virtual economies

I ran into an interview with Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab's Second Life, a San Francisco-based online virtual community with more than 70,000 participants.

The currency is Linden dollars, which are convertible into real dollars if the players so choose, in an online market at prices they set.

The residents are creating a world which will be thousands of times more compelling than we could create ourselves. [that's what you get with REAL freedom]

Many of our residents already create scripts and objects that can be hacked and improved upon for everyone's benefit. [emphasis on everyone!]

Assuming a continuing supply of people with too much time on their hands [the interviewer asks], how big could it get?

[Rosedale says] in theory, Second Life software could offer everyone on the Internet a 3-D presence. When we say Second Life is the next evolutionary step after the Web, we really mean it.

Now I'm not big on the avatar (characters and what not) aspect of the system. You know me and IP.

But in principle, something like Second life is what's needed to replace our current privately owned interest-based fractional reserve monetary system.

Our economy can be transplanted online and we can have our own interest-free currency that is nothing more than numbers on an OPEN and TRANSPARENT accounting system.

Definitely, worth exploring.