GOM acquisition completed - relaunch by end of 2006

Count me in for the beta test, and if you need any help with the libsecondlife end of things let me (us) know. We've been doing a lot of work on stability in the last two weeks, and are starting to use the library in critical backend services.

I prefere using Mozilla inside Second Life (F1 Help Browser).
The user has to login with his GOM credentials for security reasons.
Here's the reason: imagine your SL account gets hacked, in this case someone would gain access to your GOM account aswell.



Thank you for the offer
I'll take a look at the latest SVN release of libsecondlife.

Well, fundamentally, that wouldn't be any less safe than what we have now - if someone hacks your account, they can go wild spending your credit card on LindeX

But anything that tries to use LSL securely can be risky - scripts/ATMs have been compromised in the past through security/permission flaws in SL. (raah)

Will you implement some codepath so that most of your website works without libsecondlife? I'm just thinking that it's concievable that LL might surprise change the protocol one day and then we'd be stuck waiting for libsecondlife to catch up. It'd be nice to have a less convenient, but functional fall-back.

I'm not sure if I have time, but I'd like to beta test too

Our new packet class pregeneration system (PreGen) helps us spot problems relating to a change in protocol quickly and easily. Plus with our automated CruiseControl.net instalation, everyone in the IRC chanel is notified of breaking changes.

Wowza, I miss the GOM, Yayyyyyy.

I would love to beta test if you still need people.

GOM the Lindex! I love it.

coco

Sure, that's good you have these tools. But there is non-zero downtime.

Let's suppose that Lee's GOM implemenation depends on libsecondlife to work properly.

Suppose LL modifies the protocol, breaking libsecondlife. But the libsecondlife folks take notice immediately, and are able to quickly fix and test libsecondlife in 12 hours. Lee then ports the changes, and let's say it takes him 12 hours to test and port the changes to his GOM implementation.

You have a total of 24 hours of downtime where GOM won't work. Some people might find that this is long a down period for a service such as this.

If the account is hacked, the same risk exists with LindeX, since those purchases rely on the same credentials.

I know you'd be left holding a lot more bag than LL would since L$ don't mean as much to them, but something to consider.

From what I've seen of libsecondlife so far, I don't think that a new release will immediately break an application based on it unless the specific packets you're using changed. I've seen the login structure change more often than the money packets, so we'll see.

That being said, having a fallback structure available for when an external system such as lib-sl is down for a signifigant time is a good idea. Note that if you're forced to qualify for a services audit like SAS-70 (your legal team may know what this is, and the SEC certainly will) this will probably be a requirement.

I agree also that there is a measure of trust that will need to get gained here for a re-launched GOM to take off. That's a bit hard to come by nowadays, and I wish you luck in gaining it. I'll hold off on participating in a beta (probably as a buyer) until I hear more on how this pans out. Earning something like SAS-70 or an ISO-900x audit would speed that considerably.

Lastly, what is the point of going for SEC permission? I don't think they'd be interested much in what would be essentially a fictional currency, unless there's some twist I'm not aware of.

--Alan

Disagree Alan.

Wise to do it in a proper way.

This has been done to death in other forums but the Linden Dollar has fungible value, although its not tangible or legal tender.

Although in world taxation has possibly yet to be clarified by tax law it is certain that once money comes out it should be, therefore as I see it it is possible (if you are holding US dollars) you would might need the accounting clarification.

Just my views

Regards

John

The fallback structure is the one currently in use and not depending on libsecondlife. And even this structure does not rely on ATM/ in-world terminals (except for linking/activating your avatar).


My point of view (as well as of my lawyers) is that the L$ is a commodity (just as coffee, oil, etc) and NOT a currency.
The SEC regulation is a requirement because GOM accept real money deposits from its clients.

count me in also, old GOM rocked!

Heya's Lee...Whats the latest status? I have not heard anything on beta rollout. *Pokes*

I am currently in Beijing for business.

The beta is delayed because I had little interest in putting down 13k USD server hosting fees before receiving an answer from my lawyers.

Since this week my lawyers pointed out what is necessary to incorporate and carry such a business in the US (btw. neither SLExchange nor LindeX comply to the current US juridisction).

The difference between GOM and LindeX or SLExchange is that GOM will be the only one legally entitled to operate an online virtual currency exchange.


More info ASAP.

GOM's beta is finally rolled out. Thank you for your patience and interest in beta-testing GOM.
I've sent the beta coupon codes and the url to all participants.
If you didn't get any, please contact me in-game.

http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php

Second Life "currency" is a limited license right available for purchase or free distribution at Linden Lab's discretion, and is not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab.

That means, as far as I can tell, if they don't like you they can revoke your 'license' at any time. It may be our world, our imagination, but it's their currency .. their servers, and they have taken great pains to remind us all of that on a very frequent basis.

This only means that Linden Lab is not obliged to convert your L$ back to USD.

It also means they can revoke your L$ at will, I believe.



My bolding. It's critical everyone reads this section, and I wish that LindenLab would go to more pains to make people aware of this.

There might even be a legal argument that because they do not go to pains to make people aware of this, that they do not have the right to revoke L$ that has been distributed. I'm sure there is a law against tricking people with fine print.

Regardless, I certainly won't be testing it anytime soon and don't advise anyone else to either (except maybe Marc Bragg

Exactly.
We could compare L$ to gift coupons issued by a bookstore. A bookstore generally accepts gift coupons for some goods or services. Analogically Linden Lab will accept Linden Dollars for some services, e.g. paying classifieds fees, place listings, etc.. (but not for land tier)

Customers purchase or receive gift coupons from the bookstore. They may sell or give them to other customers. Thus the gift coupon is a commodity.

However, the bookstore has no obligation to redeem gift coupons for cash. The bookstore may aswell refuse any gift coupon.

Hi, i'm interested to beta test as well, and move my trading business over if it lives up to the expectations.

What i'm also interrested in is what marketing stragegy to reach the buyer will be like, since that will be very important.

I am also interested in beta testing. Have been in and out of SL for 6 months, just had no time, and frankly, since the trading platform of the old GOM was gone, no real interest (been back to Forex for me).


Would love to check out the new diggs however.

It would go a long way toward customer confidence for Lee to have one of the former GOM principals explain here what was sold (other than the name) and if they can vouch for you.

Name, domains, software & data.
You are free to contact Jamie


I'll try to get back to this ASAP, I have been quite busy in RL during the past two months :/

I know how to contact Jaimie. I wrote this for your benefit as you are the one that has the hurdle of trust to climb. Your glib reply doesn't help much.

Just to be very explicit: if you can get Jaime to post something here regarding the buyout it would help you immensely. If you cannot, then it is really a black eye for your new venture and you won't be able to trade upon the former trustworthiness of your purchased firm.

Is there a reason you are trying to be difficult before we even see anything?

Honestly who gives a rat's petunia if it is the old GOM or not. I could care less if he started it in a basement. If it provides a mechanism to trade $L like we used to have, and not some borked system of 10 pip spreads like the lindex, ... ... ... ?

Just because Jamie comes here and posts yea or nay isnt going to blow my skirt up. Actually it might hurt it a bit since Jamie et. al. actually bailed on the community.

No need to put down ultimatums on something that is still vaporware.