Linden Lab thinking about printing money and selling it...

Looks to me like they are making it look like http://www.there.com/index.html

With shitty physics.

I would have no problem with Linden Labs acting as a market maker for Linden dollars and both selling and buying Linden dollars at a fixed price for a small transaction fee, as this would stabilize the currency and give it real-world value. It might even lead to being able to buy real goods with Linden dollars.


I have a real problem with them doing anything else, as their just selling and not buying would not help me pay my monthly tier.

Wish they had said this BEFORE I paid my annual premium fee.

I don't know, but I would not be a L$ buyer at these levels and with this uncertainty.

Another thought on this issue has occurred to me, being the devious person I can be sometimes.

Linden have over the last few months dramatically increased the number of sims they have by the auction process. To my knowledge at least three new continents have been created which contain hundreds of sims.

It seems to me that active users have not increased as fast as new sim creation thus bringing about a fall in the value of land. (Although we had a blip in water front land which now seems to be over)

Linden may realise that it may not be viable to create more mainland sims, unless pre-sold. Therefore another way of generating US dollars is to create for free, Linden Dollars, and sell them for hard US dollars in return.

Bearing in mind there is zero cost in this exercise, Linden would not practically mind if the rate hit 1000:1 because they will still make a profit on US dollars. Sim creation on the mainland has a cost in server space and contingency risk. Therefore this is extremely good news for Lindens bottom line but as far as we are concerned any business dependent on Linden Dollars may get stuffed. And there is the risk of hyperinflation.

Perhaps they figure there we've reached critical mass as far as creative content goes. Even if players quit, their content wont dissappear, and now LL can sell L$s for nOObs to buy directly from them to buy existing content.

what he said

I'm confused here. Selling direct to Joe Newbie isnt confusing and is clear. But how would LL increase the money supply without selling it? So they make more L$ and it goes into an account, like Gov Linden. But how would that make its way into the economy? I mean the US government could print more money, but they also spend money thus it gets in circulation. As far as I know LL doesnt 'spend' L$ on us other than our Tues payouts (but thats not a sale). Maybe a lottery? Maybe they temporarily increase the Tues payouts to everyone across the board? So my take is, it has to be direct selling they are talking about. Dunno.

That would be terrible!. They'd be burning bridges if they did that. Where would you live then?

I think they are talking about selling directly on the Lindex competing with the SL business people and hence the very negative and well justified response.

If LL wants to create money when they think there's a shortage of it, shouldn't they also buy money when its over abundant?

Increased stipends would be one way to do it without selling it. Or increase the amount an account gets when it's first opened.

Here is a response from Robin Linden on this issue gleaned from the general thread
---------------------------------
First of all, let me apologize for creating uncertainty. I made the announcement because I wanted to make sure everyone is aware of the change to the terms of service.

We won't be selling L$ immediately. But as you know, we are moving away from an economy where the source of L$ into the currency pool is solely through subsidies in the form of incentives and stipends. Having the ability in place to infuse L$ into the pool gives us another tool to respond to fluctuations in the L$ exchange rate. Clearly we will only use that tool in a way that doesn't result in hyperinflation, which is not only a problem for SL residents, but also for Linden Lab.

When we have a specific plan to sell L$ we will make it available. Leading up to that point, we are going to be publishing a much broader array of statistics so that everyone will have a high degree of visibility into the growth of Second Life. These statistics will be made available at www.secondlife.com/community by clicking on Commerce on the left hand nav bar.
---------------------------------

Robin, at best you are economically misguided, and at worst.....well I will leave that to your own imagination

What you are talking about is the concept of Linden Labs creating Linden dollars out of thin air and at no cost, which have NO LEGAL VALUE, and selling them for real US Dollars to boost Linden Labs profit line.

If you were based in my country I would deem that to be of questionable legality. As for US Federal and State law, well that is both your own and Linden Labs personal responsibility.

