A few years ago the virtual world Second Life, created by Philip Rosedale and his team at Linden Lab, was a media darling that made headlines every day.One of the most widely covered aspects of Second Life was its in-world economy based on a virtual currency, the Linden dollar.Thousands of Second Life developers were able to earn a living, and in some cases become rich, by selling virtual objects (avatars, clothing, gadgets) and virtual land for Linden dollars.Second Life has fallen from media grace, but other virtual worlds and virtual reality massively multiuser videogames are emerging.The Oculus Rift headset is well on its way to revolutionize Virtual Reality (VR) and immersive gaming.Earlier this year Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for US$2 billion in cash and Facebook stock, leading to speculations that Facebook may soon launch VR applications and virtual worlds.Rosedale is developing his next project, the next-generation VR platform High Fidelity, currently in alpha testing, which will support the Oculus Rift.

What virtual currencies will support the in-world economy of next-generation virtual worlds?Bitcoin comes immediately to mind.There have been many suggestions that Second Life should abandon the Linden dollar and adopt Bitcoin as in-world currency, but Second Life was developed before Bitcoin and everything was in place and working when Bitcoin emerged in 2009.There are indications that the in-world economy of High Fidelity will be based on a cryptocurrency powered by a blockcahain, but no further details are known at this moment.However, High Fidelity is not available to the public yet.Minecraft is available to the public, and hugely popular.Launched in 2009, Minecraft quickly developed a cult following, became one of the most popular videogames, and was acquired by Microsoft in 2014.Also read: BitQuest – a Minecraft Videogame with Bitcoin Economy The BitQuest project is creating a public Minecraft server with a Bitcoin-denominated trading system and unique MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) features.

The BitQuest Architecture Royal Prize, a forthcoming construction contest for the best “house, palace, skyscraper, or crazy building,” will award one bitcoin to the lucky winner.The event will start in around two weeks.Architecture website Archdaily will judge the competition, VentureBeat reports.For the BitQuest developers, this is all about using one of the most popular games in the world to help further legitimize Bitcoin as the official currency of virtual worlds.“We are a bunch of crazy gamers who want to make bitcoin the official currency of virtual worlds.Minecraft is the perfect platform to start the revolution.” Do you think other virtual worlds will follow BitQuest’s example and adopt Bitcoin as in-world currency?Images from BitQuest, Barone Firenze and Shutterstock.After having been given $1,000 by his grandma at only 13-years-old, Erik Finman, now 17, made the risky decision to invest in the notoriously volatile Bitcoin market.His investment very much paid off.

When he was 15, only a year and a half later, he liquidated his Bitcoins, making a cool $100,000.He’s now crowdfunding his very own VR headset.steam bitcoin redditHe has been featured in Time Magazine, Mashable, CBS News, Business Insider, The Times, BBC, and more.bitcoin price nokAfter Bitcoin’s price skyrocketed past the $1000 per bitcoin mark in 2014, Erik Finman, having presumably bought in at the sub-$100 per bitcoin mark in 2013, sold for monumental profits.litecoin getting startedIn his TEDxTeen talk, he says about this experience: “I was competitive with my brother.bitcoin preis 2009And he was going on and on about this thing called Bitcoin, which, he said, was going to replace the dollar, was the currency of the future.ethereum dice

I didn’t really care but I wanted him to shut up.Using all the money that I saved up, I decided to buy more coins than he had.That turned out really well for the future.” Erik then used these newly acquired funds to start up an online tutoring service called Botangle.bitcoin cat costaHe wanted to address some of the negative experiences he had with the educational system and provide learning that was focused on the student.bitcoin vps tor“High School dropout that made 100k & started Botangle”, as he put it in his LinkedIn profile, Erik seems to have moved on, at least temporarily, from the world of online education, and has made plans to launch his own virtual reality headset, The Marvel.buy bitcoin localbitcoinsThe Marvel is a VR headset that is designed to work exclusively with a large array of Android smartphones.litecoin get started

The device differs from other competitors in the market in that its purpose is not solely to view 360° VR content.The user plugs in their Android phone and the headset presents all open applications in a semi-circle around you, hovering in the air.Moving your head around will have the expected effect, allowing you to view all your open apps.You can view multiple windows at once, and connecting a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth is also possible.When a virtual reality app is opened on the phone, it is recognised by the Marvel, which inserts you into the app’s 360° environment.The headset looks very much the same to other headsets on the market, like the Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive, but like Samsung’s headset, the visor is larger to accommodate a phone.All Android phones running Lollipop OS or higher will be able to use the headset.Despite seeming to have overlooked a huge opportunity to call their development team ‘The Avengers’, the team chose the path or least lawsuits, and, with seven or eight people working on the project, with various experience in manufacturing and shipping electronics, Finman assures potential buyers of their purchase.

“Although I am new to manufacturing, these people are not… For me, I'm glad that I've hired people that have a lot of experience in shipping and a lot of experience with third-party logistics providers, and a lot of manufacturing and developing experience.Although I am new to manufacturing, these people are not...We already got the manufacturer and we already got the quote, so once we give them the thumbs up then they'll start production.” Erik’s brother, Ross, has a background in robotics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and helped develop the device.This is Erik’s first venture into the world of crowdfunding, so he has been deliberately conservative with his timeline to account for any unforeseen issues in management, manufacturing, or shipping, and the expected shipping date is a few months after the quoted date.He launched his campaign on the crowdfunding site, Indiegogo, on Wednesday, and hopes to receive $500,000 in funding.It’s priced at $250, or $200 for early birds, compared to $100 for the Samsung Gear VR, and Finman plans to initially produce about 2,000 headsets.