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Ask HN: Can someone explain why OpenAI credits expire?

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Re: Ask HN: Can someone explain why OpenAI credits expire?

#11

Post by gus_massa »

ManlyBread wrote: post #10
gus_massa wrote: post #4

For accounting it's better to give things an expiring date. Perhaps 5 year would have been better than 1 to keep people happy, but I don't know why they decided 1 year (or whatever is the exact number).

This is a complete nonsense given I have video games with virtual currencies in them that I've purchased for real money and the currency is still sitting there well over a decade later.

I'm not accountant, but I read that explanation a lot of time.

I guess in the game, you already bought the fake-gold-coins and you can "enjoy" having them even before exchanging them for fake-bread or fake-swords or fake-whatever.

Re: Ask HN: Can someone explain why OpenAI credits expire?

#12

Post by shoo »

gus_massa wrote: post #4

For accounting it's better to give things an expiring date. Perhaps 5 year would have been better than 1 to keep people happy, but I don't know why they decided 1 year (or whatever is the exact number).

yes. see also this thread from 4 months ago discussing accounting for credits, in the context of 1 year expiry for anthropic credits

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44793827

Re: Ask HN: Can someone explain why OpenAI credits expire?

#13

Post by shoo »

gus_massa wrote: post #11
ManlyBread wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a complete nonsense given I have video games with virtual currencies in them that I've purchased for real money and the currency is still sitting there well over a decade later.

I'm not accountant, but I read that explanation a lot of time. I guess in the game, you already bought the fake-gold-coins and you can "enjoy" having them even before exchanging them for fake-bread or fake-swords or fake-whatever.

I'm not an accountant either, that also makes sense.

If instead the exchange had been of real world money for N months of prepaid subscription, that was consumed after N months had passed, that'd be a little different but also presumably quite acceptable to accountants.

Suppose the exchange had been of real world money for N months of prepaid subscription credits that could be stored indefinitely and only consumed if the player chose to actively play during a month. That might turn into an accounting nightmare if those subscription credits didn't expire (maybe cannot recognise the revenue while they are unused, becomes liability on the balance sheet).

I wonder how the accounting rules work for stuff like Eve online where there is an game consumable item (PLEX) that when consumed extends your subscription, can be traded inside the game's economy, and can be purchased with real world money

Re: Ask HN: Can someone explain why OpenAI credits expire?

#14

Post by nivertech »

For credits to not be considered a money substitute, they must be non-transferable, non-refundable, and have an expiration date. Without an expiration date, unused credits cannot be accounted for as revenue, but as a liquid asset similar to cash.

Best practice is to set a long expiration date, such as 1-2 years. There are different regulations about it in different states. After that unused credits can be accounted as breakage revenue.

If a company treats credits as money, it will have to comply with numerous financial regulations. For example, if a company compensates for SLA breaches with cash rather than credits, this could be considered insurance.

Re: Ask HN: Can someone explain why OpenAI credits expire?

#15

Post by ManlyBread »

gus_massa wrote: post #11
ManlyBread wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a complete nonsense given I have video games with virtual currencies in them that I've purchased for real money and the currency is still sitting there well over a decade later.

I'm not accountant, but I read that explanation a lot of time. I guess in the game, you already bought the fake-gold-coins and you can "enjoy" having them even before exchanging them for fake-bread or fake-swords or fake-whatever.

That also makes no sense given I can add real money to Steam and Steam will never "expire" that money either.
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