Updated – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com Latest Crypto News Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:03:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.7 https://i0.wp.com/earlybirdsinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/cropped-New-Project-2024-12-17T235703.455.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Updated – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com 32 32 240146708 Gemini’s improved home screen is coming soon, and it could get new tweaks (Updated: Rolling out) https://earlybirdsinvest.com/geminis-improved-home-screen-is-coming-soon-and-it-could-get-new-tweaks-updated-rolling-out/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/geminis-improved-home-screen-is-coming-soon-and-it-could-get-new-tweaks-updated-rolling-out/#respond Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:03:55 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/geminis-improved-home-screen-is-coming-soon-and-it-could-get-new-tweaks-updated-rolling-out/
Samsung Galaxy Flip 7 with Gemini app open on cover screen

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

TL;DR

  • Gemini could be getting a refreshed home screen, as we’ve also seen before.
  • Google has begun testing it with a small set of users using the latest beta version of the Google app.
  • Google is also testing suggestions for queries based on your Google activity, although this is currently in the early stages of testing.

Update, September 15, 2025 (10:10 AM ET): Gemini’s new landing screen, plus the new options button, is now rolling out to users in the stable branch.


Original article, September 9, 2025 (09:36 AM ET): For a few past months, Google has been testing visual changes to Gemini’s home screen. One of those changes, seemingly inspired by ChatGPT, is on the verge of becoming more widely available. We recently spotted Google testing this new home screen interface along with some other changes.

While poking around the version 16.35.63 beta of the Google app, we discovered new home screen layouts for Gemini. The first one, which we have also seen before, places big shortcut buttons right in the center of the screen, just like ChatGPT. In its current form, these shortcuts are located in the input box at the bottom of the screen. Google now appears to be moving forward with this interface, and we found it being tested on one of our devices without any internal tweaks.

These options are also visible by tapping the new options button, which is placed alongside the existing (+) icon used for uploading files.

Besides this ChatGPT-inspired tweak, Google is testing a new, quicker prompts to interact with Gemini. With some tweaking, we enabled a new home screen view that puts suggestions in the center of Gemini’s homepage.

These suggestions appear to be inspired by usage history from the Google account. However, since it’s still under testing, we are unsure whether this feature will be retained or changed in the upcoming updates.

Don’t want to miss the best from Android Authority?

Besides changes to Gemini’s home screen, Google is also testing a slightly changed interface for apps linked with Gemini. The under-testing interface clears out unnecessary information from the top half for a cleaner look.

Like the suggestions, this new interface for apps has also been activated with under-the-hood tweaking and will not be immediately visible to all. Therefore, we cannot comment on wider availability and will wait for more cues or an update from Google.

⚠ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

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The 1.x Files: The Updated Stateless Tech Tree https://earlybirdsinvest.com/the-1-x-files-the-updated-stateless-tech-tree/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/the-1-x-files-the-updated-stateless-tech-tree/#respond Thu, 31 Jul 2025 21:47:04 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/the-1-x-files-the-updated-stateless-tech-tree/

The Updated Stateless Ethereum Tech Tree

Apologies for the delay in releasing this post; there have been some unavoidable distractions in my life recently, as I’m sure there have been in yours. I hope that you are making the best of your circumstances, whatever they may be, and implore you to turn your empathy up to eleven for the next few months, and to help your community’s at-risk people in whatever capacity you can :pray:.

With that said, let’s talk about Stateless Ethereum, and the changes to the Tech Tree!

Graphically, the tree has been completely re-worked, but if you were to compare it to the original, you’d notice that a lot of the content is the same. For the sake of completeness and avoidance of confusion, we’ll still go through everything in this post, though, so feel free to close that tab you just opened in the background. Without further ado, I present to you the updated Stateless Tech Tree:

Each major milestone in pink represents a roughly defined category that must be “solved” before more advanced ones. These are intentionally a little vague, and don’t represent anything like specific EIPs or unified features, although some of them could eventually be defined as such.

Smaller elements of the tree in purple are more specific dependencies that will lead to the major milestones being “unlocked”. The purple ones are required in the sense that they need to be fully understood before the milestone can be considered finished, but they don’t necessarily need to be implemented or accepted. For example, it is possible that after more research, we find that code merkleization doesn’t reduce witness sizes sufficiently to justify the time and effort it would take to implement it; we would then consider it ‘finished’, because it no longer needs to be investigated.

As you might have guessed already, items in green are the “side quests” that would theoretically be useful in Stateless Ethereum, but which might not be the best use of the researcher’s limited time and effort. There are likely more of these to be discovered along the way; I’ll add them as needed.

Additionally, we have elements in yellow that fall into the category of tools. These are yet-uncreated software tools that will help to validate assumptions, test implementations, and more generally make the work go faster. Ideally these tools will be of high enough quality and properly maintained– enough to be valuable to the larger developer ecosystem even outside of the Stateless Ethereum context.

Alternative Sync Protocol

One important takeaway from the summit in Paris was that sync is the first major milestone in Stateless Ethereum. Specifically, we must find a way for new nodes to fetch the current state trie without relying on the network primitive GetNodeData. Until we have a reliable alternative to this network primitive (beam sync and fast sync are both based on it), efforts to build Stateless Ethereum will be impeded, and potentially even counterproductive. It’s worth digging in here a bit to explain why this is such a problem. If you’re not familiar with the fundamentals of the Ethereum state, I recommend checking out my previous post in this series on the subject.

Let’s do some jargon-busting first. There isn’t really a special technical definition for the term “network primitive” in this context, it’s just a hip way of saying “the basic grammar of Ethereum network communication”. One client asks “hey, what’s the data for the node with hash 0xfoo? And a peer can respond “oh, it’s 0xbeef. For most cases, the response will contain additional hashes of child nodes in the trie, which can then be asked for in the same manner. This game of marco-polo continues until the requester is satisfied, usually after having asked for each of the ~400 million nodes in the current state trie individually.

Syncing this way can still be fast, because a client can of course multi-task, and ask many other full nodes for different pieces of the state at the same time. But there is a more fundamental problem here in the way the primitive works: the ‘leechers’ requesting state get to do it on their own terms, and they can only get what they need from the ‘seeders’, i.e. full nodes with the complete state. This asymmetric relationship is just the way things work right now, and it works well enough because of two related facts about the network: First, there are a sufficient number of full nodes actively serving state by request. Second, anyone requesting state will eventually turn into a full node, so the demand for state is self-limiting.

Now we can see why this is a problem for Stateless Ethereum: in a stateless paradigm, nodes that aren’t keeping the state data they request will need to just keep requesting data indefinitely. If running a stateless node is easier than running a full node (it is), we’d expect the number of stateless nodes to grow faster than the number of full nodes, until eventually the state is unable to propagate fast enough throughout the network. Uh oh.

We don’t have time to go into further detail here, so I’ll refer you to Piper’s write-up on the problem, and then we can move on to the emerging solutions, which are all different approaches to improving the state sync protocol, to either make the problem less pronounced, or solve it entirely. Here are the 3 most promising alternative sync protocols:

Ethereum Snapshot Protocol (SNAP). We’ve talked about this previously, but I referred to it as “state tiling”. Recently, it was more verbosely described by Peter in the devp2p repo. Snap breaks the state into a handful of large chunks and proofs (on the order of 10,000 trie nodes) that can be re-assembled into the full state. A syncing node would request a sub-section of the state from multiple nodes, and in a short amount of time have an almost valid picture of the state stitched together from ~100 different similar state roots. To finish, the client ‘patches up’ the chunk by switching back to getNodeData until it has a valid state.

Fire Queen’s Sync. Not much has changed since this was written about in the original tech tree article, except for the name, which is a combination of “firehose” and “Red Queen’s” sync. These are very similar proposals to replace getNodeData with an alternative set of primitives for various aspects of state.

Merry-go-round. This is a new idea for sync explained at a high level in ethresear.ch and more concretely described in notes. In merry-go-round sync, the whole state is passed around in a predetermined order, so that all participants gossip the same pieces of the state trie at the same time. To sync the whole state, one must complete a full “revolution” on the merry-go-round, covering all parts of the state. This design has some useful properties. First, it allows new nodes joining to contribute immediately to state propagation, rather than only becoming useful to the network after a completed sync. Second, it inverts the current model of ‘leecher-driven sync’ whereby those with no data may request pieces of state from full nodes at will. Rather, new syncing nodes in merry-go-round sync know what parts of state are being offered at a given time, and adjust accordingly.

The last sync method worth mentioning is beam sync, which is now supported by not one, but two alternative clients. Beam sync still relies on getNodeData, but it offers an ideal entry point for experimentation and data collection for these alternative sync methods. It’s important to note that there are many unknowns about sync still, and having these separate, independently developed approaches to solving sync is important. The next few months could be thought of as a sync hackathon of sorts, where ideas are prototyped and tested out. Ideally, the best aspects of each of these alternative sync protocols can be molded into one new standard for Stateless Ethereum.

Witness Spec Prototype

There is a draft specification in the Stateless Ethereum specs repo that describes at a high level the structure of a block witness, and the semantics of building and modifying one from the state trie. The purpose of this document is to define witnesses without ambiguity, so that implementers, regardless of client or programming language, may write their own implementation and have reasonable certainty that it is the same thing as another, different implementation.

As mentioned in the latest call digest, there doesn’t seem to be a downside to writing out a reference implementation for block witnesses and getting that into existing clients for testing. A witness prototype feature on a client would be something like an optional flag to enable, and having a handful of testers on the network producing and relaying witnesses could provide valuable insight for researchers to incorporate into subsequent improvements.

Two things need to be “solved” before witnesses are resilient enough to be considered ready for widespread use.

Witness Indexing. This one is relatively straightforward: we need a reliable way of determining which witness corresponds to which block and associated state. This could be as simple as putting a witnessHash field into the block header, or something else that serves the same purpose but in a different way.

Stateless Tx Validation. This is an interesting early problem thoroughly summarized on the ethresearch forums. In summary, clients need to quickly check if incoming transactions (waiting to be mined into a future block) are at least eligible to be included in a future block. This prevents attackers from spamming the network with bogus transactions. The current check, however, requires accessing data which is a part of the state, i.e. the sender’s nonce and account balance. If a client is stateless, it won’t be able to perform this check.

There is certainly more work than these two specific problems that needs to be done before we have a working prototype of witnesses, but these two things are what absolutely need to be ‘solved’ as part of bringing a viable prototype to a beam-syncing node near you.

EVM

As in the original version of the tech tree, some changes will need to happen inside the EVM abstraction. Specifically, witnesses need to be generated and propagated across the network, and that activity needs to be accounted for in EVM operations. The topics tied to this milestone have to do with what those costs and incentives are, how they are estimated, and how they will be implemented with minimal impact on higher layers.

Witness gas accounting. This remains unchanged from previous articles. Every transaction will be responsible for a small part of the full block’s witness. Generating a block’s witness involves some computation that will be performed by the block’s miner, and therefore will need to have an associated gas cost, paid for by the transaction’s sender.

Code Merkleization. One major component of a witness is accompanying code. Without this feature, a transaction that contained a contract call would require the full bytecode of that contract in order to verify its codeHash. That could be a lot of data, depending on the contract. Code ‘merkleization’ is a method of splitting up contract bytecode so that only the portion of the code called is required to generate and verify a witness for the transaction. This is one technique of dramatically reducing the average size of witnesses, but it has not been fully investigated yet.

The UNGAS / Versionless Ethereum changes have been removed from the ‘critical path’ of Stateless Ethereum. These are still potentially beneficial features for Ethereum, but it became clear during the summit that their merits and particularities can and should be discussed independently of the Stateless goals.

The Transition to Binary Trie

Switching Ethereum’s state to a Binary Trie structure is key to getting witness sizes small enough to be gossiped around the network without running into bandwidth/latency issues. Theoretically the reduction should be over 3-fold, but in practice that number is a little less dramatic (because of the size of contract code in witnesses, which is why code merkleization is potentially important).

The transition to a completely different data representation is a rather significant change, and enacting that transition through hard-fork will be a delicate process. Two strategies outlined in the previous article remain unchanged:

Progressive. The current hexary state trie woud be transformed piece-by-piece over a long period of time. Any transaction or EVM execution touching parts of state would by this strategy automatically encode changes to state into the new binary form. This implies the adoption of a ‘hybrid’ trie structure that will leave dormant parts of state in their current hexary representation. The process would effectively never complete, and would be complex for client developers to implement, but would for the most part insulate users and higher-layer developers from the changes happening under the hood in layer 0.

Clean-cut. This strategy would compute a fresh binary trie representation of the state at a predetermined time, then carry on in binary form once the new state has been computed. Although more straightforward from an implementation perspective, a clean-cut requires coordination from all node operators, and would almost certainly entail some (limited) disruption to the network, affecting developer and user experience during the transition.

There is, however, a new proposal for the transition, which offers a middle ground between the progressive and clean-cut strategies. It is outlined in full on the ethresearch forums.

Overlay. New values from transactions after a certain time are stored directly in a binary tree sitting “on top” of the hexary, while the “historical” hexary tree is converted in the background. When the base layer has been fully converted, the two can be merged.

One additional consideration for the transition to a binary trie is the database layouts of clients. Currently, all clients use the ‘naive’ approach to the state trie, storing each node in the trie as a [key, value] pair where the hash of the node is the key. It is possible that the transition strategy could be an opportunity for clients to switch to an alternative database structure, following the example of turbo-geth.

True Stateless Ethereum

The final pieces of the tree come together after the witness prototype has been tested and improved, the necessary changes to the EVM have been enacted, and the state trie has become binary. These are the more distant quests and side quests which we know must be completed eventually, but it’s likely best not to think too deeply about until more pressing matters have been attended to.

Compulsory Witnesses. Witnesses need to be generated by miners, and right now it’s not clear if spending that extra few milliseconds to generate a witness will be something miners will seek to avoid or not. Part of this can be offset by tweaking the fees that miners get to keep from the partial witnesses included with transactions, but a sure-fire way is to just make witnesses part of the core Ethereum protocol. This is a change that can only happen after we’re sure everything is working the way it’s supposed to be, so it’s one of the final changes in the tree.

Witness Chunking. Another more distant feature to be considered is the ability for a stateless network to pass around smaller chunks of witnesses, rather than entire blocks. This would be especially valuable for partial-state nodes, which might choose to ‘watch over’ the parts of state they’re interested in, and then rely on complementary witness chunks for other transactions.

Historical Accumulators. Originally conceived as some sort of magic moon math zero-knowledge scheme, a historical accumulator would make verifying a historical witness much easier. This would allow a stateless node to perform checks and queries on, for example, the historical balances of an account it was interested, without actually needing to fetch a specific piece of archived state.

DHT Chain Data. Although the idea of an Ethereum data delivery network for state has been more or less abandoned, it would still be quite useful and far easier to implement one for historical chain data such as transaction receipts. This might be another approach to enabling stateless clients to have on-demand access to historical data that might ordinarily be gotten from an archive node.

Stay Safe, and Stay Tuned

Thanks for reading, and thank you for the many warm positive comments I’ve gotten recently about these updates. I have something more… magical planned for subsequent posts about the Stateless Ethereum research, which I’ll be posting intermittently on the Fellowship of the Ethereum Magician’s forum, and on this blog when appropriate. Until next time, keep your social distance, and wash your hands often!

As always, if you have feedback, questions, or requests for topics, please @gichiba or @JHancock on twitter.

