Gold! $22/oz in 1930 and $1000/oz in 2008. Same price really, if you remove the effects of inflation. There is so little of it around though now. Silver is even scarcer! If 50 000 middle-class Japanese families invested $100 000 US. each, they could buy all the visible above ground stocks on the planet. Amazing! But what is truly amazing is that so few westerners bother with it? Silver is at its lowest price-give or take a dollar- in all recorded history. Back in 1477 it peaked at $806 an ounce (adjusted for todays value).
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But who will keep 20 or 30 kilos in the shed, no one. It's a useless investment they say, the price never goes up they say. These are the same people who live of credit cards and would be lucky to have $1000 in the bank, or under the floor boards. But you are right, gold is best. If it's good enough for the Rothschilds, it is good enough for me.
"What is e-gold? e-gold is the first electronic currency that unleashes the potential of worldwide e-commerce. From Azerbaijan to Zaire, e-gold is the largest, fastest growing, privately issued currency in the world. e-gold is World Wide Money.
E-Gold is gold circulating on the internet. Maybe more correct to say it is the ownership of gold used to buy and sell over the internet. The website tells you how to turn your "funny" money, not backed by gold, into a currency that is directly linked with the price of GOLD and which appreciates with GOLD as its directly linked to the commodity.
E-Gold is the store of wealth in cases when inflation and other circumstances had caused credibility loss in the Federal government and the paper they print so eagerly lately.
Silver, Gold, art, food, land and real properties do and must take over in those cases.
Before you click through to the e-gold site, here is a quick summary of e-gold. When you get there you will be able explore the site and verify the information for yourself.
The Gold community centers around the use of GOLD (AUG) as a worldwide digital currency. The focal point of this community is presently e-Gold Limited which is the primary issuer of digital currency, although new competitors in the field such as E-bullion.com are now offering gold digital currencies as well.
The foundational currencies to the Gold Economy are 100% backed by gold bars held in secure vaults in locations around the world, such as London, Zurich, and Dubai. Should any holder of a gold digital currency require their equivalent value of gold holdings, they are redeemable in actual gold bars or can be converted to national currencies by exchange agents.
E-gold is second only to PayPal in popularity. They've actually been around longer than PayPal (they're the original online money transfer service). The biggest selling point of eGold is that all online currency is backed 100% by real world gold. In fact, members can even cash in their eGold for real gold. Carrying it around might be a little difficult but gold is nice because of it's immunity to inflation. Also, we realize a lot of people have sexual confusion related to bullion, making e-gold the perfect choice.
Egold is a payment service similar to PayPal but with a few significant differences:
| It's easy to see why gold was humanity's currency of choice for all those centuries. It doesn't tarnish or rust. It exists in limited quantity, making it hard for governments to manipulate. And it looks and feels comforting, a kind of metallic analogue of ice cream and chocolate. Converted into bits in this way, gold once again becomes a viable -- some would say vastly superior -- kind of money. Conceptually, it works like this: You transfer some dollars or euros or whatever to a firm that buys gold for you and deposits it in a super-safe vault. You then make payments from this account via credit card or PC, and the gold -- without ever leaving the vault -- is credited to the recipient's account. |
Because of these factors, it is common for people to open egold accounts with large purchases and then sell them in smaller blocks to investors who can't come up with the minimum purchase. There are also sellers who accept egold for their auctions. If you win one of their auctions and don't want to open an egold account, you might pay an existing account holder who accepts paypal to act as a middleman and ask him to then pay your seller.
e-gold is accounted by weight of metal, not US$ or any other national currency unit. Weight units have a precise, invariable, internationally recognized definition. Additionally, precious metals, gold in particular, enjoy a long history of monetary use around the world. Thus, e-gold is ideally suited for international transactions.
Although e-gold is accounted by weight, the e-gold payment system allows Spends to be expressed in terms of a number of major national currencies.
For example, it's possible to:This means (for example) that a Canadian can pay a German or a Japanese can pay an Australian the correct weight of gold (e-gold) for a good or service as easily as if the price had been quoted in his own national currency.
