Sorry to barge in on this but am very curious
Okay. No need to apologize.
What does " Redeemable for Gold" mean in the real world?
It means that there is gold in the system, ounce for ounce with whatever is in circulation. It means that if everyone who has any e-gold simultaneously decide to redeem their online gold for real gold, there are just as many ounces in the real world available for redemption as there are in the online system.
I've previously redeemed e-gold on more than one occasion. It is a great feeling to hold actual physical gold in my hand, knowing that I can get more any time I want.
E-bullion is also fully redeemable. Not only in bar sizes, either, but also in one ounce gold coins.
I realise that the obvious answer is that if you have a big enough chunk they will give you some actual gold if you ask for it, but in what sense is there security for the account holders?
How can a system which offers 100% redemption be a scam? OSGold was clearly a scam. But it never had any data about the gold supposedly backing it. There was no method for redeeming OSGold. Like INTGold, the proprietors of OSGold seemed to be involved in Ponzi schemes, like OSOpps.
Some of the appeal of having gold is the sense that it is "safe" but I am unclear of what this means in practice
I have but one lamp by which to guide my feet, said Patrick Henry in 1775. That lamp is experience. For thousands of years, gold has been money.
(Another point of appeal of gold is as a hedge against inflation of which unfortunately there hasn't been much over the last few years).
There has been plenty of inflation in the last thirty years. About 90% of the value of the USA dollar has inflated away since 1971. Over 96% of the value has inflated away since 1913.
Moreover, the Federal Reserve has made it clear that their current policies are designed to promote as much inflation as they can achieve. They are terrified of deflation. They will start the printing presses rolling soon.
What are you thinking is safer than gold? Dollars? Don't make me laugh.
I go to log into the e-gold site and it is down.
Happens pretty often, in fact. You can see the scheduled down time link on the home page.
Let's say hypothetically that the site is down because e-gold can't meet its obligations to its host.
Where is there any basis for this hypothetical situation? Why would that be true?
The Companies Office (or whatever they have)in Nevis says that e-gold has gone into receivership.
Again, why would that happen? Where is there any evidence that, say, e-gold, Ltd. has borrowed any money?
In order to retrieve my share of the gold, what should I do next?
Sell it or wait in line for redemption.
Indeed, for the vast majority of account holders from all over the world whose holdings are nowhere near the cost of any legal fees, how on earth can they retrieve their funds?
Are you asking how bankruptcy law in Nevis works? It used to be that you could download most of the corporation law of Nevis from a web site. Maybe you could Google for it.
The point I am making is that if it is too difficult for the account holders to access the asset if the company falls over, then it makes no difference whether the asset is gold, toothpaste, or in fact an interest-earning account.
Yes, that's an interesting idea. I'm not sure how it applies here.
If you are offering to start an online currency redeemable in toothpaste, let us know about it.
One of the advantages nation-states have over the private currency issuers that come around every 30 years or so
Huh? Name three private currencies that were issued in 1973. Name one that was issued in 1966.
is their relative longevity compared to entities such as private companies.
Horse feathers. Governments come and go all the time. You just don't want to look at the facts. I'll point out hundreds of governments that went down the tubes in the 20th Century, including several governments each of Germany, France, and Italy, and you'll give me "but that doesn't count...".
Tell me about the longevity of the Weimar Republic. Tell me about the advantages of holding Weimar marks in 1920.
Tell me about the longevity of the Nixon Administration. Tell me about the advantages of holding dollars instead of gold in 1970-79.
Nations come and go. Private companies last.
The only things that last longer than private companies are universities and churches.
The very few exceptions to this rule (such as the British East India company)did not have currency as their core business and had a level of power comparable to a nation-state before issuing currency.
The British East India company did issue its own currency a very long time ago. Of course, they had a royal charter, too.
So can anyone tell me if there is a sense in which e-gold is more secure than, say, evocash?
Yes, sure. Evocash is just dollars. E-gold is gold.
Regards,
Jim http://www.ezez.com/
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