It appears that the Lily Allen who currently occupies the same universe as the rest of us is practically destitute compared to the parallel Lily Allen who said “Yes” to a gig offered to her five years ago that had payment stipulated as “hundreds of thousNds of bitcoins (sic).”
According to a recent Tweet, about five years ago, Allen was offered a chance to have her show livestreamed into the online three-dimensional virtual environment Second Life, the product of San Francisco-based company Linden Labs. In exchange for the stream, they offered her a large sum of the digital currency, which at the time was still merely the subject of columns in Forbes magazine.
While her decision to not accept obscure web money as payment is understandable, bitcoins have skyrocketed in value from $9 apiece in 2011 to $811 in 2014. While “hundreds of thousands” is a rather vague amount, one hundred thousand bitcoins are currently worth about $91.2 million.
Though Allen is far from impoverished, with an estimated net worth of $9.8 million, she would have been well advised to pay attention to Jimmy Kimmel, who simulcasted a Jay-Z performance into Second Life in 2006, or Duran Duran, who currently have their own branded Second Life realm.
(Via SPIN)
About 5 years ago someone asked me to stream a gig live on second life for hundreds of thousNds of bitcoins, "as if" I said. #idiot #idiot
— Lily Allen (@lilyallen) January 5, 2014
