Linden Sales By LL

As you may have noticed, this announcement has generated a firestorm of controversy, including this thread, among others.

While I am not among the panic-stricken who are screaming about it, I do think there are many legitimate concerns being raised.

May I suggest that someone such as Robin or Philip should go on record as explaining what LL plans to do to make sure that this action does not cause a massive upheaval in the SL economy?

If this is being done to put a rein on the devaluation of the L$, that's great. But if this action should result in the value of the L$ falling even further than it already has, I believe you would see many content creators leaving Second Life, simply because the proceeds they are realizing from their sales is being greatly reduced by the L$'s reduced value.

Example:

When the exchange rate was L$250 = US$1, cashing in L$100,000 would net a seller US$400 (before fees and such, that is).

Now that it is more like L$300 = US$1, L$100,000 is worth only about US$333.

Should the L$ fall to L$400 = US$1 as som are predicting, a seller would get only US$250 for that L$100,000.

No wonder some are panicking. A lot of those people depend on that income to pay tier.

Can we have a statement as to LL's plans to ensure that this doesn't happen?

Thank you,

P2

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.