In today’s digital currency market, there are fewer and fewer agents swapping DGC combos like e-gold/e-bullion. That’s why I’m pleased to report that SwapGold.com is now up and running in Singapore.

They provide a fast and trustworthy e-gold/e-bullion conversion service for global customers. Important in this type of transaction, they manually check each order and usually complete them all in just a few hours. If a problem develops in the transaction, they are on top of it and get the issue quickly resolved. Customers can actually reach a person to confirm orders.

Of course their entire web site is protected with SSL encryption and their business is legally registered in Singapore as Duxton Ventures Pte. Ltd. This is the same organization that operates SnapGold.com which has been putting smiles on clients since early 2006. This is a group I enjoy working with so if you have the exchange need or a free moment you may want to drop by their web site and check out any specials they may currently be offering!

Convert e-gold to e-Bullion e-Currency or Convert e-Bullion e-Currency to e-gold

Rates (last updated: 21 Sep 07)

• You convert US$1 e-Bullion to US$1.00 e-gold
• You convert US$1 e-gold to US$0.94 e-Bullion e-Currency

Is This Proactive Move By e-gold Having The Desired Effect?

Yes! ‘Investment web site’ operators and promoters are moving OUT of e-gold and into other offshore digital currencies.

Look around and you will find dozens of posts like these from the HYIP promotional webs, known as monitors. These two posts are from the Talkgold forums:

• “…I can’t operate as a monitor - can’t receive payouts or make reinvestments because of that block. May be it is time for all to stop use Egold and find another stable processor!”
• “How do I run a monitor site if account is blocked. I can’t make payment and get payouts from anyone”

All of these also from the Talkgold forums - “…tg is one of the top hyip forums in this arena.”

• “…its time to use a good alternate! what do you think about c-gold?”*talkgold
• “…Maybe all HYIPs should start using Pecunix or any other stable service?” *talkgold
• “…what do you think about Alertpay!” *talkgold
• “…It’s time for HYIP-admins to adapt their scripts and replace e-gold to other more reliable currencies. I can live without e-gold, e-gold can’t live without us.” *talkgold
• “I think we must use another e-currency”*talkgold - This comment from HYIPs.ir touted as the “Greatest HYIP monitor in Middle east with 14 language”
• “Looks like another e-currency will have to emerge.” *Comment by the Talkgold administrator

After reading the Talkgold forums, I’m reminded of how cockroaches run for cover at night when the kitchen light comes on!

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It now appears that Dr. Jackson and the team over at e-gold Ltd. are making some bold due diligence moves in order to stop their digital gold currency from being used by HYIPs, Ponzi scams and AutoSurf programs.

These preventative measure will certainly not create an easy road ahead for the e-gold administration and their previous ponzi customers and I can’t image the mountain of paperwork now being created, but e-gold’s new actions seem to be exiting the HYIPs and driving them away from e-gold.

Three cheers for e-gold!

The e-gold tool being used in this crack down is termed the ‘value limited account’. Also known as a ‘blocked account’, it is quickly becoming the Ponzi’s worst enemy.

What does it mean when your e-gold account gets a value limit? Here is what might show up in your email:

“Your account has been blocked under our Rights of Association clause in the account user agreement.”

e-gold Account User Agreement: 4.6. Right of Association - Issuer reserves the right to refuse service to particular individuals or entities, at its sole discretion, with or without cause.

Unless the problem is corrected, a value limited account is 100% useless for any future business. Blocked accounts cannot accept any incoming funds. Read more

Loom Gold, which is on the leading edge of the digital currency industry, today announced version 54 of the server code. This new version supports a personal history & memo feature on asset movements. Loom users can toggle the “record” option and that folder will keep a history of each time a ‘Give’ or ‘Take’ operation occurs.

This is a very handy feature but not a required item. If you would like to operate without recording a history simply un-check that option.

Another handy new feature allows users the ability to attach a memo by clicking the green dot next to the history item. You can then edit the memo at any time or even clear it completely. The ‘green dot’ also gives you the ability to Delete the history item altogether.

The Loom Software is on the cutting edge of Internet commerce and I write about it often. For more information please see any of these previous posts

• Patrick Chkoreff’s Loom Gold Q & A Plus The New Tutorial Video
• A Brief Loom Instructional
• The Loom Model: The New Generation Of Digital Value Transfer
• Loom Gold: Beyond Digital Currency

The e-gold web site has finally added a blog and with this humble sentence a new era in communication has just begun….

“Hi, I’m Douglas Jackson and this is the first entry of the e-gold blog.”

Most readers will know what I am talking about because over the last decade getting casual comments out of the e-gold organization has been darn near impossible. Perhaps this silence was for a good reason. This blog is truly a new and warm addition to the community. Its a well needed social add-on and I urge all readers to visit and comment.

