Is 'Second Life' a pyramid scheme?
Yes, it is, according to financial consultant Randolph Harrison. On his "Capitalism 2.0" blog, he wrote an extensive blog post that was then excerpted on the Gawker Media-owned Valleywag which has been a vocal critic of the hype surrounding Second Life. Harrison's argument is thus: A whole lot of Linden dollars, Second Life's currency, go into the virtual world. But because of the way that Second Life is structured, that currency ultimately winds up in the hands of only a few powerful residents.
"We were suckered in by a classic pyramid scheme, albeit one with a pretty new user interface," Harrison wrote. "New entrants plow real money into the game. Only the guys at the top can extract that money with any volume (and in excess of the risk-free rate of return). Attempts to move anything more than token amounts out of the game generally result in real-returns of almost exactly the prevailing USD deposit interest rate."
Meanwhile, a few of the powers that be at Second Life parent company Linden Labs have indicated that the "Lindex"--the virtual world's official currency exchange--may be getting an update soon.
Whether you agree or disagree with Harrison's analysis, it's certainly an interesting and well-thought-out way to consider the state of Second Life, which has gotten quite a bit of buzz from both the corporate world and the press recently.
http://www.tipskey.com/consumer_alert/read_this_before_joining_mlm.htm