VirWoX (closed)
VirWoX (closed)
As previously announced, the Virtual World Exchange (VirWoX) has permanently closed its business on January 6, 2020.
VirWoX operated for more than 12 years, first as a place to buy and sell Linden Dollars for Second Life,
and since April 2011 our users also traded Bitcoin. That made VirWoX the world’s oldest Bitcoin exchange
after MtGox closed in 2014.
We wish to thank our more than a million customers for their loyalty in all these years.
Enquiries can still be sent to
If you came here to buy or sell Bitcoin, we would like to recommend BitPanda instead.
Legal Information
VirWoX – Bitcoin Wiki
In business since end of 2007, VirWoX is today a leading independent exchange for
trading virtual currencies, both in terms number of users (about 800, 000), and trading volume
(2012: 29 million Euro / 38 million US$).
Currencies traded are Linden Dollars (the virtual currency used in Second Life),
Avination’s C$, and the Open Metaverse Currency (OMC). In April 2011, VirWoX started accepting Bitcoin and enabled to trade bitcoins for Linden Dollars (both ways), which are in turn convertible to EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, and the other virtual currencies traded on VirWoX.
Other payment methods (deposit and withdrawal) include PayPal, Credit/Debit Cards via Skrill/Moneybookers, paysafecard, Ukash, SOFORTbanking, and bank transfers.
VirWoX is run by the company Virtual World Services GmbH, which is located in Austria.
The service is available in five languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian).
Contents
1 Instructions
1. 1 How to buy bitcoins
1. 2 How to sell bitcoins
1. 2. 1 For Linden Dollars
1. 2 For other currencies (USD, EUR, etc. )
2 Fees
3 Limits and Restrictions
4 See Also
5 External Links
6 References
Instructions
How to buy bitcoins
Technically, VirWoX only supports the exchange BTC for Linden Dollars. However, you can first buy Linden Dollars for real-world currency, and then buy BTC for your Linden Dollars. It is not necessary to open a Second Life account to do this.
After you have opened[1] an account, deposit money into your VirWoX account (on the “Deposit” page) using one of the payment methods in the table below:
Payment Processor
USD
EUR
GBP
CHF
Limit
Fees
PayPal
Yes
variable (see “Limits”)
EUR 0. 35 + 3. 4%
Credit/Debit Cards (Moneybookers)
No
EUR 0. 39 + 3. 5%
SOFORTbanking / Sofortüberweisung
2. 5% (min. EUR 0. 25)
paysafecard
300 EUR/day
20%
Then you need to enter an order to sell your money (e. g. USD) for SLL (=Linden Dollars), e. on the “Exchange USD/SLL” page. Next, buy BTC on the “Exchange BTC/SLL” page. Depending on the type of order (Market or Limit), this will convert the Linden Dollars to BTC immediately or at some later time[2].
Finally use the “Withdraw” page to send the BTC to a Bitcoin address. You can also use VirWoX as a eWallet and keep your BTC there for later use.
Full details of the process can be found on dedicated website VirWoX.
How to sell bitcoins
After your have opened[3] an account, go to the “Deposit” page, scroll down to the “Bitcoin” section and click on the “Create my Bitcoin address” button.
This will create a unique bitcoin address associated with your account. You then send the bitcoins you wish to sell to this address.
As soon as the bitcoin network has confirmed the payment (5 blocks), the bitcoins are booked to your account, and an email is sent to you.
For Linden Dollars
To exchange bitcoins to Linden Dollars, go to the page “Exchange BTC/SLL”, and enter an order to sell your bitcoins.
Depending on your order (Market or Limit), this will be executed instantly or at some later time.
You may then withdraw the Linden Dollars to your Second Life avatar or continue as described below.
For other currencies (USD, EUR, etc. )
Technically, VirWoX only supports to sell BTC for Linden Dollars. However, you can first do that (as described above)
and then buy some real-world cash for your Linden Dollars. It is not necessary to open a Second Life account to do this.
Just go to the corresponding exchange page
(e. USD/SLL for USD, EUR/SLL for EUR), and buy the real-world currency for the Linden Dollars. Then proceed to the “withdraw” page
and send the money using one of the supported withdrawal methods:
Withdrawal Method
Delay
Bank Wire
2-3 days
unlimited
1 EUR (if from EU in EUR)
instant
2500 EUR/day
1 EUR/USD/GBP/CHF
Skrill/Moneybookers
VirWoX charges 50 SLL (currently about $0. 20) plus 3. 9% for BTC/SLL market orders. The fee for limit orders depends on the previous trading volume of the account, and varies between 0. 78% and 3. 9%[4].
VirWoX charges 0. 0005 BTC for BTC withdrawals. Deposits in BTC are free.
Limits and Restrictions
Because of the risks involved, VirWoX restricts deposits via PayPal and Moneybookers (i. e. Credit/Debit Cards) depending on the age of the account. As of July 1, 2018, there are the following limit tiers:
PayPal/Moneybookers Limit Tier
Per 24 hours
Per 30 days
0 – Upon Registration
90 EUR
270 EUR
1 – After 10 Days
120 EUR
900 EUR
2 – After 30 Days
200 EUR
2, 000 EUR
3 – After 60 Days
400 EUR
5, 000 EUR
4 – By Request Only
1, 000 EUR
15, 000 EUR
For security reasons some bitcoin withdrawals (in particular of new accounts) are subject to a delay and manual review. Specifically, the first withdrawal of bitcoins paid for using PayPal, or credit card is delayed by up to 48 hours.
