SecondLife Bans Unregistered In-World Banks

GuruBuckaroo writes "Virtual Ponzi schemes — pardon, "Banks" — have finally been given the boot by the policymakers at Linden Lab's Second Life. According to the company's latest blog post: '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.'"

Comments

Re:free advertising?

[boristdog]

I have never, EVER, met a person who 'plays' this game, I am probably the only one in my circle who has even heard of it, and I only hear about it here on slashdot.

My sentiments exactly. And I work with hundreds of nerds/engineers/etc.

All of the people I know seem to have first lives.

Re:Virtual Trust?

[Nimey]

int counter;
for (counter = 0; counter < 100; counter++) {
  sprintf ("People are stupid.");
}

Re:That should've been done day one.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think we need to make a Third Life, the Second Life stuff is becoming too my like a second job...

Job Opportunity!

[Brett Buck]

Does this mean I can get a new simulated job as a simulated chartered accountant or simulated banking regulator! Oh goody, where do I sign up?

          Brett

Re:Virtual Trust?

[Entropius]

Don't you mean printf rather than sprintf?

Re:Remember kids...

[Cro Magnon]

It's even worse than the Old West. Back then, you could shoot a swindler and he'd stay dead.

Re:good time to become a loan shark

[XenoPhage]

Second, gold doesn't have intrinsic value at all. The value of gold fluctuates all the time. All the gold standard did was fix the price of gold. While the gold standard was tenable for a time it didn't work in the long run because it's not stable. Your money supply is dependent on your gold supply which in turn limits your economy. You can't have more dollars than your fixed ratio to gold. New discoveries of gold can also create deflationary shocks. We could always go on the Golem Standard. As I understand it, there are only 4,000 chem-free golems, all currently buried just outside of Ankh Morpork. It is extremely unlikely that any more will ever be found as the original creators, the Um, mysteriously disappeared.

Re:Virtual Trust?

[_xeno_]

I think there's a rather obvious problem with that. The print line should be:

sprintf(stdout, "People are stupid.\n");

Otherwise it doesn't compile.

(Disclaimer: Yes, this is intended as a joke.)

Re:good time to become a loan shark

[Planesdragon]

The fact is, fiat currency is pretend currency, and it only works as long as someone with a lot more guns than someone else has and keeps control of it. All currency is pretend currency. Adam didn't walk out of Eden, find a rock of gold, and use it to convince a monkey to work for him.