I can't claim to understand even half of what's going on in the RL finantial world, but, eager as I am to understand new ideas, I think that this particular one has eluded me as well.
In the late eighties there were boardgames to simulate "stock exchanges", so that people would learn the basics of stock exchanges. Is this that you propose to build? Well, it has limited interest to someone like myself, but I can understand it as a "training tool", for people not wanting to speculate on GOM or anywhere else where RL money is involved. As a training tool I can understand the motivation behind this project.
"Turning L$ into tangible money" is something weird to claim, when the "tangible money" are virtual reality prims, and as intangible as anything else in SL
More than that, a large part of the money in circulation is "intangible" as well - they're just numbers moved across bank exchanging systems, with no "real money" (ie. banknotes) circulating. In EU countries like Portugal, 70% of the Euros in circulation arfe purely virtual - only 30% are real banknotes. The rest are as "real" as the L$ - just numbers that are pushed around between banking systems. The tendency is for less "physical money". In an age where you can send an SMS to pay for your supermarket shopping - and you don't even need a debit card for that - the idea of "physical money" is slowly vanishing. It won't disappear completely, of course.
This means that I don't see any "need" to have "physical money" in SL. There is no "psychological need" for it, I mean. We should think 21st century, not 19th century. Money is more and more just a convenient way to make sure everybody evaluates the worth of something using the same metrics.
Money in RL is, however, "backed up" by something. In the past, it was backed by gold reserves. Now it's backed up by a country's reliability. In SL, the L$ is backed up by lots of stuff - land (ie. CPU power + hard disk space on RL servers, allocated to rendering prims), a stable economy controlled by LL, and a currency exchange linked to the US$ (players put US$ as monthly fees and get L$ in return as stipends; people exchange L$ for US$ and vice-versa). So you have "backing up" by "physical entities" (the sim servers), credibility (Linden Lab), and currency (GOM and residents paying their monthly fees).
"Fake banknotes" have none of those. Credibility of residents is so often challenged! Imagine that I have "bought" L$10,000 worth of "Fake dollars". Now you drop out of the game and leave the system because you think that playing Matrix Online is more fun than SL. I just lost L$ 10,000. Since this can happen any day, there is no "credibility" to back up the "fake money", and while I will certainly spend a few L$ to support the new project, I won't do a big long-term commitment on that. And yes, the Lindens won't back this up, they have a notorious policy of not interfering.
Another issue has been pointed up - if you can't back up "fake dollars" on either something tangible (ie. really physical) or credibility, what will be its "intrinsic value"? I can't see any worth, except if the "fake dollar banknotes" are some sort of a "trading card game" - each one being unique and appealing to a a collector. And thus the "SSE" is something like a "stock exchange for a trading card game".
Ah well. I can't criticise creativity and I think I understand the point in doing all this work "for fun" (or, eventually, for the purpose of training people into the basics of stock exchange). But how much more interesting would be to divert all energies on a project on this scale to do something more
useful to the whole community...
"- Ryen Jade
