Opensim gets a currency system
DeepThink integrated the first currency system to Opensim, where from it will be available for realXtend users via modrex. The currency system is home-grown at DeepThink and it is based on a transaction model. It’s simplistic, but will allow operators and grids to run fictional currencies out of the box. Anyone doing RMT [Real Money Transaction] will still need to implement additional security and all the conversion infrastructure.
Screenshot from Deepthink estates at Second Life.
The first payment system being custom made is a wise move and does not give the toll-booth position to any one commercial Payment Service Providers.
Michael Huntington is sponsoring this project for DeepThink: ”I decided to sponsor this project because I saw how currency, whether fictional or RMT, could play a major part in OpenSim’s success. My initial plan was to use this technology for a commercial grid I am launching soon and not release it to the public … but later I realized how much this could help OpenSim if it was available to all grid owners. This isn’t the last project DeepThink and I will be working together on, we also plan to implement a fully functional groups system into OpenSim. Hopefully many other projects will follow.”
Jani: Have you thought of integrating commercial payment service providers such as Fatfoogoo, Paymo or PayPal?
Adam Frisby, DeepThink CEO: We’ve had some interest from Payment Service Providers to write in gateways for them, but we dont have anything planned at the very moment.
Jani: How does the currency work when teleporting from grid to grid using Hypergrid?
Adam Frisby: It’s going to be hypergrid-aware. We’re tagging users with their loginserver address, so we’re able to keep your balance when visiting other grids that share a currency system. We’ve begun the work here on this, but it’s not in the current alpha version on the forge.
The payment system is a critical success factor for the platform. It allows merchants from Second Life to move into Opensim based commerce, where the cost structure is much lighter and not tied to any one hosting solution.
CTN wrote earlier that Opensim based Openlifegrid has developed a currency system with RMT capabilities using PayPal. However they have not released code to Opensim.
