Ginko Has Not Allowed Withdraws For Over A Day Now...

I don't have hundreds of thousands in Ginko so I my risk is not as huge as it is for others, but what is happening here is a SELF-FULFILLING-PROPHECY. Some people say "Oh my god, I need to take my lindens out of GF or it will broke", other residents read that and say "Damn! Then I must do it too" and finally, it becomes true not becose it was in first place but becose of the first mistaken communication.

If ya think about it he makes a hell of alot more by staying in game then leaveing...he so far hasnt made any Linden style mistakes and done what you not supposed to do...so I trust him more the LL..ofcouse I trust my cat to not hunt down birds more then I trust LL but still lol
He isnt gona cut and run that really would be even more stupid then what Linden Labs does and thankfully ONLY LL is that dumb lol

If Ginko was an investment fund in First life , using Real USD$ for investments.


No one would go near it. It would stink too much as "Scam"


It would probably even be illegal in some countries.

So just becuase its in a Virtual World using virtual currency some people are giving it a pass.


That would apply to most of these "financial" companies in Second Life.

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I hope people dont lose their money is all.

But Like Ebony said. Its even worse than junkbonds.


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I dont think those speculating its days are numbered are really being all that negative - just pessimisticaly pragmatic.

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a TRUE cynic would say Ginko laughed that people fell for it the first time ,

and is laughing now that some people seem willing to fall for it again.

P.T. Barnum was right.

"This way to the egress!"

Look folks my interest in Second Life financial services stems from my main job

In real life I am a UK Independent Financial Advisor, and I have worked in financial services for more than 30 years. I am not however a computer software or VR expert so it "might" be possible I am missing something in all this. One example (in the past) was the Dot.Com boom in 1999/2000 although I am not sure if this concept applies to Ginko

But in real life if I could find an investment that returned almost 50% per annum, with interest compounded daily, with instant withdrawals on a deposit type basis, that was truly considered low risk, I would consider I had discovered the holy grail.

And if (for slightly more risk) I could find a deposit type lock in account that returned 100% profit over a year, that would be the holy grail with ice cream.

Even in stock market terms and reviewing Ginko as an "asset backed investment" dependent on growth to sustain returns, the so called growth over several years completely outstrips nearly all collective investments such as unit trusts and/or mutual funds, AND that is in a bull market lasting from March 2003 to early July this year.

I said previously it WAS possible a skilled private investor directly speculating with shares "may" have been able to sustain Ginko's growth. I actually know a few such people personally. That was the reason for my interest over these last 2 odd years

However Nicholas's interview (the link is earlier in this thread) gainsays that.

You must form your own conclusions, as I do not give financial advice on a BB. Do your own research as they say and consider things objectively.

Funny how people bitch and moad for almost 4 years that Ginko was a ponzi lol damn long term ponzi lol
guess some people just need things to fit in thier tiny little boxes but I guess it will fail..when our sun goes super nova lol

I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. It's a great investment, 107% return!! Want it?

Ok, you've now posted the two most overused and obvious sucker cliches. What else you got? Swampland in Florida?

If you want, sure

I just checked a virtual better business bureau, and there isn't any major warning against a well known, listed 'bank' at all.

Nothing against listed casino businesses or 16m parcel barons either.

Guess it must be business as usual, folks!

once upon a time there was something called "the great depression" banks folded because everyone paniced that their money would disappear or become worthless and so everyone ran to withdraw their money and as with all banks the banks of that day had not 100% liquid assets and many people went away empty handed but demanding their money anyhow. Still the great depression continued on and the stocks and bonds etc that the banks purchased were not at that time worth the value that they were when they were first bought. People still demanded their money anyhow cause of course they didn't want to loose it all. so they went and made their order out for the money and the banks sold the stocks and bonds at lower values to fullfill the every growing outstanding debts. Then they ran out of stocks and bonds to sell at low prices due to the panic around it and folded and so the prophecy became true and many people went away penniless and starved in the streets (until the world wars that is..)

Anyhow I have no idea looking at it if its a ponzi scheme or not no way to tell until its investigated by the feds etc or they actually tell you its a ponzi scheme. The only indicator is the high interest rate.

Now if due to what would amount to a micro economy depression is occuring due to some recent LL decisions (which as of yet I am not seeing so again I only have the words of a few people to go by and a newspaper and we know how reliable those are..) everyone panics and demands their funds from ginko one thing will be sure to happen RIGHT NOW it will collapse even if it was a legit bank it would collapse because they would have to do what other banks were forced to do in other situations. Sell off assets meant to be sold at a higher price then their were bought for in order to pay for things like interest and to grow.

Again I'm just going by history and I"m not a financial guru and I left my 1k Lindens in for a yaer to see what would happen to it and long ago withdrew it and walked away. (i make my money grow other ways i suppose), but being the person who rarely gets my nickers in a twist about much of anything (i have been told even when I am angry I am boring as hell and never seem to get excited about much..) I can say that those who have their money in ginko who are panicing might want to panic less because if its not a ponzi scheme your going to put it under anyhow by demanding your money now and forcing them to sell stocks at too low a value thereby causing them to run out of money and be unable to pay interest.

just a thought (yeah i know i'm supposedly "naive" but on the other hand I have this uncanny ability to be rather accurate in observations about a lot of things which pisses many off who previously called me stupid ^^)

anyhow good luck with ginko but dont make it fold out of spite or fear or panic or whatever and make it a self fulfilling prophecy /shrug

thats my point as well. if you initiate panic, then panic is inevitible(sp). i am in a wait and see mode myself. i also dont have a huge amount in said bank, but i also have not hada problem with it as well. my main concern is with the fact that there are those determined to cause or use hearsay to continue an unecessary run on a bank that has been around longer than most businesses. i agree the WSE hack does not help. but niether does the negativity reflected in some of these posts. if you have a vested interest in it then by all means pull your lindens out and move on. if not, well this way to the egress.

