Chat economy: why the bot has !coins, !points and a VIP raffle

The chat commands started as an evening's entertainment. They are now the liveliest part of FoxSphere, and the only part viewers notice without me explaining it.

What already works

• !coins — your personal balance

• !points — how the points system and economy work

• !ticket — how much XP until a VIP raffle ticket

• !tickets — who is currently in the raffle

• !stack and !project — what I am working on right now

• !lurk and !pivo — nothing to do with the economy, just nice

Why not a casino

The easiest thing to do with a balance is let people gamble it away. I am deliberately not doing that: a mechanic that holds attention through risk works against the reason I go live at all. Points accrue for being here and joining in, not for betting.

What's next

The balance lives in the bot and the viewer sees it as a line in chat. The next step is putting it on the overlay — same PostgreSQL, same Prisma, but the progress is visible on screen. That is the vertical slice FoxSphere exists to build.