SL Banks are Toast - Yee Haw!

I have referred to them several times as gambles. In reality, depositing in these 'banks' is the only gamble that I make either in SL or RL.

And yes I know that NR is backed by regulations. Didn't stop the run though did it? And even when our esteemed Chancellor gave his assurances the run continued.

My basic point is that not everyone is a criminal and even those who are not criminals are not necessarily incompetant. The RL banking system grew BEFORE any regulation existed and regulations were introduced when the banking system was well developed. Why did people trust in the banks before regulations? They took a gamble, over time it paid off and only then did regulation come into being.

Ya mean that Unicorn Donkey and it's 3 lovers that literally fell through my bedroom ceiling one night, weren't having sex?


Ya know the Motion Capture suits and sensor things are really getting better and cheaper all the time. They even have a sensor pack you wear on your real life body, and the whole thing plugs into the USB or Firewire ports. It's only a matter of time, before it could be interfaced with SL. Then they'll start adding vibrators and other Haptic devices. Bodily fluids could even be recycled like with Space suits.

I hope i'm long gone before that brave new world.

This has been a long time coming for sure...

See this thread also - /341/c8/212434/1.html

Maybe LL were getting too many subpoenas for RL details of people like Jasper Tizzy who is still being actively pursued in RL by those who lost thousands of L$ in his bank and his SL companies (AVC, CGI and KFM).

Thanks LL for listening this time

You mean in simple terms "MONEY" will be taken out of the game Well i highly doubt this because if this is the case waht else does llabs have to promoto the game?

Lovely, punish the rest of us because they can't catch this sleazebag (and likely the dozens of others who actually are criminals).

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Northern Rock was the ultimate chav bank who's motto should have been: "Your money's out the back door before the ink's even dry". Assets? Northern Rock had been technically bankrupt for a long time. They only had virtual assets in terms of the margin their currency market traders were getting on a day-by-day basis and masked the full extent of their debt by selling it off to their shell company, Granite. Sorry, but Northern Rock would have been right at home alongside Ginko and their ilk.

The fact that Gordon Brown stepped up to the plate to guarantee the depositors money was the decent thing to do (the sort of thing we'd expect Linden Lab to do in SL but *know* that they never will). However he should have gone the full monty and nationalised Northern Rock as that's the only way to ensure that the government will ever, ever, recoup even a farthing on the pound of what they've poured into Northern Rock. The way things stand at the moment the government is doing little more than bailing out incompetent (at best) or criminal (more likely) directors and greedy shareholders.

If the Northern Rock debacle had happened in China, Adam Applegarth and his buddies would be on the receiving end of an executioner's bullet in a football stadium.

I'm really glad that this is happening, finally LL has pay attention to this situation, this is only the begin, the way to go is very long....

I notice a chain in LL's actions. They 'removed' gambling which simultaneously Ginko went belly up. Coincidence? Now other places similar to Ginko are being 'removed'. I'm guessing the next person to be 'removed' is the consumer who used those services.

Heres where it effects us content creators. Some of our customers relied on those services. Therefor they have to buy their linden like everyone else now. Some probably aren't willing to buy what they consider monopoly money. So there goes some of our sales.

PS: Come to think of it, they unlegalized gambling shortly after they unlegalized sexual age play. I knew it.. it was their fault! JK

There is also the risk that the LL induced bank run will cause those customer to lose money - which may make them less likely to put more money into SL, especially as this bank run was caused by LL not problems with the banks themselves.

Also, the real cause of the problem is that, whatever LL may say, the ability to exchange L$ and US$ gives L$ a financial value - unregulated gambling and banks were probably the highest profile activities which involve financials risks within SL but not the only ones - what will LL outlaw next?

I think the next highest cause of gripes after bank collapses are unscrupulous landlords - will the next announcement be that you must be a registered rental agency before you can rent land?

Matthew

RL politics is not something we need to go into here, but the real reason GB stepped in is because NR is based in the North East of the UK. The supporters of which political party would stand to suffer most in the event of its failure?

Someone has just asked the reasonable question, why should I be punished because of the criminal activities of other people?

That is a question that perhaps should be answered. The current situation is a bit like the whole class being kept in detention because the teacher can't identify who was flicking ink balls across the classroom.

I strongly suspect that the next thing will be a ban on the advertising or sale of sexually related material.

That is something that will not affect me, but I would be as outraged over that as I am over this.

If Northern Rock had gone under the whole of the banking industry would have been in trouble. They're a nationwide bank, the pictures in the paper and on the news showed plenty of people in London trying to get their money out. To suggest it was for a few votes in the North East where the main opposition regularly come third anyway is absolute balderdash.



LL needed to act on the banks and they are quite clearly in a damned if they do, damned if they don't situation. Encouraging regulated banking is a positive step, it's a shame they aren't in a position to do the same with gambling but the gambling ban is on transfers of money so it's a whole different scenario.