The inevitable question I have….is it too little too late? I hope not. You can grab the feed here.

One of the first entries is a Q & A radio interview Dr. Jackson recently recorded. Its very good. If you have a few minutes, its well worth the time.

(Q) If you had 10 minutes of face to face discussion time with each of your customers, what is the one single idea you would try to teach each one of them about freedom?

(A) hmm, that is a really good question and one that is not easily answered. I don’t believe that ALL customers can be fit into a mold that would relate to something I could convey to them in some generic sense of things. I think freedom is something best left to each individual to determine for themselves. If I could present just one idea, then I guess it would be that.

(Q) Is there an advantage to shopping for one ounce silver bars from your web site, over visiting a local coins shop and buying from them?

(A) I think local dealers have a market that works well and is useful. Our aim is to supply silver bullion products to that market. If you have a local coin shop that also sells bullion then it would be useful to show them our products when you shop there. When a dealer places a large order they can convey the savings on shipping to their customers.

(Q) Are you operating as a Money Service Business? Do you hold any other Federal or State regulatory licenses which permit you to operate?

(A) We are not operating as a money services business as silver is not money according to the law today. Nevertheless, we do understand that the digital silver currency can be used by criminals to further criminal activity if left unchecked, so we have implemented a full anti money laundering program, a customer verification program, employee training and customer education program that serves to keep our system free from fraud. The results of this is thousands of clients and zero fraud. We also do possess a MSB license from the jurisdiction of the USA even though our company is based in Panama. We feel a good anti money laundering program and more importantly a strong anti fraud and anti crime policy is essential to our success and essential to the security of our client’s silver. Our terms of service policy explains all this in greater detail.

(Q) I know that I can buy digital Silver online from at least one other company, GoldMoney, what advantages does the Phoenix Dollar offer over James Turk’s digital product?

(A) James is a wise businessman. His product has its place in the market and is valuable even to our customers. That being said, it has absolutely no resemblance to our product offering. Our focus is on actually holding real silver in your hand where it belongs. We enable the average person, even if not rich, to hold silver in their hand even after someone sends it to you in digital form. This is something that is impossible in other systems.

(Q) Do you ship overseas?

(A) Yes, we ship all over the world to all but a few countries found on the sanctions lists.

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The Phoenix Dollar was created in late 2005. The company is a silver bullion retailer offering their own brand of pure silver bars, disks and even digital silver holdings which is 100% backed by bars in a secure vault.

These accounts are free to open and the Phoenix Dollar community offers some exciting advantages and tools to those who would use the digital silver for online commerce. The digital silver is transferable between anyone operating a Phoenix Dollar Holding and there are several popular independent exchange providers who can assist you with a secondary market transaction. The digital product is exchangeable with other digital currency such as Pecunix.

Any user can easily have their silver balance (as little as one ounce) delivered right to their front door for just a few dollars over the spot price. The physical silver one ounce disks and bars are very beautiful and I happen to own several.

The bars and disks can be used as payment between any person as a method of barter. While some of these items may look like money, its important to note that The Phoenix Silver Bullion Products are NOT “legal tender” and NOT “current money” nor are they endorsed by any sovereign government, country, city or state. While the designs are great, both the silver and paper designs do not look like government issued currency. Paper designs? Yes, the company is soon offering SilverBacks® which is a series of Authentic Paper Silver Certificates. More on that below.

Today I’m interviewing Gordon Hayes designer, creator and operator of the The Phoenix Dollar.

(Q) Can you tell us your current position with the Phoenix Dollar company and how long has it been operating?

(A) I am the President. We opened to the public in October of 2005. The concept was in development for a couple years before that.

(Q) Who came up with the design for the silver bullion products? How about those new silver certificates?

(A) I have two very special artists that I collaborate with who shall remain nameless for security reasons. I create the concepts and they come up with the artwork for them. Sometimes I am able to pick a piece out of their extensive portfolio for certain things and apply them to the silver without any modifications. Having a high caliber art team has enabled us to exceed in designing silver pieces that never fail to win people over for their sheer beauty.

(Q) Out of all the successful businesses you have been involved with over the years, why did you create the Phoenix Dollar? What were your reasons for coming out with a private barter currency backed by silver?

(A) The world simply needs to know that what I am doing is possible. My ultimate goal is to create a currency that actually improves the lives of its owners. This would take a bit of explaining to get across properly, but to summarize, today we have a world that contains all sorts of fiat currencies. Not a single one of them have any real value except that which is derived from the end of a gun. I set out to build a currency that actually protects the wealth of its users, that improves how people interact and do business with one another and that creates more freedom and success in the world. This is the sort of philosophical background information that is not really necessary to know when using the currency. The results of using it speak in subtle ways.

(Q) I have seen the pictures of your new SilverBacks® paper silver certificates which are now on the way. What do these certificates offer users that the bars and disks don’t already provide?

