| The International
Gold Community Digital Currencies: e-Gold, Gold-Grams, Standard Dollars,
Standard Gold, e-Bullion, & Hansa Dollars |
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| Articles
From The Gold Economy Magazine |
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| The International
Gold Community |
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| 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 GoldMoney.com
and E-bullion.com are now offering
gold digital currencies as well. |
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| 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. |
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| The focus
of the community is to conduct international commerce using a digital currency
that has value to people of every nationality. |
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| No
matter what language you speak, from the peaks of Nepal to downtown Manhattan,
all cultures and tribes know in the depths of their being that gold is
good, gold is beautiful, gold is enduring, and when it comes right down
to it they will accept gold as money. |
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| Since the
metric system is universally recognized, the natural global currency would
be gold denominated in grams. To allow small transactions and making change,
this currency is divisible to at least one thousandth of a gram (mil)
or smaller. One gram of gold trades for roughly $10 these days, so
one mil would be roughly equivalent in value to one penny. |
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| The digital
gold community is expanding rapidly. There are now several issuers of Gold
Currency (AUG). Issuers underwrite a currency or means of exchange,
each for different purposes, but all use Gold as their redeemable value.
There are now more people than ever people using digital Gold as a tool
to build their businesses and to make international commerce safer and
more efficient. |
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| The gold reserve
backing this community has been growing at a rate of over 10% a month for
more than a year. As of October, 2001, the total gold reserve represented
by e-gold, E-bullion, and GoldMoney is greater than that of 45 member countries
of the IMF, and exceeds 35 tons of gold. |
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| This is a
guide to the players in the community and how they work together to provide
a global financial network that is easy to use. |
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| Issuers
(Underwriters) |
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| Issuers are
operators of digital currencies that issue value to customers and provide
an accounting interface online for holders of the currency to record their
own purchases of currency, spending of that currency to others, receipt
of currency from others and for recoding fee payments to the currency operator.
The issuing company is responsible for maintaining an asset of underlying
value, properly accounting for all currency activities, and ensuring the
access of data relating to the currency is always available to the customer.
You
can view a list of digital currency issuers here - |
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| The Currencies |
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| There are
now several digital currencies available for use on the Internet, each
with its own market niche. |
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| e-gold – This
digital currency is gold denominated in troy ounces and is issued by the
company of the same name, E-gold, Ltd., of Nevis. E-gold was the
first digital gold currency, making its debut in 1996. There are
now over 60,000 oz of e-gold issued as digital currency. The gold
bullion itself is stored in vaults in London, Zurich, and Dubai. |
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| GoldGrams
– This currency is issued by GoldMoney, Inc., a Bahamas Corporation.
GoldGrams are denominated in grams of fine gold, and the bullion bars are
stored in the ViaMat vault in London. |
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| Standard Gold
- This currency is backed by Standard Reserve and powered by Standard Transactions.
This currency is denominated in grams of fine gold and is backed by e-gold
on a one to one basis. (1 gram of Standard Gold is backed by 1
gram of e-gold.) Standard Reserve offers an offshore debit card
through which you can spend your digital gold at ATM machines and POS terminals. |
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| Standard Dollar
– This currency is basically a digital form of the US Dollar. Standard
Reserve holds one dollar in the bank for every Standard Dollar issued.
The close relationship between Standard Dollars and Standard Gold allows
the two to be easily converted from one to the other. |
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| E-bullion
– E-bullion is the newest digital gold currency, with bullion storage vaults
in the US and Panama. E-bullion offers an offshore debit card through
which you can spend your digital gold at ATM machines and POS terminals. |
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| Hansa Dollar
– The Hansa dollar is a new digital form of the US Dollar backed by Hansa
Bank in Anguilla (Easter Carribean). This system is a form
of digital cash rather than an account based system. |
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| Exchange
Agents |
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| Exchange Agents,
also called "Market Makers" or "Cambios", create a market
between local national currencies and digital currencies such as e-Gold,
DigiGold, goldgrams, SR-AUG and SR-USD. |
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| There are
now exchange agents located in many countries around the world. These include
the USA, Australia, Canada, Anguilla, Argentina, New Zealand, Russia, Estonia,
and many more to come. An exchange agent is a private business that will
sell customers digital currency, such as e-gold, or will buy a customer's
digital currency with a national currency such as the US Dollar. |
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| Exchange Agents
set their own rates and deal with specific national currencies. For example,
market makers in Australia deal with Australian Dollars, Australian Credit
and Debit Card payments, and checks to enable customers to obtain digital
currencies. This enables customers to do business with merchants and other
businesses anywhere in the world. Exchange Agents also offer various services
and conveniences to their customers such as cashing out digital currency
with a bank wire, ACH deposit, cash withdrawal at a large bank, or allowing
you to pay your monthly bills directly with digital currency. |
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| Merchants |
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| Merchants
that accept E-Gold, DigiGold, SR-AUG, and goldgrams are on the increase.
Merchants are finding that the primary advantages to accepting digital
currencies for payment include no-chargebacks from credit card companies,
instant and final clearing of funds at the time of sale, greatly reduced
levels of attempted fraud, and cheaper international transfer rates. |
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| There are
now several affiliate programs that pay in e-gold. Earn e-gold by participating
in these programs. You first of all need to open an E-gold Account if you
do not have one. Then go to the affiliate programs listings. Select the
one you want to promote, sign-up and earn. Merchants who wish to start
accepting digital currencies for payment can find help from several companies
that provide integrations services for e-commerce sites. Or the merchant
can do it himself by consulting the payment API’s for e-gold, Standard
Reserve, and GoldMoney. |
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| People |
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| The primary
obstacle to free trade on the Internet has been the lack of a simple person
to person payment system. Since most individuals cannot accept credit card
payments how do you send money to someone in another town or on the other
side of the world? |
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| Private digital
currencies such as e-gold and others provide a simple, reliable, and secure
way to make payments from one person to another via the Internet, mobile
phone, or PDA. |
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| Furthermore,
Standard Transactions now makes it possible for individuals to have their
paychecks directly deposited into a digital currency account, from which
they can withdraw their money from ATM machines around the world, or spend
it online as a digital currency. |
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| There are
several auction systems where individual auctioneers are using e-gold or
other digital currencies for payment. A list of known auctions is provided
at this link - |
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| Tens of thousands
of people now hold and use Gold digital currencies. This is about to explode
as new developments are implemented the world over. |
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