When people think about bitcoin\u2019s past they sometimes refer to subjects like Mt Gox, the Silk Road, or the famous pizza transaction. Although, people often forget that the online virtual world Second Life played an important role during the Bitcoin network\u2019s early years. In fact, some large Linden dollar (L$) holders who swapped their virtual tokens for bitcoin may be crypto millionaires today. <\/p>\n
Today almost everyone knows what bitcoin is, as the crypto asset has gained a lot of attention and notoriety over the last ten years. During the last decade, the network effect has gathered steam and bitcoin can be swapped for nearly every fiat currency in the world. <\/span><\/p>\n Back in the early days, this wasn\u2019t the case, even when a few popular exchanges like Mt Gox and New Liberty Standard operated. The first known fiat transaction was attributed to Martti Malmi (Sirius) when he <\/span>sold<\/span><\/a> 5,050 BTC<\/a> for $5.02 using Paypal.<\/span><\/p>\n Found the first known bitcoin to USD transaction from my email backups. I sold 5,050 BTC<\/a> for $5,02 on 2009-10-12. https:\/\/t.co\/8XcBmzJljf<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Martti Malmi (@marttimalmi) January 15, 2014<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n During these nascent times, a few fiat currencies were trading with bitcoin. At this time, Second Life\u2019s Linden dollars (L$) were also exchanged for large sums of bitcoin as well. Linden dollars are featured in the virtual world called Second Life, a game developed by Linden Lab in 2003. <\/span><\/p>\n When bitcoin was kickstarting into higher gears in 2010 through 2013, Second Life\u2019s L$ and the virtual world also saw <\/span>rapid growth<\/span><\/a>. Second Life\u2019s virtual economy met Satoshi\u2019s creation in April 2011, back when the company <\/span>Virwox<\/span><\/a> allowed L$ and BTC<\/a> trading pairs.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2013, Quartz columnist Sam Williams sold 5,000 Linden dollars for a tenth of bitcoin.<\/p>\n Bitcoin had a fascinating relationship with Second Life users and because L$ could be exchanged for fiat, which gave BTC<\/a> an alternative fiat gateway in the early days. Not only did the two virtual currencies form a symbiotic relationship, but it also caused people to speculate on which virtual asset was better. <\/span><\/p>\n After the now-defunct Virwox invoked BTC<\/a> pairs with L$, it also opened the floodgates for Second Life\u2019s virtual economy in 2012 through 2013. During this time of Second Life\u2019s bustling growth, speculators actually <\/span>argued<\/span><\/a> that Linden Dollars could become \u201creal money\u201d and a legitimate virtual economy<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n Additionally, the relationship between BTC<\/a> and L$ caused people to think money laundering was involved with these two trading pairs. With Virwox, a trader could swap in and out of the L$ economy but also access C$, OMC, EUR, USD, GBP, and CHF. <\/span><\/p>\n A <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> in 2012 authored by Robert Stokes claims the relationship between Linden Dollars and bitcoin increased \u201cvirtual money laundering.\u201d The paper stressed that the ability to launder smaller sums of illicit money through virtual currencies like BTC<\/a> and L$ presented a problem for law enforcement. Stokes\u2019s paper suggests a \u201cmethod of incorporating the Linden Dollar and bitcoin within the anti-money laundering framework.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bitcoin\u2019s relationship with Second Life and L$ faded a few years later, but definately shared the stage with each other on <\/span>many occasions<\/span><\/a>. In 2013, Quartz columnist Sam Williams <\/span>wrote<\/span><\/a> about how he sold all his L$ for bitcoin. Like most stories involving BTC<\/a> trades for L$ on Virwox, the trading experience sounded horrific. Anyone who used Virwox back then understood that the user interface (UI) was an awful experience. <\/span><\/p>\n Ars Technica author Timothy B. Lee penned an article in 2012 about BTC<\/a>\u2019s first bull run when the crypto asset hit $9 per coin and also mentioned the relationship between Linden dollars and bitcoin.