(A) This product conflicts with my personal beliefs to some extent, but its main benefits are that you can carry it in your pocket in quantity without being weighted down so much that you cannot walk. Silver bullion is very heavy and cannot easily be transported in quantity. The SilverBacks® address that problem thus enabling the currency to gain more use in the everyday over the counter market. I expect this product line to be a curiosity in the market for some time, but I am doing it anyway, just in case things rapidly change.

(Q) Your bullion products look fantastic.

(A) Thank you.

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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

(Q) Your primary exchange agents for CSATM, how did you choose them? Or did they request to work with CSATM?

I contacted them. Having devised this system I knew I needed Exchangers to work with. I have also contacted more exchangers than accepted the ATM. I believe that as coverage expands, the exchangers will be happy to add us to their list of services.

(Q) Is it difficult to become a CSATM exchanger?

Exchangers are subject to the full KYC requirements. They are acting effectively as money service businesses, and the ATM has to be cognizant of that and ensure that all legislative guidelines are being adhered to. I don’t think that is difficult for anyone who is seriously in the Exchange business.

(Q) Do you allow your users to work with HYPS and AutoSurf/Investment programs? Or do you really know what the users are doing with their accounts?

CSATM works with HYIPS and autosurfs. The system can be integrated to their scripts (although I do note a preponderance of encryption of scripts - I cannot incorporate where encryption may be). This brings up an important point. As you would be aware there is a preponderance of hackers and whatnot within that hyip field. Security is paramount. Or should be. The CSATM API will only work with servers that are pre authorized. And only with a location that is preauthorized (the location is provided to CSATM in encrypted format - I do not know “where” it is. This encryption provides security against those who might hack a hyip or autosurf script and then try and run with the money. If a site has their server hacked - they will lose their assets. This is the case now with any other form of payment processor. Admins in that area need to keep their servers safe, the ATM will provide for security and integrity of our API, but that is as far as it goes.

The other point that has to be made is that the ATM does not accept business from adult sites, terrorist sites or warez sites. As the IP of every server using the API is known, I can ensure that this integrity is maintained. Now it also has to be noted that just because an IP is allowed, I do not know the location nor amount of savvies they are collecting. That part is secure. The above IP requirements were added as a direct response to some of the charges e-gold is currently facing.

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Today I’m interviewing with the operator of the CyberSpaceATM (CSATM).

The CyberSpaceATM is a new concept based on the Loom System of value transfer. It private, liquid and quickly becoming very popular.

(Q) I’ve read your web site and see the CSATM advantages: “There are many advantages to using CSATM: Transaction Privacy, low transfer fees, reliable exchange options.” Exactly what purpose does the CSATM serve? How does it aid your customers with online value transfers?

First - let me thank you for the opportunity of this interview. CSATM came online approximately one month ago, and this Interview serves as a valuable place to discuss the issues surrounding the raison d’etre of the ATM, and the plans for the future. CSATM provides users with the ability to conduct online transactions in an environment of privacy. The core of the technology is Loom, but the model that the ATM uses is an almost “reverse Loom”.

By way of background, Loom provides for any user to issue an asset type and then trade in that asset type. It is a remarkably clever concept that will go a long way to creating a free market . The concept that I am using is that there is only one asset type created. I am yet to come up with an appropriate name for it. For the purpose of this I will call it a ’savvy‘ (which is a mutation of cs and value). The value does not have to be assessed for each transfer. I have set the savvy to be valued at “1 USD”. This would seem to be the most widely recognized and easiest accepted “value”. I do note that even though e-gold was always suppose to be denominated in grams of gold, it was always referred to by the USD value.

This standardization will allow users to know what the value of various locations are, and it will not be subject to online fluctuation. Obviously on an exchange to fiat currency they will receive the market rate at that time.

To the heart of the question. Once a person has obtained a savvy value, they can move it around within the CSATM system in complete privacy. The system has been set up to simulate the payment process, so that one can make a payment to a merchant who is using the system. Value transfers are instant, and the system can also provide a receipt for that transfer with the email function that is built in. It has to be emphasized that the emails are sent unencrypted. If you choose that option, then you have to be aware of that.

The database provides extreme encryption, and there is no history of value moves kept. There are no accounts. In essence what CSATM provides is a storage system. We charge for the storage - there is a minimal charge for each movement of assets. Anyone globally can use the system. In summary CSATM seeks to provide a global solution to the storage and movement of assets in a secure and private environment.

(Q) Why is this system better than PayPal, or does it even compare?

The system does not equate to any other “standard” existing payment solution; the greatest difference is that there are no accounts in CSATM. One could argue it is “better” than PayPal as it is a completely global system. It is equally accessible in the north south east or west. The only limitation on obtaining assets is the layer provided by the exchangers. The issue of exchangers will be discussed in more detail later.

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