Reader Joey1058 has a fair point about my comparing the oranges of Linden Dollars to the apples of Bitcoin:
The US designated crypto as a commodity. So asking to use BTC as a currency is like asking to use gold and silver as an everyday currency again. The L$ is an inworld currency, and has been planned that way from the outset. Broadly speaking, Second Life holds it's own sovereignty, so exchanging Lindens for USD is like exchanging GBP for USD.
Both BTC and L$ require an exchange to convert to USD. Once converted, they get taxed. The difference in exchanges is that LindeX/Tilia do a full transaction disclosure to the Feds. Crypto exchanges do not. Which is why the Feds are attempting to regulate crypto. If you are not reporting your crypto cash-outs to the Feds, you are in violation of whatever rules the IRS deems to slap you with.
This is roughly right. Though overall, I'd still say L$ and BTC is a comparison of tangerines and oranges, i.e. citrus fruit with more overlap than apples:
Continue reading "Comparing the BTC Apple to the L$ Orange (Comment of the Week)" »
OpenSim definitely is an option! The first challenge there is, the original owner/creator would have to expedite that process, and be prepared to see their works "ripped" and copied by others for uses in other worlds -- content theft in OpenSim remains an ongoing problem. The other challenge is that OpenSim continues to have a small active userbase, with the top 10 OS grids attracting fewer than 20,000 active users. (Active users in the aforementioned Kitely: Fewer than 1300.) An OpenSim version of Tempura may not attract enough regular visitors to justify even a $5/month fee, especially when you add on the (presumably free) community management time.
Another option, as longtime SLer Saffia Widdershins writes, is plead for patronage from Linden Lab: