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Support Business Development and Protocol

Lindsay Druart
Registered User
Join date: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 6
05-17-2008 14:20
In the wake of the banking ban and the continued operation of the financial sector, there are a few features that I think would be optimal in forming businesses in SL. Currently, all accounts are personally held which creates the need for sharing devices and even having to divide personal and business transactions later. Just like a bank would have personal and business accounts, LL should offer residents a business account that is controllable by a limited amount of residents that meet certain criteria This would not be babysitting but a feature that will promote the creation of sound businesses and enhance the overall economy and boost linden transfer.

These items should be part of this development:

1. Creation of the Business account would require W-9 certification which would require that the SL business be registered as a business or a sole proprietorship RL. This would easily work for US residents but I am sure would have to be tweaked to include international residents. If you require additional research, I would be glad to assist.

2. Criteria for control of the alt would actually put that person as a "signer" much like a RL bank. Therefore, any deed done on the alt are the responsibility of the signers and if the signers accounts are banned for any reason their access to the account would be cut off until the issue is clear. Each person would have to age verify, have a premium account, and have payment on file. This would help the premium account sales for LL of course.

3. Give business accounts the ability to have their own last names a bit quicker. Right now the process to do that takes forever but do this for businesses at an additional cost and it will streamline business operations and allow residents to separate their personal SL from their business SL.

4. Additional validation of the business would be optimal. My suggestion would be a team of mentors specifically for the business sector that would validate businesses by providing a stamp of approval that is not stating that the business is a good business but that it is verified like eBay does. This could be done by the submittal of business licenses and IDs or you can run ChoicePoint checks in the system to verify identities of people. It may cost a bit of change BUT in the long run you will have more valid businesses, less scammers, and less overall whining from the residents.

Implementation of something like this is way less complicated than it seems because most of this can be easily automated. Doing this doesn't oust the unverified business but gives a security net for the residents and peice of mind for LL.
Charlotte Bartlett
Registered User
Join date: 21 Sep 2006
Posts: 97
Nice idea in principal but....
06-13-2008 07:03
How would you expect Linden Lab to validate this on an international level. For example under UK law I can carry on as a limited company or a private individual trading as x business - the later is not held at Companies House. 55% of the User base is non-US...

In addition, many businesses formed in Second Life are partnerships based on the virtual relationship with another avatar. If one is based in the UK and one in the US and they take the dividend from their group split and report their own P&L and taxes how would Linden Lab determine certification in this situation.

In addition doesn't Linden Lab position itself in reality as an ISP. So if I hosted my website on Powweb as an example, they do not carry out business checks. However there is protocol around domain name registration which may be of interest here when relating to a business. Again onus is on the registrant not the ISP.

Regarding the alt element. I agree with this format, but my suggestion is more around not premium accounts, being free does made a strange kind of sense. But 100pct a RL ID check of credit/credit or linked PayPal Account.

I have also questioned KYC elements on Second Life as you can exit USD from the platform. Therefore much as PayPal has to perform substantial ID checks (including bank accounts) for volume over 1700 EUR pa for an individual - my question would be whether Linden Lab also should have a money laundering provision.

The topic of running a business on a virtual platform I am sure will expand over the coming 12 months so I look forward to seeing what evolves...