To earn Linden Dollars in Second Life, one must find customers who are willing to pay for the services or products that one can supply, just like in real life.īecause of the existence of virtual land, there is an active virtual real estate market. Virtual goods include buildings, vehicles, devices of all kinds, animations, clothing, skin, hair, jewelry, flora and fauna, works of art, and breedable in-game animals and pets such as: foxes, turtles, horses, cats, dogs, fish, dragons, and original in-game pets called Meeroos. Services include camping, working in stores, custom content creation, and other services.
The basis of this economy is that residents (that is, users, as opposed to Linden Lab) can buy and sell services and virtual goods to one another in a free market. Gross Resident Earnings are $55 million US Dollars in 2009 – 11% growth over 2008. In 2009, the total size of the Second Life economy grew 65% to US$567 million, about 25% of the entire U.S. Linden Lab reports that the Second Life economy generated US$3,596,674 in economic activity during the month of September 2005, and as of September 2006 Second Life was reported to have a GDP of US$64,000,000. This economy is independent of the price of the game, which users pay to Linden Lab, not to each other. A resident with a surplus of Linden Dollars earned via a Second Life business or experiential play can offer to exchange with other users via the LindeX exchange provided by Linden Lab. Linden Dollars have no monetary value and are not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab. In the SL economy, users (called "residents") buy from and sell to one another directly, using the Linden, which is a closed-loop virtual token for use only within the Second Life platform.
The virtual world Second Life has its own economy and a virtual token referred to as Linden Dollars (L$).