Well folks, over on my trading site, we finally launched the full blown virtual currency and shopping cart system. We now have all the key ingredients needed to create a virtual economy:

• Virtual currency
• Ability to earn the virtual currency
• Ability to spend the virtual currency
• A passionate community that would actually embrace this

The last part is the hardest one, and what takes the most effort. We've put a lot into building our little trading community, and at this point, they love us. We routinely get "thank you for all this it is exactly what I was looking for you saved my life" type of messages. The passionate community is the hard part; once you have that, the technology for creating a virtual economy can be more viably integrated.

Where Do We Go Now?

To recap, the vision is simple: create a whole bunch of these virtual economies, all of which can operate independently, and then create a "government" that can connect these virtual economies, so that they can share data, their currencies can be exchanged, etc. This is what will allow for data portability and a unified data card. That may sound like a bunch of jibberish if you are not somewhat fluent in web technology, but data portability is what will revolutionize the web. See our archive on data portability for various introductions to the topic.

Specifically, the niches I'd like to target to create virtual economies are as follows:

1. 9/11 Truthers. For the most part, the 9/11 Truth Movement understands what is going on in the world and is working to solve real problems. They may see this as a way to create an entirely new monetary system, and many of them will be aware that the 1776 revolution was primarily over the same issue -- the colonies wanted to create their own currency, but King George of England forebade it, forcing the colonies to use the ruinous currency of the British Empire. Virtual currencies are thus the ticket, in my opinion, to how we fix the global monetary system as well as all the other problems in government. You solve the currency problem, you solve many, many, many problems. This is my biggest dream in life -- if I were able to contribute something to solving the currency problem, and to make the global economy extremely more productive and fair as a result, I would be honored and humbled beyond my wildest dreams (and I'm a pretty wild dreamer!).

2. Bedroom Rock Stars. Regular readers will know that Kid Mercury is largely an experiment in bedroom rock stardom -- the world of the future, in which musicians write, record, and distribute music from their bedroom, and this becomes the foundation for launching a career as a musician. Bedroom rock stars are the ones I feel best positioned to launch a community and their own virtual world; I feel they would have a more intuitive understanding of how it works and how they can make money off it. And of course, I love marketing, and I love music, so the idea of marketing music while also fixing the economy is immensely appealing to me.

3. Independent Publishers. I view virtual economies as the way independent publishers will make money through free media. This is basically the approach we are taking with my trading site. This is where the real money is, in my opinion; finding all the talented publishers, giving them each their own virtual economy, and connecting the whole thing. The result will be a world in which everyone and everything is connected through a network of virtual economies. This will be far more economically efficient, productive, enjoyable, etc.

So that's my roadmap for the future.

And Now, An Update on Saturn Return

Well, I'm 28 years old now, and as I mentioned on my 28th birthday, turning 28 is a major milestone from an astrological perspective. 28 typically corresponds to one's Saturn Return, the point in which Saturn returns to where it was when you were born; the first Saturn return occurs at age 28-29, and marks a time when one becomes an adult in the psychological sense as well as when career pressures begin to grow and one's role in society becomes visible and cemented. For many of us born in the latter part of 1979 through the latter part of 1980, our Saturn Return will be exact later in this year, specifically October -- but we should be able to spot it developing now and in the 1-2 years past.

Since I turned 28, my business has become profitable and healthy. At this point, I'm extremely blessed to be able to genuinely say that the future looks very bright. Revenues and profits are growing, more businesses are contacting us to explore partnership opportunities, and the trends I've been riding (collapse of US dollar empire, open source software, niche social networking, crowdsourcing, RSS, blogging, free media) -- are only growing in strength. And I just signed a lease on a new apartment! (I love it, it's perfect for me....and a major, major upgrade from the shitholes I lived in for the past few years.) In sum, I feel as though I've gotten past the first major milestone.

Now that Saturn has given me the foundation and paved the road, I must simply walk down the path.

I leave you with a most fitting song -- in fact, one I have posted before, and is my all-time favorite version of my all-time favorite song by my all-time favorite band. "The Masterplan," by Oasis, at Electric Proms in 2008.