“In a world where reputation is wealth, only those who do good and well unto others are the richest”

This is the slogan of new online phenomenon The Whuffie Bank, a nonprofit organisation that converts users’ reputations on social networking sites into a currency, which can be redeemed for real and virtual products and services. Launched at the TechCrunch50 conference in California in September 2009, The Whuffie Bank has since accrued over 5,000,000 users – all vying to be the richest user and therefore the most popular social online presence. Its ‘bankers’ monitor users’ online behaviour, using an algorithm to add funds to people’s virtual accounts on the basis of their digital reputation. This increases when others act positively towards them on the internet – for example, the number of Twitter re-tweets, or Facebook ‘Like’ clicks.

In The Whuffie Bank, reputation really does mean wealth. Users earn virtual ‘Whuffies’ (the name is drawn from Cory Doctorow’s novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom), which it is hoped they will eventually be able to use in the real, offline world. There is a whole section dedicated to the interaction of the Whuffie and the pound, euro and dollar; and the risks of inflation for a reputation-based economy.

Sound a bit too sci-fi, circa 1984? I think so. The Whuffie Bank, with its claims of facilitating and celebrating online interaction, is just one part of the overwhelming grip social networking is gaining on our everyday lives. The days of just good old Bebo, MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook are over. Even Twitter is coming of age. Now it’s all about going that step further – introducing elements of your online presence into your real life, and vice versa. Twitter Grader is the new thing: how influential are you on Twitter? You can post your Facebook status updates automatically on Twitter, and view an aggregated selection of your online messages at Threadsy. Moreover, everything’s going local: FourSquare and ZubWorld allow users to build up an online presence representative of their offline geographical location. And that’s without even mentioning Second Life, DreamWorld, There and Kaneva – just some of today’s 3D virtual worlds in which users can not just monitor but become the digital version of themselves.

It’s a scary thought. The Whuffie Bank, with its potentially-dramatic real-life connotations, is a sign of the omnipotence of the online world that most of us inhabit, to some degree or another. Just days ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg argued that the rise of social networking had led to the end of privacy as a social norm. Speaking at technology’s Crunchie awards, the 25-year-old chief executive said the following:

“People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.

When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was, ‘why would I want to put any information on the internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?’”

Why, indeed? Privacy concerns about the internet and social networking have been voiced many times before. This video from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is a powerful indication of just how serious the matter is. But hearing it straight from the head of a company which is at the vanguard of these new developments is incredibly telling. Whether it’s Facebook, Bebo, FourSquare or Second Life, users need to bear in mind that online social networking is just that; an online presence which should not subsume our lives offline.

With this in mind, go join The Whuffie Bank, and earn yourself a great digital reputation. But don’t get ahead of yourself. Keep some things private. Remember that online rules can be broken more easily than offline ones. And keep your wits about you. The structures of the digital world are build on very ephemeral foundations.