I have kept a copy of both your own post and my response


Regards

Paul

Opinion:

I'm late to this party, having had a busy day, but here is my opinion and reaction to this, which I wrote on Second Citizen late last night right after Robin posted her announcement:

LL to Start Selling Lindens - of their own!
OK, boys and girls, explain this one to me, posted by Robin in announcements:

[copied announcement]

OK, now I'm thinking it means this:

1. When they first started Lindex, everyone was all, "Oh don't worry, they aren't creating their own Lindens or selling them, they are helping us sell ours."

2. Now they will be selling their own (unlimited supply) of Lindens.

3. Presumably this is not to actually HELP the economy, but will be done only when "economy can absorb a new infusion of L$ because either other sources have been reduced or sinks have increased."

4. From (3) it follows that the stipends will be removed and the charges for everything - all the sinks - will go up, and new sinks will be created.

BUT MAINLY

5. The Lindens will now be in direct competition with content creators who have heretofore sold their Lindens for cash, competing only with each other.

Question: Why keep creating content within SL?

Question: Does LL really NEED us to create content merely for the other residents? (My answer: No.)

veryrattledcoco
__________________
CC

P.S. Shaun, I was banging on your IM door last night about this, but you weren't there!

Paul, what ever our opinions on this change in philosophy, it certainly isn't illegal.

Yeah, the US Government infuses printed dollars all the time.

I'm guessing we'll get some of this cleared up, eventually. I reserve judgement for the actual implementation. It would be nice for it to simply be supply regulation, though.

We'll see, I guess.

To anyone who believes LL has OUR best interests or an economy that is stable above a rate comparable to that of EQ gold I challenge you to show me where they said they are BUYING lindens.

(finished reading thread)

Opinion:

Y’all, they don’t need a way to create more Lindens in circulation. They already have a way to do that – it’s called stipends.

And we already have plenty of Lindens in circulation.

The problem is, they don't make any profit off of stipends. That's why they are getting rid of them.

But when they make all the sinks cost more, and make bunches of new sinks, then there will be even more need for Lindens, which they will then supply, at a 100% profit to them.

Everything - all the changes, classifieds, dwell, you name it, down to and including the pounding of yard sales - has been done in order to make a bigger profit on the Lindens they will be selling, as far as I can see.

And if they reduce the cost of a premium equal to the loss of the stipends, I’ll be surprised. In fact I’ll be surprised if they reduce it at all.

CC

And Coco wins the 'woke up and smelt the coffee' award of the month.

Think this is bad? You ain't seen nothing yet - trust me...

*gets out an umbrella*

Seriously folks, do you really think the sky is falling *EVERY* time LL makes an announcement? If Philip posted in the announcement forums that he had a salad for lunch, people would scream that the economy is crashing and burning, animals will fall from the sky and SL is going under.

Give them a chance for once in your Second Lives.

*goes back to creating content for the enjoyment of others*

Maxx, this is entirely different. The bills put into circulation by the U.S. Government are backed by the government -- no longer by gold or silver, but by faith in that government. We believe the $1 Bill we hold in our hand is worth $1 because the government said so.

The money put into circulation by Linden Labs will be backed by nothing, not even faith. Their OWN TOS said the L$ has no value. None. What would happen if the Federal Reserve made an announcement that all US Currency in circulation was now absolutely worthless and had no monetary value whatsoever?

They are talking out of both side of their mouth. "The L$ has no value, but we're going to sell you X amount of L$ for X amount of US$."

It is also VERY questionable ethically that they can increase their profit column in their books by changing some tables in a database. If the L$ has no value, as they claim, how can they sell it?!

Read into whatever you want, the Lindens creating L$ out of thin air and selling it, for any price, is a bad idea.

Yeah, yeah - tell me again on Thursday...

Why???? Is that the day he's having chicken?! OMG call in the reserves .

Well yes Aaron, but where do you think the L$2000 monthly premium stipend comes from?
All they are doing is taking what they see as the next logical step.
Doesn't matter how we see it, we are only customers, they don't need us...
Ummm...

I'm going to enjoy this more than I thought...