Second Life Blog: “As of January 22, 2008, it will be prohibited to offer interest or any direct return on an investment (whether in L$ or other currency) from any object, such as an ATM, located in Second Life, without proof of an applicable government registration statement or financial institution charter. We’re implementing this policy after reviewing Resident complaints, banking activities, and the law, and we’re doing it to protect our Residents and the integrity of our economy.”
Mises.org covered the problem before anyone.
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I don’t participate in Second Life, but I do read about it from time to time with curiosity.
I picture a team of geeks at Linden Research sitting around a conference table, feeling increasing responsibility to create order through edict.
My guess? This will not turn out well. Whatever happens, it’ll be at an exponential pace not seen by physical societies. It will be a quick study in government.
Hopefully, the geeks at Linden will keep good notes on the proceedings.
Not quite true. Back in the mid-90′s my business prototype included an immersive 3D environment (powered by a “commercial exploitation licensed” version of the earliest Quake engine) and a realistic economy that used a gold-backed e-currency. I tried unsuccessfully to convince banksters that my entrepreneurial edge was my idea’s ability to minimize the risk of cyber-depressions in nascent virtual worlds like mine and the ones that WOW and Second Life later marketed with greater success.
I picked up where earlier MUDS & “Trade Wars” games had left off and introduced the notion of legitimate cyber-economic viability. Years later, Blizzard & Linden Labs popularized vulgar simulacra of my vision, yet their so-called economies soon started to exhibit symptoms of the instability that I had predicted would give my ideas a sound-money sort of entrepreneurial advantage.
The lesson? Those with vision sometimes go hungry, because vision does not automatically lead to entrepreneurial success.
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