The purpose of this is not to discuss the merits of if the below is a good or bad idea. If it will help or hinder gold sellers or even if you like the idea. The purpose is a thought experiment. Let us assume this is already in place. The cash shop has whatever you think it should have even if it won't actually. How did you get your stars? Sub, AHing, buy as you go?

Segev wrote:

Quite specifically, the proposed system is designed to accommodate the "pay to win" players (or, as I prefer to think of them, the "more money than time" players) without creating the usual problems associated with pay-to-win games.
MWM does not, will not, and has no plans to sell "game winning" items in the c-store. I can't promise nothing will ever edge into that territory, but we have a strong aversion to it, so anything that does would be incidental. You won't be able to buy special power sets, for example, let alone buy ones that are just plain better than what you can get "for free."
If you want a "game-winning" item, there are two ways to get it: play the game and earn it through whatever means the game provides it (drops from missions, crafting, etc.); or buy it from another player on the open market.
This is little different from how any game with an "AH" type market works: if you want the item but haven't gotten it from your own playing, you can buy it on the market...if you can afford it.
I'm not trying to condescend nor lecture, but I feel the need to mention this for contextual reasons: The solution many "more money than time" players pursue to the problem of not having enough currency to buy the items they want on the AH is to go to the third-party gold-seller.
If, instead, they can buy the c-store currency - Stars - and sell those directly on the market for in-game currency, they have no need to go to a third-party gold-seller.
Because the items they wish to exchange (ultimately) real money to acquire are not generated by their purchase of them, this avoids the problem that most commonly plagues "pay to win" games: there is no inflation of game-winning items. The number of them stays the same as if it were impossible to buy them at all.
I won't pretend that gold-sellers - particularlly scammers - won't undercut the going rate on the market. If people can typically buy 100 currency for 1 Star on the market, and 1 Star for 1 cent in real life, there will be gold-sellers who will sell 100,000 currency for $5 (twice the going rate). They will do this because they don't value Stars.
I do NOT anticipate people selling Stars as third-party dealers, though I suppose it's possible. It's no more a risk than those who would do so with in-game currency, however.
The reason I believe this system will still be helpful in combatting the problem is that convenience trumps a LOT. Sure, you can buy twice as much currency if you go to that third-party site...but then you have to jump through all the hoops to set up the trade, you have to trust that they really will trade you the currency in-game, and you're running the risk of credit card fraud. Meanwhile, if you just go on the market and sell Stars, you get the currency you want.
Moreover, the usual anti-gold-seller mantras are stronger because we can honestly point out that anybody selling currency for less than it goes for on the market is probably up to something. MWM will not set the price of currency in Stars, or Stars in currency; that will be done by the players. Like any market, it will find its proper going rate. As with anything that seems too good to be true (for instance, if I offered to sell you 100,000 shares of Apple stock at $1 per share, you would rightfully be suspicious of my honesty).
But my real motivation for wanting to see this implemented is related to a desire for everybody to have access to the whole game: I envision a game experience where players with more time than money trade their surplus "drops" for Stars, allowing those with more money than time to get the "cool stuff" they want. And, in the process, those who have more time than money now have Stars with which to buy all the C-store stuff they want and gain full access to the game as well as anybody spending money on it could.
I'm looking, effectively, to take the idea behind freemium games - that the free players provide something to the paying players in the form of an enhanced experience with more people to play with - and expanding it. There is a literal shared experience as free players gain access to the whole of the game by virtue of being valuable to the paying players.

So I will start.

My Star use would be very simple. I would purchase any Inventory Upgrades, Player Housing Upgrades, and other permanent cosmetics I desired. I would then give all my remaining stars to my husband for him to do the same. Over time I and he would sell things on the market we didn't need and stockpile stars until an update or item we wanted came along. If a friend joined the game we'd help them buy the basic needs (Inventory Upgrades and 1 Outfit) and keep saving for that shinny that would come along one day.

I would buy maybe one new outfit per year if I really liked it and only if it were on sale. I would wait as long as I needed checking weekly and have about 10 friends watching that one item or set for me till it goes a sale.