3rd Runner Up:
Liberty Dollar Sues US Government and Gets Raided

A company based in Evansville, Indiana, Liberty Dollar has been in operation since 1998 with its currency backed by precious metals like gold, silver, platinum and copper. In 2006, The Justice Department prosecutors has determined that using Liberty Dollar as circulating currency is a Federal crime.

Bernard von NotHaus, owner of Liberty Dollar counters by suing the US Government in March seeking a declaratory judgment that circulating Liberty Dollars as a voluntary barter currency is not a federal crime and an injunction barring the Defendants from publicly or privately declaring the Liberty Dollar an illegal currency.

On November 14th 2007, Liberty Dollar’s offices were raided (You can see the FBI search warrant for Liberty Dollar here). Their forum was closed, but from one of our DigitalMoneyWorld readers, this was presented

For approximately six hours they took all the gold, all the silver, all the platinum and almost two tons of Ron Paul Dollars that where just delivered last Friday. They also took all the files, all the computers and froze our bank accounts.

We have no money. We have no products. We have no records to even know what was ordered or what you are owed. We have nothing but the will to push forward and overcome this massive assault on our liberty and our right to have real money as defined by the US Constitution. We should not to be defrauded by the fake government money.

But to make matters worse, all the gold and silver that backs up the paper certificates and digital currency held in the vault at Sunshine Mint has also been confiscated. Even the dies for mint the Gold and Silver Libertys have been taken.
more at link

Bernard follows up with an update on the situation of the raids as well as interesting conversations with the FBI agents who worked undercover at LD recently.

The hearing continues.

2nd Runner Up:
Gold Passes 800 Dollars an Ounce

Gold has breached $800 an ounce this year in November (That’s alot of news in November!), hits 28 year peak. Amidst the current weak dollar and more people pouring into commodities to protect their assets since gold is considered one of the safe haven, we’ll continue to see gold pushing forward whilst the dollar gets even weaker.

So have you decided to keep some gold yet?

*Drum rolls on the winner*

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Why is it a bad idea to accept PayPal in exchange for a digital gold currency like e-gold?

According to the May Scale, PayPal is ’soft’ money and the transactions are reversible. E-gold is digital gold currency and considered ‘hard’ money…all transactions are final.

Generally, a person would not want to exchange hard money for a ’soft’ money reversible method of payment.

Who has more risk, …..A person offering cash US Dollars and accepting a personal check or the person writing the check? Which money is harder?

Why are credit card cash advances considered riskier carrying a higher transaction fees and interest rate?  That might be considered a bad exchange, giving out ‘hard’ cash dollars for cream cheese ’soft’ credit card transactions.  You better check the scale below.

Why is it a bad decision to accept a personal check or credit card in exchange for e-gold?

DISPLAY ORDER NOW SIMPLIFIED - The folder interface now sorts Location and Type nicknames, making it much easier to control the display order. Formerly there were buttons to move items up and down in the list, but that is unnecessarily complex and cumbersome. Most of the time you just want to see locations and types sorted alphabetically, but if you need to force a name to the top of a list, you can put a space ‘ ‘ at the front of the name.

COMING SOON: HISTORY - Soon a simple history feature will be available to keep track of recent asset moves in your folder. Only the folder owner can view this history. By default, history items will expire after some period of time such as 90 days, but users will be able to extend the period if desired. The history option can also be turned off altogether, and in that case the folder interface will look exactly as it does today. Once deleted, that history is not recoverable from the server.

Note again that history is only stored in your folder, and only you can view it. Its sole purpose is to make your accounting life a little easier. Without the history feature, whenever you made a transaction, you had to enter a record of it into your accounting system right away to avoid forgetting what happened. Now with the history feature, users have a simple record of recent transactions, and may enter them into an accounting system at their leisure. History records will gradually expire automatically so you aren’t burdened with thousands of transaction records lingering forever.

The Loom software is operated at Loom.cc and Loomster.net

Some very exciting news from the Webmoney team…. Their new digital GOLD currency, WMGold, is now live. (WMG purse) .

All funds located in a WMG purse are 100% backed by gold bullion. The main agent I’m directed to is Metdeal.com and the price per gram (bid-ask) is posted on their web site. Or if your Russian is good, visit WebMoney exchanger wm.exchanger.ru. It will also soon be possible to buy gold using other authorized e-currency exchange services and the usual variety of payment methods.

