Despite those "signifcant blows, gold farming continues to survive," Gerhard explains. He also says that 40 to 50 percent of the game's active playerbase buys gold "on any given month!" The solution to what is clearly a thorn in Jagex's side is something called RuneScape bonds. Bonds are a tradeable membership item that can freely gifted or traded for any other tradeable in-game item. As a result, players will be able to pay for their game memberships via in-game wealth and gold farmers will theoretically have no customers. The bonds update will also include a gold-sink designed to help the economy recover from extreme inflation. Full details are available via the video after the cut and the links below.
[Thanks Caio!]