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iOS 26 developer beta updated just days after initial release https://earlybirdsinvest.com/ios-26-developer-beta-updated-just-days-after-initial-release/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/ios-26-developer-beta-updated-just-days-after-initial-release/#respond Sat, 14 Jun 2025 04:27:38 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/ios-26-developer-beta-updated-just-days-after-initial-release/

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Comment on UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: The New Line of Starter Avatars, and Where to Find Free and Inexpensive Clothing—And Skin!— for Them (Also: How to Get 521 Items for Women for Only L$21!) by Clip and Save: Ryan’s All-In-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life (Last Update: April 24th, 2025) – Ryan Schultz https://earlybirdsinvest.com/comment-on-updated-second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-the-new-line-of-starter-avatars-and-where-to-find-free-and-inexpensive-clothing-and-skin-for-them-also-how-to-get-521/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/comment-on-updated-second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-the-new-line-of-starter-avatars-and-where-to-find-free-and-inexpensive-clothing-and-skin-for-them-also-how-to-get-521/#respond Sat, 26 Apr 2025 18:40:39 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/comment-on-updated-second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-the-new-line-of-starter-avatars-and-where-to-find-free-and-inexpensive-clothing-and-skin-for-them-also-how-to-get-521/

Please note that I am still taking a hiatus from blogging; I only wrote this blogpost because it was the most convenient way to share a lot of detailed information, in a way people can easily refer back to. Don’t get me wrong, Primfeed is great, but stuff tends to disappear from people’s feeds very quickly, whereas a blog is much more permanent! Thank you.

It was one week ago that Linden Lab accidentally and prematurely released a mysterious folder in everybody’s Second Life inventory. The folder, titled Avatar Welcome Pack, contained what appeared to be a new line of starter avatars, intended for new users to Second Life. The folder was removed within hours, but not before many people (myself included!) had an opportunity to play around with these new starter avatars.

Well, as of Tuesday this week (April 22nd, 2025), they are now officially back in everybody’s inventory! Now, you might remember that it wasn’t all that long ago that Linden Lab had unveiled a new line of starter avatars called Senra, so what happened?

Frankly, what happened was that the Senra Blake and Jamie starter avatars were a bit of a failure. Well, okay, not a bit—a lot. They were a bit odd-looking (particularly the heads), and they stuck out like a sore thumb on the grid. You could spot a Senra avatar from a mile away!

What’s worse, only a very few Second Life content creators bothered to make and release clothing to fit the Senra avatars. In other words, there was next-to-zero third-party support. I mean, I am well-versed in SL fashion, and I think I could count the number of SL stores that were selling anything for Senra bodies on two hands! Yes, it’s that bad.

New Starter Avatars, Featuring “Legacy Lite” Bodies and “LeLutka Lite” Heads

So Linden Lab went back to the drawing board, and this time around, they reached out to established and well-known Second Life content creators to partner with:

  • LeLutka for male and female heads
  • Legacy for male and female bodies
  • LeLapeau and Velour for male and female skins
  • Wings, Stealthic, and Doux for hair
  • Phedora for shoes
  • Addams, Mellow Elie, and Pare for female outfits
  • Arcback, Cold Ash, Gabriel and NoMercy for male outfits

Just open your Inventory window, look for and open the Library folder at the very bottom, and copy and paste the new folder (called Avatar Welcome Pack) from the Library folder into your Inventory folder, and you’re all set to go! (Please note that this technique will NOT work with the individual OMY animations which are used in the included male and female animation overrides, if you want to reuse them in other AOs; you will need to copy and paste those separately into your inventory.) You an also watch Naria Panthar’s video at the very end of this extremely long blog postt!

There are three base male bodies (one Asian, one Black, and one Caucasian) and three base female bodies (one Asian, one Black, and one Caucasian). The men have three curated starter looks, where you can just add a folder to one of the base avatars, and you’re done! And it’s the same for the women. The six base avatars and six starter looks are illustrated in the gallery at the very top of this blogpost, if you want to scroll back and take a look (please click on any picture to see it in a larger size, thanks!).

In addition to the curated outfits, there are also separate folders labelled with each of the store names, some of which contain variations of the clothing and shoes. For example, the black Gabriel suit outfit for the men also comes in a beige and a navy version. The men’s Phedora Emerson sneakers in the men’s sweatpants outfit come in either white or black. And there are three different styles of shoes for women from Phedora (sneakers, flats, and sandals), each of which comes in a variety of colours! Also, the hairstyles included come in a wide variety of sizes and colours.

Please note that the LeLutka heads and Legacy bodies included in the new Avatar Welcome Pack are not the fully-featured, full-price versions. These are stripped-down, bare-bones heads and bodies that use Bakes on Mesh. What this means is:

  • There are no HUDs that come with these heads and bodies. Instead of selecting alpha sections on a HUD to make sure your clothing fits properly, you will have to use alphas that come with your clothing (or find a set of alphas, more on that later).
  • While Bakes on Mesh hairbases, tattoos, and makeup will work (the heads are EvoX compatible), anything which requires an applier HUD will NOT work on these bodies. You will be using Bakes on Mesh/BoM (formerly called “system layers”) for everything!
  • The heads come with one set of eyelashes, which you cannot change.
  • The bodies only come with one set of fingernails, which are bit too dark for the Asian and Caucasian avatars and too light for the Black avatars.
  • The bodies come only with one option for the feet: flat feet. No high heels!
  • The skins on these new starter avatars have baked-on underwear.

While some might see these as serious limitations (and an excuse to quickly upgrade to either full-price LeLutka/Legacy or some other brands of head/body), it’s actually not as bad as it sounds. Let’s take each of these limitations in turn.

Alphas: First, many vendors do include alphas with the clothes and shoes they sell. Second, you can get free or inexpensive sets of alphas both in-world and from the SL Marketplace. Heck, you can even reuse the alphas that came with the Senra capsule wardrobe items, which are already in your inventory!

Bakes on Mesh: While applier HUDs will not work, there is no shortage of BoM makeup out there (many vendors include both a HUD and BoM versions of their makeup in the same package). The same goes for hairbases. In fact, if you have picked up any of the free LeLutka head gifts from the past five Decembers, you alredy have a full set of Bakes on Mesh EvoX hairbases and makeup! While there is no HUD for the eyes, you can use any Bakes on Mesh eyes for these heads (and there are lots of those out there, too).

Eyelashes: Now this is probably the biggest problem for some users, since there are no such thing as Bakes on Mesh eyelashes! But perhaps some enterprising person will come up with a workaround. The default lashes on both the male and female avatars are perfectly good, however, so this might not be an issue for you at all.

Fingernails and toenails: You can use alphas to remove the included fingernails and toenails on these bodies, and replace them with Legacy-compatible nails you can buy either in-world or from the Second Life Marketplace. Now, while the notecard included with these Legacy Lite bodies says:

Please note that your fingernails and toenails can be hidden using the alpha layers included in your body folder! Also note that these nails are only compatible with VELOUR & LeLaPeau starter skins!

Well, I looked everywhere, and while I could find toenail alphas for several of the curated outfit looks for men and women, there was not a fingernail alpha anywhere to be found! However, you’re in luck, because craftier people than I have already created fingernail alphas for these new starter avatars, so you can wear other fingernails with them! Go to Blushed Crations and buy the bag sitting on the floor labelled Blush Legacy Lite Nails SOS Kit (exact SLURL; see picture below). It includes a fingernail alpha, a feet-plus-toenails alpha, and 3 tones each of fingernails and toenails, plus a shine add-on for your nails!

You can also pick up a free kit of fingernail and toenail alphas from Eventyra on the SL Marketplace here. Also, a great place to pick up a L$1 set of nails that fit Legacy Lite hands is Cazimi, where you can get a nice base set of mesh nails which come in five muted colours (I have tested, and you can actually wear the Cazimi nails without using a fingernail alpha, and they cover the default Legacy Lite fingernails perfectly). Here’s your taxi to Cazimi.

Feet: While you cannot wear high heels on these avatars, there are plenty of options out there (including a lot of free/cheap ones) for shoes to fit Legacy flat feet! And you can use alphas if necessary to alpha out the feet and the toenails if necessary, so you should also be able to wear some high-heeled shoes and boots, depending on the design. I have zero doubt that somebody will soon come up with a high-heeled feet add-on/workaround for these bodies! It’s not here yet, though. Give it time.

In the meantime, let me share with you a great place to pick up some flats! Saki Shoes (exact SLURL) has two fatpacks of flats which fit Lara/LarX, Reborn and Legacy feet for only L$1 each! One set is leather and the second set is suede. While you don’t need to join the free store group to pick up these dollarbies, you might want to consider joining the H@S Fashion Designs group because you can get some seriously significant discounts on several pairs of kitten-heel and mid-heel height shoe fatpacks (only L$10 with the group, L$50 without). I am dragging all my alts through here to pick up some bargain shoes! You can also buy the flats from the SL Marketplace here for L$1 each: both the leather flats fatpack, and the suede flats fatpack.

Skins: These bodies are EvoX-compatible and Bakes on Mesh, so you can use any EvoX-compatible BoM skin for the heads, and any BoM skin for the bodies (again, applier HUDs for skins will not work).

I also wanted to mention that these bodies respond just as well to the head and body sliders as the full-price, fully-featured versions of LeLutka heads and Legacy bodies do, so you can customize your new avatar’s shape as much or as little as you desire, from the starting shapes included.


Where to Get Free Clothing and Shoes for Legacy Bodies (Including These New Starter Avatars)

Now that I have talked about these “Legacy Lite” bodies, I want to share with you where you can get free (or nearly free) apparel and footwear for these bodies! I have scoured my constantly-updated list of fabulous fashion freebies in Second Life and picked out 17 locations with the most and/or the best clothing for these new starter avatars!

But before we start, I want to caution you: YOU WILL NEED TO READ THE VENDOR PANELS CAREFULLY! In most cases, these locations will offer some older gifts which do not come in a Legacy size, along with newer gifts which fit Legacy bodies. LOOK FOR THE WORD “LEGACY” OR THE LEGACY LOGO (A NAKED WOMEN’S TORSO). See the following pictures for examples from my freebie-shopping travels (please click on each picture to see it in a larger size).

YOU DO NOT WANT CLOTHING MARKED “THE MESH PROJECT’ OR TMP OR CLASSIC (see picture one below; shoes are an exception I will discuss in a minute). Those items were created for a predecessor of the Legacy body which the Meshbody brand stupidly named “classic” (and it doesn’t help that they then started calling Legacy, “Legacy Classic” or “Classic Legacy,” which some store vendors started to do as well. It is confusing as fuck and irritating as hell. JUST LOOK FOR THE WORD “LEGACY” OR THE NAKED TORSO LOGO, AS SHOWN IN THE EXAMPLE PICTURES ABOVE. Also, remember that applier HUDs of any kind will not work on these Legacy Lite bodies, so make sure that there is a Bakes on Mesh/BoM version for any clothing which is applied directly to your Legacy mesh body (see picture two below).

In cases where the vendor panel contains items for both male and female Legacy bodies, they are usually marked somethng like “Legacy M” and “Legacy F” to distinguish between them. Also, any earrings or piercings rigged for LeLutka will work on these LeLutka Lite heads. Please see the following example images:

Now, shoes created for the older Classic/TMP/The Mesh Project bodies will still fit Legacy feet (although you might have to adjust the foot size sliders on your new starter avatar to get them to fit properly). Please look at the following pictures to help you figure out whether or not the vendor panel you are clicking has an item that will fit these new starter avatars. Don’t forget that you will not be able to wear any high heels on these Legacy Lite bodies! Please click on the pictures below to see a larger size, and read the captions:


All right, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s my list of the 17 best places to pick up free apparel and footwear for these new starter avatars. In most cases you will have to join the store group to pick up these freebies. In two cases (KC Couture and Scandalize), you do have to pay to join a group, but in these two cases, you get a greal deal of bang for your buck (KC Couture costs L$1 to join for 4 pair of flat shoes which works out to L$0.25 each, and for L$20, you can pick up no less than 83 clothing fatpacks for your female Legacy body, which works out to L$0.25 per fatpack—a true bargain!)

I also mention a few other stores in passing where the group join fee is more than L$20 (e.g Beyond). If you have extra Lindens to spend, then you might want to consider joining those store groups to pick up even more items for these new starter avatars.

Please note that, for the first three locations on this list, I have made things a little easier for you by including a list of brands which offer freebies at each place. In the case of Palomma Plaza, I have even broken it down row by row!


Palomma Plaza (Men and Women)

NOTE: Palomma Plaza has a central spawn point outside the store (SLURL). If you are using the row-by-row list I included here, enter the store from the spawn point, trun left, and go all the way to last row to get started.

This is by far the single best place to pick up a lot of Legacy female clothing (see my statistics at the end of this blogpost), as well as a few Legacy male items. You will have to join the free Palomma Plaza group to pick up all the freebies here. I have organized these menswear and woemnswear lists row by row, starting from the west end of the store, and going down each row from south to north, and landing up at the east end of the store. I have numbered the rows to stay sane, but of course, the rows do not have actual numbers at the freebie store!

MENSWEAR LIST accurate as of April 21st, 2025 (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

ROW 1: THE ROW NEXT TO THE STAIRS
Just some older male AOs

ROW 2:
Emerald Men – 4 outfits
Tastic – 4 items
Furtacor – 2 items
Telsiope’s – 1 casual outfit
Pixels – pants

ROW 3:
Muho – 2 shirts and shorts
Madcat – sweater
Hardcore – 3 items
Shohina’s – 2 outfits

ROW 4:
So Meshed Up – shirt
Always Blossom – shorts

CENTER AREA
Tastic – Palomma Plaza tank top

ROW 11:
Suna – Halloween costume

WOMENSWEAR LIST accruate as of April 21st, 2025 (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Remember to read the vendor panels carefully and make sure it says “Legacy”. Please note that I will NOT include Classic/TMP clothing, but I will include female flat TMP shoes since they fit Legacy Lite feet. Remember, no high heels! I am not including things like hair, makeup or jewelry, just clothing and shoes for Legacy Lite.

