Tag: LindeX

Linden Lab have announced Exciting Improvements to SL & Fee Updates to Enable Even More. This is probably going to be received as a good cop bad cop announcement because it involves a rise in the cost of buying Linden Dollars on the LindeX and a rise in cashing out, but the announcement also involves talk of future features and improvements, which will be more welcomed.

First of all the fees, the blog post informs us :

Underlying SL’s user-to-user economy and the ability to buy and sell L$’s for real currency is a significant amount of ongoing work to ensure that everything remains compliant with applicable laws and regulations, while also preventing fraud and money laundering. This work comes at a cost, and we are adjusting related fees in order to help cover those costs and enable us to continue to invest in Second Life’s future. The changes are as follows:

• Effective today, the fee for buying L$ on the LindeX will be $0.99 per transaction (previously it had been $0.60 per transaction). These changes impact only buys on the LindeX, and the fees associated with buying L$’s during SL Marketplace transactions remain unchanged.

• On January 3, 2018, the fee for processing credit transactions (i.e. paying real money into a PayPal or Skrill account) will be 2.5% per transaction, with a $3 (USD) minimum, and no maximum. This fee is currently 1.5% per transaction, with a $3 (USD) minimum and a $25 (USD) maximum.

This isn’t the first time Linden Lab have changed the fee structure for LindeX and credit processing this year, back in June they announced Updates to LindeX and Credit Processing Fees.

There are of course, as Linden Lab point out, many costs involved in ensuring transactions are legal, that money laundering and fraud are prevented, so it’s fair that fees are associated with these transactions.

Linden Lab have given plenty of notice for processing credit fee changes but I feel they could have given a bit more notice regarding changes to fees for buying on the LindeX, maybe I missed a previous announcement on these changes.

In terms of exciting improvements, there look to be plenty and this is something to be very positive about.

Continue reading “Linden Lab Announce Updates to LindeX and Credit Processing Fees Alongside Exciting Improvements”

Linden Lab have published two very important blog posts in the last couple of days, one regarding changes to LindeX processing fees and one regarding account security issues.

I’ll post about the unpopular issue first, Linden Lab have announced that there will soon be Updates to LindeX and Credit Processing Fees. This will result in increases to fees in some areas, which, the blog post tells us, will result in the following changes :

• The fee for purchasing L$ on the LindeX will increase from $0.40 (USD) to $0.60 (USD) per transaction.
• The fee structure for process credit transactions (i.e. paying real money into PayPal or Skrill accounts) will remain as a 1.5% fee with a $3 (USD) minimum, but the maximum fee per transaction will increase from $15 (USD) to $25 (USD).

This means that there will be fee increases for those purchasing Linden Dollars and for some who sell higher volumes of Linden Dollars.

The blog post points out that last year, Second Life users processed credit of USD$60m, which is a pretty impressive amount for a platform that is about to celebrate its 14th birthday, but the ability to buy and sell Linden Dollars for real money has to comply with laws and regulations to prevent fraud and money laundering, amongst other challenges.

The blog post explains :

Underlying SL’s successful user-to-user L$ economy and the ability to buy and sell L$’s for real currency is a significant amount of ongoing work to ensure that everything remains compliant with applicable laws and regulations, while also preventing fraud and money laundering.

Investing in improvements to these processes and the ongoing compliance work required comes at a cost to Linden Lab, and we will be making some LindeX fee adjustments in order to share a portion of those costs with Residents active in the SL economy.

Whereas increases in fees are never welcome, the regulations associated with such transactions are likely to become more stringent as virtual transactions gain popularity amongst various platforms and that means increased costs for companies such as Linden Lab who are processing these transactions.

Continue reading “Linden Lab Announce Changes To Lindex Processing Fees and Issue Account Security Warnings”

Linden Lab have announced that they are Concluding the Authorized L$ Reseller Pilot Program :

In 2013, we introduced a pilot program for Authorized Linden Dollar (L$) Resellers. This pilot program was designed to give Second Life Residents additional options for purchasing Linden Dollars, particularly for those based outside the US.

Since then, we have expanded the payment options for Second Life users, and today, you can easily purchase L$ in more countries than ever before, using a credit card, PayPal, or Skrill, which supports a wide range of payment methods. We’ve found that these options support the vast majority of Second Life users, and we have therefore made the business decision to close the Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller pilot program.

We are contacting program participants directly to detail the next steps for them, and they will have approximately six weeks to sell off their L$ inventory.

As of August 1, 2015, the Authorized L$ Reseller pilot program will be closed, and the LindeX will be the only authorized place to purchase L$.

What this means is, if you have been purchasing Linden Dollars from companies other than Linden Lab, you will not be allowed to do so from August 1st 2015.

Continue reading “LindeX To Be Only Authorised Place To Purchase Linden Dollars”

LindeX trading limits appear to have changed, without announcement, this month. Back in January someone on the official forum asked why one of their accounts had limit of buying USD$30 whereas the other account had a limit of USD$2,500.

However as things stand today, there is no USD$2,500 level, it’s USD$2,000. These limits are for residents rather than business owner accounts. The same USD$2,000 limit also applies to how much one can sell in a 30 day period.

This appears to be another unannounced change by Linden Lab and one has to wonder why Linden Lab are quietly going around changing policies without seeming to want to tell anyone.

I don’t know if any of the other limits have changed, but where this could be problematic is if someone has been selling around USD$2,500 a month worth of Linden Dollars and now finds themselves limited to USD$2,000 without any notification or worse, if they’ve been dropped down from the business owner trading limits.

Continue reading “LindeX Trading Limits Changed?”

In all the fallout of the Third Party Exchange issue, the LindeX has came under the spotlight and is found to be extremely short of providing the service users crave. There’s no doubt now that Linden Lab are disallowing the use of third party exchanges, Virwox have updated their page to state:

“Linden Lab has recently changed their Terms of Service. Under the new rules, we will no longer be able to offer our service to Second Life residents. Linden Lab insists that our in-world terminals (ATMs) have to be removed.

This means that we can currently not accept Linden Dollars from Second Life or pay Linden Dollars to Second Life. Other virtual currencies are not affected.”

This should really put an end to questions about the blog post contradicting the terms of service, the blog post was correct, use of third party exchanges is not allowed and actions are exemplifying this. However why are people miffed about the end of third party exchanges? The reason is simple, third party exchanges offered a more efficient service with a wider range of payment options. The question therefore is why can Linden Lab not compete?

I’ll give a personal example, this TOS change has left me in a rather large pickle because a transfer to Paypal I was planning via VirWox now can’t take place. Why does this leave me in a pickle? Well that’s my own fault, I wanted to transfer funds before this weekend and was waiting for as much to transfer as possible, by using VirWox I would have been able to do this. However now that I have to use the LindeX, my plans have all gone tits up.

However this isn’t Linden Lab’s fault, it’s my fault because I should know by now that Linden Lab are quite happy to make announcements with no forethought, no warning, no consideration and no respect and as I have long known this, I should make all plans related to Second Life with that in mind, so it’s my fault for forgetting how Linden Lab operate. However the question remains, why on earth do Linden Lab take so long to transfer funds?

Continue reading “The LindeX Should Not Be So Uncompetitive”