> From: "James M. Ray" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> There's PLENTY of circulation (and velocity! See stats!!). I think YOU > are missing Reid's point. Find a currency that does what you wish in > the real world. You can't. Why? Because it's rational for independent > exchanges to charge a spread *BOTH* ways. This has been true for > thousands of years -- chances are the ones Jesus kicked out of the > temple were charging a spread both ways! e-gold used to be sold at > spot-plus, and in the beginning this made sense to "jump start" its > circulation, but now it makes sense for exchanges to behave exactly > as they've behaved for eons, because people now know: e-gold is > better money(tm). I was initially against this change in the spreads, > but Reid has convinced me that it was the right thing to do. I think accepting it at spot is worthwhile until e-gold grows much, much more. As of now people are constantly going into and out of e-gold. If it gets to the point where lots of transactions stay inside the system, then a spread both ways makes sense. There is no problem with having a spread both ways on the US dollar to other national currencies because most transactions stay in dollars. When I spend a dollar at the grocery it is accepted at spot, ie for a dollar. However, since most e-gold will have to be turned into national currencies, because e-gold now is more of a payment system than a widely accepted currency, it is important that e-gold is accepted at spot, and that a dollars worth of e-gold is worth one dollar, just like a dollar spent the the local store is worth a dollar. If I wanted to exchange my dollar for a Euro, there is a spread both ways, and that's fine for e-gold once it is a widely accepted currency unto itself. In any case, besides the straddled spread and accepting e-gold at spot, the other issue is the new spread put a lot of pressure on exchange providers by erasing their margins. If Omnipay had reduced their wholesale rate to spot, things would have gone more smoothly, and Omnipay would still have a 2% markup from buy/wholesale as they did before. - John P.S. If e-gold were actually operating as a separate currency, denominated in grams, then a spread on both ends might make sense. But e-gold is different in that it is used in DOLLAR terms, so in that sense is more of a payment system than a currency unto itself. In other words, if e-gold were grams only, a gram in the e-gold system is worth a gram, hands down. But when you want to convert it to something ELSE, like dollars or Euro, it makes sense to have a fee both ways. But since e-gold circulates in terms of national currencies, a dollar's worth of e-gold in your account should be worth a dollar, like a dollar in your bank account is worth a dollar. --- 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.
