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WHY USE DIGITAL CURRENCIES?
We at The Gold Economy Magazine believe that digital
currencies will prove to be as world-changing as the invention
of the printing press and gunpowder. Digital Currencies link
together financial institutions and markets across the globe
in a way that allows instantaneous value transfers with a mere
fraction of the cost associated with traditional bank wires
and credit cards. The architects of the new digital economy
are busily at work creating new financial products and linking
digital currencies to "old-world" financial networks, allowing
you to easily convert your digital currencies to cash anywhere
in the world. Here are some of the reasons that Digital
Currencies are the best way to do business on or off the Net!
CNN Reports that Digital cash is about to change the nature of
money as we know it -
Digital Currencies are cheaper!
Transaction costs using credit cards or PayPal range from 2.5%
to 4.5%. International bank wires cost, on average, $40 to $70
using Western Union. Digital Currencies allow transactions to
take place from as low as 0.1% (GoldMoney), to 2% on the very
high end (Standard Transactions). In other words, the cheapest
digital currency on the net allows online transactions for
FORTY-FIVE TIMES LESS than credit cards. Even the most
expensive digital currency costs less than a credit card
transaction! Digital Currencies lower transaction costs by
three orders of magnitude! This means that transactions that
were previously too expensive to make because of the time,
money, and effort involved are now feasible using Digital
Currencies such as e-gold, gold-grams, Standard Dollars,
Standard Gold, e-Bullion, and Hansa Dollars. For retail
merchants who process a high volume of credit card
transactions the savings can be significant! The savings in
transaction costs can then be passed along to their customers
in the form of lower prices, which helps merchants accepting
digital currencies to gain a competitive advantage.
Digital Currencies are faster and non-repudiable!
The average credit card transaction can be reversed for three
to six months after the sale took place. This leaves merchants
in a vulnerable position. Cheapskates reverse the charges on a
regular basis against merchants who delivered the goods. This
kind of theft drives up prices for everyone to cover the cost
of lost goods and money due to fraudulent credit card use.
Bank wires in-country take at least three days to clear.
International bank wires can take up to two weeks to clear!
Digital Currencies solve these problems by allowing
INSTANTANEOUS and NON-REVERSIBLE transactions! For merchants
this means that ALL SALES ARE FINAL. They don't have to worry
about having THEIR account frozen because some hacker used a
stolen credit card at their store. This also means that when
you need to send money to a friend or family member anywhere
in the world, you can do it in a few seconds, and they can
withdraw it as cash from an ATM machine the very next morning.
That's FAST!
Digital Currencies are international!
PayPal only works in the United States. In order for people
outside the US to sell their product or service to the web,
they have needed an international credit card merchant
account. The problem is, outside the United States and EU,
merchant accounts can be difficult to obtain. This creates a
barrier to entry that makes it harder for international
entrepreneurs to offer their products and services to the
world. Digital Currencies solve this problem by allowing
instantaneous transfers of money anywhere in the world! As the
network of exchange agents grows, it is now possible to
quickly and easily convert your digital currency to cash in
any country in the world. A Standard Reserve "Instant World
Account” allows account holders to convert their Standard Gold
or Standard Dollars into cash at any ATM machine on the
planet! E-bullion offers an anonymous numbered offshore debit
card. This means that no matter where you are, if you can find
an ATM machine, you can convert your Digital Currency into
local currency!
Digital Currencies are safer!
Credit card fraud is becoming increasingly prevalent as
hackers steal card numbers from computer networks, crooks root
through your garbage and steal your identity, and other
nefarious thieves devise ways to get your account number.
Digital Currencies offer a higher level of security than
credit cards. Even the lowest level of security for digital
money, an account number and password, is one order of
magnitude safer than a credit card. All a thief needs to steal
a credit card is the account number. With digital currencies
the merchant never sees your password, so it is impossible for
a thief to steal it, unless you give it to him yourself (by
letting him access your computer - see our article on
protecting your computer from hackers). GoldMoney supports
digital certificates for customer identification. These
certificates cryptographically verify that you are you. This
prevents thieves from accessing your account. E-bullion and
E-gold are now offering similar security measures to their
clients. It is also possible to combine digital certificates
with an affordable biometric fingerprint reader to make sure
that absolutely NO-ONE has access to your account but YOU.
