Gold based electronic currency
Choices
There are a handful of mature and well established gold based e-currencies in regular use worldwide, including:
e-gold
1MDC (which is actually stored as e-gold)
Pecunix
GoldMoney
e-Bullion
The most widely-used of these by a considerable margin is e-gold.
It is a straightforward, general-purpose currency, suitable for the majority of users, and the one I shall detail here.
Once you have enough experience, you may discover that you have particular needs that are better served by a different e-currency.
But they are easily converted, so for now the important thing is simply to start using one.
E-gold
Operational since 1996, e-gold has users in over 165 countries and has settled over 45 million payments.
One can easily spend a long time researching and explaining technical details, but the summary above says a lot about the practical experience of e-gold users.
Other points of interest:
- Lowest fees. You are not paying more just for keeping it simple.
- All users can receive as well as send payment.
As with any true currency, there is no artificial distinction between merchants and buyers. For that reason, e-gold participates in a much wider and egalitarian market than credit card companies can. - 100% backed by gold, and all accounting is in quantities of gold.
This means, in short, that the value of e-gold can't be manipulated by treasurers, banks, or speculators; It's physical. - You really do own the gold.
Of course, you must redeem whole bars if you want to move it because bullion is not physically cut into the pieces digitally recorded in your account.
There's more, of course, but this is meant as a practical guide.
Opening an account
There is no obligation or cost associated with opening an account, and we don't have to fund it straight away, so we can complete that part before moving on.
Check list
You will need to know:
- Your phone number, complete with national and area codes.
- Your postal or zip code.
And you will have to invent:
- A name for the account.
- A passphrase for accessing the account.
- An alternate passphrase for verifying payments.
Open a new E-gold account (Opens in a new window.)
Accessing the account
Your new account is created immediately and the account number will be emailed to the address you gave.
You could now access your account at www.e-gold.com if you wish, although the account will be empty at this stage.