All financial value will migrate to cyberspace over the next few years. e-gold is ready so that you can be too.
e-gold is borderless - e-gold may be Spent to any other e-gold account anywhere in the world via the e-gold shopping cart interface (SCI), the e-gold Account Manager, or web enabled mobile phone.
e-gold is quick -e-gold payments clear instantaneously (with no chargeback risk), no matter how large the payment, no matter how far apart the Spender and Recipient.
e-gold is cost effective -Spending e-gold is free, even if your recipient is on the other side of the world.
Recipient pays only 1% of the transaction amount for Spends less than or equal to US $50 worth of e-gold. e-gold is well suited (and e-silver is ideal) for micropayments.
Recipient pays a flat USD 50 cents worth of e-gold for Spends greater than US $50 worth of e-gold, no matter how large the payment. The e-gold Agio fee, based on average daily balance, is only 1% per annum.
The simplest way to look at the E-Currency systems is not as a real 'currency' such as the U.S. dollar, Euro, or the Yen, since those are actual currencies created and backed by their respective governments. You can't exactly go to a currency conversion booth in France and ask to exchange your Euros for E-Gold (one of the E-Currency systems). Rather, E-Currencies are "stored value units", in a sense, they are digital widgets! You buy some digital widgets from a particular E-Currency System and use them in whatever manner you wish. Your concern would be that whatever particular use you had in mind - such as sending the widgets to a friend in Iceland, for example - that the person on the other end will accept your widgets for their stored value.
Should people or governments be concerned about what you do with your "digital widgets"? Even if these E-Currency systems were actual currencies, what would be the concern as to how you use or convert them? If you were an American on vacation and flew to France and went to a currency conversion booth and changed $1,000 U.S. into the Euro equivalent, what concern is it of either the American or French governments? As mentioned, E-Currencies are not actual government backed currencies and therefore are not related to any particular government currency, per se.
The E-Currency industry came about in an effort, I believe, to circumvent the restrictions of using hard currencies in dealing with international business. Additionally, the aspect of transaction privacy seems to be of import to those using E-Currencies also. By transferring funds to your E-Currency account, you can then easily transfer them to someone else's account with the expectation of having very good privacy and anonymity, depending on the E-Currency used. Finally, the speed of transfer is quite fast with E-Currencies, from one account to another. So if you were in the U.S. and wanted to purchase something from someone in Italy and an E-Currency that you use was an option, you would probably choose that payment transfer method rather than a bank wire. It would seem that these three factors, (1) the need for a common currency rather than dealing with conversion issues between various hard currencies; (2) privacy of transaction and (3) speed of transaction, are the main reasons for the existence of the E-Currency industry. Which of those 3 factors is most important depends on the individual using the E-Currency systems.
E-Gold (www.e-gold.com) is currently the largest E-Currency provider, with over 500,000 customers worldwide. They have been in operation since July, 1996. At no time, I am aware of, has any government of any country accused an E-Currency of doing anything illegal by that country's laws and statutes. At no time has any International body, such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, or Interpol accused any E-Currency of violating any International laws.
On January 1st 2004 E-gold changed their fees (or more precisely increased them) - check here for details: http://www.e-gold.com/unsecure/fees.htm.
There is no change in that only the receiver is charged fees.
Secondly, it makes sense that the new e-gold fees are not defined in terms of USD, where as previously the maximum fee was 50 cents. The new maximum spend fee is 0.05 Grams of Gold (AUG), which is equal to $0.65 at today's exchange rate.
Thirdly, they have introduced minimum spend amount of 0.0004 Grams of Gold (AUG), equal to about half a cent ($0.0053) at today's exchange rate.
For spends over 1 Gram of Gold (AUG) equivalent to about $13.07 at today's exchange rate, the rate is 1% or less, equal to the maximum rate of $0.66 at today's exchange rate.
Advantages: The e-gold payment system should become more responsive as users will be reluctant to pay charges of up to 55% on spends worth less than a dollar.
Disadvantages: E-gold becomes a more costly medium to use. E-bullion becomes a more cost effective alternative for transfers over $25.
