Interview With BCX CEO Travis Ristov

Checking out the BCX bank in Second Life, I was able to get a chance to interview it's CEO, Travis Ristov.

Read the full interview in FINANCE

Weekly Business Review - 20 Jan 08

20 January 2008

“Compound interest is the most powerful force in the Universe.” – Albert Einstein

Linden Labs' moves to dismiss concerns that their sudden action to ban the payment of interest would have anything other than a salutary effect on the SL economy featured a truly stunning demonstration of the Art of the Spin by Patch Linden and a shameless misrepresentation of their economic data to “prove” themselves right. Meanwhile SL banks and businesses continued to ask themselves, in the immortal words of Fleetwood Mac, “Is it over now? Do you know how, to pick up the pieces and go on?”

Q & A

These may help to clear some questions, but the questions in finance are far from answered!

Weekly Business Review - 13 Jan 08

14 January 2008

Well, I am back after a SL-inspired hardware upgrade that is still not finished and has kept me outworld for the last two weeks. And what a two weeks it’s been as Linden Lab took the next step toward converting “our world, our imagination” into their own virtual version of a communist society by outlawing that cornerstone of capitalism, evil bankers. Or maybe it was just bad publicity they are banning? Read on and decide for yourself.

There is No Banking Crisis

No, the Linden ban on fake "banks" that offer high interest rates and other such events in-world has nothing to do with a banking crisis. The problems and panic at JT Financials either.

Why? Because, as I have written in this newspaper last year, no banking has taken place with these institutions. There was nothing but an old-fashioned scam to take advantage of people's innocence in SL.

For some reason that I never understood, there were people who deposited money and who thought that their "banks" were legitimate. Did they fall for the promise of "high risk, high return"?. Did they fail to realize that 0.15% interest daily means almost 55% annually, a kind of unsustainable interest rate? No matter what, this kind of investor behavior shows that rules have always been and always will be necessary in finance. It is not because finance is bad, or that even finance in SL is bad. It is because a skilled minority will always look for ways to pig out with people's savings. It is a human condition.

As for what this could mean for Second Life and Linden Lab, this is a first step forward in terms of financial credibility. But for heaven's sake, why did they wait so long to act? How could the Lindens fail to step in earlier when some of their honest citizens were exposed to highway robbery?

This question remain unanswered.

I hope they will set up an official governing body called the SL Exchange Commission.

Second Life Banking Crisis

'JFT has not crashed'

The sign reads, find out how JTF are handling the new situation in our finance section

By Bixyl Shuftan

WSE CONFISCATES MERLIN SHARES, REFUSES LIQUIDATOR

For some time now, Merlin Investment Bank (MIBank) Vice-president Skip Oceanlane has been trying to make lemonade out of the bank failure’s lemons. In order to salvage some return for the bank’s depositors, Oceanlane has been working with SL stock exchanges to identify and liquidate Investor Merlin’s stockholdings and distribute the proceeds. Follow the rest of the story in SLN -Finance .

WSE Rejects SLEC Demands

The World Stock Exchange issued it's response to Monday's SLEC "enforcement action", labeling the charges against it as "completely inaccurate" and dismissing the SLEC as "a front for IntLibber Brautigan to help him promote his new exchange and to allow him to try and create negative press about the WSE". For the rest of the story see SLN - Finance .