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.
So far I haven’t seen any statements from companies such as VirWox, who were one of the authorised resellers. However there has certainly been recent activity in terms of people buying Linden Dollars on their site.
In the blog post Linden Lab point out that people can buy Linden Dollars on the LindeX with Paypal, Credit Card or Skrill. When the authorised reseller program was setup, Skrill was not an option.
Back in January of this year, Skrill announced that Skrill Connects with Linden Lab to Expand Payment Options for Second Life . As part of their announcement they included the following :
“At Linden Lab we are constantly looking for new ways to provide exceptional service to our customers. By integrating with Skrill, we’ve expanded the options for Second Life users to process their online payments, which is a critical piece of our product,” said Malcolm Dunne, CFO, Linden Lab. “We’re excited to offer this new functionality, giving our customers anothersecure, quick, and convenient way to participate in the Second Life economy.”
I’m sure there will be some people who are disappointed regarding this decision. I know that people were disappointed when Linden Lab disallowed selling Linden Dollars on third party exchanges.
However the addition of Skrill has opened more doors when it come to purchasing Linden Dollars. Will people have problems buying Linden Dollars going forward? I honestly don’t know but hopefully people will raise any concerns early and in a constructive manner.
It feels like LL is closing it’s jaws around its user basis to make up our mind to look for alternatives , like kitely and open sim, while they try to make us wish for Sl2.
Well.. That was That. It Was nice while it lasted but i Will be forced to shut down my sl activities. I refuse to connect a bank account to my paypal/sl account for various reason. A lot of people depended on me for their home but sadly it is all over now.Also great news for the few entrepreneurs who ran a 3rd party exchange service who are brutally robbed from maybe their only source of income. Well done LL. It seems that your greed has no limit.
Honestly, i do hope that it will encourage LL to address more clear the reasons behind these changes and to give an answer to all that have concerns.
Just like Jamie for me i am in the very same position, i refuse to tie my rl info to a virtual world, at that, skrill only allows a certain amount of money you can transfer, if you go over it then they require rl info such as banking garantees a copy of your ID and even a copy of your town registration to proove you really are whom you say you are, this (state documents and papers) is/are in 80% of the world iligal to copy and hand out like this, and very inviting to ID theft and or scamming using your personal information.
Now i am not claiming skril would do such a thing, yet imagine what would happen if for some reason a hacker, or a foreign country or what else decides to do some real damage, then this would be the perfect target to not only destroy this game, but to also be able to have the tools to destroy a rl economy in the blink of an eye…and then when you decide to go to the police.. it is actualy your own fualt, by all means you gave out your own personal information freely and willingly where in most cases you won’t even get t he money back you lost due to exactly that bit, and you could be held responsible for the damages done in more then just one way…
skril is not a solution to the sl L$ thing, i understand that is what LL is thinking cause it does provide all that what people wished for, yet it provides it iligaly and seriously at a high risk factor, one most of us in the first place did not wanna risk, and did our transactions trough the ressellers, where no rl info is shared, just a transaction and just an exchange..it should not be more then such to begin with.
and yes this concludes our stay within sl most likely we are shutting down our roleplay sim as we do not wish to finance it at such risks, so to you all that are willing to take that risk..i salute you..and will wish you all the best, untill we meet again….
p.s. the exchanges are fighting this just so you know petitions are held, and most are gonna keep their doors open even if LL wants them gone, they will keep fighting to stay open…