Anshe's new currency

cribbed from
http://secondslog.blogspot.com/
I hope it's ok to reprint this blog article. If not, I'll edit this post. I hadn't heard of Anshe's new currency, so I thought maybe some others hadn't either.

Anshe's "threat" of a New Currency, the A$
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by Pham Neutra (for SLOG)

On Thursday, 30th of March Anshe proposed a new currency for Second Life, the Anshe Dollar, or A$ for short. This would be a currency created by the Chinese company Anshechung Studios Ltd. and would be backed by "Silver Euros" according to her announcement. The idea is to have a web platform like the LindeX where you buy and sell the new currency and some scripts with which you can integrate them into inworld transactions with vendors and RentOMats.

Many commentators on the forums - even her competitors - welcomed the idea with open arms. I bet it were mostly those, who are suffering from the decline of the L$, too. Any idea that promises a stable currency must seem like a revelation to this target group. And the offer was cleverly phrased: "Silver Euros" suggests a kind of inherent stability which no modern currency (none of which is backed by precious metals anymore) can offer; at least on the emotional level.

Little sidenote: as a citizen of Germany, where the EUR is official currency for a few years now, I know of no "Silver Euro" besides some collectors coins. And actually it does not matter much in these times if a currency is backed by precious metals (prices of which fluctuate wildly sometimes).

More important is the long term stability, the policies and the oversight for the institution issuing a currency. And while Anshechung Studios Ltd. admittedly is probably the biggest RL institution behind any inworld group, this company is a far cry from any RL banking institution. And to look at this relatively small company as offering more stability than the (financially) much larger Linden Lab seems more than wishful thinking of those suffering from the decline of the L$ to me.

Given the inherent instability and sometimes insecurity of some of the LSL functionalities which would have to be used to integrate the A$ as a currency for inworld transactions into vendors and RentOMats, I would not like to trust such a system with large payments personally. Second Life has many bugs but the internal payment functions for L$ have never been buggy and never have been cracked so far - not for lack of trying, I am sure.

The legal side might become interesting, too. Creating a "currency" (with "real value" behind it) is nothing most governments in the world would allow their citizens to do. Even if it would be named not a "currency", the A$ might be seen as a security. Issuing a security is strongly regulated in most jurisdictions of the world. I doubt if Anshe and Guni would like the level of government control that comes with that.

But who knows what Anshe's true goals with this suggestion were. Maybe it was just an attempt to put some pressure on the Lindens "to do something" about the L$. Maybe it is a first step for a kind of Dreamland Currency.


On the other hand a success of this proposal would strengthen Anshechung Studios Ltd. significantly. The monthly influx of fresh L$ into the SL economy has reached a volume of about 200,000 USD. If Anshe could capture just 10% of this volume this would mean she would have to put "Silver Euros" worth 20,000 USD into some vault every month. Admitted, this is no money, she and Guni would be allowed to "use" (there would have to be some trusted institution to make sure they would not do this ...) But after half a year they would have a nice cushion of 100,000 USD or more in the vault which would make their company a much more credible debtor with a bank or any partner in a financial transaction; which would surely be a nice side effect for this business.

The side effects for SL might not be so nice: transferring a significant part of the SL economy (and the whole land business constitutes a fairly big chunk of this economy) away from the L$ into a new A$-based economy would make the L$ weaker and probably even more volatile. I seriously doubt if a segmentation of the SL economy with two - and maybe more ??? - currencies this would be in the best interest of most other participants in this economy and Linden Lab itself.

Some residents assumed that this might be the reason for the suspension of the "Anshe Chung" account which she announced on the 31st of March on the forums - which lead to an ugly debate nearly instantly. Could this really be a kind if Linden Lab revenge?

I seriously doubt that. "Billing problems" leading to the temporary suspension of an account are not uncommon in SL (I got such a warning myself last autumn). To use this as a kind of muscle play would be very unprofessional from Linden Lab and really not "the style" of this company's dealings from my experience. And it is hard for any customer to get customer service from Linden Lab outside business hours on the US west coast.

On the other hand: Guni assured me personally that instead of the usual 7 day "probation period" that any resident gets after a billing attempt fails, "Anshe Chung" only got less than 48 hours warning before the account was suspended.

