Bitcoin is like a Massively Multiplayer Online game.

Virtual worlds have been an obsession of mine since I was introduced to them in 1998 by Ultima Online. I haven't been able to play many of the games since then, as I have grown up and life has become filled with responsibilities, but I have never-the-less thought constantly about virtual worlds and virtual eco-systems.

I currently play Eve Online. I solo, I log in about once a week to check my skills, and I mostly just admire the idea of Eve Online. Eve Online is the most successful virtual world to date, in my opinion. I don't mean the most successful online role playing game, I mean the best virtual world.

I would argue the virtual world part is what attracts us all to these games. It's the social part. The notion, in our subconscious, that these worlds are really not much different from the real world. It is human beings interacting with each other in an environment of more or less dangerous conditions depending on your time and place. We may even find them as interesting and fulfilling as interacting with humans in the real world. Sometimes they are more fulfilling since some people don't have their legs or an attractive appearance in the real world. These people are unburdened by those realities.

What the hell does this have to do with bitcoin, man?

Bitcoin is a virtual world too. It's not a game in the least, but it is a world; a persistent distributed virtual economic system. You have no avatar, but you are your addresses. People of the real world may be unburdened of the realities of their economic situation. They have no borders to cross. There is no gate-keeper, bank or authority to comply with. The entire globe and all of the selling and buying of any product is open to your purchasing power.

It's the same as any real economic system, at the end of the day. It's all a game. The rules are political, physical and mathematical. It all plays out according to the rules or whoever makes the rules.

Bitcoin is an online virtual economic world without physical or political rules. A truly free global marketplace.