As for a “V$” merchant – the problem simply is those currencies are fiat; and easy to skim – LL for example prints a huge chunk of money each month which is basically skimming from the virtual economy; when the economy shrinks (as it eventually will), don’t expect LL to start buying back; and you’ll end up with a serious economic problem that using real currencies avoids. I would only trust micropayments if they were done in a hard currency (or had a TOS that didn’t disclaim any fixed value.)

Yes, such would be held by a central company. That is why it would require a highly-professional, certified and trustworthy agency to perform such a task. I think with the potential of high profit involved, we can expect such an entity to appear over time. Surely such an agency would charge far less in fees than PayPal or Amazon– and would be directly tied in to in-world sales.

While there are as stated, certain obstacles to overcome, I have to believe such highly preferable to the difficulties and costs involved with trying to integrate expensive and cumbersome services such as PayPal or Amazon into the process.

The biggest obstacle I see at this time to any kind of OpenSim-based sales is the total lack of security for merchants. With many sim owners having “God rights” to their sims, this creates an environment ripe for plundering of anyone foolish enough to bring their product into the wrong area.

Until the issues of OpenSim security are dealt with and merchants better assured of the safety of their creations, most merchants with whom I’ve spoken have no intention of bringing their products into the OpenSim environment.

So as a merchant of several years experience, I would point out that for OpenSim to become a viable marketplace… we will need a centralized V$ banking system and security for our products. Both are large hurdles that, considering the nature of the beast, may be in reality too large to overcome.

of course, PayPal fees prevent small transactions like most people are used to in Second Life. but that is a change that is easier to make than becoming a bank.

as a grid owner, I could work a system of credits, using a PayPal subscription model, for my clients rather than putting that burden on OpenSim. with a little thought, the same could be done by shop owners

this isn’t, and shouldn’t, be an attempt to be “like Second Life”

good job Adam and “holy cow!” – massive kudos! =)

This page explains the current status of that Mod-PayPal module:
http://wiki.github.com/SnoopyPfeffer/Mod-PayPal/current-status

The repository can be found here:
http://github.com/SnoopyPfeffer/Mod-PayPal

Also thanks for your work in this area! I really think that the ability to buy and sell thru a trusted system as paypal will help draw more interest to Open Sim.

Where there is a will, there is always a way.. Great ideas Adam.