And with the launch of Sony's PlayStation Home -- an online world for the games console -- this autumn, it seems the big players in the entertainment world are banking on virtual realms being part of the future, too.

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Yet whole industries are still virtual state monopolies, including banking, distribution and telecoms.

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Virtualization allows each of those machines to host "virtual" servers that are capable of both online banking and bill processing.

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For example, the usage of virtual currencies, online bartering marketplaces, and time banking brokers that match skills to needs and allow prices to be set mutually and in non-monetary units.

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If they were then connected with a Nexus switch, the online banking application in New York could pull computing power from virtual servers in Boston during the day and the bill processing application could tap into virtual servers in New York at night.

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