This is the highest level of security currently available on
the net, but there are other improvements still to come...
Digital Currencies Allow Person to Person Payments!
Digital Currencies allow one thing that credit cards never
will: Person to Person Payments. PayPal is limited to the
United States. So what do you do when you want to buy a
collector's doll that you foundd in an online classified ad,
but the owner lives in New Zealand and you live in the US?
Digital Currencies allow you to spend your money to anyone
else who has a digital currency account. It only takes a few
moments for your friend to open his own account using the
Internet, and in most cases it doesn't cost a penny! Person to
Person Payments allow small scale merchants to get started
without the added expense of maintaining a credit card
merchant account. This means lower costs of entry into the
marketplace and lower costs of doing business!
Digital Currencies Allow You to Protect Your Privacy!
It is a known fact that traditional banks store massive
databases tracking all of your account activity in the name of
"know your customer" and "fighting the war on drugs" and more
recently "the war on terrorism." In reality, we all know that
banks conveniently use those databases to sell information
about their customers spending habits to other companies, and
governments use that data to find excuses to confiscate your
money and property. So, not only does your government have
access to all of your spending habits, but so does any
individual or organization who is willing to pay for it.
Most Digital Currencies are housed in "capital-friendly"
jurisdictions with strict privacy
protection laws. For someone to get your account information
they have to obtain a court order in the country where your
Digital Currency is headquartered. This means that true crimes
can be prosecuted, but your privacy will remain intact if you
are just an average law-abiding customer. Think of it as
guaranteeing yourself the right to "due process". Furthermore,
it is impossible to use digital currencies for
money-laundering. You have to spend your national money (such
as US dollars) through an exchange agent in order to purchase
Digital Currency in the first place. Since exchange agents all
have accounts at banks with anti-money-laundering practices in
place, this means that all money used to purchase digital
currencies is theoretically "clean". Clean money in, clean
money out! Most Digital Currencies are housed in
"capital-friendly" jurisdictions with strict privacy
protection laws.
So, Digital Currencies are able to provide privacy to their
customers, and still be able to guarantee that they are not
being used for money laundering. Digital Currencies are
"orthogonal" to the traditional financial world. As long as
all the money coming in and out goes through banks with
anti-money laundering practices in place, then money
laundering is impossible. Furthermore, all of the Digital
Currencies in business at this time are firmly committed to
discouraging crime and money laundering, while at the same
time protecting the privacy of their account holders. This
means you can use Digital Currencies to do business with
confidence that you are in good company! You can obtain a
Standard Reserve Instant World Card or an e-bullion Debit Card
and withdraw your digital currency from any ATM machine in the
world as cash. But since the cards are processed in an
offshore jurisdiction, you can be assured that your privacy is
protected. Since both of these companies are diligent in
preventing money laundering, you can be assured that you are
in good company.
And no, PayPal (or better PrayPal) is not the option:
Have a look at this great cartoon! A picture says more than 1000 words!
Here some explanation why PrayPal really sucks:
My advice is not to use Paypal for any reason, ever. Even the most cursory of due diligence will quickly stop any thoughts of handing them all your banking details... Any bank account or credit card on file with them is at risk of having it's entire balance stolen at any time. If you must use them for merchant processing, use dedicated and empty bank accounts with no overdraft, and a dedicated credit card with no credit line and a balance as close to zero as possible.
If you read the many thousands of scam complaints against them, you will find among them many cases where Paypal has initiated fraudulent direct debit requests on customer's banks, and in many cases been wired significant sums with no approval from the customer. If I steal a credit card and use it to buy something from you, YOUR account can be shut down, and they will attempt to recover the chargeback from your bank account and credit cards attached to your account. They will also shut down any account you have spent to since the original fraud. It doesn't matter if you have 5 years of squeeky clean high volume with these people, they'll rip you off faster than you can blink.
Paypal is as close as you can get to being an outright scam scheme while maintaining a legit 'Owned by Ebay' facade. Personally I regard them as criminals.
For a more complete set of reasons to avoid them entirely, go to:
http://www.paypalsucks.com
http://www.paypalpetition.com
http://www.ripoffreport.com
http://www.aboutpaypal.org
http://www.paypalwarning.com/ or one of the many other Paypal-bashing websites :-)
If you like my advice and want to help me to support my
website, then press this link and show your gratitude:-)
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