It's often easier to illustrate using examples, so we will start with Danny. Danny is in Phoenix, Arizona - just testing the water, having never used digital gold. He is aware that the encrypted email provider Hushmail accepts e-gold, and he wants to use this payment method to pay them $100 for services, rather than having a link to Hushmail on his credit card statement.
First he will need a throw-away email account, or at least one not directly related to him. With this, he will sign up for an e-gold account, which will be opened online in seconds.
Then he locates the website of a suitable exchanger. In this case, let's assume he selects an exchanger based in Florida, and their fee for this transaction is 4%. He buys a money order for cash in Phoenix for $104, mails it to the exchanger, and within a few days they have received it and transferred $100 to his e-gold account.
Then all he has to do is log in to his email account, transfer the money to Hushmail's e-gold account, and voila! Transaction completed.
If Danny is really security conscious he can now ditch the e-gold account and use a new one for the next transaction, but that's probably unnecessary. He can keep the same account for the coming months and maybe use it to receive some money anonymously for little trades he fulfills on Ebay.
Rory from Dublin, Ireland already has an e-gold account and wants to use it to transfer funds to his secret account in Latvia. Obviously if he wires the funds directly from Ireland, that would not look good.
Instead, he visits the websites of some exchange businesses and locates several which he thinks would be suitable: in the UK, the USA and Australia. Wires to these countries, he figures, will not attract attention because they fit into the normal pattern of his business, and are not headed for known offshore locations.
Over the course of some months, he randomly sends wires and bank drafts of between $3,000 and $7,000 from his business accounts at several different Irish banks, to each of these three exchangers. On receipt of the money, they credit his e-gold account as instructed. All in all, he wires out maybe $100,000.
At the same time, he has located another couple of reputable exchangers located in Estonia and Finland to complete the other end of the transaction. Periodically, Rory logs in to his e-gold account and makes a transfer to the accounts of these exchangers, then he fires off an encrypted email to them giving his Latvian bank details. The exchangers send Euros to Rory's Latvian bank account.
Of course, if the Irish tax authorities were really desperate to unravel this set of transactions they could. But it would require court orders in the UK, USA, Australia, Estonia and Finland, and it is very unlikely they would bother.
For extra security, Rory could pay a nominal fee (perhaps 1%) to a straw man who would claim ownership of the e-gold account if required, and he would have a contract with Rory for consultancy services, programming work, website design or something similarly intangible.
How much does this cost Rory? Buying and selling of e-gold depends on market conditions, but a fair estimate suggests that he could get quite a decent rate by emailing the exchangers in advance and explaining that he needs to make regular transactions. In this case he might be able to pay 2% in and 1% out. That's a total of 3% (ignoring any movements in the gold price) which we think is a very reasonable price to pay for the privacy afforded.
Note that in the above case, if Rory is simply transferring his own, tax-paid savings, then he is doing absolutely nothing illegal. Like most civilized countries, Ireland has no restrictions on what you can and can't do with money you have legitimately earned.
But if he is involved in making false tax declarations or trying to avoid court orders, the above process could quickly be construed as money laundering. Needless to say, we strongly recommend against that. If you do everything in good time when you have no tax emergencies or claims pending, then you can do everything by the book and totally legally. Much better.
Giles is seriously, independently wealthy. His family founded one of London's landmark department stores and made their fortune before selling out to an international chain. Giles is British but now lives in Monaco. Giles would like to keep some assets in gold, as part of a diversified portfolio. But he's what his friends call a privacy freak so he wants to avoid buying it through the more conventional channels.
Because what he wants is a long-term holding, he decides to go for GoldMoney rather than e-gold because of their better corporate governance. He opens an account with them, named G-WIDGET ACCOUNT, and provides them, unbeknown to her, with a copy of the passport of his Filipina maid.
He locates an exchanger in nearby France and calls him on the phone. Although the exchanger doesn't normally take cash, he's a small businessman out to make a buck and sees now harm in doing so, given the profit potential of the situation Giles offers him.
