Survey: Is Linden Lab's New Policy Forbidding Third Party L$ Exchanges Affecting Your Second Life Usage?

Update, 5/15: Survey is over, thanks to all who took it!

Linden Lab's new policy forbidding third party exchanges from trading in Linden Dollars (apparently for US Treasury regulatory reasons) has led to over a dozen such services closing down, with the company reportedly sending out warnings to them that begin, "As an operator of a third party exchange, you should cease facilitating L$ trades on your exchange immediately to comply with the Terms of Service". The move has definitely caused some user anger(see this comment thread), but I'm curious how widespread the impact is being felt. Here's a snapshot survey to measure just that.

Results published next week, but please discuss now in Comments below!

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Comments

[Damien Fate]

I've used LindeX problem free for years, so while it affects me little I can see others' frustrations, especially those who now cannot buy or sell L$ based on whatever limitations the LindeX has for them in their country.

[Adeon Writer]

No direct impact, though if it affects others enough to stop creating content it will affect me indirectly, which is just as much of a problem. Assuming you're asking for direct impact I voted "Little to no"

[zzpearlbottom]

No direct impact, i only use Lindex since day one!
Still as i saw the number of users in world since this new Tos i wonder if Second Life will even be on for the 10th birthday!

[Cara]

I think that anyone who thinks this *won't* impact them in some way is foolish. From those who now can't buy Lindens not being able to pay for land, houses, furniture, skin, hair, clothes, shoes and on down the line I think the ripple effect will be felt in a few weeks.

As far as creators, we will see some close I'm sure, if they can't cash out reasonably, why should most stay? If they close, will they be greatly missed or just make more space? Depends on who they are, but I think overall impact is far greater than many realize.

[Metacam Oh]

My SL usage has been minimized to essentially nothing anyway, so this won't effect me one bit.

[Domchi Underwood]

It would have been really nice to have advance notice of this; I'm probably not the only one who has L$ stuck on exchanges without the way to transfer them back to SL.

As a SL merchant, I transfer most of my earnings to Bitcoin; this leaves me without cheap and simple way to actually spend my earnings, and forces me to jump through several hoops, each taking its own rather high percentage.

[Keith Selmes]

I think I have a few dollars left in my SL account, not enough to worry about.
There is enough happening with OpenSim and Cloud Party that I don't feel I have the time for SL. Which is why I'm really a "don't care".

[damiana]

most of it(europeans) does matter. many, very many will leave sl. at the end are 5 amis and linden lab alone alone... playing sl. .. oh wow, very multi-culti. compliments, linden lab! f... egoists!

[vandamian]

what a shit for the most eoropean player! sl was a nice game years ago.. but there are fewer and fewer players ... the question is why? I know why. keep it up and sl will die, linden lab!

[jabell]

I'm European. and I'll leave SL. When they should leave it at that. I've used exchange Services (like many europeans) and was always happy, I don´t know anyone who is not / was! linden lab shoveling one's own grave, guaranteed!

[xinga]

WTF! we need that! WE EUROPEANS! And yes, SL will die... if....!

[Lani Global]

It appears Linden Lab may be TOSing Second Life to death.

[Motoko Henusaki]

No impact. LindEx since day one, over here.

[pieter post]

Heavy impact as I have to wait 2 weeks before my money arrives in my Paypal while this was 2 minutes for the past year or 6 thru Eldex. Also LindeX does'nt cash out in € if they ever cash out at all. Used it for the first time last week and still waiting my money to arrive. Unfortunately i cant leave as SL is my main source of income.. we seriously need to move on to cloudparty.. does Blue Mars still exist?

[vandamian]

what happened with the votings??? a few hours ago there were many more have chosen the heavy impact. what happened????????

[xinga]

true vandamian, what happened with the votings? a few hours ago 35% have voted heavy impact! hmmm very weird!

[JTW]

and there's the crux. People don't realise that if others vote different than their preferred response the percentage for their preferred response goes down.

Get over it kids, it will have little impact. Some few people will leave, far more will claim to leave but won't (and that's the ones most vocal and screaming the loudest they will leave, if past experience is anything to go on), the vast majority will adept or not even have to adept as they're using Lindex already with no problems for a long time and getting their L$ without fail in seconds or minutes while chuckling at the constant complaints from those who use 3rd parties because "we don't trust LL with our credit card number" only to not get their money after days or weeks.

[PP]

I'm from Europe. I'm going to run out of Lindens ina wekk or two. Whilst I might keep playing SL, I'll be lost to the economy - for good, I guess.

[damiana]

I've been playing SL since 2007 and i can see how it shrinks and shrinks more and more! many of my friends are gone.... and it will continue to shrink, that's the truth!

[ZZ Bottom]

1 question, premium members neeed to pay to the Lab via payapal or credit card only or there is anymore options?

[ZZ Bottom]

Sooner we will know for real how many really went away!
Still is to sad to read from users that dont even try other virtual worlds and only say that they are leaving, there is a lot more besides SL, for those i can only advise, create an account that takes less then 1 minute on Osgrid, kitelly, avination, Inworldz, 3th rock or so much more!
Creators that need profits to make a living, think about Kitelly marketplace, Inworldz or any commercial grid!
There is more besides SL!

[Wolf Baginski]

Things seem to be working for me at the moment. I pay to Linden Labs at a low level, Premium plus a few Lindens. But my card payments don't work, and my Paypal account was set up long ago. I can't get any useful info from Linden Labs about the Card Payment problem, and my Paypal history might make a big difference for that side.

If my next Premium payment is OK, I can manage.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

The issue is not really the LindeX. The issue is that the LindeX may also be shut down by the US Government.

Then we will have a problem!

[Flashing Merlin]

No effect on me, I only use the Lindex.

Many responses above report problems, and that's another reason why the survey sample was too small. I read this awhile back, but only got around to responding now. People who are effected probably responded immediately because it's a high priority concern for them.

The SL MArketplace accepts Lindens or USA dollars, so that seems like a logical solution: offer the USA dollar alternative in all inworld shops, all rental boxes, etc., and European SIMs could start accepting Euros as well. Even if the government shut down the Lindex for any reason, the SL economy could keep going.

[Skate Foss]

My South American friends who own SL business's are very worried since they now need International credit cards to access PayPal accts ever since the Lab shut down third party exchanges. They may close their very famous stores unless they apply for the heavily regulated international credit cards in their country. Linden Lab has really tightened yet another knot in the SL noose.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

@Flashing Merlin the issue is that many content creators are not happy in providing their real data to everybody... the anonymity of the L$ allowed them to exist without a) anyone knowing who they are; b) not pay income taxes in their home countries :)

If they're forced to accept US$ or Euros in-world, many will probably shut down their shops.

Granted, the market is saturated (there is more demand than supply), and this would mean that all other content creators who have no problem in accepting US$ via PayPal would be more than happy to fill the void :)