Currency rates inside the Webmoney system will remain on the same exchange mode as they have always been. However, since the price of gold moves each day, the price of a WMGold unit will fluctuate. Transacting an exchange between existing Webmoney currency- WMZ, WME, WMR and others will also be on a floating rate, as the value national currency remains constant in their system and gold fluctuates.

To open a WMG purse, you will have to download the awesome new version of the Webmoney Keeper software which includes WMG. I’m setting it up now and should have some grams later today so we will definitely have more news and information later this week.

Webmoney registration is free and you can use the account immediately - so get started today. For existing WM-users: Download Keeper Classic Current version: 3.5.0.1 Sign in to Keeper Light

Exchange agents desiring to buy WMG need to become a MetDeal Partner, which requires some of the usual WM Passport verification paperwork and a new style contract. All Webmoney agents and business affiliates must complete some paperwork in order to transact business in WMG. Its always good to see a financial company clearly identifying who is offering their products.

Luckily for WMG agents Metdeal.com has only a $1,000 USD minimum purchase so a lot of both large and smaller agents will be participating.

For all of you readers wondering if delivery of your WMG can be arranged, Yes…from their web:

To get Gold , you need to to send a request to WM Metals FZE with a subject “Requesting Gold Delivery” and stipulate the following:

1. Gold net weight you wish to obtain.
2. WMID and G-Purse number.
3. Preferable date of getting gold bullions.

Delivery Instructions together with the Invoice will be sent to you. Gold is issued in the United Arab Emirates in a form of gold bullions available to WM Metals FZE.

Metdeal FZE is a registered United Arab Emirates Company and licensed accordingly for the purchase and sale of precious metals (primarily gold). Metdeal FZE undertakes a required annual financial audit. Gold storage and transportation is carried out by licensed depositories as per international rules and standards. All operations are performed with gold bullion as per worldwide quality standards and purity of not less than 995.0 ( nine hundred ninety-five point zero).

Just in case you are wondering, the web site is available in English and Russian.

This is a remarkable product the Webmoney team has created. Using cash from hundreds of thousands of walk in locations worldwide you will be able to purchase digital gold.

…continued from part 1

(Q) Who would you consider to be your main competition and why?

There is no system quite like Liberty Reserve, which combines superior account privacy, excellent political jurisdiction, irrevocable payments, and state of the art security.

(Q) Are there any limits to how much money I can fund into a Liberty Reserve account? Are there any limits to the volume of transactions clients can perform?

There are no limits for regular accounts. However, because there are certain financial freedom restricting laws that passed or are contemplated in countries such as Australia and the United States, Liberty Reserve may, in some way, limit the volume, balance, or certain privileges (such as ability to gamble) of accounts of clients in those countries. Any such changes would, of course, be announced in advance, and at no time would Liberty Reserve freeze the value in any account for any reason except receipt of a legitimate court order.

(Q) Your information states that customer accounts all times 100% backed by U.S. dollars for LR-USD accounts and gold bullion for LR-gold accounts? Do you offer any audited balance information or do you have future plans to show monthly or quarterly how much is in the vault?

In the near future, Liberty Reserve will publish an independent accountant’s report, verifying the aggregate value Liberty Reserve’s assets held in trust for its customers, and matching that information to the total balances in Liberty Reserve accounts. This will occur without even the accountant knowing personal information in the accounts, only the balances.

(Q) How long has Liberty Reserve been a member of the GDCA and why do you feel that is important?

The Global Digital Currencies Association - www.gdcaonline.org - is the only industry watchdog that consists of voluntary members that agree to be bound by GDCA decisions during arbitration with customers and it allows customers to file complaints against members (and non-members for that matter). We are happy to say that we have no unresolved complaints at the GDCA.

(Q) I am now using Moneybookers and e-gold to accept client funds. Why should I try out or switch to Liberty Reserve?

Liberty Reserve is a true digital currency, completely outside of the United States and other countries that restrict personal financial freedom, including Liberty Reserve’s servers. e-gold cannot say that, and we see, in recent events, where that led to. As for Moneybookers, they are not a true digital currency because they do not allow, like PayPal, the free exchange of their “currency” with other digital currencies, and, like PayPal, they freeze accounts without any court order. This I can tell you from my own experience and the experience of others. Liberty Reserve is also a long-time member of the Global Digital Currencies Association, an industry watchdog that ensures that customers do not get cheated and allows users to file complaints and request arbitration.

