> Hi All, > As a new, curious, list member, I must say that I can relate to Mark's > perspective. Given the advantages of e-gold style commerce, don't we owe it > to ourselves to get this moving? Whoever gets this going on "Internet time" > does themselves, and the rest of the planet, a huge service... Any of you > entrepreneurs listening ?... The problem is simply that nearly every country has different national payment clearing systems, so it is impossible to set up an interface which accepts payments direct from people's bank accounts. Payment systems where the merchant can dip into the customer's account on his own initiative (such as credit cards, or "online checks" in the USA, or bank account debits in Europe) must always have a sound right of chargeback to protect the customers. And banks understandably don't want to get involved in settling disputes, so they inevitably err on the side of the customer. That, however, makes it very easy for fraudulent customers to place the order, then claim later that they didn't. Therefore the only really safe way for market makers to sell e-gold is the kind of money transfer which is initiated by the customer. If you go to the bank and initiate a wire transfer, you won't be able to go back later and say it was done without your permission. In most countries with decent internet banking (not the USA, where about all you can do is check balances) you can make at least domestic transfers if not international transfers from within internet banking systems. I think this is the way to go for any entrepreneurs out there who want to sell e-gold online in real time. I think it's reasonable to assume that most people who want to use e-gold will already have some form of online access to their bank accounts (is it??) so you need to work with major banks to create an e-gold purchasing interface that takes people directly to their own bank where they can initiate the transfer to the bank's satisfaction. The other approach is a technical system which requires a chip-type credit card, then a card reader connected to the customer's PC. I believe Amex has experimented with this is in the USA, and the system is in regular use at merchants in Europe but it has yet to enter the home. At the moment it seems like a geek toy rather than a serious payment system. The problem is, if it is ever universally adopted, people won't need e-gold any more... offshoresurfer --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Did you know that e-gold Ltd. stores more gold on behalf of customers than many countries? See http://www.gold.org/Gra/Gra1.htm and the e-gold Examiner at http://www.e-gold.com/examiner.html for details.
