Fairly sure I read in the Paulo Garcia interview that there would be some kind of virtual currency.

I mean virtual currency is sort of a wierd definition as everything in video games is "virtual". There will inevitably be koins as there has been in many mortal kombat games but I do hope there isnt a premium, paid-for currency such as source crystals from injustice 2. I could be wrong but I though someone had confirmed elsewhere on these formats that there was no lootboxes or microtransactions

Yep... There are no microtransactions or lootboxes.

However, I still wonder if that applies to any special skins they may release later. But definitely nothing related to progression, so that’s good.

I'm almost confident the new system going forward for these AAA games is they're gonna adopt the "battle pass" model Fortnite has made so popular and we're gonna unlock stuff by progressing through each tier. Black Ops 4 has already done it and I just feel now that the lootbox fiasco has died down dramatically they're gonna turn to this.

How does that system work? I don’t play Fortnite or CoD, so I have no idea.

Depends on the company kinda but to put it roughly they start you off with a (usually) 100 tier pass with each tier having something unlockable along the way whether it's a costume, gesture or otherwise and the higher you climb the tiers the greater the reward. They last on average a month and a half and then start up a new pass with new tiers.