Voucher-Safe: Open Source Digital Bearer Certificates

Voucher-Safe is an open source project from the founders of Pecunix. This overview of the decentralised P2P digital currency was published originally in the December 2010 issue of DGC Magazine. Siddley Voucher-Safe Project

Voucher-Safe Open Source Voucher Payment Project


For further reading:
"Voucher-Safe Goes Live!- Global Anonymous Digital Cash", Voucher-Safe Forum, November 18, 2010
"P2P Voucher System Implementation", Voucher-Safe, January 8, 2010

Digital Currency Systems: Emerging B2B e-Commerce Alternative During Monetary Crisis in the United States

By Constance J. Wells, M.S. Aspen University Tuesday, February 8, 2011

From the Abstract:
Digital currency systems form the triumvirate nexus of government policies, money, and technology. Each has a global reach and responds to the needs of business and consumers. E-commerce depends on private and government financial institutions to enable payment transactions; the basis of e-commerce. As the United States financial crisis continues B2B enterprises may need to abandon traditional payment transaction systems and look to alternatives, in the form of Web based digital currency systems accessed via the Internet. The various types of digital currency systems generally fit into five categories: Barter Exchange Software Systems, Non-Bank Digital Currency Payment Systems, Digital Precious Metal Systems, Online Value Transfer Software Systems, and Online Stored Value Transaction Software Systems. Digital currency systems are not online banking. Digital currency systems use private electronic monies: electronic tokens, barter-exchange currencies, digital cash, and stored value e-cash vouchers. We explore the history of money against a backdrop of banking and government policies that cause cyclic monetary crisis's, how these current digital systems operate, how business can thereby benefit in their use, and why digital currency systems are such an underutilized service in the United States.

Digital Currency Systems: Emerging B2B e-Commerce Alternative During Monetary Crisis in the United States

View more documents from cjwells

Lords in the Church of the New Cash

By Simon Davis
DGC Magazine
January 2011

This is an important piece from the founder of Pecunix and co-creator of Voucher-Safe although it does not address how to prevent or hinder the potential confiscation of the issuer's warehouse assets.
The Future of Private Money by Simon Davis


Reprinted with permission.

Also listen to "Justin of Voucher-Safe" on AgoristRadio.

An Overview of Pecunix

The July 2010 issue of DGC Magazine has an enticing overview of the Pecunix digital currency system which covers its history, jurisdiction, and governance. Organized and existing under the laws of the Republic of Panama, Pecunix is rapidly becoming one of the trusted, established players in the field of digital currencies and financial privacy.

Pecunix, Part 1

Pecunix, Part 2

From the article:

"When e-gold Ltd. began operating, the concept was to create a closed digital system backed by the value of gold. (even the accounts are denominated in grams and ozs.) The operator of the system would not risk dealing directly with any retail customer and thus not engage in any risky financial transactions with unknown parties.

Consequently, the e-gold operation did not accept any direct customer funds. Retail transactions all flowed through a network of third party independent exchange agents. This set up became a sort of ‘defacto’ DGC model for a number of years. Pecunix still operates today as e-gold did in it’s early years.

Similar to the Federal Reserve which creates the currency but only deals with other banks, this DGC model manages the digital gold currency system but never deals directly with any retail customers. Just as you can’t ‘drive through’ the Federal Reserve Bank and cash your weekly paycheck, you could never send a wire transfer or payment directly to e-gold or Pecunix.

Using this original DGC model, no customer information is ever requested or verified when opening & operating a Pecunix account. The checking of ID, the verification of a customer’s real identity and requesting a source of funds on any transaction... these are all non-existent requirements within the Pecunix system just as they were for e-gold during it’s boom years.

Identical to the original e-gold model, the Pecunix operator is simply responsible for the day to day technical aspects of the online payments and the maintaining of the assets backing the digital units. Since they don’t deal directly with any retail customers the concept is that they should not be required to ‘know’ any of them or ask ‘what’ they do with their funds. This is the basic idea of privacy and freedom that digital gold currency pioneered across the Internet. Physical cash like notes and coins have certain anonymous properties and digital currency systems, in particular, digital gold currency was created to mimic those properties.