(Q) Do you maintain any sort of directory displaying Liberty Reserve businesses and helping to promote agents and companies which currently accept Liberty Reserve?

Liberty Reserve actively seeks to promote any legitimate merchant that accepts Liberty Reserve. We have a directory where merchants that bear our logo may request to be listed.

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Back in May, I wrote an article “Who’s Still Alive? 20 E-gold Agent Profiles“. This piece can be considered a follow up to that post.

One angle I’d like to explore, is just how much of e-gold’s business ‘jumped ship’ when they hit the wall. Are they fading away into the distant sunset? One way to calibrate their market acceptance might be to take a close look at who, if anyone, is still acting as an exchange agent for e-gold digital currency.

Are there any exchange providers that still accept e-gold or did the government’s indictment act as a deterrent to their daily business? Ron O’Brien, a senior security analyst at Sophos said in an interview, “But we’ll have to see if [this indictment] serves as a deterrent.” *

Well, open your peepers and let’s take a look.

E-gold exchange providers around the globe, with the exception of about ten, are all still actively providing exchange service for their clients. Even some of the larger agents which had their e-gold funds seized by the government, have just opened new e-gold accounts and are doing business today.

“In Doug We Trust” Who is still exchanging e-gold?

London Gold Exchange - Still strong! Debbie from LGE just confirmed with me inexchange (buy) for just 4% and outexchange (sell) fees are showing on their web as the low price of just 5%. What can I say about LGE that their web does not already tell us:

“In six years the London Gold Exchange has evolved into the Digital Gold and Silver provider of choice for thousands of happy customer’s world wide. Strategically placed with offices around the world, we are ideally positioned to enhance our reputation as the No.1 Digital Gold and Silver provider.”

Ice Gold - Alive but moving a bit slower today. They are accepting e-gold outexchange (selling) but its on a limited basis as they need it. “…we have set a limit of 10,000 USD (or equivalent) per customer in one day.” You can also buy e-gold from them for a 2% fee. International bank wires or local Estonia wire transfers are accepted. If you speak German, you can read the recent interview Paul Vahur gave to a liberty.li magazine regarding e-gold and the US actions.

AnyGoldNow - From their web, they appear to be alive and kicking. I just visited and their forms are working to process in and outexchanges. I will assume that means they are still active in the e-gold business. Their web shows, to buy e-gold, you will only pay between 1.25% and 2%. If you would like to sell, your outexchange fees will be 4%-7%. That is not too bad for Patrick’s quality service. AnyGoldNow features same day exchanges and trades e-gold, e-Bullion, Pecunix, C-gold & Phoenix Silver. Here is a new c-gold agent!

EuroGoldSales - Still exchanging e-gold. Like other agents, their rates vary. Sell them e-gold today you would be paying 6% in fees

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Another successful digital gold currency operation is now emerging with c-gold.com. It is always great to see healthy competition any industry or business, but with today’s regulatory environment it is especially exciting to watch c-gold showing early signs as a possible leader.

Headquartered in Malaysia, c-gold is opening new possibilities for all person’s interested in doing business with gold and digital gold.

When recently asked about the jurisdiction of the c-gold business, the operator had this to say:

WHY MALAYSIA?

Several reasons, firstly the government did in the past just about endorse e-dinar.com before it moved from Labuan to Dubai. In other words, the government did signal it’s interest in supporting the concept.

Secondly, rule of law. I can’t figure any way on God’s green Earth that any Malaysian court would hand down a forfeiture order against an operator when the value attached doesn’t belong to the operator. From following various kinds of AML legislation and enforcements, etc. over the years, I came to trust that in Malaysia law enforcement will first ask “how” and especially “why”, before deciding if further action is warranted.

Our local company has been doing arbitrage in the DGC business for years, and all the authorities want to know is that we know our customers, keep proper records and have strict AML procedures. Other that than, despite currency exchange controls, because of the nature of our business, there has been no problem or hindrance with literally receiving and sending millions of dollars from and to foreign banks every year. We file the reports, the central bank sees where the money is from and what it’s for, and that’s that. THIS is how things should be everywhere, and it is how they ARE in Malaysia.

