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Ginko Financial
Ginko Financial was an alleged Ponzi scheme on the social networking video game Second Life. It offered accounts denominated in Linden Dollars, which would be paid extremely high interest rates (at one point 0.145% per day or 69.7% per year), ostensibly funded by undisclosed investments. The Alphaville Herald"Ginko Financial’s End-Game" August 6, 2007 Many of the bank's investments were believed to be in in-game casinos. In 2007, after Linden Labs placed restrictions on in-world gambling, there was a run on the bank which caused it to collapse. All remaining accounts (by then worth 200 million Linden Dollars) were compulsorily converted into perpetual bond A perpetual bond, also known colloquially as a perpetual or perp, is a bond with no maturity date, therefore allowing it to be treated as equity, not as debt. Issuers pay coupons on perpetual bonds forever, and they do not have to redeem the pr ...s. After the collapse, Linden Labs introduced a rule that interest-paying a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ponzi Scheme
A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are coming from legitimate business activity (e.g., product sales or successful investments), and they remain unaware that other investors are the source of funds. A Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of a sustainable business as long as new investors contribute new funds, and as long as most of the investors do not demand full repayment and still believe in the non-existent assets they are purported to own. Some of the first recorded incidents to meet the modern definition of the Ponzi scheme were carried out from 1869 to 1872 by Adele Spitzeder in Germany and by Sarah Howe in the United States in the 1880s through the "Ladies' Deposit". Howe offered a solely female clientele an 8% monthly interest rate and then stole the money that the wome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for analyzing the structure of whole social entities as well as a variety of theories explaining the patterns observed in these structures. The study of these structures uses social network analysis to identify local and global patterns, locate influential entities, and examine network dynamics. Social networks and the analysis of them is an inherently interdisciplinary academic field which emerged from social psychology, sociology, statistics, and graph theory. Georg Simmel authored early structural theories in sociology emphasizing the dynamics of triads and "web of group affiliations". Jacob Moreno is credited with developing the first sociograms in the 1930s to study interpersonal relationships. These approaches were mathematically form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Video Game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback mostly commonly is shown on a video display device, such as a TV set, monitor, touchscreen, or virtual reality headset. Some computer games do not always depend on a graphics display, for example text adventure games and computer chess can be played through teletype printers. Video games are often augmented with audio feedback delivered through speakers or headphones, and sometimes with other types of feedback, including haptic technology. Video games are defined based on their platform, which include arcade video games, console games, and personal computer (PC) games. More recently, the industry has expanded onto mobile gaming through smartphones and tablet computers, virtual and augmented reality systems, and remote cloud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Life
''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003, it saw rapid growth for some years and in 2013 it had approximately one million regular users. Growth eventually stabilized, and by the end of 2017 the active user count had declined to "between 800,000 and 900,000". In many ways, ''Second Life'' is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing games; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective". The virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab's own client software or via alternative third-party viewers. ''Second Life'' users, also called ' residents', create virtual representations of themselves, called '' avatars'', and are able to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linden Dollars
The virtual world ''Second Life'' has its own economy and a virtual token referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). In the SL economy, users (called "residents") buy from and sell to one another directly, using the ''Linden'', which is a closed-loop virtual token for use only within the ''Second Life'' platform. Linden Dollars have no monetary value and are not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab. A resident with a surplus of Linden Dollars earned via a ''Second Life'' business or experiential play can offer to exchange with other users via the LindeX exchange provided by Linden Lab. This economy is independent of the price of the game, which users pay to Linden Lab, not to each other. Linden Lab reports that the ''Second Life'' economy generated US$3,596,674 in economic activity during the month of September 2005, and in September 2006 ''Second Life'' was reported to have a GDP of US$64,000,000. In 2009, the total size of the ''Second Life'' economy grew 65% to US$567 millio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Alphaville Herald
''The Alphaville Herald'' is an online newspaper covering virtual worlds, founded by the American philosopher Peter Ludlow in 2003. History ''The Alphaville Herald'' was established by the American philosopher Peter Ludlow, known by his pseudonym Urizenus Sklar, on October 23, 2003. Ludlow, who was formerly the John Evans Professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at Northwestern University, is a student of Noam Chomsky and is well known for his work on the interface of linguistics and philosophy, but also for his research on conceptual issues in cyberspace and his more recent writings on hacktivist culture. According to scholars Constantinescu and Decu, ''The Alphaville Herald'' was the first "virtual free press," pioneering mass communication in virtual worlds. It was originally a newspaper for the Alphaville virtual city of The Sims Online, where Ludlow used the avatar Urizenus Sklar. Its stories uncovered in-game scams and cyber-prostitution, and highlighted Electroni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bank Run
A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe the bank may cease to function in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking system (where banks normally only keep a small proportion of their assets as cash), numerous customers withdraw cash from deposit accounts with a financial institution at the same time because they believe that the financial institution is, or might become, insolvent; they keep the cash or transfer it into other assets, such as government bonds, precious metals or gemstones. When they transfer funds to another institution, it may be characterized as a capital flight. As a bank run progresses, it may become a self-fulfilling prophecy: as more people withdraw cash, the likelihood of default increases, triggering further withdrawals. This can destabilize the bank to the point where it runs out of cash and thus faces sudden bankruptcy. To combat a bank run, a ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perpetual Bond
A perpetual bond, also known colloquially as a perpetual or perp, is a bond with no maturity date, therefore allowing it to be treated as equity, not as debt. Issuers pay coupons on perpetual bonds forever, and they do not have to redeem the principal. Perpetual bond cash flows are, therefore, those of a perpetuity. Perpetual bonds vs. equity * Although similar to equity, perpetual bonds do not have attached votes and, therefore, provide no means of control over the issuer. * Perpetual bonds are still fixed-income securities; therefore, paying coupons is mandatory whereas paying dividends on equity is discretionary. Examples * Consols that were issued by the United States and the UK governments. * The oldest examples of a perpetual bond was issued on 15 May 1624 by the Dutch water board of Lekdijk Bovendams. It is currently in the possession of Yale University and interest was most recently paid by the eventual successor of Lekdijk Bovendams ( Hoogheemraadschap De Stichtse R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linden Labs
Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the creator of ''Second Life''. The company's head office is in San Francisco, with additional offices in Boston, Seattle, Virginia and Davis, California. Its offices in Mountain View, Brighton, Singapore and Amsterdam were closed in 2010. In addition, the company employs remote workers that communicate and collaborate on projects using ''Second Life'' technology. History The company, founded in 1999 as Linden Research, employs numerous established high-tech veterans, including former executives from Electronic Arts, eBay, Disney, Adobe, and Apple. The company's founder and original CEO is Philip Rosedale, a former CTO of RealNetworks, one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2007. The company name "Linden" originates from the street name where the company premises were initially based, at 333 Linden Street in San Francisco. The hexagonal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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