Monday, June 11, 2007

E-Gold

E-gold is a digital currency, used extensively on the Internet for making payments in exchange for goods and services.

It is one of the first digital e-currency providers, having started in 1996. E-gold accounts are backed by actual physical gold, dollar for dollar. You can take delivery of the physical gold if you wish, although there is an additional handling charge.

The E-gold e-currency is tied directly to the value of gold, so it's not possible to use outside influences to affect the value of it... unless one has the ability to affect the spot price of gold. Being tied to the price of gold, e-gold accounts fluctuate up and down with the value of national currencies as they move with the spot price of gold.

While gold is the most popular precious metal digital currency in use, E-gold also offers the platinum, palladium and silver precious metals as digital currency.

Funding an e-currency account is the job of a third party called a Market Maker. A market maker is a merchant who exchanges national currencies for e-currencies, and places them in your online currency account. Similarly, they will buy your ecurrency and pay you in your national currency when you wish to exchange your egold for currency.

You can fund an e-gold with paypal, or buy e-gold with a credit card if you wish, though the market maker will charge up to 15% to do so. This is largely because of the cost to him of fraudulent charge backs.

E-currencies are now accepted fairly extensively by online merchants in exchange their products and services, mainly catering to people, who for whatever reason, don't have or can't get, a credit card.

1 comment:

George_Harrison said...

I know Douglas Jackson long enough, before the times when he has received his M.D. Sorry, I’ve forgotten to introduce myself, my name is George Harrison. I’ve initially changed my name for confidentiality. Before appearance of E-gold in 1996 I knew Double D, as I’ve got used to call him, personally. We sometimes met to dinner, to discuss some future prospects of the Internet and e-currency though that time we called it as e-money, and only then E-bullion has registered this term as a trade mark.

So, time passed and our paths had crossed again and I worked several years with Jackson. We were successful and had earned enough until the numerous rivals began appearing. In the very beginning we weren’t concerned with all that problems until everything had come in on us at once. Those endless inspections on the part of the government (long before our accounts were arrested), all those appearing payment systems, the mere Webmoney cost great troubles! That time we’ve decided to organize a secret rival squad. First we confined ourselves to black PR then started sending artificial phishing postings. Finally Douglas offered to get with DDoS attacks. We have invited my nephew from Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, CA), who worked as a system administrator in some IT company. So, we’d organized mini DDoS division headed by me. We were well-connected and never had any problems with Botnet. Sometimes it was really a global scale... I don’t feel ashamed and I think that any of you would feel the same if you knew how had that damned Jackson dealt with me. The thing was that Douglas always offered me an interest from the new funds in system (Doug usually granted me 6% from the balances). That time our turnover was over $30 mln, so I had a good business. But this sweet life had led my old chap double D to the wrong way. One day I barged in his parlor and choked up: DD was carefully emptying some white dust out of the iron bullet fob to his table and leveling it with a plastic card. I’d frightened him away and as soon as he saw me he’d quickly swept aside everything on his desk. Later, in a few months he’d owned up that he was taking a amphetamine and other drugs to improve a working capacity. I have to admit that later I joined him for company. However along with a funny pace of living we’d got some financial problems in the system. Boss started to delay the payoffs and to practice black ddos hiding behind his usual “for the sake of e-gold”. I wasn’t motivated to work without bonuses. That time I was building a house in Florida and I wasn’t pleased with my financial situation. For that reason I decided to know the status of the system and used my password to enter the admin area. You may not believe me but I found that all our accounts were empty. I was shocked! Only then I understood the way Doug worked: being not able to support such a machine he started living for the account balances and very soon have killed them all. He not only let the whole biz all hang out but also made a trial shot in his own health by hook. When we were chilling out he often told me about his adventures being high. Once he told me that each thanksgiving he was meeting his pal Henry T. Nicholas, CEO of a well-known Broadcom, producer of microchips for mobile phones. May be you’ve heard that he was arrested for drug storage and adding ecstasy into the beverages of the company clients. Neither me, nor Barry K. Downey could stop this.