<\/p>\n Williams, however, did end up acquiring a tenth of BTC<\/a> for 5,000 L$ at the time. The conversion rate on June 13, 2021, for a single Linden dollar, is $0.00313 which means if Williams kept his L$ instead, he could have traded it for $15.63 today. Ars Technica author Timothy B. Lee <\/span>wrote about<\/span><\/a> L$ and BTC<\/a> trading pairs in July 2012 as well, back when BTC<\/a> touched a high of $9 per unit.<\/span><\/p>\n Tech author Wagner James Au also <\/span>penned an article<\/span><\/a> about bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) in July 2012, when he explained that bitcoiners were buying over $650K in L$ per month using Virwox. Whoever purchased the L$ sold 93,433 BTC<\/a> or $3.3 billion for $650K worth of L$ or $2031 USD worth of the Second Life currency in 30 days.<\/span><\/p>\n Tech author Wagner James Au reported on the massive trades between BTC<\/a> and L$ that took place on Virwox back in 2012. <\/span><\/p>\n James Au also <\/span>laughed at bitcoin<\/span><\/a> three years later when he said the L$ daily transaction rate was larger than BTC<\/a>\u2019s 100,000 confirmed transactions per day recorded in 2015. James Au\u2019s 2015 editorial said that BTC<\/a> is \u201clauded weekly in the tech and mainstream press for the last 4-5 years.\u201d James Au\u2019s oped criticized: <\/span><\/p>\n With over $400 million invested in Bitcoin-related startups since 2012 \u2014 is still used only about 100K times a day. This isn\u2019t to say Linden Dollars are superior to Bitcoin \u2014 which after all, are a virtual currency intrinsically tied to a social game MMO platform. However, after all that hype, you\u2019d think Silicon Valley would be quick to have the same skepticism for Bitcoin as they did for Second Life after it failed to deliver on its promises in 2006-2008.<\/p>\n Of course, nowadays bitcoin is lauded almost every other day in the headlines and there\u2019s a lot more than just $400 million invested in crypto startups<\/a> today. Second Life\u2019s L$ has faded into obscurity, while bitcoin has propelled itself into the limelight reaching $64K per coin this year. After BTC<\/a> reached $20K in 2017, mainstream media pundits said the crypto asset was \u201cdead,\u201d and they claimed no publicly-traded company would add BTC<\/a> to its balance sheet. <\/span><\/p>\n Skeptics also never thought a country like El Salvador<\/a> would adopt bitcoin as legal tender<\/a> either. As for Second Life\u2019s Linden dollars in 2021, nobody believes L$ could actually become a real economy at all these days. We also don\u2019t know how many others, besides Quartz columnist Sam Williams, sold all their Linden dollars for bitcoin, but it\u2019s likely a number of people did swap L$ for BTC<\/a> and profited a great deal. <\/span><\/p>\n What do you think about the fascinating relationship between bitcoin and Linden dollars? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Bitcoin News When people think about bitcoin\u2019s past they sometimes refer to subjects like Mt Gox, the Silk Road, or the famous pizza transaction. Although, people often forget that the online virtual world Second Life played an important role during the Bitcoin network\u2019s early years. In fact, some large Linden dollar (L$) holders who swapped their virtual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blockchain-news","category-coin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Journalist Sells All His L$ for Bitcoin, User Swaps $3 Billion in Bitcoin for 650,000 Linden Dollars <\/span>
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\nFeatured, Archives, Bitcoin, BTC, Early Days, First Fiat Trade, history, L$, Linden Dollars, Linden Lab, Martti Malmi, Money Laundering, Mt Gox, New Liberty Standard, Robert Stokes, Sam Williams, second life, Second Life currency, Second Life L$, Sirius, Timothy B. Lee, trading, Virtual Currencies, Virwox, Wagner James Au<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"