I've been reading this list a long time and see once again a thread about the difficulties with e-gold. Seems like last time, someone mentioned an idea of e-gold themselves becoming an escrow agent. What a great idea! I think that would make for a (really THE) most trustworthy agent, even for newcomers.
I thought if I waited, someone else would bring up this idea that came to me and I wouldn't have to figure out how to post it myself. But here goes: How hard would it be to construct a time delay feature on spends? One with several choices? I have no e-gold account so this might have to be worked over by those more familiar with spending, etc., but my vision is this: You go to the spend page and find several delay choices - "immediate", as is the case now and for those you know and trust; "1 hour", for when you buy a recipe for chile at $1.98 and expect it to arrive in e-mail right away; "1 week", for when you buy a DVD from across town and expect it to arrive in a few days; then 15 days, 30 days, 45 and 60 days to conform to whatever is agreeable between purchaser and merchant, wherever in the world either may be. So it would go that I want a case of widgets and find a source in a foreign land who claims to be able to deliver within say, 20 days. I click the e-gold to his account but, because I don't trust the complete stranger in a far away place, I click on the 30 day delay. That should cover, comfortably, the 20 days he said it would take to get the widgets to my door. He, the merchant, sees the e-gold immediately on some page, with a clock ticking down to when it will automatically finish the spend to his account. He knows the e-gold exists, knows it is intended for him and he knows I can't get it back without some difficulty, so he ships the widgets to me. In 30 days the e-gold automatically transfers to his account - everyone's happy and the spend was all done automatically, - but wait! What if he didn't really have any widgets to ship? In that case I wait 25 days (or even 29) and, with no widgets at my door, I go to the page, with the deal on it, and click a box that says "dispute". At this time I suppose a human from e-gold would have to get involved, for a fee now (the delay feature on the spend should be free), and arbitrate the dispute. It might be as simple as cranking the timer another 30 days so the merchant can try again, or it could be that the e-gold arbitrator, having become familiar with the shady merchant from past experience, reverses the spend, minus a small arbitration fee, back to me. Either way I expect this to take very little time for the arbitrator in most cases, (none at all for honest deals) and a fee schedule could be set up, either a flat fee or a percentage of the spend or perhaps even a schedule that takes into account certain types of spends that are notorious for disputes, whatever that may come to mean. I will have taken a (now more modest) risk by ordering and paying for widgets from a stranger in Transylvania, but I will have shown him my ability and solid intent to pay in e-gold, and I will also have a method available to recover most of my spend should the deal go sour, the merchant be a fake, or whatever else. This is, of course, a rough idea - the $1.98 chile recipe could easily be left out of the equation, as too small to dispute, limiting the much greater comfort level to those using e-gold to purchase anything over, say $10 (or 1 gram), over the web. For the smaller spends, it's that much less critical anyway. The system could also create, automatically, a page list of merchants who have lost at arbitration, and should be approached with suspicion. There could be simple disputes, where an honest merchant, unable to deliver, simply reverses the timed spend himself back to the customer. That way, doing away with the problem of a merchant who admits he can't deliver, but doesn't want to spend his own e-gold to the customer as a refund, before the clock ticks down. (A dishonest merchant might tell his customer privately, "I'm sorry I can't deliver but just wait until the e-gold timer winds down and when I get it, I'll refund right away" without having any such intent.) A "merchant only reverse" or "receiver only reverse" button would solve that. - "I'm sorry we can't deliver but we reversed your spend and hope to serve you better in the future. We should have more widgets in stock this Spring". Of course I suppose this could become overwhelming, what with schemers everywhere and all, but I believe it would more likely drive away all the schemers and leave an excellent opportunity for honest buyers and sellers all over the globe. It might go very well on e-bay for example, and save on escrow fees for those guys. I might even push "dispute" just to lock up the funds while the merchant and I work out some resolution ourselves, thereby still taking none of an arbitrators time. Perhaps a button, called "Hold five days for possible dispute" to give some time to work things out, before calling in the arbitrator. This could be done thus: The dispute button brings up two choices - "Hold Five Days", and/ or "Contact Arbitrator". "Contact Arbitrator" should automatically generate forms for each party to report their side of the problem. I don't know for sure if this is a great idea but as for me, with my disdaine for fiat money and a healthy distrust of unfamiliar merchants, it would comfort me to the point I would open an e-gold account right away and offer my e-gold for just about anything I might wish to buy. -Dan Morrow --- 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.