The Pecunix digital gold currency system continues to operate today exactly as it did from day one back in 2002. However, because of it’s jurisdiction and certain issues with the Federal Government, e-gold has modified it’s model to include strict verification of all account holders similar to PayPal."

Issuer Market Update - September 2009

By Jon Matonis

The Issuer Market Update is a periodic snapshot of active digital gold currency issuers. Only those issuers and currencies that have precious metals backing are included in the analysis, although some issuers may also offer non-metal digital currencies.

Additionally, I have included each issuer's date of founding and the legal jurisdictions for administrative, operational, and guarantor entities, if applicable. Certain companies below will be the focus of issuer highlight studies in the future. Please bear in mind that not all issuers are forthcoming about the full details of their legal and control structure -- a fact that I believe puts them at a relative disadvantage.

1. c-gold (2007) - Seychelles, Malaysia
   
2. e-dinar (2000) - Dubai, Malaysia
3. e-gold (1996) - Nevis, USA
4. EuroGoldCash (2008) - Panama
5. GoldExchange (2006) - Costa Rica
   
6. GoldMoney (2001) - British Channel Islands
7. GoldNowBanc (1999) - unknown jurisdiction
8. Gold-Pay (2008) - Panama, Costa Rica
9. iGolder (2009) - Belize
10. Liberty Reserve (2005) - Costa Rica
11. Pecunix (2001) - Panama, Vanuatu
12. Perfect Money (2007) - Panama
13. WebMoney (1998) - Belize, Lithuania, Russia, Dubai

Interviews with Issuers:
"Interview with c-gold", DGC Magazine, June 19, 2009
"Interview with iGolder", DGC Magazine, April 16, 2009
"Interview with e-gold", DGC Magazine, March 20, 2009
"Interview with Gold-Pay", DGC Magazine, March 20, 2009
"Interview with Perfect Money", Ecommerce Journal, January 23, 2009
"Interview with e-dinar", DGC Magazine, October 22, 2008
"Interview with WebMoney", DGC Magazine, October 22, 2008
"Interview with GoldMoney", DGC Magazine, October 22, 2008
"Interview with Liberty Reserve", Planetgold.com, May 20, 2002

One Global Digital Gold Currency...The Devil´s Work Indeed!

By Mark Herpel
American Chronicle
Thursday, April 2, 2009

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/96914

Digital Gold stands firm as a protector of personal wealth and value

I am constantly amazed at the bad information I see and read regarding digital gold or digital gold currency.

Senior Fellow, Director of International Economics and quite possibly the hardest working man over at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Benn Steil, mentioned digital gold more than two years ago in his article, "Digital gold and a flawed global order". He offered a positive viewpoint and forward looking statements regarding the future of digital gold. Here is what Mr. Steil had to say:

Digitized commodity money may then be in store for us. Gold banks already exist that allow clients to make and receive digital gold payments—a form of electronic money, backed by gold in storage—around the globe. The business has grown significantly in recent years, in tandem with the dollar´s decline. As radical and implausible as it may sound, digitizing the earth´s 2,500-year experiment with commodity money may ultimately prove far more sustainable than our recent 35-year experiment with monetary sovereignty.

However, in the recent news headlines, it seems that not everyone completely understands Digital Gold Currency and the powerful role it can play in everyday commerce.

This month I have been inundated with no less than 36 Skype discussions and emails regarding Mr. Bob Chapman´s piece from "The International Forecaster" and GoldSeek news. The article is entitled, "Staggering Deficits In A Depressionary Economy". [1]

How did Mr. Chapman, or anyone for that matter, get the ridiculous idea that Digital Gold Currency is big government´s global tool to control and spy on the population?

Who said that digital gold will allow governments to control every aspect of my life? Ridiculous!

In the past decade, Digital Gold Currency has been a safe private banking and commerce financial tool for millions of users. It has only been, in just the last 36 months, that the U.S. Government has made an attempt to regulate its use within their borders. The wild prediction that there could, should or would ever be ONLY one digital world currency backed by gold is laughable.

Private Digital Gold Currency companies have been in operation for more than ten years. DGC (digital gold currency) is a private value transfer solution which is always issued by a business and not a government agency.

Digital gold is an everyday guaranteed solution to the never ending problems of inflated national currency. DGC is NOT government issued legal tender.

