On 17 May 2002, at 5:17, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I agree with Michael's post. Unless e-gold's gold reserve is PROPERLY > audited and not just some screen on a web page that says, yeah we've > got x ammount of gold bars stored without specifying their EXACT > individual weight (after all, gold bullions never weigh exactly the > same), location and a name and phone number of a respectable trusted > 3rd party e-gold might as well be a scam. I do not say it is but I > find it very hard to convince others it is not a scam as I can not > show them any proof...
A lot of that seems to me to be the "new" nature of the service. Do you call the auditors of charities you donate to or banks you maintain accounts in, or do you substantially simply trust their reports? I don't go around trying to "convince people that e-gold is not a scam" because I have no reason to believe that it _is_ a scam. I have purchased goods and services using e-gold, I've accepted e- gold as payment, and I've used Omnipay to convert balances to cash. The checks have never bounced. The Enron case established that an audit is not necessarily a valid "clean bill of health." Ultimately, I have to trust e-gold/Nevis/the escrow company/the trust to fulfill their contractual obligations, and my recourse is to take them to court for fraud if I believe they haven't done so. That's the case with _any_ good or service. Of course, in response to this thread, I did decide to do a little looking around. Something referring to itself as "Central Escrow Agency Limited" reported on a February 2001 inspection of reserves as noted here: http://www.e-gold.com/ceal-inspection-2001-02-22.htm Any idea what Central Escrow Agency Limited is? I find no references to it other than in relation to e-gold, so I don't know if it's a third party or not. > This is what is lacking in the e-gold system. Who tells me the gold is > really there and not evaporated into thin air or consumed by the > owners of e-gold. E-Gold does. You either trust/expect them to fulfill their contractual obligations or you don't. If you don't, you shouldn't be dealing with them. If you do, you can still get screwed. Just as you can by the mechanic who tells you that he replaced the fuel pump, etc. This is known as "life." You have recourse to the courts in case of fraud. > In my perspective. E-gold is not a valid payment method for anything > more than say $20 in gold until it is clear WHERE the gold is. The > EXACT ammount, WHO audited it (a proper BIG company like KPMG, or > similar) and a telephone number from the auditors that we can call to > verify e-gold's claims. Just like people could call up Arthur Andersen and be told that Enron was sound? > It is not that I am paranoid but a simple 'trust us, your gold is > safe' really does not cut it for a payment system. :-) I think any 12 > year old will agree on that. It's been the basis for deposit/transaction systems since they were invented. > Another point that really worries me is that e-gold's servers are > stored in the US of A. and not in a proper 'international' > juristriction like the Channel islands or whatever. We can be sure > anything e-gold is monitored by Echelon and that it is not as > anonymous as we might think it is. :-( That's a valid criticism. Of course, if you want true anonymity, the thing to do would be to set up an alternate, offshore, totally encrypted network for transacting e-gold balances outside of the e- gold system itself ... but you'd then be trusting the other transactors, since an audit would be effectively impossible (you might not even know who they ARE). > I hope someone is listening to this as the previous times I saw > similar postings here the discussion died out very fast without a > proper solution in sight..... I think it might be _worthwhile_ for e-gold to commission an outside audit by a reputable company; I'm not especially concerned about it, though. My greater concern would be some government descending upon the depository and confiscating the metal. Tom -- "Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others." -- Edward Abbey --- 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.
