system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is the real world equivalent of video game "gold sinks"?

In MMO games (e.g. World of Warcraft) there's something called a "gold sink", which is when the developers add mechanics to the game which remove excess money in order to prevent inflation. For example, they might add a gate which costs you 1,000 gold every time you go through it, and this gold is essentially deleted from the game.

Is there a real world equivalent of this? I thought it could be taxes, but on second thought I don't think so, seeing that the money goes to the government and isn't destroyed.
gpt
I mean, the whole point of gold sinks is to solve an issue that happens due to video game limitations.

You *could* remove money from the economy via taxes if you wanted to, but the central bank themselves could also simply sell government bonds and destroy the money they receive from that. Generally things like that aren't necessary since slowing down the economy in more "mild" ways (like raising interest rates) is sufficient.