Yes, on a global scale, there could be one financial category known as "digital gold currency" however that category could contain thousands of private brand name gold currencies. Here are some examples:

• GoldMoney gold grams
• e-dinar (digital gold dinar and silver dirham)
• Pecunix grams
• iGolder gold grams
• Webmoney WMG purse gold grams
• c-gold grams
• CryptoBullionReserve GoldGrams
• GoldNowBanc GoldGrams
• PC GoldGrams
• Gold-Pay grams
• Wontongold Grams

These are all currently functioning private Digital Gold Currencies.

Digital gold is unlike national currency. In the case of government issued paper money, one U.S. Dollar does NOT equal the value of one euro, yen, ruble or pound. National paper currency has floating exchange rates. However, one gram of digital gold always equals one gram of any other digital gold in any other country around the world. Gold is universally accepted by weight, no matter what brand name it holds. Gold backed digital units are the perfect candidate for a global digital currency.

One Gram = 1 gram = one gram

A digital gram of "Bob´s USA Gold" is identical to one gram of "Benson & Co.s" Singapore digital gold, which is also guaranteed to be exactly the same as a gram of "Amr´s XtraOrbit Egyptian" digital gold. Any private currency backed by gold can be easily exchanged for any other digital gold currency with no loss from exchange rates or additional fees which are always present with a paper currency exchange.

The concept of one global currency backed by gold should not mean ONE government issued digital currency. A global digital currency backed by gold should be understood to mean thousands of privately issued gold currencies or brands of currency. The public needs to recognize that digital gold currency is already in use today around the globe, it is NOT some devil which government henchmen dreamed up to control the masses. Digital gold is a private banking solution which offer extraordinary personal security and protection from inflation.

Digital gold = Freedom

Here is Mr. Bob Chapman's statement from "Staggering Deficits in a Depressionary Economy" (March 14th, 2009):

We are hearing more and more about digital gold as a private-bank solution to potential devaluation of fiat currencies. The May/June issue of the CFR´s, Foreign Affairs magazine, Benn Steil a senior fellow and director of International Economics, who has been on loan from the parent Royal Institute in London since 1996, says digital gold, "although a niche business at present, gold banking has grown dramatically in recent years in tandem with the dollar´s decline." Mr. Steil was the Illuminist who drew up the plans for the North American Union and the Amero. If there is digital gold out there somewhere we haven´t heard about it.

The new approach to a world currency obviously will be digital gold. This way they can introduce a one-world currency backed by gold to make it acceptable to the world public. The digital nature means government would know every aspect of your financial life and would control you and your country. The gold storage would, of course, be controlled by the Illuminists. The elitists have come to the conclusion another fiat currency is not going to be acceptable. This is why JP Morgan Chase, Citicorp and Goldman Sachs talk in terms of $2,000 gold and UBS projects $2,500. Historically such benchmarks are usually and normally exceeded by prices from $3,000 to $7,000.

When did Digital Gold become big government´s tool for spying?

Here a newsflash, the government already keeps a very close watch on the population through bank accounts and credit cards. Since 9/11 U.S. government agencies already, "...know every aspect of your financial life... and control you and your country" as Bob states. Digital gold won´t bring government agencies any further into your bedroom than they already are, that is an outright lie.

Bob also makes this statement in his article, "If there is digital gold out there somewhere we haven´t heard about it." Well, anyone reading can get on over to GoldMoney.com, Wmtransfer.com (WMG), Loom.cc or iGolder.com and try it out. Stop trying to demonize one of the best digital assets Americans have in the uphill battle to protect their wealth.

Digital gold is a protector of personal freedom and property rights. Private digital gold companies stand for freedom and financial privacy.

"To improve our money system it is neither necessary nor wise to destroy our present system. It is only necessary to produce a better product and to introduce it gradually."--Dr. Edward Popp, "The Great Cookie Jar", 1978

In all fairness I must disclose that I did email Mr. Bob Chapman and he responded saying that I just misunderstood him. After that response, I immediately re-read his article along with Ben Steil´s article(s) and a few others. I think I understand completely. Citizens in today´s world are moving away from the centralized greedy megabanks and towards local, smaller, decentralized level financial playing fields and that usually means gold or silver.