Thirdly, we have the whole infrastructure already in place in Malaysia. While c-gold is in fact NOT owned by a Malaysian company, our local company DOES act as custodian of the gold and ensures smooth bailment’s and redemptions under an outsourcing agreement that is in line with what we have been doing all along and what the company here was incorporated for.

Fourthly, Malaysia is simply a great place to live and do business, Taxes are reasonably, cost of living is comparably low, and Malaysians never give you the feeling of being an outsider. I honestly admire the country and its people for what they have achieved.

Lastly, Malaysia is billing itself as a Muslim country, even though it practices a very liberal and tolerant interpretation of the religion and about 40% of the population follow other religions. A Muslim country can not possibly outlaw the possession of gold, nor can it forbid using gold as a tool for payments between private parties. **

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Last week ushered in a shiny new golden beginning for digital money users. C-gold, a Malaysian start up digital gold currency, quietly entered the marketplace and now just a few days old it is rapidly gaining acceptance. C-gold, operates very similar to e-gold and even has that deja vu look and feel of the e-gold web site. However, in the past few days, there has been much discussion on chat lists revolving around whether this new business is just a clone or much more.

After a brief investigation, I believe that www.c-gold.com is one of a kind and I predict big success for this venture.

C-gold is a new ‘digital’ gold currency platform which not only operates online, but also will soon work offline through brick and mortar global locations. The management is forecasting that soon it will launch additional shop fronts, mobile wallets and integration for handheld devices.

Some other successful companies management is associated with include: CyberFrontier Corporation, CyFroCA$H Incorporated, Cyberica.NET Limited (www.cyberica.net, www.u2planet.com),CyberGoldBank.NET and is also responsible for the Private Gold Equities Exchange Limited which is being developed as a privately operated alternative to public stock exchanges.

What I considered so unique to c-gold is their over-the-counter bailment’s and redemptions. This operation is handled at brick and mortar locations. Verified, account holders simply drop off a bar and pick up a bar when funding or redeeming their digital account. There is NO surcharge or extra fees for this operation. Bars are also shipped worldwide and the service is fast Nice! (shipping, handling, insurance charges will apply)

Of course, you can’t drop off a 1 gram bar, so I’m out of luck….the minimum bailment in or out is 1,000 grams (999 fine, marked and certified bars only) They predict that smaller denominations and bullion coins will be added as that part of the business grows. Today, which is about 4 days into their new operation, 5200 grams are already on deposit. You can see their daily holdings right down to the bar mark and number from the c-gold holdings page. c-gold is considered by some the next logical stage of ‘digital gold currencies’, by allowing each local user to bail in and redeem literally over the counter. From their FAQ’s page:

“Any user with an active and verified c-gold.com User Holdings Account can visit a shop of the Commerce Gold Network and add gold to his or her account by bailing in a gold bar (type conditions apply).”

Verified accounts require ID, utility bills and other personal information. Why? The c-gold operators understand that the ‘The Know Your Customer’ (KYC) rules/regulations/laws spanning multiple jurisdictions around the globe are very important in today’s digital economy in order to combat terrorist funding, money laundering, child pornography, copyright infringements and to help eliminate attempts to abuse the c-gold system.

The first retail location for this operation is now being prepared in Penang, Malaysia. Negotiations with interested and qualified parties are also underway including franchise shops, ’shoplets’ and strategic global locations.

Another ’stand out’ feature of c-gold will soon be their multi-lingual site options and customer support. In the weeks ahead, they are adding German, French, Russian, Spanish and even Mandarin, Japanese. Other languages can be added by request and/or demand possibilities now under consideration include Korean, Arabic and Farsi.

C-gold already offers a fine referral program. Earning a few coins while spreading the ‘word’ has always been an integral part of the digital currency world and c-gold is no exception.

Accepting c-gold from your web site is simple just add their Click-to-Pay code. Also if you are familiar with HTML you can easily add their point and click shopping cart interface. Easy stuff if you have just a bit of HTML experience.

Updates: As I understand it a keystroke pop up tool and a turing number are currently being added.
c-gold egold

WebMoney Transfer has grown into much more than a local Russian payment solution. In the years they have been online, Webmoney has expanded into a global payment system transacting billions of Dollars, Euros & Rubles each year. Soon, it appears they may also offer a gold based Webmoney currency type, but no there is official comment on this yet. That is really exiting.