I was a little up set with ginko .i am a store owner i had a lot of L in my ginko savings .
i am a small business so in the short run things well be tight but in the long run it well be a drop in the hat.
The big business i feel for. who have a lot of L invested. they will get hit the hardest .
I do not thing ginko will rip us off.
I do feel ginko needs to be more forth coming with info. the hardest part is not knowing.

I think Nicholas' skills lie not so much with his financial management ability as with apparently inspiring many people's *confidence* in his financial management ability.

i still have upwards of around 200k in Ginko.... i am completely bankrupt and broke. My stores are closing and i am about to homeless because of this...

In a very short converstation with the CEO of Ginko here is what was said...

[14:17] Ashlee Martin: Hello, I see that you are online. I was wondering if the problem with available funds is almost fixed.
[14:23] Nicholas Portocarrero: I'm working on it but considering that there are factors outside my control, I can't really say if it's almost fixed or not

This isnt really how the Great Depression came about. The bank run was a symptom, it did not cuase it.

The Economy was grossly over-inflated as opossed to actual wealth (due to post-war factors nationally and globally).

A bit like Ginko's potential Assets might be grossly inflated.

um do you mean 200K real or SL ?
i had a lot in ginko about $700 about L200K .i am hurting out of game because of bills lucky in game all my store i have LL for rent . So i know how ya feel. i am looking at this as a dump in the road.
I have had a savings with ginko for almost a year and i am holding out hope that thing will work out.if not this well be a pricey learning lesson .

I mean SL .... same as u.. im devastated..

Dont know how he manages to get people confident in him, i read an interview where he couldnt actually say whether or not ginko was profitable or not.

Sounds like hes a great financial manager.


Also GPB (ginko perpertual bonds) is now offering a secondary on the WSE, this will raise him another 3 million lindens but to me it looks like he is desperate for money and trying to get it whatever way he can.

Spot on. Whenever asked about transparency or what the money is invested in, he gets rude and/or clams up. That does not inspire confidence. In fact, it is a clear signal to run away. But people's greed makes them blind. I know it does that for me in chess!

Well you can't withdraw money, but you can buy some Ginko bonds:


"Ginko Bonds Added & Term Deposits Update 08/01/07 04:50:18 PM EDT
We have implemented the ability for you to purchase Ginko Perpetual Bonds using your Ginko Financial savings account. These bonds are transferred to your World Stock Exchange account.

You may access this feature from the "Buy Bonds" link under the My Account menu to the left.

Additionally, we have lowered the agreement interest rates to 0.19% for all new term deposits."

Will people jump on this because it at least lets them sell the bonds and withdraw $$ from the WSE? I don't know how this work. Does it mean that the WSE is now getting 3% of your Ginko balance if you choose to transfer and then sell?

During the interview, he was more interested in the possible conference, which he still bollixed, because the questions asked in the interview were repeated in the conference. He didn't sound very professional and was unwilling to supply solid numbers that would have proved to potential investors that this was a sound and viable investment.

He seemed too impatient with questions that frankly, if he had thought about it, he'd have been prepared to answer. He would have also prepared all the numbers in advance and made them public before/when announcing an IPO or possible merger/buyout of another company. Not the whole, 'I'll release what I want, when I want. You don't NEED these number to invest!' Investors like shiny numbers, from what I understand. I find them boggling myself.

err didnt say it was the cause of the great depression anywhere lol not sure wher eyou read that i said that people lost confidence in banks and ran to them to take their money out thus putting the banks under faster then if they had not paniced. In any event it was simply an observation that a lot of people panic or try to panic others. As I had said I have no interest in ginko bank or most of the financial stuff in sl because well sl is a gamble enough and i find making things much more fun the number crunching, but if its not a ponzi scheme people have to be careful to put it under as a result of a suspicion which is possible as SL is not that large. In any event its showing some symptoms that were seen in the depression bankwise. The cause well I think everyone would need to have esp to find out about exactly why their stocks are undervalued.

Bad investment?
casino thingy?
overall slump?

but it looks to me anyhow that even if they sold ever last stock they would not be able to cover all withdrawals if they had people clamouring at the door so it would be for naught and possibly be shooting themselves in the foot with the panic.

I'm a member of wse but everytime i read stuff on the site i kinda get a puzzled "but why" feeling even playing with handful of lindens I can't find the "anchor" to it as in being how it can possibly function over the long term. Doesn't mean its evil or anything but like ginko and a lot of other things in sl that just run on "money" with an economy that isn't what I would call i full and total economy just partial because of how we have to acquire lindens it kinda makes no sense to me so I dont invest unless its to see what will happen with my 3 bucks of lindens

in any event we can't create a war or anything to fix it so umm yeah i would hope people dont try to panic others and are trying to *make* the thing crash so they can point and go "look see i was right". With small communities like this this is my main worry about any experimental thing that might not quite make sense and even with competing businesses. The possibilities of someone trying to put something under by working people up over it is very very easy and so I hope this is not what we are seeing here.

I Might be all wrong but like a lot of stuff I dont necessarily believe a single blog writup or one guy who says He surely knows. It would be like me believing the word of one stranger over another. I have no reason to believe or disbelieve either story only of course its much more dramatical and entertaining to cause discord then harmony lol.

we all are upset some understanding some not . more to the point ,well the bank stay a floot?
Will we get our LL back.
I think he need to give use some answers and as a show of good faith at list make it so we can take 2k out. i been going to ginko for 2 days now and cant get anything out.