E-gold

better money

e-gold is...
e-gold is an electronic currency, issued by e-gold Ltd., a Nevis corporation, 100% backed at all times by gold bullion in allocated storage. Other e-metals are also issued: e-silver is 100% backed by silver, e-platinum is 100% backed by platinum, and e-palladium is 100% backed by palladium. However, the most popular e-metal (by an overwhelming margin) is e-gold. e-gold is integrated into an account based payment system that empowers people to use gold as money. Specifically, the e-gold payment system enables people to Spend specified weights of gold to other e-gold accounts. Only the ownership changes - the gold in the treasury grade vault stays put.

here to stay
e-gold is always as good as the gold it's backed with - this year, next year, a thousand years from now.

trustworthy
Pursuant to the e-gold Account User Agreement, the physical bullion that comprises the value backing e-gold must be insulated from physical, legal and political risks. Title is held by The e-gold Bullion Reserve Special Purpose Trust that exists for the express purpose of holding bullion for the exclusive benefit of all e-gold account holders collectively. The bullion is held in the form of certified good delivery bars in allocated storage at repositories certified by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). Metal is held free of any lien or encumbrance whatsoever and explicitly may not be attached to any liabilities of e-gold Ltd. or any other entity. No metal may be removed from storage or any other disposition made without the signatures of both e-gold Ltd. and a third party Escrow Agent of good reputation.

transparent
e-gold Ltd. offers an unprecedented level of transparency:
Total e-gold in circulation vs. total bullion reserves are provided in real-time via the e-gold Examiner utility accessible from the e-gold website, as well as Statistics relating to the use and growth of the e-gold system.

world wide money
The world wide web needs world wide money. e-gold was created in response to this need.
e-gold is accounted by weight of metal, not US$ or any other national currency unit. Weight units have a precise, invariable, internationally recognized definition. Additionally, precious metals, gold in particular, enjoy a long history of monetary use around the world. Thus, e-gold is ideally suited for international transactions.
Although e-gold is accounted by weight, the e-gold payment system allows Spends to be expressed in terms of eight major national currencies (as of this writing). For example, it's possible to:
Spend 10 troy oz worth of e-gold
Spend 5.3 grams worth of e-gold
Spend US $100.00 worth of e-gold
Spend CHF 685.88 worth of e-gold
This means (for example) that a Canadian can pay a German or a Japanese can pay an Australian the correct weight of gold (e-gold) for a good or service as easily as if the price had been quoted in his own national currency.

The power of the e-gold Spend...
All financial value will migrate to cyberspace over the next few years. e-gold is ready so that you can be too.
e-gold is borderless -
e-gold may be Spent to any other e-gold account anywhere in the world via the e-gold shopping cart interface (SCI), the e-gold Account Manager, or web enabled mobile phone.
e-gold is quick -
e-gold payments clear instantaneously (with no chargeback risk), no matter how large the payment, no matter how far apart the Spender and Recipient.
e-gold is cost effective -
Spending e-gold is free, even if your recipient is on the other side of the world.
Recipient transaction fees range from substantially smaller to orders of magnitude smaller than those of credit cards and bank wire transfers, no matter how large (or small) the payment.
The e-gold Agio fee, which recovers bullion storage costs, passes on economies of scale normally only enjoyed by very large holders of bullion.

benefits all users of money
The target market for e-gold is simply people who use money. How do you presently use money? Chances are any of these activities would benefit from the increased soundness, security, efficiency, and lower cost of e-gold. Here are some examples of how e-gold is presently used:
e-commerce
Business-to-business payments
Point of service sales
Person-to-person payments
Payroll
Bill payments
Charitable donations
Monetary base of the AUG* economy
* AUG is an abbreviation for the currency unit "grams of gold".

Evolving Exchange Market
The e-gold system is designed to be absolutely free of any financial risk. There can be no debt or contingent liabilities associated with e-gold. For this reason, e-gold Ltd. does not possess any national currency of any nation and has no bank accounts. Thus, e-gold Ltd. is not able to offer currency exchange services.
Instead, a growing number of independent exchange services around the world support exchange between national currencies and e-gold, accepting various remittance methods, including credit cards, bank wires, checks, and money orders.

Financial risk vs. exchange risk
e-gold is entirely backed by a physical commodity rather than debt or other financial instruments; therefore, e-gold is the only currency in the world free of financial risk. However, absence of financial risk does not mean absence of exchange rate risk. As with any currency, the value of e-gold relative to other currencies continually fluctuates.

No barriers to entry
It costs nothing to open an e-gold account. There is no credit check. There is no minimum balance requirement. There is no concept of a "merchant account" in that all e-gold accounts may Spend e-gold or receive e-gold payments.
In short, you are minutes away from opening your first e-gold account at:

better money