Kitely Forums

"Crypto-Anarchists say: eMoney Works!"
The Great Simoleon Caper

A plot to foil a future electronic currency… and the even more devious plot to foil that plot!
Join us for a high tech story presented by Mike Lorrey.
Plus Free Pizza and a Jellybean contest with fabulous prizes!

Join us LIVE at Cosa Nostra Pizza in Kitely
hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Neaburn%20City/49/56/1034

and simulcast to Starcade Arcade and Pizza in Second Life
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/L ... 46/12/3728

The Story:
Joe’s brother is one of those under-achievers who is really smart but doesn’t want to get a job so he crashes at Joe’s house. That’s alright, because Joe is the millionaire owner of an ad agency that operates in the virtual world, and his firm is about to release the details of a sweepstakes to win a lot of a new-fangled e-currency called Simoleons, and Joe could really use his brother’s help right about now.

They soon discover that the government is planning to destroy not only Joe’s ad campaign, but the whole idea of Simoleons as well. With the help of some shady crypto-anarchists, Joe and his brother set out to pull one over on the government. Can they succeed with such high stakes and so many heavy hitters?

The Storyteller:
Mike Lorrey, as he's known in OpenSim (Kitely grid) and in the real world, was once known in Second Life as IntLibber Brautigan, one of the top 25 land barons and developers in SL. He was known to out-deal Anshe Chung, conquer griefer groups, make millions of L$ on virtual stock exchanges (some of which he built) and the most frequent guest on the Metanomics tv show on TreetTV.

Builder of The Black Sun club, Teller Motorsports Park, Major League Combat, and other names lost to SL history (those of you who are FIC may remember them), Mike was also once an editor of Neal Stephensons Quicksilver Metaweb wiki, and wrote a lot of background material on characters, places, and events in Mr Stephenson's various novels and stories. Mike's favorite, however, is Snow Crash, which Philip Rosedale has said he based Second Life on. The Great Simoleon Caper is a story that is set in the same universe as Snow Crash, as a prequel between the novel Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash (the third novel of the loose trilogy is The Diamond Age).

Outside of virtual worlds, Mike is also known for being a crypto-anarchist who contributed to the ideas that eventually resulted in the creation of the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and blockchain technology in general. (And NO, Mike is NOT Satoshi Nakamoto, so don't ask)

Thus, The Great Simoleon Caper is very near and dear to Mike's heart, almost as much as Snow Crash, and between the story and novel, the reader can gain a much deeper understanding of both VR and Cryptocurrency, at least the motives of those who created both, and how these technologies fit together in the future, as many hope..

Book: The Great Simoleon Caper
Author: Neal Stephenson

do you accept newcomers to the party?

OF COURSE!!
Yes Please!!
Our weekly Forum Posts are our way of BEGGING for people to come to the events...
Newcomers and old friends!


Seanchai Library always has a Live In Kitely story session on Thursday nights. As well as other special events like this one.
You can see upcoming stories at: https://stories-2020.blogspot.com/p/sneak-preview.html

You can also see the Kitely Calendar of all events by hitting this website, even without logging in:
http://www.kitely.com/viewer_login

We also have a podcast where you can listen to stories from our storytellers 24/7 at:
www.StoryLinkRadio.com

Billy,
I will send you an invite to our group so you will get notices ahead of time for events.

Shandon Loring wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 11:10 pm

"Crypto-Anarchists say: eMoney Works!"
The Great Simoleon Caper

A plot to foil a future electronic currency… and the even more devious plot to foil that plot!
Join us for a high tech story presented by Mike Lorrey.
Plus Free Pizza and a Jellybean contest with fabulous prizes!

Join us LIVE at Cosa Nostra Pizza in Kitely
hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Neaburn%20City/49/56/1034

and simulcast to Starcade Arcade and Pizza in Second Life
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/L ... 46/12/3728

The Story:
Joe’s brother is one of those under-achievers who is really smart but doesn’t want to get a job so he crashes at Joe’s house. That’s alright, because Joe is the millionaire owner of an ad agency that operates in the virtual world, and his firm is about to release the details of a sweepstakes to win a lot of a new-fangled e-currency called Simoleons, and Joe could really use his brother’s help right about now.

They soon discover that the government is planning to destroy not only Joe’s ad campaign, but the whole idea of Simoleons as well. With the help of some shady crypto-anarchists, Joe and his brother set out to pull one over on the government. Can they succeed with such high stakes and so many heavy hitters?