ROW 1: THE ROW NEXT TO THE STAIRS
Just some older female AOs and some BoM clothing from Fountain of Youth

ROW 2:
Tara – purses and bags
My Bags – purses and bags

ROW 3:
Muho – photo shirt
Roro – top
Luna – 4 items
Shohina’s – sheer dress

ROW 4:
La Feminique – 2 outfits
Monomania – 4 items
Ma’De – dress

ROW 5:
Flower Dreams – 3 BoM/fexiprim gowns
1GHhundred – 3 outfits
Ydea – 4 outfits
Nilsy – 2 dresses
Telsiope’s – 4 outfits

ROW 6:
Pandamomo – outfit with purse
Baby Monkey – mules fatpack
Bonnicci – swimsuit
May24 – 4 dresses
Diesel Deluxe – 3 items
Be Bold – 1 sheer outfit

ROW 7:
Meva – dress
Melody – 4 items
Delicatt – 1 gown
KingBal – 2 outfits
Pink Mango – 3 items

ROW 8:
Horl – flat sandals
Divine – 2 items
BQ – 3 items
Emerald – 4 items
ROA/RexAnne – 2 items
Bad Rabbit – 1 dress
Hilly Haalan – 2 items
Maci – 2 items

ROW 9:
Brunsen – 2 dresses
PM – BoM lingerie
Always Blossom – 2 items
Erotik – 1 outfit
Salesita’s – 2 items
Madcat – sweater

CENTER AREA:
Tastic – Palomma Plaza top

ROW 10:
Spells & Charms – 3 items
Dark Moon – 1 dress
Fame – 3 items
Bold Llama – 3 tank tops

ROW 11:
Le’La – 5 items
Enchantress – 2 items
Black Angel – 3 items
Favor – 1 dress
Suna – 2 items
Furtacor – 3 items
Tastic – 3 items
Carola – 2 items

ROW 12:
Dollz – 2 items
DM – 1 dress
Charms – 1 skirt
Glitzz – 2 items
Domina – 2 items
Arti’s – 2 items
Execute – thong

ROW 13:
Luna Chelsea – 2 items
Cremosas – 1 dress
Scrappy Scorpion – 3 items
G – dress
Kaithleen’s – dress
Kavita – top
Mayhem – 3 items

ROW 14:
KD – 1 dress
Chaotic – 3 items
Pixels – 2 items
Basalia’s – dress
Drang – dress and flipflops

ROW 15:
So Meshed Up – legwarmers
Zex – 3 items
Atelier Ele – 2 items
Dellago – 2 dresses
Secrets – jewelry bra

ROW 16:
just makeup and jewelry

ROW 17:
just makeup, nails and jewelry
Tangella – Legacy nails
Glint – Legacy nails

ROW 18:
just stuff for Ultra Vixen body

Don’t forget to hit the hair aisle to pick up some free male and female hairstyles while you’re here!


Ajuda SL Brasil Freebie Store (Men and Women)

NOTE: the Ajuda SL Brasil region has a central spawn pint (SLURL). Once you arrive, turn left to go to the freebie store. The elevator/teleport signs to take you to higher floors of the freebie store are located in the southwest corner of the first floor.

There’s a good collection of freebies for both women (on the 1st and 3rd floors) and men (on the 4th floor), including a few items for Legacy male and female bodies. No group is needed, just click and take!

List accurate as of April 22, 2025 (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

WOMEN: 1st floor
Cute for You – 7 outfits & purse
Mangula – 4 outfits
Monomania – 5 outfits
La’La – 1 dress
Salesita’s – 1 dress
Ewa – 9 outfits plus a bag with 9 more outfits (which I have not yet unpacked to check to see if they have Legacy). All outfits except one are fatpacks!

WOMEN: 3rd floor
Safyra’s – 7 outfits
Enigma – 4 outfits
Ewa – 6 outfits (note that you have to temporarily derender the grey wall which for some reason is obscuring half of the Ewa Boutique display vendors! Maybe it’s because they are moving all the Ewa stuff to the 1st floor? Who knows.)

MEN: 4th floor
Saute – T-shirt
Urban Streetwear – T-shirt
Cheerno – bodyhair, sunglasses, swimsuit, leggings
Impacts – tank top, shorts
Dossier – flipflops and boots

Don’t forget to pick up some free hair, jewelry, etc. while you’re at the freebie store! Firelight has five women’s hairstyles on the first floor.


The Ladies’ Free Shop at Helping Haven Gateway (Women)

NOTE: The Helping Haven gateway has a central spawn point (SLURL). From the central spawn point, head east (follow the Freebie Village signs) towards several tall white buildings, one of which is the Ladies’ Free Shop. While most of the clothing is older items (some quite old!), tucked away on the third and fourth floors you can pick up a few items designed for the Legacy female body.

YOU WILL NEED TO READ THE SIGNS CAREFULLY TO DETERMINE WHICH ONES EXPLICITLY SAY “LEGACY” ON THEM, OR HAVE THE LEGACY NAKED TORSO LOGO ON THEM! IN MANY CASES THE LEGACY GIFTS ARE MIXED IN WITH NON-LEGACY GIFTS.

FIRST FLOOR:
nothing (but do pick up some hats and headscarves!)

SECOND FLOOR:
nothing (but pick up some nice jewelry and some more hats!)

THIRD FLOOR:
Kai – 2 items: capris and top
Emerald Couture – 2 outfits (the rest are all TMP/Classic)
Dark Fairy Fashions – 4 outfits (mostly ripped jeans and jean shorts)
Korpokkur House – skinny pants 4 colours (click on the display models)

FOURTH FLOOR
Rubedo – 7 items
Emerald Couture – 2 outfits (the rest are all TMP/Classic)


Other Good Places to Find Legacy Clothing and Shoes

While I have gone into more detail for the first three places, I am just going to give a brief description and a SLURL for the rest of these locations.

Energy Weekend (Women)

The Energy Weekend Price Event has a skybox where you can pick up a few Legacy female items, if you join the #ENERGY# Weekend price group for free.


Hilly Haalan (Women)

Hilly Haalan operates a small group gifts store with over 125 high-quality free gifts (women’s clothing, shoes, and jewelry; the group is free to join). Many of the newer items include a Legacy size. Just look for the teleporter sign at the spawn point for the sim, and click on “Gifts”.


Amias (Men and Women)

Another store with a free group join and over 40 free group gifts (consisting of various items of apparel, jewelry, and accessories for both men and women) is Amias. Some of the gifts come in Legacy male and female sizes.


B.D.R,/Beautiful Dirty Rich (Women)

Beautiful Dirty Rich offers you several free fatpacks of womenswear for Legacy bodies (the Beautiful Dirty Rich store group is free to join).


Coco (Women)

COCO Designs has several low, black group gift walls scattered around the store, with well over 60 high-quality gifts (women’s clothing and shoes; the group is free to join). The newer gifts come in Legacy female sizes, and there are several nice flat shoe gifts! Note that the low black panel with the latest freebies is NOT in the centre of the Coco store.


Enchantress (Women)

Enchantress has over 50 free group gifts of women’s clothing, if you join their store group for free (there’s also many gifts for the various freebie groups on a nearby wall). You will need to read the vendor signs carefully, as many of these older gifts do not fit Legacy bodies, but many do! There’s also some Bakes on Mesh clothing you can pick up here (but again, read the signs; applier HUD-based clothing will not work on these new starter avatar bodies!


GGVG (Women)

Another store with a free group join and a selection of group gifts is GGVG, which specializes in womenswear. Everything comes in a Legacy size. Check back periodically, as the gifts are changed fairly often. (Note that the store group is called Guguvagas, not GGVG.)


Rodex (Men and Women)

At the Rodex store, take the Portal marked Gifts (SLURL), and you will be teleported to a room with 45 gifts of men’s and women’s apparel. Most—but not all—of these gifts come in Legacy male and/or female sizes. Join the store group for free to pick up all the gifts, and please note that some gifts cost L$1 which is automatically refunded.


Scandalize skybox (Women)

You definitely need to stop here! Scandalize has a huge skybox stuffed full of fatpacks of older apparel, and most of it fits Legacy female bodies! Here’s your taxi (the SLURL will take you to the main entrance of the Scandalize store). Skip the group gifts wall to your right as enter the store (that requires a separate group), and head straight to the front counter, then click the sign in front of the counter to teleport to the skybox, which has dozens and dozens of group gifts!

Now please pay attention, because a lot has changed recently! To pick up all the gifts in the first three rooms of the now-five-room skybox, you will have to join the .Scandalize Store. group for only L$20. That’s a real bargain! To pick up all the gifts from Beyond in the brand-new fourth and fifth rooms of the skybox, you will need to join the .:Beyond:. store group for L$89. Note that the Beyond gifts, unlike the Scandalize gifts, are only single colours and not fatpacks. In my statistics at the bottom of this blogpost, I have counted the Scandalize gifts only, not the Beyond gifts, because you get much more bang for your buck from the Scandalize part of the skybox than the Beyond part!


Seniha (Women)

Seniha offers several group gifts of womenswear with a free group join (mostly fatpacks), plus a tenth gift if you join the SL Frees & Offers group (also free). Most, but not all, of these freebies include a Legacy size.


Wellmade (Women)

WellMade has a very generous group gift wall, with over 30 free group gifts for women of clothing and footwear; the WellMade Store group is free to join. Many, but not all, of these gifts fit Legacy female bodies.


KC Couture (Women)

Join the KC Couture store group for L$1 and you can pick up four sets of flat shoes for Legacy bodies. Read the vendor panels carefully, and remember that The Mesh Project/TMP flat shoes will also fit the feet on these new starter avatars. Here’s an exact SLURL to the group gifts wall at KC Couture.


Kiki Kaikai (Men)

KIKI KAIKAI has almost a hundred free group menswear gifts, ranging from traditional Japanese Buddhist monk outfits to casual wear to cutting-edge Tokyo streetwear! Just join the Kiki Kaikai store group for free, and they’re yours! Most fit the Big Three male mesh bodies (Belleza Jake, Meshbody Legacy, and Signature Gianni), but many of the outfits can work with any male mesh body with alphas. Here’s your taxi…enter the store, turn left, and take the stairs next to the sign shown in the first picture. Note that there are two levels with freebies upstairs, and watch out—one set of items is marked at their regular price of L$230 each, and are not free!


Elementtare (Men)

Four Second Life menswear stores (Duk, Strunsh, Mazzaro, and Elementtare) have recently joined forces and created one new group, called DMSE – Men’s Station (which is free to join). Teleport in to the central spawn point for the region, and you will see four panels with free menswear gifts from each of the four stores, if you join that new group. (DUK still has a group gift wall on the other side of their front counter in the store; it now costs L$100 to join the DUK store group. Mazzaro also has a separate gift collection at the rear of their store; it now costs L$50 to join the Mazzaro store group. Elementtare also has a group gifts section; their store group is free to join). Please note that I have only counted the Elementtare gifts in my statistics below.


Using this list, I was able to pick well over 100 items of menswear for an alt using the male Legacy Lite body over the weekend, all for free! I found the most freebies at Kiki Kaikai, Elementtare, and Rodex, but also check out Palomma Plaza and Ajuda SL Brasil, using the detailed lists above. If you want to add to your haul, you could consider joining the store groups for DUK and Mazzaro I mentioned above, and pick up even more Legacy male clothing.

Out of curiosity, I kept a much more deliberate count yesterday morning as I was vacuuming up freebies for a second, female alt using the Legacy Lite body, and this was the breakdown on what I able to collect where:

  • Ajuda SL Brasil: 47 items, all free
  • Amias: 39 items, all free
  • Beautiful Dirty Rich: 14 items (almost all fatpacks), all free
  • Coco: 45 items, all free
  • Enchantress: 30 items (mostly fatpacks), all free
  • Energy Weekend: 10 items, all free
  • GGVG: 18 items (mostly fatpacks), all free
  • Helping Haven: 20 items, all free
  • KC Couture: 4 pairs of flat shoes (cost to join group: L$1)
  • Palomma Plaza: a whopping 170 items, all free
  • Rodex: 20 items, all free
  • Scandalize: 83 items (almost all fatpacks; cost to join group: L$20)
  • Seniha: 6 items (all fatpacks), all free
  • WellMade: 16 items (mostly fatpacks), all free
  • GRAND TOTAL: 522 female items for a total cost of L$21!

Well, there you have it! I will endeavour to try and keep this blog post updated with other news, tips, and tricks as I learn about them. And I will link to it from my main freebie fashion webpage, Ryan’s All-In-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life.

I will leave you with Naria Panthar’s 40-minute Youtube livestream from yesterday, where she demonstrates, discusses, and dissects these new starter avatars (I must confess that I have been so busy compiling these tips and tricks for my blogpost that haven’t even had an opportunity to watch this video yet! But I know that Naria always delivers with her signature verve, wit, and occasional sarcasm.)


Two Problems with the New Starter Avatars (And How to Fix the Second One)

UPDATE 5:46 p.m.: I wanted to alert my readers to two potential problems with these new starter avatars.

The first problem is the more serious, and one that both I and Blush Bravin have encountered, where the chin depth sliders don’t seem to respond at all when using a head with the Legacy Lite female body. This problem was confirmed by another person on the SL Forums, wesleytron, who posted the following today:

  On 4/22/2025 at 5:35 AM, Blush Bravin said:

One thing I noticed while playing with the new head/body shape, the chin sliders don’t seem to respond when trying to adjust the chin. **Edit: It’s not all the chin sliders. The one I noticed was the depth slider.

It’s both the CHIN DEPTH and CHIN ANGLE that are affected – and in my tests so far it is on ALL mesh heads, not just the Welcome Pack ones, and includes heads not made by Lelutka. The ‘nerfed’ shape persists after both a reset of the skeleton and a relog.

There’s either a deformer in the Legacy body affecting bones it has no business affecting, or an error in the Legacy body rigging. Either way, this is something I think Linden Lab should take a look at and make sure is fixed before making any official announcement about the pack.

Oops, too late! I would consider this a serious problem, especially since it seems to be happening with any head you use with the Legacy Lite female body (I was using the LAQ SupremeUHD head with it, and the chin got suddenly very deep, and I could not use the chin depth slider at all! I got around it by adjusting some of the other sliders a bit, but the avatar still has a very pronounced deep chin! And there should be ZERO reason why attaching a mesh body messes with the bones of the head and face!

Here’s my example, to show the problem. The picture on the left is my LAQ SupremeUHD head with the Senra body. The picture on the right is the same head, with the exact same head and face body sliders, but with the Legacy Lite female body attached instead of Senra. Notice how much deeper the chin gets—and what’s worse, is that you cannot adjust the chin depth sliders at all! They are completely disabled when you wear the Legacy Lite body. (Also, now that I compare them side-by-side, the eyes look a bit wonky, too! However, I can at least adjust those using the LAQ HUD.)

I will continue to play around with this, and see if I get anywhere, but I wanted to report the problem to see if other peope besides the three of us have noticed it, too.

UPDATE April 25th, 2025: Apparently, a LOT of other Second Life users have noticed this problem, too! When I posted about it on Primfeed, fellow freebie fashionista Aline Passiflora of FabFree replied:

Beachy [Piers of FabFree] and I both had this problem with our usual Lelutka heads. I looked very much like a Hapsburg. 😉

The ever-informative Google AI says:

The “Habsburg chin,” also known as mandibular prognathism, is a distinctive facial feature characterized by a prominent, elongated lower jaw, often causing an underbite. This trait was particularly noticeable in members of the House of Habsburg, a prominent European royal family. While not a death sentence, it was linked to other health complications and the “Habsburg jaw” has been linked to inbreeding within the Habsburg family.

Oh dear.

The good news is, I have been informed that the Meshbody Legacy people have been informed about this problem. One Second Life friend told me via Discord, “I told somebody from Legacy about the problem with the heads and it seems they are working on it…”

Let’s hope they come up with a quick solution to this issue!

The second problem is less serious. It’s one that I have encountered with the Caucasian LeLutka Lite male head, which is called Eon Lite. It’s a lovely head, as you can see below:

The problem is that (unlike the female head I tested) he never blinks! And this lack of blinking is part of a bigger problem with these heads: without HUDs, they also have no facial animations for you to select!

Now, in this case, there are solutions. The cheapest one is to teleport over to the [C} Animesh store, join their store group for only L$5, and pick up a free group gift of a Facial Bento AO:

Unpack and attach the Facial Bento AO HUD, and you have three buttons along the bottom of your screen, to animate any combination of your eyes, nose, and mouth. Here’s a 24-second video of what my male alt looks like with the mouth and eye animations turned on:

He blinks a bit like someone whose contact lenses are bothering him, but I will take it over an unblinking blank stare! There is also a blink attachment that I have successfully used in the past with Genus heads, called Katsumi’s Simple Blink, available on the SL Marketplace for L$49, which I have not yet purchased it and tried it on this alt.

UPDATE 6:47 p.m.: Katsumi’s Simple Blink for the win! I bought and tested it, and I like the blinking much better than the one on the [C] Facial Bento AO. However, it only works on the eyes, not the mouth, so I might have to use both HUDs together. Anyway, problem solved!

Replacing the Skin on These Starter Avatars

UPDATE April 25th, 2025: Okay, I decided to finally start unpacking and trying on various articles of clothing which I had picked up for my female alt, and I have added some pictures of outfits I created using the freebies from Palomma Plaza, the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil, and the Ladies’ Fres Shop at the Helping Haven Gateway.

In doing so, I discovered a couple of things. First, you are probably going to have to replace the skins which came with these Legacy Lite bodies with ones that do not have baked-on underwear. Many of the items I tried on just didn’t look right, because the underwear was visible. (Also, keep in mind that many long gowns and pants were designed to be worn with high-heeled shoes, and don’t work with flat feet. Remember, these bodies can’t wear high heels!)

So, I wanted to add a section to this already-novel-length blogpost, about where to find free head and body skin for your LeLutka Lite/Legacy Lite avatar. Much of this information I am simply copying and pasting from previous blog posts, but some of it is new.

First, if you do decide to upgrade just the body skin, you will need to know that these are skins by Velour, a well-known skin maker in SL. If you do decide to purchase body skin, but still want to keep the head skin, you are going to have to know the Velour skin tone of the six skins these bodies use. Irritatingly, the skin tones are NOT named in the included skins; they just have names! So I had to teleport to the Velour Mall and pick up demos of Velour skins, and then test it out to see what matched. I had to work to get this information to you, people!!!

  • Male A (Asian) skin Koa – matches the Velour Ivory skin tone
  • Male B (Black) Isaac skin – Velour Brown
  • Male C (Caucasian) Saad skin – Velour Medium
  • Female A (Asian) Iseul skin – Velour Icy
  • Female B (Black) Jamila skin – Velour Brownie
  • Female C (Caucasian) Lupita skin – Velour Sienna

If you cannot afford to buy Velour body skins, in Ryan’s All-in-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life, I wrote:

Looking for free body skin to go with that free head skin you picked up? Nuve offers free female body skin in 30 skin tones (human and fantasy colours) here (no group needed), Amara Beauty offers free female body skin and add-ons here (no group needed), Leronso offers free body skin here (free group join), and Boataom offers an older, but still perfectly serviceable, version of their body skin for six different brands of mesh bodies here (look high up on the wall for the Group Gift sign; free group join).

And don’t worry if the skin tones of your head skin don’t exactly match these free body skins! You can pick up free neck fades from Purple Beauty, Velour, and Not Found, to match Moccino, Velour, and Not Found male and female head skins! Purple and Velour also offer free EvoX ear skins in case your head skin is missing ear skin.

In my previous blogpost, Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Where to Find Free Body Skins to Match LAQ Skin Tones, I actually discuss the above-mentioned free skin options in much more detail, as well as a couple of others. That blog post was about matching LAQ head skins, but the information applies to anybody who is looking for free body skins!

Now, if you cannot afford pricey head skins, you will be happy to know that there are a few stores that have free female EvoX-compatible head skins that will work for these new strarter avatars. Here’s another quote from Ryan’s All-in-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life:

Every December, LeLutka usually offers two free EvoX Bento mesh heads (one male and one female), as part of a massive freebie giveaway with dozens of participating stores offering free gifts of skins, makeup, jewelry, etc. All participating stores set thier store group join fee to free during this event, so this is the time to join that pricey skin store group for free! If you are looking for free skin store groups to join the rest of the year, the five store groups of Alexandrite, Boataom, Leronso, Purple Beauty, and Tres Beau are free to join throughout the year, and all offer free group gifts of one or more fatpacks of women’s EvoX skin.

All of these free skin options I have discussed are for female avatars. Unfortunately, for men, free and inexpensive head and body skin options are nearly non-existent; you’re probably going to have to shell out for name-brand head and body skins. Brabos (SLURL) does have two free group gifts of male EvoX skin fatpacks if you join their store group for L$50. The Kris and Camden skins come in skin tones which match body skins sold by Velour and Not Found.

Oh, I just remembered that there is another place where you can pick up free, Velour-compatible EvoX male and female head skins! It’s LeLapeau. Join the LeLapeau group for free, teleport to their store, and there are eight gift boxes on and under a couple of coffee tables (exact SLURL). Two of these gifts are EvoX skins for men, and the other six are EvoX skins for women (including one in fantasy skin tones).

(There’s also an Easter egg hunt going on, where you can pick up some more female head skins that match the Velour Chantilly skin tone. You can see one of the six eggs in this picture, LOL! They’re not that hard to find, but you’s best hurry!)

Finally, I should mention that there is a free set of three EvoX-compatible full-body skin (i.e. head and body skin, plus ears) available at Palomma Plaza from Alaskametro. Here’s the exact SLURL (remember that Palomma Plaza has a central spawn point, so you will have to use the Show on Map feature in your SL viewer for this SLURL, and then follow the red arrow/beam to get to this exact location).

UPDATE April 25th, 2025: Qie Niangao posted the following helpful information to the long discussion thread about these new starter avatars:

The fact that Legacy “lite” avatars map spare patches of SLUV to new fingernail and toenail areas on the body mesh poses another problem I hadn’t noticed: Clothing alpha masks often leave those areas alpha’d out because they haven’t been used for anything in the past. Then those act as accidental alpha masks for the corresponding nails, too.

Not surprisingly, that catches some of the content in the Avatar Welcome Pack. For example:

  • “::GB::Casual suit Alpha” alphas out the fingernails, so no fingernails when wearing that suit, and
  • “ARCBACK – Jeans – LEGACY BASIC – BOM Alpha (Wear with Jeans)” alphas-out the toenails, so no going barefoot in those jeans.

(These are pretty much the only two items of clothing I’ve worn so far, to be honest.)

I’m now thinking cheap/free simple fitted mesh nails might be pretty popular. Shame to waste an attachment point and all that geometry, but I don’t think it’s even worth fixing the Welcome Pack alphas if newbies will need to work around it for lots of existing products from creators who were good enough to supply those alpha masks all along.

I had been aware of this problem, but not the cause, so this was helpful to me. Thanks, Qie! I agree that both male and female Legacy fitted mesh nails are going to be popular.


A special shout-out and thank you to Dreamer Pixelmaid, who alerted me to the Yuri dollarbie flats at the Saki Store. Thanks, Dreamer!

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UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: The New Line of Starter Avatars, and Where to Find Free and Inexpensive Clothing—And Skin!— for Them (Also: How to Get 521 Items for Women for Only L$21!) https://earlybirdsinvest.com/updated-second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-the-new-line-of-starter-avatars-and-where-to-find-free-and-inexpensive-clothing-and-skin-for-them-also-how-to-get-521-items-for-w/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/updated-second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-the-new-line-of-starter-avatars-and-where-to-find-free-and-inexpensive-clothing-and-skin-for-them-also-how-to-get-521-items-for-w/#respond Sat, 26 Apr 2025 01:02:51 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/updated-second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-the-new-line-of-starter-avatars-and-where-to-find-free-and-inexpensive-clothing-and-skin-for-them-also-how-to-get-521-items-for-w/

Please note that I am still taking a hiatus from blogging; I only wrote this blogpost because it was the most convenient way to share a lot of detailed information, in a way people can easily refer back to. Don’t get me wrong, Primfeed is great, but stuff tends to disappear from people’s feeds very quickly, whereas a blog is much more permanent! Thank you.

It was one week ago that Linden Lab accidentally and prematurely released a mysterious folder in everybody’s Second Life inventory. The folder, titled Avatar Welcome Pack, contained what appeared to be a new line of starter avatars, intended for new users to Second Life. The folder was removed within hours, but not before many people (myself included!) had an opportunity to play around with these new starter avatars.

Well, as of Tuesday this week (April 22nd, 2025), they are now officially back in everybody’s inventory! Now, you might remember that it wasn’t all that long ago that Linden Lab had unveiled a new line of starter avatars called Senra, so what happened?

Frankly, what happened was that the Senra Blake and Jamie starter avatars were a bit of a failure. Well, okay, not a bit—a lot. They were a bit odd-looking (particularly the heads), and they stuck out like a sore thumb on the grid. You could spot a Senra avatar from a mile away!

What’s worse, only a very few Second Life content creators bothered to make and release clothing to fit the Senra avatars. In other words, there was next-to-zero third-party support. I mean, I am well-versed in SL fashion, and I think I could count the number of SL stores that were selling anything for Senra bodies on two hands! Yes, it’s that bad.

New Starter Avatars, Featuring “Legacy Lite” Bodies and “LeLutka Lite” Heads

So Linden Lab went back to the drawing board, and this time around, they reached out to established and well-known Second Life content creators to partner with:

  • LeLutka for male and female heads
  • Legacy for male and female bodies
  • LeLapeau and Velour for male and female skins
  • Wings, Stealthic, and Doux for hair
  • Phedora for shoes
  • Addams, Mellow Elie, and Pare for female outfits
  • Arcback, Cold Ash, Gabriel and NoMercy for male outfits

Just open your Inventory window, look for and open the Library folder at the very bottom, and copy and paste the new folder (called Avatar Welcome Pack) from the Library folder into your Inventory folder, and you’re all set to go! (Please note that this technique will NOT work with the individual OMY animations which are used in the included male and female animation overrides, if you want to reuse them in other AOs; you will need to copy and paste those separately into your inventory.) You an also watch Naria Panthar’s video at the very end of this extremely long blog postt!

There are three base male bodies (one Asian, one Black, and one Caucasian) and three base female bodies (one Asian, one Black, and one Caucasian). The men have three curated starter looks, where you can just add a folder to one of the base avatars, and you’re done! And it’s the same for the women. The six base avatars and six starter looks are illustrated in the gallery at the very top of this blogpost, if you want to scroll back and take a look (please click on any picture to see it in a larger size, thanks!).

In addition to the curated outfits, there are also separate folders labelled with each of the store names, some of which contain variations of the clothing and shoes. For example, the black Gabriel suit outfit for the men also comes in a beige and a navy version. The men’s Phedora Emerson sneakers in the men’s sweatpants outfit come in either white or black. And there are three different styles of shoes for women from Phedora (sneakers, flats, and sandals), each of which comes in a variety of colours! Also, the hairstyles included come in a wide variety of sizes and colours.

Please note that the LeLutka heads and Legacy bodies included in the new Avatar Welcome Pack are not the fully-featured, full-price versions. These are stripped-down, bare-bones heads and bodies that use Bakes on Mesh. What this means is:

  • There are no HUDs that come with these heads and bodies. Instead of selecting alpha sections on a HUD to make sure your clothing fits properly, you will have to use alphas that come with your clothing (or find a set of alphas, more on that later).
  • While Bakes on Mesh hairbases, tattoos, and makeup will work (the heads are EvoX compatible), anything which requires an applier HUD will NOT work on these bodies. You will be using Bakes on Mesh/BoM (formerly called “system layers”) for everything!
  • The heads come with one set of eyelashes, which you cannot change.
  • The bodies only come with one set of fingernails, which are bit too dark for the Asian and Caucasian avatars and too light for the Black avatars.
  • The bodies come only with one option for the feet: flat feet. No high heels!
  • The skins on these new starter avatars have baked-on underwear.

While some might see these as serious limitations (and an excuse to quickly upgrade to either full-price LeLutka/Legacy or some other brands of head/body), it’s actually not as bad as it sounds. Let’s take each of these limitations in turn.

Alphas: First, many vendors do include alphas with the clothes and shoes they sell. Second, you can get free or inexpensive sets of alphas both in-world and from the SL Marketplace. Heck, you can even reuse the alphas that came with the Senra capsule wardrobe items, which are already in your inventory!

Bakes on Mesh: While applier HUDs will not work, there is no shortage of BoM makeup out there (many vendors include both a HUD and BoM versions of their makeup in the same package). The same goes for hairbases. In fact, if you have picked up any of the free LeLutka head gifts from the past five Decembers, you alredy have a full set of Bakes on Mesh EvoX hairbases and makeup! While there is no HUD for the eyes, you can use any Bakes on Mesh eyes for these heads (and there are lots of those out there, too).

Eyelashes: Now this is probably the biggest problem for some users, since there are no such thing as Bakes on Mesh eyelashes! But perhaps some enterprising person will come up with a workaround. The default lashes on both the male and female avatars are perfectly good, however, so this might not be an issue for you at all.

Fingernails and toenails: You can use alphas to remove the included fingernails and toenails on these bodies, and replace them with Legacy-compatible nails you can buy either in-world or from the Second Life Marketplace. Now, while the notecard included with these Legacy Lite bodies says:

Please note that your fingernails and toenails can be hidden using the alpha layers included in your body folder! Also note that these nails are only compatible with VELOUR & LeLaPeau starter skins!

Well, I looked everywhere, and while I could find toenail alphas for several of the curated outfit looks for men and women, there was not a fingernail alpha anywhere to be found! However, you’re in luck, because craftier people than I have already created fingernail alphas for these new starter avatars, so you can wear other fingernails with them! Go to Blushed Crations and buy the bag sitting on the floor labelled Blush Legacy Lite Nails SOS Kit (exact SLURL; see picture below). It includes a fingernail alpha, a feet-plus-toenails alpha, and 3 tones each of fingernails and toenails, plus a shine add-on for your nails!

You can also pick up a free kit of fingernail and toenail alphas from Eventyra on the SL Marketplace here. Also, a great place to pick up a L$1 set of nails that fit Legacy Lite hands is Cazimi, where you can get a nice base set of mesh nails which come in five muted colours (I have tested, and you can actually wear the Cazimi nails without using a fingernail alpha, and they cover the default Legacy Lite fingernails perfectly). Here’s your taxi to Cazimi.

Feet: While you cannot wear high heels on these avatars, there are plenty of options out there (including a lot of free/cheap ones) for shoes to fit Legacy flat feet! And you can use alphas if necessary to alpha out the feet and the toenails if necessary, so you should also be able to wear some high-heeled shoes and boots, depending on the design. I have zero doubt that somebody will soon come up with a high-heeled feet add-on/workaround for these bodies! It’s not here yet, though. Give it time.

In the meantime, let me share with you a great place to pick up some flats! Saki Shoes (exact SLURL) has two fatpacks of flats which fit Lara/LarX, Reborn and Legacy feet for only L$1 each! One set is leather and the second set is suede. While you don’t need to join the free store group to pick up these dollarbies, you might want to consider joining the H@S Fashion Designs group because you can get some seriously significant discounts on several pairs of kitten-heel and mid-heel height shoe fatpacks (only L$10 with the group, L$50 without). I am dragging all my alts through here to pick up some bargain shoes! You can also buy the flats from the SL Marketplace here for L$1 each: both the leather flats fatpack, and the suede flats fatpack.

Skins: These bodies are EvoX-compatible and Bakes on Mesh, so you can use any EvoX-compatible BoM skin for the heads, and any BoM skin for the bodies (again, applier HUDs for skins will not work).

I also wanted to mention that these bodies respond just as well to the head and body sliders as the full-price, fully-featured versions of LeLutka heads and Legacy bodies do, so you can customize your new avatar’s shape as much or as little as you desire, from the starting shapes included.


Where to Get Free Clothing and Shoes for Legacy Bodies (Including These New Starter Avatars)

Now that I have talked about these “Legacy Lite” bodies, I want to share with you where you can get free (or nearly free) apparel and footwear for these bodies! I have scoured my constantly-updated list of fabulous fashion freebies in Second Life and picked out 17 locations with the most and/or the best clothing for these new starter avatars!

But before we start, I want to caution you: YOU WILL NEED TO READ THE VENDOR PANELS CAREFULLY! In most cases, these locations will offer some older gifts which do not come in a Legacy size, along with newer gifts which fit Legacy bodies. LOOK FOR THE WORD “LEGACY” OR THE LEGACY LOGO (A NAKED WOMEN’S TORSO). See the following pictures for examples from my freebie-shopping travels (please click on each picture to see it in a larger size).

YOU DO NOT WANT CLOTHING MARKED “THE MESH PROJECT’ OR TMP OR CLASSIC (see picture one below; shoes are an exception I will discuss in a minute). Those items were created for a predecessor of the Legacy body which the Meshbody brand stupidly named “classic” (and it doesn’t help that they then started calling Legacy, “Legacy Classic” or “Classic Legacy,” which some store vendors started to do as well. It is confusing as fuck and irritating as hell. JUST LOOK FOR THE WORD “LEGACY” OR THE NAKED TORSO LOGO, AS SHOWN IN THE EXAMPLE PICTURES ABOVE. Also, remember that applier HUDs of any kind will not work on these Legacy Lite bodies, so make sure that there is a Bakes on Mesh/BoM version for any clothing which is applied directly to your Legacy mesh body (see picture two below).

In cases where the vendor panel contains items for both male and female Legacy bodies, they are usually marked somethng like “Legacy M” and “Legacy F” to distinguish between them. Also, any earrings or piercings rigged for LeLutka will work on these LeLutka Lite heads. Please see the following example images:

Now, shoes created for the older Classic/TMP/The Mesh Project bodies will still fit Legacy feet (although you might have to adjust the foot size sliders on your new starter avatar to get them to fit properly). Please look at the following pictures to help you figure out whether or not the vendor panel you are clicking has an item that will fit these new starter avatars. Don’t forget that you will not be able to wear any high heels on these Legacy Lite bodies! Please click on the pictures below to see a larger size, and read the captions:


All right, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s my list of the 17 best places to pick up free apparel and footwear for these new starter avatars. In most cases you will have to join the store group to pick up these freebies. In two cases (KC Couture and Scandalize), you do have to pay to join a group, but in these two cases, you get a greal deal of bang for your buck (KC Couture costs L$1 to join for 4 pair of flat shoes which works out to L$0.25 each, and for L$20, you can pick up no less than 83 clothing fatpacks for your female Legacy body, which works out to L$0.25 per fatpack—a true bargain!)

I also mention a few other stores in passing where the group join fee is more than L$20 (e.g Beyond). If you have extra Lindens to spend, then you might want to consider joining those store groups to pick up even more items for these new starter avatars.

Please note that, for the first three locations on this list, I have made things a little easier for you by including a list of brands which offer freebies at each place. In the case of Palomma Plaza, I have even broken it down row by row!


Palomma Plaza (Men and Women)

NOTE: Palomma Plaza has a central spawn point outside the store (SLURL). If you are using the row-by-row list I included here, enter the store from the spawn point, trun left, and go all the way to last row to get started.

This is by far the single best place to pick up a lot of Legacy female clothing (see my statistics at the end of this blogpost), as well as a few Legacy male items. You will have to join the free Palomma Plaza group to pick up all the freebies here. I have organized these menswear and woemnswear lists row by row, starting from the west end of the store, and going down each row from south to north, and landing up at the east end of the store. I have numbered the rows to stay sane, but of course, the rows do not have actual numbers at the freebie store!

MENSWEAR LIST accurate as of April 21st, 2025 (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

ROW 1: THE ROW NEXT TO THE STAIRS
Just some older male AOs

ROW 2:
Emerald Men – 4 outfits
Tastic – 4 items
Furtacor – 2 items
Telsiope’s – 1 casual outfit
Pixels – pants

ROW 3:
Muho – 2 shirts and shorts
Madcat – sweater
Hardcore – 3 items
Shohina’s – 2 outfits

ROW 4:
So Meshed Up – shirt
Always Blossom – shorts

CENTER AREA
Tastic – Palomma Plaza tank top

ROW 11:
Suna – Halloween costume

WOMENSWEAR LIST accruate as of April 21st, 2025 (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Remember to read the vendor panels carefully and make sure it says “Legacy”. Please note that I will NOT include Classic/TMP clothing, but I will include female flat TMP shoes since they fit Legacy Lite feet. Remember, no high heels! I am not including things like hair, makeup or jewelry, just clothing and shoes for Legacy Lite.

ROW 1: THE ROW NEXT TO THE STAIRS
Just some older female AOs and some BoM clothing from Fountain of Youth

ROW 2:
Tara – purses and bags
My Bags – purses and bags

ROW 3:
Muho – photo shirt
Roro – top
Luna – 4 items
Shohina’s – sheer dress

ROW 4:
La Feminique – 2 outfits
Monomania – 4 items
Ma’De – dress

ROW 5:
Flower Dreams – 3 BoM/fexiprim gowns
1GHhundred – 3 outfits
Ydea – 4 outfits
Nilsy – 2 dresses
Telsiope’s – 4 outfits

ROW 6:
Pandamomo – outfit with purse
Baby Monkey – mules fatpack
Bonnicci – swimsuit
May24 – 4 dresses
Diesel Deluxe – 3 items
Be Bold – 1 sheer outfit

ROW 7:
Meva – dress
Melody – 4 items
Delicatt – 1 gown
KingBal – 2 outfits
Pink Mango – 3 items

ROW 8:
Horl – flat sandals
Divine – 2 items
BQ – 3 items
Emerald – 4 items
ROA/RexAnne – 2 items
Bad Rabbit – 1 dress
Hilly Haalan – 2 items
Maci – 2 items

ROW 9:
Brunsen – 2 dresses
PM – BoM lingerie
Always Blossom – 2 items
Erotik – 1 outfit
Salesita’s – 2 items
Madcat – sweater

CENTER AREA:
Tastic – Palomma Plaza top

ROW 10:
Spells & Charms – 3 items
Dark Moon – 1 dress
Fame – 3 items
Bold Llama – 3 tank tops

ROW 11:
Le’La – 5 items
Enchantress – 2 items
Black Angel – 3 items
Favor – 1 dress
Suna – 2 items
Furtacor – 3 items
Tastic – 3 items
Carola – 2 items

ROW 12:
Dollz – 2 items
DM – 1 dress
Charms – 1 skirt
Glitzz – 2 items
Domina – 2 items
Arti’s – 2 items
Execute – thong

ROW 13:
Luna Chelsea – 2 items
Cremosas – 1 dress
Scrappy Scorpion – 3 items
G – dress
Kaithleen’s – dress
Kavita – top
Mayhem – 3 items

ROW 14:
KD – 1 dress
Chaotic – 3 items
Pixels – 2 items
Basalia’s – dress
Drang – dress and flipflops

ROW 15:
So Meshed Up – legwarmers
Zex – 3 items
Atelier Ele – 2 items
Dellago – 2 dresses
Secrets – jewelry bra

ROW 16:
just makeup and jewelry

ROW 17:
just makeup, nails and jewelry
Tangella – Legacy nails
Glint – Legacy nails

ROW 18:
just stuff for Ultra Vixen body

Don’t forget to hit the hair aisle to pick up some free male and female hairstyles while you’re here!


Ajuda SL Brasil Freebie Store (Men and Women)

NOTE: the Ajuda SL Brasil region has a central spawn pint (SLURL). Once you arrive, turn left to go to the freebie store. The elevator/teleport signs to take you to higher floors of the freebie store are located in the southwest corner of the first floor.

There’s a good collection of freebies for both women (on the 1st and 3rd floors) and men (on the 4th floor), including a few items for Legacy male and female bodies. No group is needed, just click and take!

List accurate as of April 22, 2025 (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

WOMEN: 1st floor
Cute for You – 7 outfits & purse
Mangula – 4 outfits
Monomania – 5 outfits
La’La – 1 dress
Salesita’s – 1 dress
Ewa – 9 outfits plus a bag with 9 more outfits (which I have not yet unpacked to check to see if they have Legacy). All outfits except one are fatpacks!

WOMEN: 3rd floor
Safyra’s – 7 outfits
Enigma – 4 outfits
Ewa – 6 outfits (note that you have to temporarily derender the grey wall which for some reason is obscuring half of the Ewa Boutique display vendors! Maybe it’s because they are moving all the Ewa stuff to the 1st floor? Who knows.)

MEN: 4th floor
Saute – T-shirt
Urban Streetwear – T-shirt
Cheerno – bodyhair, sunglasses, swimsuit, leggings
Impacts – tank top, shorts
Dossier – flipflops and boots

Don’t forget to pick up some free hair, jewelry, etc. while you’re at the freebie store! Firelight has five women’s hairstyles on the first floor.


The Ladies’ Free Shop at Helping Haven Gateway (Women)

NOTE: The Helping Haven gateway has a central spawn point (SLURL). From the central spawn point, head east (follow the Freebie Village signs) towards several tall white buildings, one of which is the Ladies’ Free Shop. While most of the clothing is older items (some quite old!), tucked away on the third and fourth floors you can pick up a few items designed for the Legacy female body.

YOU WILL NEED TO READ THE SIGNS CAREFULLY TO DETERMINE WHICH ONES EXPLICITLY SAY “LEGACY” ON THEM, OR HAVE THE LEGACY NAKED TORSO LOGO ON THEM! IN MANY CASES THE LEGACY GIFTS ARE MIXED IN WITH NON-LEGACY GIFTS.

FIRST FLOOR:
nothing (but do pick up some hats and headscarves!)

SECOND FLOOR:
nothing (but pick up some nice jewelry and some more hats!)

THIRD FLOOR:
Kai – 2 items: capris and top
Emerald Couture – 2 outfits (the rest are all TMP/Classic)
Dark Fairy Fashions – 4 outfits (mostly ripped jeans and jean shorts)
Korpokkur House – skinny pants 4 colours (click on the display models)

FOURTH FLOOR
Rubedo – 7 items
Emerald Couture – 2 outfits (the rest are all TMP/Classic)


Other Good Places to Find Legacy Clothing and Shoes

While I have gone into more detail for the first three places, I am just going to give a brief description and a SLURL for the rest of these locations.

Energy Weekend (Women)

The Energy Weekend Price Event has a skybox where you can pick up a few Legacy female items, if you join the #ENERGY# Weekend price group for free.


Hilly Haalan (Women)

Hilly Haalan operates a small group gifts store with over 125 high-quality free gifts (women’s clothing, shoes, and jewelry; the group is free to join). Many of the newer items include a Legacy size. Just look for the teleporter sign at the spawn point for the sim, and click on “Gifts”.


Amias (Men and Women)

Another store with a free group join and over 40 free group gifts (consisting of various items of apparel, jewelry, and accessories for both men and women) is Amias. Some of the gifts come in Legacy male and female sizes.


B.D.R,/Beautiful Dirty Rich (Women)

Beautiful Dirty Rich offers you several free fatpacks of womenswear for Legacy bodies (the Beautiful Dirty Rich store group is free to join).


Coco (Women)

COCO Designs has several low, black group gift walls scattered around the store, with well over 60 high-quality gifts (women’s clothing and shoes; the group is free to join). The newer gifts come in Legacy female sizes, and there are several nice flat shoe gifts! Note that the low black panel with the latest freebies is NOT in the centre of the Coco store.


Enchantress (Women)

Enchantress has over 50 free group gifts of women’s clothing, if you join their store group for free (there’s also many gifts for the various freebie groups on a nearby wall). You will need to read the vendor signs carefully, as many of these older gifts do not fit Legacy bodies, but many do! There’s also some Bakes on Mesh clothing you can pick up here (but again, read the signs; applier HUD-based clothing will not work on these new starter avatar bodies!


GGVG (Women)

Another store with a free group join and a selection of group gifts is GGVG, which specializes in womenswear. Everything comes in a Legacy size. Check back periodically, as the gifts are changed fairly often. (Note that the store group is called Guguvagas, not GGVG.)


Rodex (Men and Women)

At the Rodex store, take the Portal marked Gifts (SLURL), and you will be teleported to a room with 45 gifts of men’s and women’s apparel. Most—but not all—of these gifts come in Legacy male and/or female sizes. Join the store group for free to pick up all the gifts, and please note that some gifts cost L$1 which is automatically refunded.


Scandalize skybox (Women)

You definitely need to stop here! Scandalize has a huge skybox stuffed full of fatpacks of older apparel, and most of it fits Legacy female bodies! Here’s your taxi (the SLURL will take you to the main entrance of the Scandalize store). Skip the group gifts wall to your right as enter the store (that requires a separate group), and head straight to the front counter, then click the sign in front of the counter to teleport to the skybox, which has dozens and dozens of group gifts!

Now please pay attention, because a lot has changed recently! To pick up all the gifts in the first three rooms of the now-five-room skybox, you will have to join the .Scandalize Store. group for only L$20. That’s a real bargain! To pick up all the gifts from Beyond in the brand-new fourth and fifth rooms of the skybox, you will need to join the .:Beyond:. store group for L$89. Note that the Beyond gifts, unlike the Scandalize gifts, are only single colours and not fatpacks. In my statistics at the bottom of this blogpost, I have counted the Scandalize gifts only, not the Beyond gifts, because you get much more bang for your buck from the Scandalize part of the skybox than the Beyond part!


Seniha (Women)

Seniha offers several group gifts of womenswear with a free group join (mostly fatpacks), plus a tenth gift if you join the SL Frees & Offers group (also free). Most, but not all, of these freebies include a Legacy size.


Wellmade (Women)

WellMade has a very generous group gift wall, with over 30 free group gifts for women of clothing and footwear; the WellMade Store group is free to join. Many, but not all, of these gifts fit Legacy female bodies.


KC Couture (Women)

Join the KC Couture store group for L$1 and you can pick up four sets of flat shoes for Legacy bodies. Read the vendor panels carefully, and remember that The Mesh Project/TMP flat shoes will also fit the feet on these new starter avatars. Here’s an exact SLURL to the group gifts wall at KC Couture.


Kiki Kaikai (Men)

KIKI KAIKAI has almost a hundred free group menswear gifts, ranging from traditional Japanese Buddhist monk outfits to casual wear to cutting-edge Tokyo streetwear! Just join the Kiki Kaikai store group for free, and they’re yours! Most fit the Big Three male mesh bodies (Belleza Jake, Meshbody Legacy, and Signature Gianni), but many of the outfits can work with any male mesh body with alphas. Here’s your taxi…enter the store, turn left, and take the stairs next to the sign shown in the first picture. Note that there are two levels with freebies upstairs, and watch out—one set of items is marked at their regular price of L$230 each, and are not free!


Elementtare (Men)

Four Second Life menswear stores (Duk, Strunsh, Mazzaro, and Elementtare) have recently joined forces and created one new group, called DMSE – Men’s Station (which is free to join). Teleport in to the central spawn point for the region, and you will see four panels with free menswear gifts from each of the four stores, if you join that new group. (DUK still has a group gift wall on the other side of their front counter in the store; it now costs L$100 to join the DUK store group. Mazzaro also has a separate gift collection at the rear of their store; it now costs L$50 to join the Mazzaro store group. Elementtare also has a group gifts section; their store group is free to join). Please note that I have only counted the Elementtare gifts in my statistics below.


Using this list, I was able to pick well over 100 items of menswear for an alt using the male Legacy Lite body over the weekend, all for free! I found the most freebies at Kiki Kaikai, Elementtare, and Rodex, but also check out Palomma Plaza and Ajuda SL Brasil, using the detailed lists above. If you want to add to your haul, you could consider joining the store groups for DUK and Mazzaro I mentioned above, and pick up even more Legacy male clothing.

Out of curiosity, I kept a much more deliberate count yesterday morning as I was vacuuming up freebies for a second, female alt using the Legacy Lite body, and this was the breakdown on what I able to collect where:

  • Ajuda SL Brasil: 47 items, all free
  • Amias: 39 items, all free
  • Beautiful Dirty Rich: 14 items (almost all fatpacks), all free
  • Coco: 45 items, all free
  • Enchantress: 30 items (mostly fatpacks), all free
  • Energy Weekend: 10 items, all free
  • GGVG: 18 items (mostly fatpacks), all free
  • Helping Haven: 20 items, all free
  • KC Couture: 4 pairs of flat shoes (cost to join group: L$1)
  • Palomma Plaza: a whopping 170 items, all free
  • Rodex: 20 items, all free
  • Scandalize: 83 items (almost all fatpacks; cost to join group: L$20)
  • Seniha: 6 items (all fatpacks), all free
  • WellMade: 16 items (mostly fatpacks), all free
  • GRAND TOTAL: 522 female items for a total cost of L$21!

Well, there you have it! I will endeavour to try and keep this blog post updated with other news, tips, and tricks as I learn about them. And I will link to it from my main freebie fashion webpage, Ryan’s All-In-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life.

I will leave you with Naria Panthar’s 40-minute Youtube livestream from yesterday, where she demonstrates, discusses, and dissects these new starter avatars (I must confess that I have been so busy compiling these tips and tricks for my blogpost that haven’t even had an opportunity to watch this video yet! But I know that Naria always delivers with her signature verve, wit, and occasional sarcasm.)


Two Problems with the New Starter Avatars (And How to Fix the Second One)

UPDATE 5:46 p.m.: I wanted to alert my readers to two potential problems with these new starter avatars.

The first problem is the more serious, and one that both I and Blush Bravin have encountered, where the chin depth sliders don’t seem to respond at all when using a head with the Legacy Lite female body. This problem was confirmed by another person on the SL Forums, wesleytron, who posted the following today:

  On 4/22/2025 at 5:35 AM, Blush Bravin said:

One thing I noticed while playing with the new head/body shape, the chin sliders don’t seem to respond when trying to adjust the chin. **Edit: It’s not all the chin sliders. The one I noticed was the depth slider.

It’s both the CHIN DEPTH and CHIN ANGLE that are affected – and in my tests so far it is on ALL mesh heads, not just the Welcome Pack ones, and includes heads not made by Lelutka. The ‘nerfed’ shape persists after both a reset of the skeleton and a relog.

There’s either a deformer in the Legacy body affecting bones it has no business affecting, or an error in the Legacy body rigging. Either way, this is something I think Linden Lab should take a look at and make sure is fixed before making any official announcement about the pack.

Oops, too late! I would consider this a serious problem, especially since it seems to be happening with any head you use with the Legacy Lite female body (I was using the LAQ SupremeUHD head with it, and the chin got suddenly very deep, and I could not use the chin depth slider at all! I got around it by adjusting some of the other sliders a bit, but the avatar still has a very pronounced deep chin! And there should be ZERO reason why attaching a mesh body messes with the bones of the head and face!

Here’s my example, to show the problem. The picture on the left is my LAQ SupremeUHD head with the Senra body. The picture on the right is the same head, with the exact same head and face body sliders, but with the Legacy Lite female body attached instead of Senra. Notice how much deeper the chin gets—and what’s worse, is that you cannot adjust the chin depth sliders at all! They are completely disabled when you wear the Legacy Lite body. (Also, now that I compare them side-by-side, the eyes look a bit wonky, too! However, I can at least adjust those using the LAQ HUD.)

I will continue to play around with this, and see if I get anywhere, but I wanted to report the problem to see if other peope besides the three of us have noticed it, too.

UPDATE April 25th, 2025: Apparently, a LOT of other Second Life users have noticed this problem, too! When I posted about it on Primfeed, fellow freebie fashionista Aline Passiflora of FabFree replied:

Beachy [Piers of FabFree] and I both had this problem with our usual Lelutka heads. I looked very much like a Hapsburg. 😉

The ever-informative Google AI says:

The “Habsburg chin,” also known as mandibular prognathism, is a distinctive facial feature characterized by a prominent, elongated lower jaw, often causing an underbite. This trait was particularly noticeable in members of the House of Habsburg, a prominent European royal family. While not a death sentence, it was linked to other health complications and the “Habsburg jaw” has been linked to inbreeding within the Habsburg family.

Oh dear.

The good news is, I have been informed that the Meshbody Legacy people have been informed about this problem. One Second Life friend told me via Discord, “I told somebody from Legacy about the problem with the heads and it seems they are working on it…”

Let’s hope they come up with a quick solution to this issue!

The second problem is less serious. It’s one that I have encountered with the Caucasian LeLutka Lite male head, which is called Eon Lite. It’s a lovely head, as you can see below:

The problem is that (unlike the female head I tested) he never blinks! And this lack of blinking is part of a bigger problem with these heads: without HUDs, they also have no facial animations for you to select!

Now, in this case, there are solutions. The cheapest one is to teleport over to the [C} Animesh store, join their store group for only L$5, and pick up a free group gift of a Facial Bento AO:

Unpack and attach the Facial Bento AO HUD, and you have three buttons along the bottom of your screen, to animate any combination of your eyes, nose, and mouth. Here’s a 24-second video of what my male alt looks like with the mouth and eye animations turned on:

He blinks a bit like someone whose contact lenses are bothering him, but I will take it over an unblinking blank stare! There is also a blink attachment that I have successfully used in the past with Genus heads, called Katsumi’s Simple Blink, available on the SL Marketplace for L$49, which I have not yet purchased it and tried it on this alt.

UPDATE 6:47 p.m.: Katsumi’s Simple Blink for the win! I bought and tested it, and I like the blinking much better than the one on the [C] Facial Bento AO. However, it only works on the eyes, not the mouth, so I might have to use both HUDs together. Anyway, problem solved!

Replacing the Skin on These Starter Avatars

UPDATE April 25th, 2025: Okay, I decided to finally start unpacking and trying on various articles of clothing which I had picked up for my female alt, and I have added some pictures of outfits I created using the freebies from Palomma Plaza, the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil, and the Ladies’ Fres Shop at the Helping Haven Gateway.

In doing so, I discovered a couple of things. First, you are probably going to have to replace the skins which came with these Legacy Lite bodies with ones that do not have baked-on underwear. Many of the items I tried on just didn’t look right, because the underwear was visible. (Also, keep in mind that many long gowns and pants were designed to be worn with high-heeled shoes, and don’t work with flat feet. Remember, these bodies can’t wear high heels!)

So, I wanted to add a section to this already-novel-length blogpost, about where to find free head and body skin for your LeLutka Lite/Legacy Lite avatar. Much of this information I am simply copying and pasting from previous blog posts, but some of it is new.

First, if you do decide to upgrade just the body skin, you will need to know that these are skins by Velour, a well-known skin maker in SL. If you do decide to purchase body skin, but still want to keep the head skin, you are going to have to know the Velour skin tone of the six skins these bodies use. Irritatingly, the skin tones are NOT named in the included skins; they just have names! So I had to teleport to the Velour Mall and pick up demos of Velour skins, and then test it out to see what matched. I had to work to get this information to you, people!!!

  • Male A (Asian) skin Koa – matches the Velour Ivory skin tone
  • Male B (Black) Isaac skin – Velour Brown
  • Male C (Caucasian) Saad skin – Velour Medium
  • Female A (Asian) Iseul skin – Velour Icy
  • Female B (Black) Jamila skin – Velour Brownie
  • Female C (Caucasian) Lupita skin – Velour Sienna

If you cannot afford to buy Velour body skins, in Ryan’s All-in-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life, I wrote:

Looking for free body skin to go with that free head skin you picked up? Nuve offers free female body skin in 30 skin tones (human and fantasy colours) here (no group needed), Amara Beauty offers free female body skin and add-ons here (no group needed), Leronso offers free body skin here (free group join), and Boataom offers an older, but still perfectly serviceable, version of their body skin for six different brands of mesh bodies here (look high up on the wall for the Group Gift sign; free group join).

And don’t worry if the skin tones of your head skin don’t exactly match these free body skins! You can pick up free neck fades from Purple Beauty, Velour, and Not Found, to match Moccino, Velour, and Not Found male and female head skins! Purple and Velour also offer free EvoX ear skins in case your head skin is missing ear skin.

In my previous blogpost, Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Where to Find Free Body Skins to Match LAQ Skin Tones, I actually discuss the above-mentioned free skin options in much more detail, as well as a couple of others. That blog post was about matching LAQ head skins, but the information applies to anybody who is looking for free body skins!

Now, if you cannot afford pricey head skins, you will be happy to know that there are a few stores that have free female EvoX-compatible head skins that will work for these new strarter avatars. Here’s another quote from Ryan’s All-in-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life:

Every December, LeLutka usually offers two free EvoX Bento mesh heads (one male and one female), as part of a massive freebie giveaway with dozens of participating stores offering free gifts of skins, makeup, jewelry, etc. All participating stores set thier store group join fee to free during this event, so this is the time to join that pricey skin store group for free! If you are looking for free skin store groups to join the rest of the year, the five store groups of Alexandrite, Boataom, Leronso, Purple Beauty, and Tres Beau are free to join throughout the year, and all offer free group gifts of one or more fatpacks of women’s EvoX skin.

All of these free skin options I have discussed are for female avatars. Unfortunately, for men, free and inexpensive head and body skin options are nearly non-existent; you’re probably going to have to shell out for name-brand head and body skins. Brabos (SLURL) does have two free group gifts of male EvoX skin fatpacks if you join their store group for L$50. The Kris and Camden skins come in skin tones which match body skins sold by Velour and Not Found.

Oh, I just remembered that there is another place where you can pick up free, Velour-compatible EvoX male and female head skins! It’s LeLapeau. Join the LeLapeau group for free, teleport to their store, and there are eight gift boxes on and under a couple of coffee tables (exact SLURL). Two of these gifts are EvoX skins for men, and the other six are EvoX skins for women (including one in fantasy skin tones).

(There’s also an Easter egg hunt going on, where you can pick up some more female head skins that match the Velour Chantilly skin tone. You can see one of the six eggs in this picture, LOL! They’re not that hard to find, but you’s best hurry!)

Finally, I should mention that there is a free set of three EvoX-compatible full-body skin (i.e. head and body skin, plus ears) available at Palomma Plaza from Alaskametro. Here’s the exact SLURL (remember that Palomma Plaza has a central spawn point, so you will have to use the Show on Map feature in your SL viewer for this SLURL, and then follow the red arrow/beam to get to this exact location).


A special shout-out and thank you to Dreamer Pixelmaid, who alerted me to the Yuri dollarbie flats at the Saki Store. Thanks, Dreamer!

Liked it? Then please consider supporting Ryan Schultz on Patreon! Even as little as US$1 a month unlocks exclusive patron benefits. Thank you!

Become a patron at Patreon!

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21Shares Advances Polkadot ETF Plans with Updated SEC Filing https://earlybirdsinvest.com/21shares-advances-polkadot-etf-plans-with-updated-sec-filing/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/21shares-advances-polkadot-etf-plans-with-updated-sec-filing/#respond Mon, 14 Apr 2025 12:19:38 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/21shares-advances-polkadot-etf-plans-with-updated-sec-filing/ Crypto asset manager 21Shares has taken another step toward launching a spot Polkadot exchange-traded fund (ETF) by submitting an updated S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 6. This follows its initial application filed on Jan. 31.

The update suggests that 21Shares is actively engaging with the SEC, possibly incorporating regulatory feedback or strengthening its case for approval.

If approved, the Polkadot ETF would trade on the Cboe BZX Exchange, with Coinbase as the custodian of the DOT holdings.

This move aligns with broader industry efforts to introduce crypto-based ETFs. On Feb. 25, Grayscale also filed for a spot Polkadot ETF through Nasdaq.

Alongside its Polkadot proposal, 21Shares has recently filed for ETFs tracking Ripple (XRP) and Solana (SOL), adding to its existing Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) ETF offerings.

The Market Implications of a Polkadot ETF

Introducing a spot Polkadot ETF could have significant implications for institutional and retail investors.

As Polkadot aims to be the leading multi-chain interoperability protocol, increased institutional adoption through an ETF could enhance its market position and long-term viability.

However, despite its technological promise, Polkadot has struggled with price volatility and investor uncertainty.

According to CoinGecko data, DOT has faced a 56.0% decline over the past year and a 2.9% drop in the last month.

21Shares acknowledged this risk in its SEC filing, stating that the ETF’s performance would be directly tied to Polkadot’s market movements.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart shared a similar sentiment, emphasizing that the success of such an ETF will depend on investor demand.

“The market will decide where value lies and if there’s value in launching such a product. If no one puts money into a Polkadot ETF, it will close,” he stated.

Beyond price performance, regulatory uncertainties add another layer of complexity.

The SEC has yet to clarify whether DOT should be classified as a security under U.S. law.

In response, the Web3 Foundation, which oversees Polkadot’s development, has taken proactive steps to ensure DOT remains a decentralized asset and avoids excessive control by any single entity.

These efforts include rejecting investment-only purchases from venture capitalists and focusing on promoting Polkadot’s technology rather than its token value.

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Polkadot 2.0 and SEC’s Shifting Stance

Another crucial factor influencing DOT’s future is the upcoming launch of Polkadot 2.0, a major network upgrade expected in Q1 of this year.

This upgrade aims to enhance the protocol’s scalability and developer accessibility, potentially increasing adoption and driving long-term growth.

An early testnet version is already available on the Kusama network, allowing developers to experiment with its new features.

The SEC’s stance on cryptocurrency ETFs is also evolving, particularly due to regulatory changes and leadership shifts.

The resignation of SEC Chair Gary Gensler on Jan. 20 has paved the way for renewed optimism in the crypto investment sector.

Gensler was known for his cautious approach to digital asset regulations, and his departure has coincided with a surge in ETF filings.

For instance, Osprey Funds and REX Shares recently filed for ETFs tracking meme coins like Dogecoin (DOGE), Official Trump (TRUMP), and Bonk (BONK).

Additionally, the SEC has granted initial approval for Bitwise Asset Management’s Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF, which combines exposure to both BTC and ETH in a single fund.

Meanwhile, 21Shares is also pushing its crypto ETF innovation with its proposal to integrate staking within Ethereum ETF.

The firm recently requested that the SEC allow the staking of Ethereum held by the ETF’s trust.

If approved, this could set a precedent for future ETFs incorporating staking rewards, adding a yield component for investors.

With regulatory dynamics shifting and asset managers doubling down on crypto ETF applications, this represents a key moment in the expanding institutionalization of digital assets.

Whether the SEC grants approval remains uncertain, but the growing momentum behind crypto ETFs indicates that regulated investment vehicles for a wider range of digital assets are becoming increasingly viable.