Giles therefore loads up 100,000 euros in his car, drives to meet the exchanger, and the transaction is carried out then and there. Giles watches as the exchanger transfers the GoldMoney to G-WIDGET, and then he logs in from his laptop as a double check.
The transaction goes well and Giles makes a mental note to repeat this transaction soon and increase his holding in GoldMoney.
There are quite a number of exchangers which make it their business to get your money into and out of the digital gold systems. Most are small businesses and are not related to the companies managing the actual systems.
Some of these outfits are better than others. If in doubt, check the list at http://www.golddirectory.com.
The other issue to consider is that exchange providers are subject to different regulations in different countries. For example, those in the USA are treated as money transfer businesses and are required to obtain ID on clients for most transactions. Nonetheless, you might still want to use a US exchanger, though, if you are doing business in the US - obviously getting money to and from them in such a case would be quicker, cheaper, and more private than using a foreign exchanger. PTs know how to be creative and solve the ID problem.
Some of the exchangers in other countries are prepared to conduct business anonymously but they will need to be reassured that you are not just another internet fraudster or hacker trying to launder your ill-gotten gains. We suggest you email several and only deal with those you seem comfortable with, who are on your wavelength.
E-gold has spent nothing on advertising, but its account base is already larger than some Internet-only banks that lay out millions of dollars on marketing. e-gold is succeeding where other electronic payment initiatives are failing because it is designed specifically for worldwide eCommerce. All others merely add additional layers of liability to legacy systems. The promise of the Internet - elimination of barriers to the free and instant flow of information and value - is being fulfilled.
This is an obvious question to which any prudent user requires an answer. Since you cannot physically see or touch the gold, how can you be sure it really exists? How can you be sure you are not just placing blind faith on someone's word? (as is the case for example when you pass US dollars around).
But there is no general answer to this question digital gold as a whole. There are a number of competing digital gold systems and some are more secure than others. Before using them, it is important to carry out due diligence and satisfy yourself as to the authenticity of claims. Clearly the amount of time and effort you put into this will vary depending on whether you are depositing $100 or $1 million.
What we really like to see is an independent, regularly updated third party audit by a trusted name such as a major accounting firm. At the moment, there is only one digital gold system which offers this: GoldMoney, which is audited by Deloitte and Touche. Additionally their gold is stored in the UK by a third party of international repute - the secure storage company ViaMat - who are able to confirm this.
Therefore, we consider GoldMoney to be the best for long-term storage of value if that is your objective.
E-Gold has published audits in the past but they are now out-of-date. Nonetheless, e-gold is a well-established system that our associates have been using for several years without any problem. On the internet reputation is everything because bad news travels very fast - and e-gold has developed an excellent reputation. Therefore we can cautiously but responsibly recommend it.
At present Digital Gold is a relatively free economy, small enough to be unregulated. Because it is so international in scope, it would be very hard for any government to regulate. Most governments have no idea it even exists.
There is no known reporting of transactions within Digital Gold systems. However at the time you are cashing in or out, your transactions do have to go through the regular banking system of some country or another, and there of course they could be monitored.
We imagine that all systems will keep permanent records of the IP address (that of your internet provider) so anyone with access to those records will be able to ascertain exactly where the transaction was made from. We can also assume that they monitor the part of the world you are in. For example, if you have an address in the USA on file but the account is accessed from the Ukraine, that could be cause for further investigation.
The other issue you need to be aware of is security. If a hacker or Big Brother has installed a malicious program such as a keyboard logger on your system, it would be possible for them to steal your passwords. But of course this risk applies to all forms of internet banking, not just to Digital Gold. It is therefore very important for users to maintain good levels of computer security (see the separate chapter on computer security).
What is a typical transaction size? Most digital gold transactions will be relatively small, but low five figure dollar amounts are not unusual and should pass below the radar. Six or seven figure transactions (over $100,000) certainly happen quite often too, but they are probably big enough to stand out and maybe receive some extra attention. If you were seeking privacy, you would not want that unless you had a well-established account with a history of larger transactions.
If you want to learn even more on digital gold currencies and Egold, check out these two PDF booklets here and here (note: you will need Adobe Reader to open/read them).
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