Fluctuations in Linden Dollar Value, And a Theory as to Why

By Bixyl Shuftan

In recent days, there's been some concerns about the Linden dollar due to fluctuations in it's value. While there have been swings in both directions, it's become generally much cheaper to buy Lindens from the Lab than to cash them out.

According to Tyche Shepherd's gridsurvey.com, the minimum rate on the Lindex on February 10 was 248 to the dollar, and the maximum 259. Last week on May 16, the minimum was 252 and the maximum 265. While not much for the typical Second Life resident, for content creators whom make a real-life living with their income from the grid, these increasing sell rates mean a dent in their income.

There's no shortage of opinions as to what's causing the price swings, as evidenced by the comments in the initial New World Notes article, the thread on the subject in the SL Universe forums, and a thread on Plurk. A common thought among residents discussing the matter is that Linden Lab is playing with the value of the Lindens themselves to encourage people to buy them. New World Notes tried contacting Linden Lab on the matter, but got no response. But talking with someone who used to work with the Lab, who preferred to remain anonymous, the man doubted that theory, "We were super-transparent about this years ago, and I doubt it's changed significantly in the time since I left. Linden Lab doesn't control the rates, the market does. If a number of larger businesses that have been holding significant L$ decide to liquidate and are willing to push the rate temporarily less financially favorably for sellers in exchange for more rapid exchange, then short-term small fluctuations like this happen."

So what businesses would be most likely to liquidate their assets? One sound theory, supposedly first came up with by Plurk user T-Kesserex, is that that the increase in people cashing out Lindens is coming from land barons selling theirs to help pay the one-time fees to lower sim rates which has been in effect since early April.  Tyche Shepherd reportedly estimated the total number of grandfathered full sims has gone up from 11 percent to close to 21 percent, a near-doubling. He calculated with the tier fees brought Linden Lab slightly over a million US dollars. With the top 20 landowners controlling about half the private estate regions, just a few moving to buy-down their sims to lower rates would involve a lot of Linden dollars.

But Inara Pey noted people were noticing fluctuations as far back as late 2015, well before the buy-down offer was announced in April, hinting while this might have accelerated the swings in rates it didn't explain them completely. Her suggestion was for those with a need or desire for more Linden dollars to take advantage of the lower rates while they last.

Sources: Gridsurvey.com, SL Universe, New World Notes, Modem World 

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Offering Lower Tiers, For a Price

For years, residents have asked Linden Lab to lower what it charges for sim tier. Yesterday, in a "limited time offer," the Lab announced a chance for landowners to lower their monthly tiers to "Grandfathered maintenance rates." This means lowering the rate for regular sims from $295 USD a month to $195, and homesteads from $125 USD to $95.

But, there's a catch. First, the offer is only good until October 4. Second, to lower the tiers, one needs to pay a one-time fee, $600 USD for each regular sim, and $180 for each homestead. The deal does not apply to sims receiving the non-profit discount or those under it's "Skill Games" policy.

This move comes several months after the Lab's decision in November to reduce set-up fees for private sims.

Ciaran Laval, after a joke that the Lab was trying to make the "protest gnomes" (pictured above) redundant, called it "a good deal," at least for those who have the money up front. Jo Yardley commented, "This offer comes at an interesting time because by the time it ends, Sansar will have opened to a lot more beta testers and if all goes well, we’ll be months away from it opening to the main public. Who knows how things are going in SL by then?" She called it, "A good deal and another step in the right direction, but still, $600 is a lot of money," suggesting the Lab could have done a little better by allowing landowners the option to pay in installments. Hamlet Au was hopeful the move could help stop the long slow decline of Second Life's sim numbers, which have fallen below the 25,000 Level, less then 17500 of which are privately owned. In the thread on the topic in the official Second Life forums, reactions were somewhat mixed, one calling it a "cash infusion" strategy for the Lab, another commenting "if I were a non-grandfathered land baron right about now, I'd be doing one heck of a happy dance."

Time will tell how the move will affect Second Life.

For the blog post, Click Here. 

Sources: Ciaran Laval, Jo Yardley. Hamlet Au, SL Universe, gridsurvey.com.Second Life Forums,