Linden Labs = DeBeers
January 30, 2007
Much attention has been given to the virtual world called Second Life. The world has its own currency, commerce and land. What bothers me about virtual worlds like Second Life is that wealth created in the world is artificial. Land is a commodity in Second Life, but just like DeBeers controls the value of diamonds, Linden Labs controls the value of land in their world. At any moment Linden Lab could just ‘create’ more land just as DeBeers could open their Swiss vaults and flood the streets with diamonds.
Looks like a parallel world is being created in Second Life’s image. This ‘metaverse’ will be distributed instead of centralized. Now anyone can create land and value will be based on location not scarcity. Anyone with a server will be able to ‘expand’ the universe. In a distributed world Phillip Rosedale wouldn’t be King, instead he would be a simple citizen. I wonder if Second Life will connect their world to the new open world?
