AviWorlds has completed its migration to the multi-grid, hypergrid-enabled Gloebit virtual currency.
“Gloebits have been working well for us,” AviWorlds CEO Josh Boam told Hypergrid Business. “I notice an improvement with transactions. The grid has sold a good handful of Gloebits from our Gloebits application.”
With a local virtual currency, a grid sells currency directly to its users, keeping all the money they collect. However, they also then have to manage that currency, deal with fraud, figure out how and when to allow users to sell the currency back. Plus, the currency can only be used on that one grid, making it risky for users to keep too much of it in their wallets.
With Gloebit, grids don’t have to manage any of the currency infrastructure, and there isn’t much technical work to get it set up and running. It integrates with virtual world viewers, and customers can shop with their Gloebit wallet on dozens of different grids, reducing the risks of holding that currency. Plus, Gloebit is run by Christopher Colosi, who used to run the Second Life Marketplace and the Lindex exchange. So it’s as robust a payment system as anyone would be able to find in OpenSim.
And grids can still make money — they can get a cut of all currency purchases and in-world transactions when they sign up Gloebit.
“It’s great to see people using a currency,” said Boam. “Lord knows the DJs love it!”
Boam said that he decided to switch to Gloebit because grid residents were asking for it.
“We also noticed a trend when new regions came in they requested Gloebits over our local currency,” he said. “After chatting with our staff we have come to the agreement to switch the entire grid over to Gloebits, minus our mainland regions. This switch allows our users to spend their Gloebits how they and where they see fit.”
He admitted that the Gloebit platform does occasionally have outages. The system had a couple of issues last year, for example.
“But the staff at Gloebit work very hard to provide a clean and reliable platform I have good faith that they know what they are doing,” he said. “As for the ease of use, I find it extremely easy to get setup and going with Gloebits. Cashouts are a bit harder but only require a application to be filed. Once approved transactions for cash outs work as planned.”
Residents that previously had the AviWorlds local currency can get a refund, or exchange it for Gloebits, he said. Residents have until Feb. 9 to request the refund or exchange by filing a support ticket.
You can find out more about shopping with Gloebits here.
Source: Hypergrid Business
