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There was some heated discussion related to KITILA Cortes and the Global Credit System which I found hard to follow¹, so I decided to take a look at the system itself. Kitila Cortes and I chatted via IM through the last bout of grid flatulence, and when it cleared up he gave me a demo.

He told me he is no longer selling the system - he already made his profit.

How The System Works; Overview

The system is like that of any real credit cards (if you could call them real!) - you charge money, and you pay interest based on that. The settings for that are set by the bank; the only thing presently not adjustable by the bank is the length of time for payment (30 days).

If someone defaults on a card - doesn't pay - they are sent 3 messages. With the first message, the card is locked - they can no longer charge using it. Kitila claims that this does not break the Terms of Service (spam²). He claims that he spoke with 3 liasions on the subject and that they saw no problem with it. From how he described the system to me, it seemed to be 3 reminders.

A credit rating system is already done for owners of the system, though I did not see that.

The Demo

I received a card by touching a board. The card is worn; it requests permissions for debits as any vendor does. You can charge or check your balance that way using a channel (for the demo, it was channel 1 - '/1'). It was a bit choppy, but this was an impromptu demo so I'm forgiving in that regard.

When you accumulate a balance through charging the card, you pay within the time period allotted (30 days is to be expected) - and during that time period, you can pay on the balance by detaching the card and rezzing it - then paying it.

More advanced features are in the works, from what I was made to understand.

My Opinion

I knocked the system for being Second Life side only, with no web server backup - I was told that this was already being worked on. I also suggested that if the Linden Lab representatives said the system was Terms of Service compliant, it might be good to get that in writing from someone.

For all intents and purposes, it did seem to work like a credit card except that you accept the money - not a vendor. I can see where there would be potential uses for it. I also see how the system might be taken advantage of, but those are the demons which will have to be shaken out like in any other system.

What do I think? I think its a creative implementation of a system which people seem to love in real life. The cost of the system was considered high for some, acceptable for others (such as L&L) - but the system is not for sale at this time. The proof, as usual, will be in the pudding. Lets wait and see what users think of it.

Personally, I have no liking for credit cards, but hey - I'm not everyone. I'm Nobody. :-)

¹The comments were likely to get out of control sooner or later, so I nipped it in the bud by locking the thread. This was not to take sides - as someone moderating comments it was simply too difficult to follow what was going on without further information. I don't mind the web hits here on Your2ndPlace.com, but I do mind when things start to get a little out of control.

I don't know who said what to who before, so I'm pointedly ignoring that. What I am doing in this post is reporting what I saw. It won't make some people happy, I'm sure, but there were plenty of unhappy people anyway.

² 4.1, vii:

upload, post, email or otherwise transmit any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, or promotional materials, that are in the nature of "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation that Linden Lab considers in its sole discretion to be of such nature;