However, I wasn’t able to catch how he has managed to send all that dough from the accounts. Only after the registration in Nevis (Antilles) on July 14, 2006 I’d latched on everything. Jackson had not only registered an offshore company there but also started transferring the money (supposedly backed by gold) from all the accounts to the bank located there. He was my friend but that shitty money, fame and amphetamine had done their part. He was finding dozens of reasons not to pay my bonuses and I believed him and continued working for the sake of our dear e-gold. I devoted this system few years and couldn’t believe that surrounding. After the registration in Antilles the money most probably was quickly sent to the other part of the world. May be you remember that exactly that time E-gold and his primary exchanger OmniPay has stopped paying with the bank wires.

I was almost sure that Douglas had personally initiated the suit on the part of the government. His conclusions were clear: he’d withdrawn all the money and hence the system was not able to pay with wires and the only way out for him was a suit. Just look closer – he wrote off in one go the whole loan when the accounts of Bullion Exchange, AnyGoldNow, IceGold, GitGold, Denver Gold Exchange, GoldPouch Express, 1MDC and others were blocked. The wisest step, huh? That time I was getting a load of everything and couldn’t understand how clever my DD had been indeed. He was a genius because he thought out E-gold and he was a double genius when he contrived the way of getting all the system money. Already in May all the charges were dismissed, the accounts unblocked but wire transfers were still unavailable. Has anybody asked the question why after the court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit has dismissed all the charges on April 11 e-gold didn’t resume its work? Douglas Jackson is not just a fraudster but a scammer of the higher rank who not only scams the people and blocks the accounts in e-gold but also makes it so that both people and the exchangers believe e-gold system.

As soon as E-gold was discharged I decided to contact Douglas to remind him the debts, especially as I was sure that he had some green. I was greatly surprised as Doug hadn’t changed his cell number and answered the very first call. He was very cheerful and I can even say that we talked as the old friends. I felt greatly offended but I tried to pocket my pride in order not to blunder out and not to let Doug to hang on. I was greatly surprised that DD had not only hung on but also agreed to meet willingly. We’d appointed to meet in Santa Monica, to take a walk over the beach, to have some beer and to talk about the business and other issues as we hadn’t met long enough. When I saw Douglas it was painful to see him as it was clear that he still in action. I’m not able to depict people as the writers do but no exceptional ability was need to see that he was pale and an evident disease was shown through the artificial smile. I think he was addicted. Now I was finally sure that at all the court sittings concerning e-gold, he was high or was addicted which could be seen on his face. I’m not quite sure but those recordings are available on YouTube.

As soon as we reached each other Doug started asking me about my business and my current affairs and was constantly giggling. I was greatly surprised but DD was thanking me much that I said nobody about his affairs and all the machinations he was dealing with in E-gold. In an odd moment he offered me some white dust that didn’t taste like a nose candy for sure. Knowing that we can talk only on a cloud I didn’t refuse. Later when we were sitting near the water Doug being overamphed started telling about his recent way of living, earning and the way of transaction making. He wasn’t able to speak quietly, he cried. He was cryin’ that had he managed to send several tens of millions to his offshore bank, that he hated people for misunderstanding. A bitchy hog… He cried that he considered all of us, the employees of E-gold as a tool for earning money. He became a pill… And then he had haughtily said that even a law was not a problem for him and that he was going to bankrupt e-gold already in August. He was jabbing his finger into me and saying that he would simply declare his bankruptcy… He said that all the large accounts had already been arrested long ago and everything they could take from him were $20k and the servers that he didn’t need anymore… Later he came to his senses and offered me another doss thinking that I’d forget everything he’d said. I didn’t want to wait until he finished and simply had turned on my heels full of insult.

Why did I publish that press release? I just want everybody to know that truth at last. He’ll treat you the same way he’d treated me. I know that after that discharge lots of people started cherishing hopes but I don’t want people to believe in e-gold and then in August to find that it is insolvent. So, I’ve placed that release and put the name of Douglas Jackson under it as the whole story was heard from him.

The reaction was quite predictable. Jackson was silent for the whole day and was whipping the cat for his talkativeness and then started writing a disclaimer.

And even if you don’t trust this letter I’m happy that I’d written it. Let people know. Especially since most of them have already understood that the system which backs its currency with nothing and which doesn’t let to withdraw money should not exist. I don’t know whether I did good or not by telling about all the plans of Douglas but I sincerely want less people being scammed by this man and his system.