About That Linden Lab Job Mentioning "Gambling and Crypto" Applications...

Originally publisher on my Patreon

A recent Linden Lab job posting has causes some community grumbling (as here) because of how it might be interpreted:

We’re looking for seasoned BizOps Director to architect and build our operational framework from the ground up. Initially operating as an individual contributor, with the potential to build and lead your own team as business units scale. This role is pivotal to launching and scaling innovative business lines—including gambling, skill-based gaming, crypto applications, and virtual-world simulations. You’ll work cross-functionally to drive strategic planning, develop financial models, and build scalable processes that support hyper-growth.

Does this mean Linden Lab is actively planning to add gambling and crypto features in Second Life?

Not necessarily. I'm told by an insider that there are no active gambling or crypto initiatives going on in the company right now. (Indeed, when I asked Brad Oberwager about bringing gambling to SL last year, he told me:

There's no plan that I'm aware of to allow gambling in any way, shape or form, until we have a license, which we do not have, and we are not looking into it. I do know that there are some places where you can put servers that make it legal to gamble. But I don’t want that scrutiny. We have a social casino so people can enjoy [non-cash gambling]. 

There's a million reasons why I don't want to do real gambling, and a lot of them are because I believe our world is good. And I'm not sure gambling is good.

My impression is gambling and crypto were mainly mentioned to capture the attention of potential candidates who have experience in those areas, from working on other platforms. I.E. keywords used when searching Google / LinkedIn for new roles.

In any case, I've reached to Linden Lab and will update this post if I get an official, on the record response. I actually think it wouldn't be a bad idea if the company leased out copies of the SL grid to other companies for various use cases including gambling and crypto. I'm not a fan of either of them, but they would bring in new revenue that could help indirectly benefit the main SL user base.

Comments

[Argo Nurmi]

Somewhere in the dusty past SL had gambling, crooked banks, doggy unenforceable contracts among developers. It was exciting place and like a virtual wild west. The blogs (like this one and the alphaville herald) would break story after story. Those were high times. All that's gone. SL has become a rather sedate place these days. Back in the day Waterhead was a pretty notorious infohub and a target for griefing collectives like the PN and Anonymous. I asked an avi who hung out at waterhead why did he put up with the griefing, the rough characters, orbiters etc. standard fare for anyone calling waterhead home? He said: it was the energy of the place.
In many cases if an avi was griefed they were more likely to stay in SL.
There was a sense of anticipation and possibilities then. Apologies to the Eagles but we haven't had that spirit in SL since maybe 2010. They say you can never go back but no one owns the future. SL has always possessed a special kind of alchemy. It was true in 2010 and it is true today.