What this event shows, in any case, is how volatile business relationships between Linden Lab and its resident partners in SL can be. I can't help but doubt that the current way of doing business with the larger "companies" in SL can stay like it is. I am sure that there will be RL agreements between RL companies (one side being Linden Lab) this year. Just the TOS alone is a very weak foundation for doing business with SL. It puts you as the "resident" in a rather unfavorable position. Such a position might be considered OK as long as you are doing some freelance work in SL but I would consider it downright irresponsible to base a real company with real employees on such a relationship with nearly all of the power just on one side (Linden Labs).


--- article ends ----

Was all over Land and the Economy like a dose of the pox.

Anyways my comments here are the same as there on the 'A$$' - I can print out Siggy Bux and say they're backed by the Swahili Gourdmark if I like, but at the end of the day a currency is only good if it's accepted as tender.

If folks want to deal with me they'll have to do it the old fashioned way.

To put it politely I won't treat the A$$ with anymore legitimacy than I would toilet tissue.

This would work well if Second Life were the great big ol' Ansheverse.. but it's still governed by Linden Lab, they still operate the currency and not sure about the TOS regarding this particular issue, but I think Phil might be just a little more than peeved to hear a player is trying to take away one of Linden Lab's sources of income by establishing her own currency in world... Will never happen, citizens will not go along with it- at least those not interested in SL as a tycoon game... it's impossible to gauge, who manages the disbursement of it? Who maintains control of the implementation? No one with an legal obligation to you or I- our TOS agreement was with Linden Lab, not the Ansheverse.

If she really wants this, I think she should take her earning, hire a team of devs, develope her own open source virtual reality environment, and then- AND ONLY then can she obtain such power without majority resistance.

My two cents.

Yeah, old news... and most likely treated with as much seriousness as the protest about the p2p teleporting and all the other things that have started "official campaigns" when she realised they might damage her precious income - and were quietly dropped when she realised quite how little support she had.

Sooner LL get rid of her the better, IMHO.

Lewis

Civil War Confederate Dollars make decent Toilet Paper or so my great grandfather said.

Anshe is here to stay.

Does this mean you will be leaving us soon?

Not in the slightest.

Anshe's reason for being here is because she makes a living out of it. As soon as it is no longer profitable to be here, guarantee that she'll be out of here and off to milk something else.

My reason for being here has no bearing on the economy or interest in the financial aspect, my gameplay does not matter one iota what the L$ exchange rate is, so I will leave when I am bored - which isn't yet.

Lewis

I see; you deserve to be here and she does not. Got you.

SL would be less interesting without Anshe.

You know, the world is getting to a size where you almost wouldnt notice; that is, assuming you are not directly affected of course.

It hard for someone who can't pay LL tier on time to claim to be able to back a currency.

Sometimes Phil is sexy.

Sure you can pay in in A$ - that will be 1000 times its cos tin lindens please And I wiill send you the item when Anshe gives me the lindens in exchange.

...is of no interest or concern to me.

I dunno. I personally could live in SL without her several attempted plots to commandeer the economy for her own gain. She's just a land baron; there's two dozen others that can fill in the void when she leaves.

Notice I said when, not if. When it becomes unprofitable, she'll be gone in a flash.

You are aware the Anshe Chung, the woman, was here for quite a while before AnsheChung.com, the business, ever existed?

Regards,

-Flip

... only then making a profit in the world's oldest profession.

OK, well, these forums would be a lot less interesting without Anshe

Am I the only one who saw this as an April fools joke?

Probably

Well LL stated clearly that if it was, they had no part in it. That only leaves AC.com, and if they had intended it that way, it was a serious case of shooting themselves in the foot. I can't see it myself.

Not at all, but I didn't want to spoil it.

Was posted before April 1st - but thats a good out anyways 'oh it was all a joke!' in relation to the A$$

The suspension of account was simply 'bad timing' I think.

As someone else said in another thread: "I've been waiting for a currency backed by lint".

It's backed by the "Silver Euro"...

Now, if she didn't just pull that currency out of her hat to con people into thinking the A$$ is a good investment, I'll eat my lemon.

Your own currency would only be as good as your name and reputation. And I don't think more than a handful of SLers trust Anshe that much, even without the whole "Ops! I forgot to pay you 5 Grand, but you should just suck it up because I'm me!" idiocy.

Kevin, no you are not the only one.