I hereby propose the acceptance of Bitcoins and Litecoins for buying packs of stuff and gold. Some pros and cons that quickly come to mind:
Pros:
1. Headline grabbing stuff and positive PR for Erepublik Labs in the gaming / gamers world for the innovative move of a massive online game like this.
2. Increase of revenue for the company -perhaps quite significant- by extending the user-base who are actually paying into the game, by accepting cryptocurrencies from users that would not ordinarily pay with more traditional ways of payments.
3. Provide gamers who are using their GPUs to mine Litecoins (or Bitcoins in the past) a way to spend their e-curencies. Many of them do not have accumulated a significant capital to allow them to meaningfully engage in cash conversion through cryptocurrency exchanges, so they would be more inclined to spend them / convert them into something else. However, the receiving hub of all this e-money (Erepublik Labs) can easily accumulate a significant amount of cryptocurrencies that can be converted through exchanges, banks etc. This would lead to (2) - an increase in revenue for the company, from an unexpected source.
4. From a forward looking perspective, it could be a significant investment for the company in a booming sector – if they opt to keep some of the e-currencies.
5. Low risk: Erepublik sells VIRTUAL GOODS and thus no actual damage can be caused to the company for accepting electronic money.
6. The game could actually employ, at a later stage perhaps, a process of reverse money flow in which a player can also get bitcoins or litecoins as one-off awards (like lotteries or anniversaries or whatever), mission-rewards, or even monetary exchanges of erepublik currency to cryptocurrency. There are many possibilities here.
Cons:
1. Price volatility can be an issue for the cryptocurrencies. However this can be solved by employing a higher exchange rate for accepting cryptocurrencies. For example if one used 10 euro to buy a certain weapons pack, it can be a requirement for the player to pay 12 euro-equivalent in bitcoins or litecoins in order to buy the same pack. The extra 2-euro equivalent is to negate, in the long run, the fluctuations of the volatile prices. In this way, even if at 10% of the time the price of the cryptocurrencies “crash”, the 90% of the time when the company is overcharging can (over)compensate whatever loss. The +20% is just an example, it shouldn't be so high.
2. Possible price reduction of cryptocurrencies: This can be solved by converting them as they come through an exchange. However, IMO, it would be better to always keep a percentage as an investment fund of the company – in case prices go manifold (and they could actually do so because paper money is backed by nothing and money supply accelerates very fast when Central Bankers issue fresh currency).
3. Possible legal issues that could arise and that the company has to explore within its legal division or by receiving external counseling from financial and regulatory lawyers and experts.
Again, IMO, for a company selling virtual goods and entertainment services, I think it's definitely worth the shot as not much can go wrong.
