economic activity since the beginning of the Survival server. Players could purchase a single plot to build their own customizable shop, which could then automatically sell items to other players via chests.

Admin shops were added to allow players to always purchase rare items, even if no players had them in stock. Admin shops were controversial, since they remove money from the economy.

Diamond Price Cap

At various points in the economy's history, the price of diamonds were controlled due to some players having a large surplus and selling them for less than lower-tier resources. It was felt this unbalanced the game, since players could get them more easily than intended.

This was a continuous problem during the history of the economy

Attempts to solve this problem included creating an admin shop which bought diamonds, therefore discouraging people from buying and selling them cheaper. In February 2014, this was for $50, which was removed in March 2014. By February 2015, diamonds were again controlled and had to be sold for a minimum of $100.

Other Methods

Money could also be earned through a variety of methods throughout its history.

• Killing mobs to get a currency reward based on the difficulty of the enemy. This was later scrapped when player-made mob grinders became a rising issue.
• Completing Jump Quests
  
• Investing currency in a stock exchange which mirrored values of real-life stocks. This was removed during the switch to Survival 1.7 due to plugin incompatibility.
• Selling houses by placing a special sign on them, which players could right-click to purchase the property.
  
• Buying lottery tickets with a command, and a winner was awarded the prize pool weekly.
• Depositing money in a bank and earn compound interest. This was added in the early days of survival.
• Donating (real) money to PCB
• Voting for the server on server aggregation sites such as PlanetMinecraft.