What is a virtual country? Does anyone really know yet? Who will decide?
VirtualCountries.org hopes to establish a site that tracks and encourages the development of virtual countries.
VirtualCountries.org believes that several virtual countries have already begun. They include The Bahamas, Second Life, some MMRPGs (massively multiplayer role-playing games), etc. On the other hand, in modern history nothing has ever been considered a country without at least meeting two criteria. First, it must itself think it is a country. Second, it must receive some kind of recognition.
Therefore, as the first international organization of virtual countries, a sort of tiny Virtual United Nations (VUN - pronounced similar to the word 'fun'), VUN invites all existing virtual countries to apply for official recognition.
You might ask by what authority VUN is permitted to recognize virtual countries? As yet, no recognized virtual country has failed to recognize VUN as a legitimate organization for this purpose.
Any virtual country which desires to participate in VUN can establish a virtual consulate within the VUN website, and VUN will in exchange establish a consulate within the virtual country.
Official list of virtual countries that meet the official VUN standard: