I have to say, when I saw the concept for Gold Exchange yesterday, I was excited. No more having to wait for someone to pick up your particular trades, which often relied upon being able to find and keep buyers, who generally demanded extra resources for their purchases.
However, I've just checked it out in-game. I didn't originally spot the "taxation" section, as it's hidden at the bottom of the wiki page (not a surprise, given that it's guaranteed to be unpopular). This new system takes gold out of the system: if we take the example of Sandbox 2, it costs 53 gold to buy 2000 stone, however if you sell 2000 stone, you only get 45 gold. InnoGames is effectively taking a commission off the gold trade, when the original gold trade incarnation meant that all the gold involved in resource trades stayed in the playerbase.
You've slightly increased the gold availability to players, at the cost of taking a noticeable commission. This new system also removes the possibility of trading gold from one player to another, such as can happen when players decide to leave the game, finish using a particular game account, or simply want to help a friend be able to afford advisors.
@Arci /
@sieperka /
@Bernard - is there a particular reason why InnoGames has decided that it's in the interest of the players for InnoGames to make a change that allows them to profiteer from gold trading?