The situation we had was that people were losing too much money to scammers. It's a shame that LL don't pursue scams generally, people are scammed everyday but a small scammer gets away with it, even if he takes a lot of people in.

I think LL needs to stop smacking people down so hard. I can see where they stand in this situation, but they should by know from the past such a drastic approach usually results in panic, confusion, and controversy. They need to take lighter approaches to these types of decisions.

If people can prove they are legitimate, then they can continue operating freely.

If they can't produce the paperwork, then they have two weeks to pay back people they have taken money off of.

I don't see it as drastic, more a compliance issue. I'm sure that Linden Lab were also getting sick and fed up of subpoena's for avatar details after Ginko and all the other scams that have gone belly up recently. Would you rather time and money was wasted giving out this information, or the problem solved at the root first?

I'd really like to think staff know the difference between an SL terminal and a bank ... lol ... scary thought otherwise.

So your justification is "if there's one criminal activity going on in SL then you should allow other criminal activities"? What complete bollocks, yes unscrupulous landlords should be gone, or are you really voting for them to Stay?

Statements existed like these when chimney sweep boys were banned in the UK, when the slave trade was abolished and all these statements came from people who made financial gain through these abborent activities. Did it affect the economy oh yes in the short term, but in the long term the world became a much better place

What is the point in trying to stage a business in sl which is enjoyable for those using it and produces an income if the whole thing is going to be "play money".

Is there any real bank that gives interest on L$. Currently I'm sitting on too many, but will need them eventually and don't want to take the hit on transferrring them back to sterling.

My problem with this is that in SL the innocent become guilty when the deed is done and its final! No recourse, no compensation, no legal come-back, innocent today, 10,000 SL residents screwed tomorrow.

Even if there is a slim possibility this may happen, just don't let it happen.

Gerald, the first part is what we were trying to explain to the person you quoted, which is, there wouldn't be a point. Not when we could simply pack up and go to another place that has the ability.

At this time, there are no real banks in SL. I can't see why one would open up in SL, either, but then there's a lot of things that happen that I couldn't see happening.

Well if they go down that route then the inevitable end result will be that all traders need to be registered, which long term is where virtual world traders will surely end up anyway.

Surely if there is illegal activity going on then you punish the criminal?

Punish all the criminals, certainly.

But why punish the innocent?

At least where I live the only Companies that can call themselves "banks" are registered under the banking act. There are all kinds of requirements for that registration, partly to reassure people, and partly because banks are backed by our central bank, one goes belly up and the depositors are safe (and effectively the tax payer (aka residents) pay up).

So, at least in my Country, all these "banks" were operating illegally. I suspect that may even be the case in the USA, perhaps LL _HAD_ to do this by the laws of the Country in which they operate. (Just like they _HAD_ to kill gambling)

OK, so you'd like to see all SL land rentals banned on the basis that some landlords are not honest. Fair enough!

Matthew

P.S. I'll ignore your offensive comments trying to compare my comment to those who condone slavery.

That is precisely the point I was making - what we've seen with the gambling ban, VAT, and now this, could be the beginning of a slope whereby either LL breaks the L$ to US$ link so the L$ really have no value, or else anyone running any business in SL will need all the RL registration and certification.

Some may see that as a good thing and a maturing of SL - others because of its potential to drive out small hobbyist businesses would regard it as the stagnification of SL and fear that only big corporations can actually participate within it.

It also has ramifications for LL - the more RL regulations come into SL on the basis that L$ have value, the harder it becomes for LL to hide behind the TOS when bugs and problems causes loss of L$ (e.g. inventory loss and failed transactions), and the greater pressure on LL to compensate such losses.

Matthew

I did attachment a generalized opinion, and I see that it appears I was making that statement personal to you, but that wasn't my intention.

No, not this time. A lot of us have been warning people for what seems like forever about the risks of ANY SL "bank". Not that it did any good, the suckers still lined up to give away their money.

Given the anonymity of SL, going after crooks isn't easy. Too many "bankers" pulled up stakes and got off scott free with their customers' money. For all I know, some of them re-registered with a new account and came back to do it again. You'd have us wait until the next Ginko, then try to recover the stolen money? Better to prevent its being stolen, IMO.

And even assuming that there are some honest "bankers" doing business in SL, their risks are very high. How many of them undertstand finance? Reserves? Liquidity? Economics? If they don't know what they are doing, how can they set a rate of return that's both fair and sustainable? What about the considerable and unique investment risks in SL itself, where a new policy or the opening of a new continent can drastically affect the outlook for land prices and/or customers? What are the risks to you and your depositors if you invest in land, or in an SL business? Would you be better off using the money to currency trade?

I'm glad that you had your eyes open and were comfortable gambling your money. Too many others were not.