Every concerned citizen I´ve met is angry that their life saving and family nest egg just lost 40% of its value in the past two years. Everyone I meet seems mad that their job was shipped overseas in the past few years because manufacturing is not too expensive to do in the United States. Every person I know is angry at the Congressional big spenders for blowing through $3 Trillion dollars on bailouts and stimulus packages. I believe I understand it completely, it´s crystal. People want sound money.

The advances of today which give us digital gold instead of shiny gold coins for retail commerce should make NO difference in anyone´s ability to recognize honest money. The advantage of using digital gold as money is clear, gold cannot be created with a few keystrokes like excess bank loans. Digital gold gives citizens the ability to protect the population´s wealth just as freshly minted U.S. gold coins did back in 1792.

America was founded on gold and silver money. In previous decades all U.S. money was backed by gold or made of silver. It was good enough for Thomas Jefferson and it is good enough for today´s Americans.

There is nothing wrong with using digital gold currency as money and people like Mr. Chapman need to either rethink their position, clarify their writing and stop spreading rumors.

In the free Internet world, thousands of creative minds have already been building private currencies for more than a decade. Since gold is still considered money as it has been for thousands of years, the use of digital gold will continue to grow as a safe harbor protecting value from the approaching financial storm.

Digital gold currency is the number one monetary advocate for individual rights, privacy and freedom.

Georgia, Missouri, Washington State, Maryland, Montana, Colorado, Indiana & Previously New Hampshire

Today, there are about a half a dozen states with pending honest money legislation which includes the use of privately issued Digital Gold Currency for commerce and in the collection of taxes and fees. Here is one example from Indiana Honest Money:

Requires the treasurer of state and fiscal officers of political subdivisions to: (1) maintain one or more electronic gold currency accounts with a designated electronic gold currency payment provider; and (2) conduct all monetary transactions of the state or political subdivisions through electronic gold currency accounts. Provides that an electronic gold currency payment provider must use an electronic gold currency unit that constitutes a monetary unit of account and represents a claim of title to and ownership of a specifically defined, fixed weight of gold held by an independent specie vault. Specifies that a specie exchange with which an electronic gold currency payment provider associates must conduct the business of exchanging gold and silver coin, legal tender of the United States, and the electronic gold currency of the electronic gold currency payment provider.

I believe that in the very near future privately issued digital gold will be in much wider use throughout the US and around the world. However, there certainly will not be just one issuer and the gold currency could never originate from a government agency. There will be thousands of different private issuers and brand named Digital Gold Currencies in use protecting citizens wealth and privacy.

America was built on gold and as the United States sails past the $14 Trillion dollar debt level, I am very surprised to see any intelligent person trying to downplay the importance of sound money like Digital Gold Currency. Credit cards and fiat money are much bigger villains.[2]

1] "Staggering Deficits in a Depressionary Economy", Bob Chapman, March 14, 2009

2] "Credit Card Fraud Is Funding Terrorist Networks: Not Digital Gold Currency", Mark Herpel, American Chronicle, July 14, 2008

Mark Herpel is the editor of Digital Gold Currency Magazine and resides in Panama. This article was also published in DGC Magazine (April 2009).

The Digital Minting Process: How A Digital Gold Gram Is Born

By Mark Herpel
American Chronicle
Friday, February 22, 2008

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/52985

Digital gold currency systems are closed accounting systems. This means during operation there is a limited or ´set´ amount of digital units circulating. When one account receives a unit another account drops by one. If you have 400 ounces of digital gold circulating within the system and you spend 5 ounces to my personal account and I pay three others one ounce each...there is still only 400 ounces in that closed system. Units travel back and forth between accounts but always within the system.

Closed digital gold systems like e-gold, Pecunix or Goldmoney only give birth to new digital units when additional gold is allocated (deposited) into the vault. Once the gold is on deposit in the vault then the company can create additional digital units. When cash is needed for outexchange to users, a bar is sold and the amount of digital units circulating will fall by that amount. If all users cashed in at the same time, all the bars could be sold to liquidate that value back to the users. We have seen some very large multi-million dollar liquidations in e-gold over the past year, but the value and the money was always available to be distributed back to users.

What is the procedure for creating the digital grams?

The process of creating digital grams is referred to as ´minting´

Of course, each issuer has their own private methods to accomplish this task but we can take a closer look at the Pecunix minting process and gain a good idea of how they all ´mint´ digital grams.