The post 21Shares Advances Polkadot ETF Plans with Updated SEC Filing appeared first on Cryptonews.

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30+ Best Decentralized Finance Applications [Updated] https://earlybirdsinvest.com/30-best-decentralized-finance-applications-updated/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/30-best-decentralized-finance-applications-updated/#respond Mon, 24 Mar 2025 18:52:10 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/30-best-decentralized-finance-applications-updated/

For the past few months, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is one of the hot topics in the blockchain space. Everyone is focused on the growth of decentralized finance applications, which will finally make our economic model transparent.

DeFi is using blockchain technology to ensure that our financial system is fully decentralized, distributed, and secured, unlike traditional means. In reality, it’s one of the fast-growing sectors in the crypto space.

Feeling intrigued? Let’s check out some of the popular decentralized finance applications on the market that you can try out today. So, let’s start!

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What Are Decentralized Finance Applications?

Before we start looking into DeFi applications, I’ll briefly explain the concept behind Decentralized Finance. DeFi is a peer-to-peer finance system or network that is powered by decentralized technologies. In simple terms, it’s actually the shift from a centralized and traditional financial system to a more decentralized and peer-to-peer network.

Decentralized finance companies are bringing an entire ecosystem full of applications starting from borrowing and lending platforms to tokenizing assets. So, in this case, decentralized finance applications are nothing more than blockchain or distributed applications developed specifically for the financial industries.

Also, most of these applications are using Ethereum as the underlying technology. In reality, our traditional financial system mainly runs on centralized infrastructure, which is highly flawed. On the other hand, decentralized finance applications get rid of the issues that come from the centralized infrastructure. So, it’s a great approach to digitizing this sector without any issues with the legacy systems.

Therefore, if you only have an internet connection, you can access all these Defi apps built to streamline all your financial needs. The breakthrough of DeFi is really changing the scenario of our financial systems. Now we can use crypto assets in so many ways that were never possible with real-world currencies. The paradigm shift in the economic infrastructure presents us with a lot of opportunities and gets rid of risks and trust issues.

Want to explore in-depth about DeFi protocol and its use cases? Enroll now in the Decentralized Finance (Defi) Course- Intermediate Level

Best Decentralized Finance Applications in The Market

From synthetic assets to DAOs, decentralized finance companies are unlocking opportunities for a completely new economic model around the world. More so, the vesta mount of use cases of this sector is proof that this is more than just a bunch of DeFi projects.

It’s an integrated effort to develop a complete ecosystem of finance that shifts from traditional centralized services. Therefore, let’s look at the best-decentralized finance applications to understand what benefits you can expect from these.

So, let’s start!

best decentralized finance applications

Asset Management

Decentralized finance applications will help you be the sole custodian of your information. Therefore, it includes managing your crypto asset as well. Many crypto wallets will help you securely and efficiently interact with applications for selling, buying, transferring, and earning interest on your assets.

So, in the DeFi projects space, you will own your data, not any third parties or any government agencies.

  • MetaMask: MetaMask offers the security and usability needed for a getaway to blockchain applications. However, it’s also a wallet, and it can handle account management along with connecting any individual to the blockchain. More so, it even offers hardware wallets, which is totally isolated from the site.
  • Gnosis Safe: Using this application, you can fully customize and manage all your crypto assets. It even allows you to store them on multiple devices. For example, it offers EOA-based wallets, hardware wallets, paper wallets, or even a combination of these three.

Compliance and KYT

Basically, in the traditional finance companies, know-your-customer guidelines help counter-the-financing-of-terrorism (CFT) and promote anti-money laundering (AML). However, as the system is fragile, hackers can hack through the system and easily bypass all the security protocols.

Therefore, DeFi takes this system to a new height. Without focusing on customer identities, they are focusing on customer addresses. So, instead of know your customer, the applications focus on know-your-transactions (KYT). This helps to prevent risk in real-time and gets rid of any options for financial crimes.

  • Codefi Compliance: This application offers KYT processes that help businesses to assess any risky behaviors from the very start. Therefore, it can offer CFT and AML checks to identify any fraudulent activities or even terrorisms.
  • KYC-Chain: KYC-Chain is another application that offers you an array of features. You will get KYC and AML checks, identity and verification, crypto wallet AML, scalable and secure network, and access to the Selfkey network.

DAOs

DAO is actually a decentralized autonomous organization that focuses on decentralized and transparent business models. Basically, these types of organizations are based on blockchain technology and are incredibly different from traditional organizations.

Anyhow, there are applications that focus on managing financial operations, fundraising, and maintaining decentralized governance in DAOs.

  • Maker: MKR holders actually governs the MakerDAO protocols. And this will include adjusting policy for Dai, improving governance, selecting different collateral types, offering security and transparency.
  • Compound: Compound is also another application for DAO, where the decentralized community is the COMP token holders. More so, they can propose or even vote on upgrades related to the primary protocol.

Enroll now in the DAO Fundamentals Course to develop fluent knowledge of the DAO ecosystem and best practices for participants.

Data and Analytics

Decentralized finance applications come with unprecedented transparency for network activity and transactional data. That’s why using DeFi protocols can help you in data analysis, discovery, and profound decision-making opportunities. The explosive popularity of these applications is leading to the development of various dashboards and tools. In reality, some of them can even help you assess any platform risks, track the value of your assets, and compare them for the liquidity process.

  • Codefi Data: Codefi Data is a suite for data management and analytics. You can use this solution in the investment ecosystem, such as public blockchain tokens, digital assets, decentralized finance protocols, and so on. Other than this, it also offers performance metrics and security.
  • DeFi Pulse: It’s a DeFi live tracker. Here, you can find all the latest rankings of DeFi protocols and their analytics. Typically, they track the total value that is locked into the smart contacts of these applications.

Derivatives

Using Ethereum based smart contracts, DeFi is now introducing a new type of tokenized derivatives. Usually, these derivatives are directly linked to an underlying asset, and the performance shifts based on that asset.

More so, you can use DeFi derivatives to represent any real-world bonds, currencies, commodities, and even cryptocurrencies.

  • bZx: It’s a margin lending protocol based on Ethereum blockchain. Furthermore, you can use this application to build other platforms that offer borrowing, lending, and trading facilities. So, even if you are a borrower or lender, you will be the one in control of the keys.
  • dYdX: dYdX is a great application that will let you trade, borrow, lend, and even manage your assets directly. More so, you can use your crypto holdings as collateral for borrowing other assets. Tracking your performance and your assets is quite easy as well.

Infrastructure Development

Applications of decentralized finance offer composability. In reality, it means that it allows different components within a system to easily communicate, connect, and interoperate. Using this technique, communities are building upon what other developers have already built, making it one of the most prominent and powerful networks at this moment.

You can think of building DeFi applications like building with Legos. There are lots of tools dedicates specifically to the infrastructure development of blockchain platforms. More so, these are definitely some of the best tools that developers tend to love for their blockchain solutions.

  • Truffle Suite: Truffle Suite is a combination of development tools that will let you create a new infrastructure from scratch. It contains three tools for compiling, testing, debugging, and deploying – Truffle, Ganache, and Drizzle.
  • Infura: Using Infura, you can immediately connect your application to their APIs and use their support for interface to run your app. The best part is that you can do it with only 1 single URL. More so, they offer management services so that you can focus on project development.

Decentralized Exchange

Another popular use case of DeFi is the well-known decentralized exchange applications. Mainly these are cryptocurrency exchanges that don’t need any central authority. More so, it allows users to transact directly with other peers and ensure that the control remains only to the users. Thus, it helps to reduce any price manipulation, any kind of theft, or hacks.

Furthermore, these decentralized exchanges offer liquidity for certain projects, mainly when it comes to rival centralized exchanges.

More so, some exchanges may use decentralization to a certain extent without fully getting rid of the centralized servers.

  • AirSwap: AirSwap is a great peer-to-peer trading decentralized finance application. In reality, it uses Ethereum as the underlying technology. More so, you won’t need any fees, deposits, or sign-ups to trade. It also offers a secure and easy to use interface that promotes liquidity of the assets.
  • Uniswap Exchange: This is also based on Ethereum and offers automated liquidity protocol. The formula they use is quite unique, and they use non-upgradeable smart contracts for that. Therefore, you can access trusted intermediaries, great security, censor resistance, and prioritize decentralization using this.

Want to understand the best ways to use DeFi development tools like Solidity, React, and Hardhat? Enroll now in DeFi Development Course!

Gaming

Decentralized finance applications are in the gaming world as well. More so, using these applications, gamers can now unlock the opportunity to handle their in-app purchases without any risks of credit card hacks. More so, these applications now offer unique incentive models, which is hard to come across in typical gaming experience.

This will surely enhance your gaming experience without worrying too much about your finances.

  • PoolTogether: It’s an audited savings game where there is no-loss for you. Additionally, it uses Ethereum to make it completely decentralized. All you have to do is use Dai to get tickets from the pool. Every single Dai in the pool will get interest, so it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Borrowing and Lending

Borrowing and lending use one of the most prominent use cases for the applications of decentralized finance. In reality, users can lend their cryptocurrencies to a lending pool and earn interests based on that. Based on their criteria, many applications match the borrower and lender, getting rid of any trust issues along the way.

  • Aave: It’s an open-source protocol that creates different kinds of money markets. Here, you can earn interest based on your borrowing and depositing assets. More so, depositors are responsible for increasing the liquidity, and borrowers can borrow any asset in undercollateralized or overcollateralized fashion.
  • Dharma: Dharma offers a suite of developer tools and smart contracts that helps in lending and borrowing crypto-assets. More so, the application offers access to 2000+ tokens, where you will need no Gas fees for trading. You can even withdraw anytime you want.

Identity Management

You can pair applications of decentralized finance with blockchain-based identity systems to give users access to a global economic platform. More so, this will help users get access to their own identity and use it as portable identification whenever they need it.

On top of this, you can expect high security for your financial information and your personal documentations because no third party can get access to it. You can even choose to share partial information to your clients without disclosing your personal data.

  • Civic: Civic is a decentralized identity ecosystem. Here, you will have to verify your identity once, and then you can use it as much as you want. Furthermore, you can choose which company you trust to share your information. So, you don’t have to overshare anything else.
  • uPort: At uPort, you will be getting a self-sovereign identity with just a few clicks. In reality, this tool will offer any individual to share their data in a secure, simple, and private way. It comes in two variations – the public and private sectors.

Insurance

DeFi is surely talking over the insurance industries as well. Due to the lack of proper management and security, this sector deals with contract breaches and false insurance claims. Also, the process of insurance claiming takes a lot of time. That’s why a number of innovative decentralized application in this spectrum is using blockchain to protect and cover contracts and help to streamline insurance claims faster.

  • Etherisc: DIP Foundation supports the ecosystem, and it contains oracle providers, product builders, resellers, risk pool keepers, claim adjusters, underwriters, and relayers. Anyhow, it’s a great application for building risk transfer solutions solely for the insurance industry.
  • Nexus Mutual: Nexus Mutual is a unique application that gets rid of the concept of insurance companies. Here, you can share the risk with other parties in a pool without needing any company to back it up. More so, they offer a backup solution for any disaster like faulty smart contracts or DAO hack.

Start your blockchain journey Now with the Enterprise Blockchains Fundamentals

Margin Trading

In reality, margin traders can borrow funds from a lender and utilize their trades in a typical finance system. However, in DeFi, this trading is fully decentralized and offers non-custodial lending protocols. Due to the fact that smart contracts are connected to the majority of this type of application, many call them “autonomous money markets” at the moment.

  • Fulcrum: Fulcrum is a decentralized finance application for tokenizing margin trading and lending processes. It doesn’t need any KYC and AML, and it offers non-custodial solutions. The automated renew and no rollover fees help to maintain a seamless experience.
  • DDEX: DDEX offers instant borrowing, interest in lending from the start, and 5x leveraged trading. More so, all the smart contracts are audited and secured along with accessible mobile devices.

Stablecoins

Stablecoins fall under the spectrum of DeFi as well. Mainly these are cryptocurrencies, but they are pegged to any kind of stable asset. It can be fiat money, or gold, or even other cryptocurrencies. In reality, stablecoins are here to reduce the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies and make them a good source of digital currency. At present, many central bank digital currency (CBDC) protocols are using stablecoins.

  • Dai: Dai is a stablecoin that is pegged against USD. Here, 1 Dai = 1 USD. The stablecoin uses Ethereum based platform, and MakerDAO is governance behind it. In reality, there is no discrimination when it comes to Dai as it offers stable pricing all the time.
  • Gemini Dollar: Gemini Dollar is also pegged against the U.S. dollar. Here, it’s in a 1:1 ration to USD. More so, it offers high scalability and usability in any environment, getting rid of all volatile nature of traditional cryptos.

Want to learn the basic and advanced concepts of Stablecoin? Enroll in our Stablecoin Fundamentals Course

Online Marketplaces

Online marketplaces are another great use case of DeFi. The applications of decentralized finance help users exchange products directly without any third party. More so, it also promotes globalization when it comes to online marketplaces. You can even do freelance gigs on these applications if you want to.

  • Gitcoin: Gitcoin is a marketplace for your development work. It’s an open-source marketplace, which means all your development work here will be for the public. It offers workshops, a growing environment for your projects, and certain payouts to help you keep contributing.
  • Ethlance: It’s a different take on the blockchain, which is kind of similar to popular platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, etc. But instead of getting paid in money, you will get paid in Ether. At the moment, they are not taking any cut from your payouts, so any money you are making from it is completely yours.

Payments

Well, the primary use case of the DeFi application starts off with a peer-to-peer payments system. That’s why most of the best decentralized finance applications offer this functionality to all the users. In reality, blockchain technology is more than enough to ensure a secure and direct connection to other users without needing any third-parties.

But DeFi payments takes it to a whole new level. It’s creating a more open space for safely sending and receiving payments around the globe.

  • Request Network: It’s a payments network that uses IPFS and Ethereum. Anyhow, using this application, you can get access to standards, infrastructures for building your very own payments project.
  • Groundhog: Groundhog is an awesome toolbox developed specifically for creating subscriptions that are crypto-based. In reality, adding Groundhog to your application is a simple task with only a few lines of code. More so, you can transfer money to this wallet using any crypto wallet or a bank account.

Not sure how to build your career in enterprise blockchains? Enroll Now in How to Build Your Career in Enterprise Blockchains Course

Prediction Markets

There are many applications of decentralized finance solely built for prediction markets. In reality, these applications can easily analyze the data and consumer behaviors to successfully predict any changes.

In any case, market prices can indirectly indicate certain events. Thus, these applications analyze the situation and can offer you the results around the economic event, election results, and even sports games.

  • Augur: Who doesn’t like prediction market apps? Augur is now one of the leading prediction market applications on the market with no limit to what you can bet on. It totally is up to you on how much you want to bet on.
  • Gnosis: Gnosis is rather a platform that lets you develop prediction market solutions based on Ethereum. So, it’s more of a developer’s tool where they can get access to resources, information, and financial infrastructures.

Synthetic Assets

These are more or less related to stablecoins. In reality, these assets are a mixture of other assets such as fiat money, gold, or cryptocurrencies for offering a stable value. For example, a certain percentage or fiat money and gold can make up a synthetic asset.

Furthermore, this process helps to absorb any price shock that may happen later in the future. So, if the prices of gold fluctuated, the fiat money can back it up and make the end value stable.

  • Synthetix: Synthetix is a unique application that offers a mixture of various assets for a stable value asset. At present, it’s the backbone of derivatives trading with synthetic assets. Anyhow, Synthetix Network Token backs up every single asset on the application.

