Enter the Sansar Dollar: First Virtual Currency With Real Money Value in New VR Era

Along with the creator preview video just out today, Linden Lab is releasing some interesting info about the Sansar Dollar, which operates very much like Linden Dollars, in the sense that their value is pinned to the US dollar, but fluctuates according to market demand. Unless I missed another example (and this is certainly the most prominent one), this is the very first virtual currency with real money value in the post-Oculus era of VR.

However, ending speculation among many SLers, no, it will not be immediately possible to buy Sansar Dollars with Linden Dollars, or vice versa:

Linden Lab: The exchange rate between USD and Sansar dollars will be floating and will vary according to supply and demand. The rate will not necessarily be equal to the exchange rate between USD and Linden dollars in Second Life (which is also floating).

To begin with, the exchange rate is about USD1 to S$100.

Road to VR: Can owners of Second Life currency transfer it to Sansar for use there?

Linden Lab: For now at least, not directly. At this time, Second Life users can sell Linden dollars for USD on the LindeX, and then can use those USD to purchase Sansar dollars.

In the future, we could potentially allow Second Life users to buy and sell Sansar dollars for Linden dollars, but because the two platforms will have different business models, fee structures, and exchange rates, we’d want to be careful not to set up a system that could be exploited.

That's very wise, and when it's spelled out that way, it makes me think there never will be an active exchange market between Linden Dollars and Sansar Dollars. Some kind of controlled "buyback" campaign, where users can exchange a set block of Sansar Dollars directly from Linden Lab for a set price of Linden Dollars, is probably the better way to go.

Speaking of which, Tom's Hardware raises a good question about the 500 people who are already in Sansar's early access program:

Tom's Hardware: So, you’ve opened the monetization platform for the 500+ invited creators to sell amongst each other to work out the kinks of the system? [Linden Lab CEO] Ebbe Altbert: Yeah, that's fair. I mean, part of it is for us to make sure that the marketplace and the user experience for buying and selling content is working great. And the whole exchange where people can buy Sansar dollars and spend Sansar dollars and then also redeem back to FIAT currency, and that all that works. But it also enables creators to start monetizing their work...

TH: Correct me if I’m wrong, but this initial injection of Sansar Dollars into the market during a limited developer preview would set those invited developers up to profit, somewhat like initial investors in a company that launches an IPO. Do you think some of these developers will profit from early market fluctuation?

[Linden Lab's] Peter Gray: I mean, you might have speculators, I don't know. This is an interesting point.

EA: Actually, we’ve been starting with a limit on how much you can buy in the first place right now. So there's no one going to suddenly go and buy $10 million worth of Sansars and speculate on the Sansar exchange rate over time. We’re putting a fairly low cap on, because at this point we just want users to just utilize the system until we start to reach a point of having enough users that the friction has been removed. Then that's when we will quickly try to make sure that we get to a stable point as fast as we can.

However stable it gets, it sure seems like this first 500 will have a tremendous advantage over other entrants. Will they come to be called Sansar Barons, just as Second Life's earliest and most successful real estate owners were soon called Land Barons?

Pictured: Sansar scenes created by the 500.

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Comments

[Chic Aeon]

There were a lot of "promises" when Sansar was announced two and a half years ago. This "money will not transfer" seems to be the first major breakage. I am not surprised in the least since there are always changes as a project moves forward.

I AM wondering however how many of those "promises" made can be broken without loosing the enthusiasm of current SL residents who -- one would suspect -- could be a viable audience and possible citizenry.

And yes, likely the first kids on the block will have many advantages. They also had / have to live in a pre-betaesque world as they learn so perhaps they are due some perks.

[Dartagan Shepherd]

Just no. I've sworn off real-money-to-fake-money-to-real-money-to-other-fake-money-to-real-money.

Try to figure out what you're left with after that goes full circuit. It has more leaks than a rusty bucket.

[Apostol Apostolov]

This doesn't bother me, I always expected they would never allow a single unified wallet since that would take away so much profit from the conversion and the currency brokerage. I'd rather have Linden Labs keep the profits rather than make it easy to transfer wealth between two platforms, but that's me - I am just an end user who's barely invested 200 USD. Other people may be hit harder.

[Vivienne Daguerre]

If the initial 500 start off with an advantage, in having content ready to buy, that will dissipate as others come in and catch up. I hope that among the 500 there are people who are great at teaching others the ropes who will make tutorials to help get the rest of us up to speed quickly.

I also hope there are people who make great tools, such as Zedgehog Drivel who makes great prim animation scripting and avatar sitting tools, along with great tutorial videos to teach the rest of us to use them.

if they lead the way and extend a hand to those who come after, and I will not begrudge the 500 any initial advantages they may have.

[Clara Seller]

There are so many things these days that make me feel like I'm displaced in an alternate universe. I just don't see why any of these details matter when the big picture is so blurry. I've followed Sansar progress and I still don't see how anyone can assume many conclusions when it's so unclear WTF Sansar really is. We know that Oculus is important to Sansar. Red Flag. Abandon Ship. We're still guessing on what kind of social platform this is. We're still guessing on what you're supposed to do with all of this if you're not an experienced graphic artist. It's just weeks away from supposed completion and the tepid crowd enthusiasm is alarming. Seriously?

[Joey1058]

I'm not worried about the pioneers in Sansar. They are there for a reason. They get what they earned, including all the bugs and headaches. I'll not begrudge them a nice profit margin. I'm more interested in whether Sansar currency will be using blockchain encryption like Bitcoin does.

[kio]

Seems to me a big mistake not to use Linden dollars in Sansar, as it's already an established currency and being able to use it in Sansar would encourage existing SL users, who already own Lindens, to migrate there.

[IntLibber]

It is still just as fake as the US dollar, as I once declared. Ghu forfend that LL might actually adopt a sound currency, like a blockchain backed cryptocurrency, but that would expose the degree of their ponzi.