Everyone,
There are 2 issues concerning availability, 1) accessibility and 2) funding fee structures. They are both barriers to entry into e-metal which I feel need to be addressed in some intelligent fashion before e-metal will take off like it should and could. The first is that for this industry to grow, methods to obtain gold should be as easy as going to the local Wal-Mart and buying a 24K bracelet. Right now, one has to use non typical methods of buying e-metal: i.e. wire transfers, etc. Those that have tried PayPal for instance, find out that the non-chargeback feature of E-Metal is insufficient protection from the charge back feature in all credit card transactions, including the one-step-removed PayPal, so tougher methods have to be used. Even those that accept "credit cards" may only accept prepaid cards. All this I call "transactional toughness", and it seems necessary, but it makes the average person who wants to start using e-metal go through hoops they simply don't understand, and after they do bother to understand, then don't want to go through. Second, the funding fee structure is way too high. In practical terms, tell a person that they can send $3,000 to "E-Metal" to spend, and they lose nearly $100 of it before it ever reaches their account, and they just think that's plain stupid. The price of gold is the price of gold. If the average person buys $3,000 worth, then they want the number $3,000 to show up in their "E-Metal" account. Simple. In other words, it's basic marketing. The fees are a barrier to entry. I don't think that any of the e-metal companies are going to be able to rapidly grow their influence because at the same time they are limiting their own growth before people have a chance to try it. If, as people report, a bar of gold can be purchased at spot, then one would believe that the E-Metal companies can buy gold at spot too. So the funding fee is really a pre-payment of service to transfer the e-metal to others, before the service of transfer is rendered. Personally, I think this is the cart before the horse. E-Metal companies should consider that people will only put money into e-metal because they want to spend it on something. That means transaction fees to the first person, transaction fees from the first to a second person, and a cascade reaction occurs. Maybe take the fee after the services has been rendered, not en masse before. Perhaps the easy way to solve both is for major market exchangers to accept "Chex" services, which is instant withdrawal from a person's checking account via check. For instance, if a check was mailed in (a process everyone understands), then "Chex" clears it, the market maker can put it into an e-metal for free, knowing that the very first, second, and third transaction will pay for the funding transaction to "chex". It's a normal cost of doing business. Or one can accept the check, and let it sit for 7 days, then move the e-metal. Or make instant processing available for a charge, and the delayed processing for free. Whatever, mix and match is ok. But the NET result of something like this is that people can decide to participate in E-Metal, and participation effort is no more difficult than simply writing a check like every other bill they pay. There can even be a form that prints out via Web site to wrap the check within. Then when the money shows up in their account, the first thing they'll DO is spend it. And the cycle of transaction profits begins. Make it easier for the average person to access the funding, and remove the initial funding fees, and I think the "accessibility" issues will diminish greatly. If these barriers to entry diminish, I believe that real funded accounts will go up in quantity and quality. There are obviously issues to address here, but I believe that if everyone puts their heads together, and tries to put growth of the industry as a whole first in priority, then very positive possibilities exist for the industry as a whole. As a thought, CEM --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