See Also
Buying bitcoins
Selling bitcoins
External Links
VirWoX web site
current BTC/SLL market depth
Second Life
References
↑ VirWoX user registration
↑ In case of a limit order, you will receive an email when the order is completely filled.
↑ VirWoX Fees
Virwox Review: Is it Legit or a Scam? – 99Bitcoins
Since Virwox is currently one of the main ways people buy Bitcoin with Paypal it attracts a lot of attention. Many people consider Virwox to be a scam while others say it’s legit. In this post I would like to share my own opinion of the site after buying and selling through them for almost 4 years.
An short overview of Virwox
Virwox is a virtual currency exchange set up on late 2007 for the purpose of trading Second Life Lindens (SLL) and other virtual currencies used in online gaming.
Currencies traded other than Linden Dollars include Avination’s C$, and the Open Metaverse Currency (OMC). In April 2011, VirWoX started accepting Bitcoin and basically opened a loophole for people to buy Bitcoins with Paypal by first purchasing SLL via Paypal and then converting that SLL to Bitcoins. As of writing this post the site has over 740K registered users.
My personal experience with Virwox
I have personally bought and sold Bitcoins through Virwox in order to convert them to my Paypal account several times. At least once a month I conduct a transaction through the site for several years now. From this experience I’ve reached several conclusions:
The site is legit, I never had a time when my money was stolen or withheld.
The support of the site is not the best you can find – if you have an issue you’ll need to write to them a few times until you get a proper response.
Just to prove how long I’ve been working with the site here’s part of my 226 transactions I’ve conduct up until writing this post:
So you can tell I have some reference. However since I run a Bitcoin blog I do know a lot of people have issues with the site so I do want to cover that aspect as well.
Online reviews of Virwox users
First of all I’ll admit – you don’t find many (or any) positive reviews about Virwox online. However the negative reviews usually are on of two options:
People complaining about the high fees Virwox takes (we’ll get to this in a second)
People complaining about the fact that their account was banned and they don’t understand why
I’ll address the high fees shortly. Regarding the account ban – from what I’ve read and heard through my blog readers, people who got their account banned always got their money refunded. Sometimes it can take a few days for the money to come back but I’ve never heard of someone who got his money “stolen” by the exchange.
Why does Virwox ban so many accounts? I have no idea. I can only assume that since they have a high risk of fraud by selling Bitcoins via Paypal they are more cautious than other exchanges. However this does not make them a scam.
Virwox fees and a fee calculator
Yes, Virwox takes high fees for converting Bitcoin to Paypal and vice versa. Why? Well, due to several reasons:
Because of the reason I’ve mentioned before – they have a high risk of fraud and need to cover their losses with a premium.
The site wasn’t built for buying Bitcoins directly with Paypal. You need to first buy SLL and then convert it to BTC. Each action on the site has an additional fee which makes the process pretty expensive at the end. If you were able to buy BTC directly it would probably be cheaper.
Because they can – there’s not enough competition at the moment of sites allowing people to buy Bitcoins with Paypal so they allow themselves to request high fees. The only worthy alternative is LocalBitcoins and I think that prices there are even higher.
In order to make it easier for you to understand just how much you’re going to pay in fees I’ve created a Virwox fee calculator is only good for Buying Bitcoins with Paypal and not for selling it or using other methods. Just enter the amount of Bitcoins you want to buy or USD you want to spend and you’ll get the matching result. This calculator takes into account ALL of the fees including: Deposit fee, converting USD to SLL, converting SLL to BTC and withdrawal fee (the full fees are detailed here).
Keep in mind that this calculator was built and updated on January 10th 2017 so it’s relevant for the fees listed at that time and they may change. As you see the fees can get pretty high and can reach over 15%.
Conclusion – Is Virwox legit?
Yes, Virwox is legit in my opinion. It may not be the best site to conduct business on due to high fees, long transaction times and their laggy support but if it’s your only option it will do. If anyone reading this has had a different experience than what I’ve just covered I’d love to hear it in the comment section below.
Flexible payment methods
9. 0/10
Pros
Multiple payment options
No ID verification required
Cons
Very limited support
High fees
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Frequently Asked Questions about virvox
Is VirWoX trustworthy?
Conclusion – Is Virwox legit? Yes, Virwox is legit in my opinion. It may not be the best site to conduct business on due to high fees, long transaction times and their laggy support but if it’s your only option it will do.Apr 21, 2018
What happened to VirWoX?
Another exchange closes: this time it’s the turn of VirWox which, through an email to its users, has warned that it will close down on January 6th. The email invites users to withdraw their funds because, after January 6th, 2020, there will be no more access to the platform, which will close permanently.Nov 6, 2019
What is Second Life currency?
The Linden dollar (L$) is the virtual currency used within Second Life, an immersive online world. Linden dollars are used with the platform to buy and sell virtual goods, property, and services.Sep 9, 2021