The technology and software (WM Keeper) behind Webmoney is so refined and tested that by accepting Webmoney Transfer payments, any account holder can create an almost seamless ‘automated’ Internet business. Buying, selling, paying suppliers and building long term relationships can all be accomplished through the Webmoney Transfer network. There is even a WM credit network for borrowing and lending.

I used to joke that if computers were like vending machines and had dollar bill slots on the front of each PC…funding a digital currency account would be painless! The movement of national currency into digital units is sometimes costly and time consuming. However, Webmoney Transfer, seems to have corrected this issue and brought their account funding mainstream.

At an estimated 120,000 locations across Russia, you will find electronic kiosks which allow anyone to pay cash and fund a Webmoney Transfer account. About half of these locations have people working in them and the rest are automated kiosks. Located in malls, cinemas, shops and even subway stations these machines only require cash & your WM-purse number. You can feed in your currency and instantly fund your Webmoney purse. This is an amazing operation. More than 25% of the total Webmoney account funding comes from these ‘cash-in’ kiosks. I’m also told that the largest kiosk operators have already started to expand into other ex-USSR republics, the Ukraine and even China. Kiosk funding is also less expensive than other methods.

Another popular way to fund a WM-purse, is by Webmoney prepaid card. There are three types of Webmoney prepaid funding cards. Each different type will add money to a separate WM currency purse. The different currencies now available on prepaid cards are WMZ (equivalent to USD) , WMR (equivalent to RUR) and WMU (equivalent to UAH).

In a recent interview with Peter Darakhvelidze of Webmoney Transfer, he credits some of their success to prepaid card sales,

“…we have grown so fast mainly due to the easy availability of the cards all over our territories.” *DigitalMoneyWorld

One of the more interesting financial features of the WM prepaid cards is that they can also be used offline for direct payments at many participating merchants. In this case, Internet access is not even required to access the value on a WM prepaid card. Mr. Darakhvelidze tells me,

“By the way the cards can be used independently, without opening an account with WM - many merchants and services accept WM-cards pin-codes via phone IVR systems, thus people without any access to Internet at all can use WM as a payment means.” *DigitalMoneyWorld

The cards also work as a digital check for the Paymer service. Peter says, “Every prepaid card as well serves as a Paymer.com check , that is it can be split, merged or forwarded to other customers. Here we go - pure electronic money” *DigitalMoneyWorld

Paymers can be used by anyone in place of checks to pay bills, expenses or send money, once again this product takes the place of a regular checking account or bank draft.

Over the years, Webmoney Transfer has become somewhat integrated into Russian life. Locally, its not always necessary to use a bank for the payment of reoccurring monthly bills. Webmoney is widely accepted as payment by cell phone providers, all recognizable internet providers, pay TV and even satellite phones. With the recent Ukash ‘European’ partnership, Webmoney’s ‘integration’ may now also be spreading on a more global scale The ability to convert cash directly into digital money is certainly one of the major positive features of Webmoney Transfer.

I’m very impressed with Webmoney Transfer…..can you imagine how convenient PayPal would be if you could load accounts through a local ‘cash-in’ kiosk?

Unfortunately, that will never happen. After reading this information, the drastic differences between US financial products and the rest of the world should be rather obvious.
e-gold webmoney

The Dallas News is reporting that number of area churches are now accepting digital money donations!

Yes, plastic is replacing the offering plate.

To tithe, simply swipe your card at the ‘offering kiosk’……its down the isle and just left of the Virgin Mary statue.

Personally, I feel it is too strange. Here is why…

• What if the card is denied?
• Will the church organist have access to my financial data?
• Can I earn cash back on church donations?
• Double Miles for my weekly offering?
• 1.25 miles for every $1 you spend on Jesus. **
• How guilty will I feel with Jesus staring back at me from the television asking, “What’s in your wallet?”
• Next up for the church….. SMS, PayPal, Loom, Google Checkout?
• Will we soon be seeing this sign in the pews? “To make a donation, please just wave your cell phone over the offering plate?

No, No, No its too much.

Should churches have merchant accounts and accept charge cards when they pass the offering plate?

What do you think? I want to hear your opinion on the digital church donations?

** Church mileage not valid for car rental.