Linden Lab recently came out with a new policy basically forbidding virtual world entities that aren't demonstrably financial institutions in the real world from acting like banks in Second Life. Last Thursday, there was a "Metanomics" panel in Second Life about the situation. The transcript and video are here. We're talking about "banks" that charged 11 to 21 percent interest weekly, and use Linden Lab recently came out with a new policy basically forbidding virtual world entities that aren’t demonstrably financial institutions in the real world from acting like banks in Second Life. Last Thursday, there was a “Metanomics” panel in Second Life about the situation. The transcript and video are here.We’re talking about “banks” that charged 11 to 21 percent interest weekly, and used virtual land for collateral. That would be usury in the real world, and predatory lending. They also paid 2.5 percent per week on deposits, which would be unsustainable in the real world. Before a previous policy change forbidding gambling in Second Life, these “banks” had virtual ATM machines in all the in-world casinos. Was this all a big, complicated scam? I’m not sure, but it certainly smells wrong. Software Development