Dolla Dolla Bills Ya’ll – Samuel Roberts Reporting

Money makes the world go around, right? Apparently, this is not only true for the world we live in outside of Second Life but also the Grid world we all know and love. It seems Second Life is far more than just a video game but its own country with a GDP larger than some countries. Yes, that’s right, with a GDP of over 600 million USD Second life could literally be listed as a country in the range and scope of its free market power. The question...

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GeekSpeak – Extreme Capitalism! Join the discussion Saturday March 19th at 12pm SLT

 A few weeks ago we talked about a world without money, this week we will go to the opposite extreme and talk about a world where people are charged for absolutely everything.  Let’s imagine that the Ferengi from Star Trek landed on Earth and bought the world presidency.  Would that lead to a fairer world?Everything would have a price.  You would have to pay for a chair in a bar or restaurant.  You can...

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 19th February at noon SLT: Can we live without money?

 There are some people who firmly believe that humanity should stop using money.  They point to those who are homeless or starving or dying from lack of medical care and say that all these problems would be solved if we lived in a society that did not depend on money. Many different forms of money have been used through the ages: beads, shells, cigarettes, gold.  But has there ever been a society without any form of money at all? ...

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 16th January at noon SLT: GeekSpeak – The Future of Money

 Last week there was a huge drop in the price of bitcoin and serious inflation is threatened in all currencies.  So now is the time to dive deep into the subject of future money.  What will we use as the basis of value?  Bitcoin, gold, fiat currencies?What will happen when money can carry a program?  When there can be restrictions on how it can be used?  When you can send money to your kids and your grandchildren will...

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GeekSpeak – modern money theory- Join the discussion Saturday March 30th at 12pm SLT

These days in politics the term ‘modern money theory’ (MMT) pops up now and then.  Basically, it means solving economic problems by printing money.  Why are we doing that and why is it doomed to fail?  If you live in Europe you may not realise that your money lost a lot of its value last week.  What will happen in the future?  Will we end up like Venezuela or will we be able to stop the loss of value before it gets out...

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GeekSpeak – Where is money going? Join the discussion Oct 27th at 12pm SLT

This week is the 10-year anniversary of the invention of Bitcoin.  Let’s take this opportunity to explore what bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have brought us. Many countries around the world are now ditching the US dollar.  What currency will they take up instead?  Could this be the best chance for cryptocurrencies? What will the financial future of the world look like?  Will we end up with a world currency? ...

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GeekSpeak – in the future, will virtual currencies become real life currencies?

Will it be possible in the future to go to the supermarket and buy eggs and milk with WOW gold?  Or linden dollars? Maybe it will be possible in the east, where the exchange rate will give virtual currencies greater buying power.  Are people playing games now (apart from child slaves in sweatshops) just for the in-game money?  How much would you have to earn in a game to make it worth playing?If you owned a RL store would you...

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GeekSpeak – the future of money Join the discussion Saturday June 3rd at 12pm SLT

Has money any future?  Will the time come when it does not exist?  How would the world work without money?This week in GeekSpeak we will be discussing whether it would be possible to live without money and what form money will take, if we do still have it.Will you get paid by the hour, carry your hard earned paper to a place where it is digitised and loses value every year?  Or can you imagine getting paid by the minute and by the...

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Super Intelligence or Super Rich?- Piers Diesel Reporting...

Being super intelligent is something which we cannot buy. You can gain an education to become knowledgeable but this will not make you super intelligent. Being Super Rich does not promise happiness and with more money can bring more problems But it can reduce some stresses associated with paying bills and helping others. We are lead to believe that if we are intelligent we can on this alone make ourselves rich. Which can be the case with...

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$200K USD in Bitcoins Stolen -- Allen Eppenberger Reporting

I learned last evening from Technovelgy.com that an amount totaling BTC 46,000 in the digital currency called “Bitcoin” was siphoned away from a cloud service called Linode.com. That company issued a statement on their site, which I found on Facebook: http://status.linode.com/2012/03/manager-security-incident.html The story first broke March 1st on Bitcoinmedia.com. VirWoX.com, a currency exchange site who trades in Linden Dollars, also does business in Bitcoins. I contacted them for a comment. Their anticipated...

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