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DeFi Applications Are Changing the Future of Our Economy

DeFi apps are slowly but surely changing the economic model of the world. Even a decade ago, imagining a completely decentralized finance system was impossible. However, blockchain technology is slowly paving the way for offering us the next technological revolution. Although these applications aren’t perfect, these are still managing to replace the error-prone legacy systems.

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*Disclaimer: The article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice. Claims made in this article do not constitute investment advice and should not be taken as such. 101 Blockchains shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this article. Do your own research!

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Comment on UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Where to Find Free Body Skins to Match LAQ Skin Tones by Clip and Save: Ryan’s All-In-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life (Last Update: March 16th, 2025) – Ryan Schultz https://earlybirdsinvest.com/comment-on-updated-second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-where-to-find-free-body-skins-to-match-laq-skin-tones-by-clip-and-save-ryans-all-in-one-guide-to-freebies-in-second-life-last-up/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/comment-on-updated-second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-where-to-find-free-body-skins-to-match-laq-skin-tones-by-clip-and-save-ryans-all-in-one-guide-to-freebies-in-second-life-last-up/#respond Fri, 21 Mar 2025 02:08:20 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/comment-on-updated-second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-where-to-find-free-body-skins-to-match-laq-skin-tones-by-clip-and-save-ryans-all-in-one-guide-to-freebies-in-second-life-last-up/

Please note that I am still taking a hiatus from blogging; I only wrote this blogpost because it was the most convenient way to share a lot of detailed information, in a way people can easily refer back to. Don’t get me wrong, Primfeed is great, but stuff tends to disappear from people’s feeds very quickly, whereas a blog is more permanent! Thanks.

Have you read my first review of the LAQ Era2 SupremeUHD heads? The Elle Era2 Head from LAQ Was the Excuse I Needed to Upgrade My Avatar (please note this review was written in June 2024, before Mallory Cowen’s time-limited giveaway of free SupremeUHD heads/HUDs).

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the big news among freebie fashionistas in Second Life is that Mallory Cowen, the proprietor of LAQ, has decided, for a limited time, to give away her Erea2 SupremeUHD heads and associated HUDs for free. We do not know long Mallory intends to do this, but we can probably assume that it will be at least until the end of the Dove’s Dream shopping event, which ends April 10th, 2025.

At the time of this writing, there are three locations where you can pick up these free heads (the male James Era2 SupremeUHD head/HUD and the female Elle SupremeUHD head/HUD):

If you have been on the ball, you should have picked up no less than nine free or inexpensive female SupremeUHD skin fatpacks (i.e. all skin tones) for that free LAQ Elle SupremeUHD head which so many of you have been getting over these past few weeks:

1. the Elle skin that came with the head;

2. the Sophia skin that you get when you slap the in-store subscription sign to join the LAQ subscriber list;

3. the Emma skin (from the gift wall in the LAQ store);

4. the Eirali skin (from the gift wall);

5. the Iman skin (from the gift wall);

6. the Juliette skin (a Valentine’s Day gift, from the gift wall);

7. the Karin skin (from the LAQ booth at the Skin Fair, on now);

8. the Angelica skin (from the LAQ booth at the Dove’s Dream event, on now);

and…9. if you were on the ball, on March 12th and 13th, you snapped up the Tamara skin at the LAQ store (which was not free, but it cost only L$9 if you joined the LAQ Updates group for free; if you missed it, it’s too late now, it’s gone back to full price!). Mallory Cowen has replaced that offer with the new Stine skin, which is only L$90 this weekend if you join the LAQ Updates group—see the picture below:

Now, of course, the best match for those LAQ skin tones is body skin you purchase from the LAQ store itself (see picture 4; cost is L$300 per skin tone per mesh body brand). If you can afford to support LAQ and Mallory Cowen’s hard work (not to mention her generosity in giving away free heads and HUDs!), then you should by all means do so.

However, if you are short on Linden dollars, in this blogpost I will tell you about six different options for finding free body skin that comes pretty close to matching (if not an exact match) each of the LAQ skin tones in the fatpacks! Remember, all LAQ head skins have a built-in neck fade, which means the head and body skins do not have to be a 100% match.

First, I am going to tell you about each of the six places where you can pick up free body skin. Then, I am going to provide you with a list of which of these free body skins are a close or perfect match to each of the LAQ skin tones! As a convenience, I will also include the closest Velour Venus skin tone, which is not free, but which many people already own in at least a few skin tones.

All pictures from this point on will show you what I believe to be the best match among all the free skin options for each LAQ skin tone, using the bargain Tamara skin I picked up this week (all LAQ heads use the same skin tones, though),

Free Body Skin Option 1: Senra Jamie

The easiest option is skin which is already in your inventory—the Senra Jamie skin, which comes in six skin tones!

Free Body Skin Option 2: Nuve

Nuve offers free female body skin in 30 skin tones (human and fantasy colours) here (no group needed). This is an older version 2.0 of their body skin, but still perfectly serviceable!

Free Body Skin Option 3: Amara Beauty

Amara Beauty offers free female body skin and add-ons here (no group needed). Please note that this appears to be a temporary store location, so it might change.

Free Body Skin Option 4: Leronso

Leronso offers free body skin here (free group join). This is an older, but still perfectly serviceable, body skin, in a variety of skin tones, including some beautiful darker skin tones.

Free Body Skin Option 5: Boataom

Boataom offers an older, but still perfectly serviceable, version of their body skin for six different brands of mesh bodies here (look high up on the wall for the Group Gift sign; free group join).

Free Body Skin Option 6: LOGO Body Skins

If you picked the recent free gifts from LOGO of the Christina female head (in January 2025), or the Noelle female head (in December 2023), free body skin in 6 skin tones is included in those packages (and probably also in previous LOGO gifts, but I haven’t checked them all; be sure to get redeliveries of the older gifts, as many older heads have been upgraded to support EvoX!).

NEW March 18th, 2025! Erika Zero X2 Body Skins

I just learned there’s a brand-new update to the free Kalhene Erika Zero X mesh body, available at the N-Core/Kalhene store (exact SLURL; requires a free group join). The Erika Zero X2 (Version 3) now includes three body skins (pearl, medium, and tan), and I have included these skins in the list of matching body skins for each LAQ head skin tone, below. (Note that older versions of this freebie body had just two skin tones: medium and tan.)


LAQ Skin Tone 0.2

The closest matches are:

  • Velour Venus Frost (not free)
  • Nuve Alabaster
  • Leronso Ivory
  • Kalhene Erika Zero X2 Pearl

LAQ Skin Tone 0.5

The closest matches are:

  • Velour Venus Glam (not free)
  • Senra Jamie skin tone 1
  • Nuve Pale
  • Amara Beauty 10
  • Leronso Vanilla
  • Boataom Albina or Albina+
  • LOGO Alabaster

LAQ Skin Tone 1.0

The closest matches are:

  • Velour Venus Valley (not free)
  • Senra Jamie skin tone 2
  • Nuve Ivory
  • Amara Beauty 15
  • Leronso Beige
  • Boataom Esiana
  • LOGO Bloom
  • Kalhene Erika Zero X2 Medium

LAQ Skin Tone 1.5

The closest matches are:

  • Velour Venus Dune (not free)
  • Nuve Porcelain
  • Amara Beauty 20
  • Leronso Warm
  • LOGO Cream
  • Kalhene Erika Zero X2 Tan

LAQ Skin Tone 2.0

The closest matches are:

  • Senra Jamie skin tone 3
  • Nuve Sunkissed
  • Amara Beauty 25
  • Leronso Amber
  • Boataom Latina
  • LOGO Almond

LAQ Skin Tone 2.1

The closest matches are:

  • Senra Jamie skin tone 3
  • Amara Beauty 30
  • Leronso Golden
  • Boataom Latina

LAQ Skin Tone 2.5

The closest matches are:

  • Velour Venus Sunkiss (not free)
  • Nuve Tan
  • Amara Beauty 40
  • Leronso Almond
  • Boataom Indiana
  • LOGO Amber

LAQ Skin Tone 3.0

The closest matches are:

  • Velour Venus Brownie (not free)
  • Nuve Nougat
  • Anara Beauty 50
  • Leronso Walnnut
  • LOGO Cocoa

LAQ Skin Tone 3.1

The closest match is:

  • Velour Venus Illa (not free)

LAQ Skin Tone 3.5

The closest matches are:

  • Nuve Mocha
  • Amara Beauty 55
  • Leronso Cocoa
  • Boataom AF&AM

LAQ Skin Tone 4.0

The closest matches are:

  • Amara Beauty 65
  • Leronso Brownie

Liked it? Then please consider supporting Ryan Schultz on Patreon! Even as little as US$1 a month unlocks exclusive patron benefits. Thank you!

Become a patron at Patreon!

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Get hyped for One UI 7 with Samsung’s updated ‘Try Galaxy’ simulation https://earlybirdsinvest.com/get-hyped-for-one-ui-7-with-samsungs-updated-try-galaxy-simulation/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/get-hyped-for-one-ui-7-with-samsungs-updated-try-galaxy-simulation/#respond Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:37:03 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/get-hyped-for-one-ui-7-with-samsungs-updated-try-galaxy-simulation/

What you need to know

  • Samsung was spotted pushing an update for the Try Galaxy app, which now lets users playtest its One UI 7 enhancements.
  • Users will find access a simulation of the Now Brief, redesigned app icons, and its refreshed Quick Settings panel changes.
  • The Try Galaxy app was originally for Apple’s iPhones, but it has since brought its simulation over to Android.
  • Samsung confirmed One UI 7 will launch for eligible devices in April.

Samsung is pushing an update for its demo-focused app that might generate some hype around its major Android update.

A post by SamMobile highlights a recent update to the Try Galaxy app that lets users on past-gen Galaxy devices, and other Android phones, demo One UI 7’s features. The app’s official page reflects its recent update of Samsung’s upcoming Android 15-based update. For what to expect, Try Galaxy will simulate some of the newest core systems on your device, like the Now Brief.

The publication’s test details a the Now Brief widget is available in this app’s demo for your home screen. The small, pill-shaped widget displays some quick information externally before expanding fully once tapped. This experience is exactly what you’d see on a Galaxy S25. Users tapping the widget will receive a simulated briefing packed with weather information, your “schedule,” and more.

The playtest also gives users a taste of Samsung’s quick panel overhaul. The Quick Settings panel and your notifications panel are now separate in One uI 7. This was something the company teased during SDC 2024 before it debuted on the latest flagship trio.

Samsung has updated its Try Galaxy app with a simulation of One UI 7.

(Image credit: Samsung)

The One UI 7 simulation also features some smaller software pieces like Samsung’s complete icon rework. Galaxy’s upcoming app drawer redesign is also included in the Try Galaxy demo, per the publication. Users can head to the official website, scan the QR code, and begin downloading the simulation on Android and iOS.

Funnily enough, Samsung’s Try Galaxy app was previously only available for Apple’s iPhones as a way to, well, get them to switch. The app would simulate the Android experience on its recent smartphones and even its foldables.

However, the company finally brought its Try Galaxy app to Android users. The move was made as Samsung stepped into its “era of mobile AI.” Many of the core Galaxy AI features were present during that test, as well as the company’s One UI 6.1 update for interested users. The Galaxy AI playtest let users experiment with Live Translate, Note Assist, and Chat Assist among others.

As if we needed to be more ready for One UI 7, this Try Galaxy update is rolling out (perhaps) a month before the software goes live. Samsung recently confirmed that, after a series of critical delays, One UI 7 should launch for eligible Galaxy devices in April. Meanwhile, it just started its first beta program for the Flip 6 and Fold 6.

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New collateral options and updated haircuts for derivative transactions https://earlybirdsinvest.com/new-collateral-options-and-updated-haircuts-for-derivative-transactions/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/new-collateral-options-and-updated-haircuts-for-derivative-transactions/#respond Thu, 27 Feb 2025 22:02:24 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/new-collateral-options-and-updated-haircuts-for-derivative-transactions/

Derivatives is expanding its multi-chorale trading suite with new collateral currencies, updated haircuts and significant changes to existing assets. These updates will allow Kraken Pro traders to have more flexibility in managing their positions and hedge risks in dynamic markets. Read what’s new, how collateral from Kraken Pro Derivatives works, and what it means to you.

At a glance:

  • AAVE, CAD, DAI, Near, Mana, Render, Rune, STX, Sui, Tao, XLM, and XTZ are now available as collateral that can be moved to derivative wallets.
  • BTC and ETH haircuts are declining. Others are currently tailored to spot margin levels, providing a consistent trading experience and making collateral easier to manage across both products (see here).
  • PYUSD is scheduled to be delisted as collateral.
  • AUD and CAD expand the number of Fiat currencies available with 0% haircuts.

Summary: “Haircuts” and multifaceted derivative trading

We will support Multicoratal Derivative trading means that a variety of assets can be deposited as collateral in a “driver wallet.” Apply a specific “haircut” (reduced effective value) to a specific crypto-secured asset based on the volatile profile. Essentially, if you want to use a crypto assurance as collateral, a small portion of its value is considered unavailable in the margin, but this does not affect the actual value of the asset or cover the fee. Haircuts also apply to unrealized profits/losses and funds, helping to maintain the safety margins of your trading system.

learn more:

New collateral assets

The 12 Fiat assets and crypto assets listed here have significantly expanded collateral options along with haircuts.

assets Haircut
CAD 0%
Ghost 20%
near
give
Rune
stx
sui
Tao
XTZ

Changes to haircuts

We also updated haircuts for many existing assets. A lower haircut generally means that more of the value of the asset can be used as collateral, while a higher haircut shows a more conservative rating.

Reduce haircuts

The next asset included collateral haircut reductions.

assets New haircut
aud 0%
BTC 1%
CHF 0%
ETH 1%
EUR 0%
GBP 0%
USDC 0.5%
USDT 0.5%

Haircut extensions

The next asset was a collateral haircut extension.

assets New haircut
Ada 7.5%
atom 10%
avax 10%
Doge 7.5%
fil 20%
GRT 20%
Inji 20%
KSM 20%
link 10%
Mina 20%
TRX 10%

What should you keep in mind?

It is important to note that collateral assets transferred to derivative wallets and used to open futures positions cannot be exchanged for other currencies or withdrawn while the position is open. These assets remain reserved as collateral and appear to be account balances, but are restricted from trading or withdrawing to a spot wallet until the position is closed. You can check the availability of your collateral assets at any time on the Derivatives Portfolio tab.

Payward Digital Solutions Ltd. is licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority to carry out its digital asset business. Using leverage to trade futures, derivatives and other equipment includes factors of risk and may not be suitable for everyone. For more information, please read Kraken Derivatives’ risk disclosure.

These materials are for general information purposes only and are not investment advice or recommendations or solicitations to purchase, sell, bet or hold CryptoAssets or engage in any particular trading strategy. Kraken does not work to raise or lower the prices of certain CryptoAssets that become available. Some crypto products and markets are regulated, while others are not regulated. Anyway, Kraken may or may not need to be registered or permitted to provide specific products and services in each market, and is not protected by government compensation and/or regulatory protection schemes. The unpredictable nature of the CryptoAsset market can lead to losses of funds. Taxes may be paid for returns and/or increased value of crypto assets, and you must seek independent advice on your tax position. Geographical restrictions may apply. Please see this legal disclosure by jurisdiction.

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