The Storyteller:
Mike Lorrey, as he's known in OpenSim (Kitely grid) and in the real world, was once known in Second Life as IntLibber Brautigan, one of the top 25 land barons and developers in SL. He was known to out-deal Anshe Chung, conquer griefer groups, make millions of L$ on virtual stock exchanges (some of which he built) and the most frequent guest on the Metanomics tv show on TreetTV.

Builder of The Black Sun club, Teller Motorsports Park, Major League Combat, and other names lost to SL history (those of you who are FIC may remember them), Mike was also once an editor of Neal Stephensons Quicksilver Metaweb wiki, and wrote a lot of background material on characters, places, and events in Mr Stephenson's various novels and stories. Mike's favorite, however, is Snow Crash, which Philip Rosedale has said he based Second Life on. The Great Simoleon Caper is a story that is set in the same universe as Snow Crash, as a prequel between the novel Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash (the third novel of the loose trilogy is The Diamond Age).

Outside of virtual worlds, Mike is also known for being a crypto-anarchist who contributed to the ideas that eventually resulted in the creation of the first cryptocurrency, accept bitcoin payments, and blockchain technology in general. (And NO, Mike is NOT Satoshi Nakamoto, so don't ask)

Thus, The Great Simoleon Caper is very near and dear to Mike's heart, almost as much as Snow Crash, and between the story and novel, the reader can gain a much deeper understanding of both VR and Cryptocurrency, at least the motives of those who created both, and how these technologies fit together in the future, as many hope..

Book: The Great Simoleon Caper
Author: Neal Stephenson

Fascinating stuff! Thanks for sharing the information about Mike and his connection to Neal Stephenson's works. Snow Crash's influence on Second Life is really interesting information, especially considering the themes of virtual worlds and currency that are prevalent in both works.

For fans of Stevenson's meta-universe, The Great Simoleon Caper sounds like a must-read book. Is there a particular place you recommend finding this story? Knowing that the action takes place between "Cryptonomicon" and "Snow Crash" adds to the intrigue!

Also, for those unfamiliar with FIC, could you briefly explain what the story is about? It might help add context for others on the forum.

Thomas Borders wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 05, 2024 10:20 am

Fascinating stuff! Thanks for sharing the information about Mike and his connection to Neal Stephenson's works. Snow Crash's influence on Second Life is really interesting information, especially considering the themes of virtual worlds and currency that are prevalent in both works.

For fans of Stevenson's meta-universe, The Great Simoleon Caper sounds like a must-read book. Is there a particular place you recommend finding this story? Knowing that the action takes place between "Cryptonomicon" and "Snow Crash" adds to the intrigue!

Also, for those unfamiliar with FIC, could you briefly explain what the story is about? It might help add context for others on the forum.

You can google The Great Simoleon Caper as its freely available. it was first published in Time magazine I believe in the late 90s.

FIC = Feted Inner Core.FIC was a conspiracy theory fabricated back in SL 18 years ago by Prokofy Neva to explain why other people were more successful in SL bizniz than her. She posited that her more successful competitors had to have been in a conspiracy with Linden Lab insiders who gave them preferential treatment HAD to be why they were more profitable, more popular, and growing faster than her. It could not possibly have had anything to do with the fact she was a misanthropic grumpy obnoxious curmudgeon who alienated her tenants and slandered people on the pages of the SL Herald and in the SL forums.
Then I came along. In SL I was known at IntLibber Brautigan, and I proceeded to grow an estate more than twice as large as hers in only 6 months, I built the first virtual stock exchanges and was the most popular guest on the Metanomics tv show on Treet TV. I was also highly successful combatting the PN griefer group through infiltration and demoralization tactics so she smeared me with the false claims that I was in charge of the PN, when In fact I doxxed the founders of the PN and demoralized their members by getting some of my spies, who were closeted furries, elected as the new leadership, then outing them as furries, which cause the PN to lose 90%+ of its members overnight.
Prokofy decided I was in a "new faction" of the FIC she called the "Dark FIC" to explain why I didn't shy away from hardball tactics against griefers. There is a lot more to the story but that is the gist, involving CIA, GCHQ, Edward Snowden, and other suspenseful things, but you'll have to wait for my book to come out about all that.
She would publish every year a list of who she believed was in the FIC. When someone made it to the list, other FIC members would send them a FIC t-shirt for their avie, a membership in a hidden FIC group, and another t-shirt with the logo "Prok Star" on it. So it turned out to be a great socialization tool for those of us who had "made it" in SL to have her hating on us publicly and putting us on her enemies list. It was also good promotion for our SL businesses.