Pecunix is committed to open, transparent operation. Their organization has strict a ´one to one´ rule clearly stating that, "every unit of value present in the Pecunix database has, at all times, a corresponding value of gold stored in an internationally approved vault."

Minting Pecunix

If the value of gold in the Pecunix system is to be altered, four separate agents - the Bullion Agent, the Escrow Agent, the Auditor and the Currency Issuer - must be involved in the following progression to ensure secure transfer.

(1)Approved gold bars arrive at the vault. Representatives from the Escrow Agent and the Bullion Agent witness the actual gold bars secured in the vault.

(2)The Bullion Agent records the weights, marks of the gold bars and allocates them to the account of THE PECUNIX FOUNDATION under the watchful eye of the Escrow Agent.

(3)The auditor examines the entry made by the Bullion Agent to ensure that all details correspond with the actual weight of the gold bars that have been witnessed in storage.

(4)When currency is to be created, the Issuer sends a Mint Request from a secure Pecunix system interface to the Auditor and the Bullion Agent. They each verify the exact amount of gold entered into the system, the exact amount of Pecunix that is to be minted, and the specific account that the Pecunix is to be paid into. They each PGP-sign the request to authorize it. Once all three signatures (Issuer, Auditor, Bullion Agent) are submitted to the system, the secure Pecunix software mints the currency to the relevant account.

(5)When currency is to be destroyed, the same process is repeated in reverse. Once all signatures are in, the correct amount of Pecunix currency is destroyed from the designated account. Only once the currency has been destroyed will the Foundation Council release the relevant gold bars from the vault.

Because their ´minting´ process requires the active participation of independent third parties, Pecunix users can be assured that all reporting on the vaulted gold backing the digital units is accurate. Pecunix, like e-gold and GoldMoney provides an extremely transparent online operation.

Any visitor to the Pecunix web site can view the auditor report on gold stores, the bar count, serial numbers and even the purity of each bar. This ensures the ongoing integrity of the value behind the digital grams. Pecunix currency is calculated at a rate of 31.1034768 per ounce of fine gold. All gold bars are exclusively in the form of London Bullion

Market Association (LBMA) certified "good delivery bars". http://www.lbma.org.uk

To ensure absolute integrity, three of these organizations - the Bullion Agent, the Escrow Agent and the Auditor - are all completely independent third parties with no financial interests in Pecunix.

For more information you can visit these links.

The e-gold Examiner page provides complete details on the vaults´ contents. Examination Report of Bullion Stored at Repositories

http://www.e-gold.com/examiner.html

This information is provided on their web through the e-gold Bullion Reserve Special Purpose Trust.

GoldMoney also publishes detailed information on the bars held in Zurich and London.

http://goldmoney.com/en/bar-count.html

Mark Herpel is the editor of Digital Gold Currency Magazine and resides in Panama.

Ron Paul Talks About Digital Gold Currency

By Mark Herpel
American Chronicle
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/41533

Digital Gold Currencies such as Liberty Reserve, Webmoney(WMG), c-gold, e-gold, Pecunix, GoldMoney, e-dinar facilitate Internet commerce around the globe without the risks of chargebacks, fraud or the high processing fees associated with credit cards. Anyone receiving a payment in digital gold currency has 100% immediate settlement. Get paid, stay paid and no waiting.

During an interview on March 9, 2002 by Bob Nugent for the planetgold.com (now defunct), Ron Paul discussed some ideas about Digital Gold Currency and free market money. The information and the interview are extremely relevant today as the US dollar drops lower and lower ahead of the coming Presidential Campaign. Here are some clips from the interview:

Bob Nugent for planetgold: Congressman Paul, you’re literally an outstanding member of the US House of Representatives. And, I mean that in the most positive way. And I’d like to thank you for taking the time for a short interview. Ah .. I understand that The Liberty Committee is about 3 years old. What are the sizes of the Liberty Committee’s caucus and membership, currently, and how’s it been doing lately?

Congressman Ron Paul: We have 17 members of congress who belong to, but probably have 60,000 citizens around the country who participate. And the goal is of course to put as much pressure on all the members of Congress to look to the Constitution to find out … to decide on how they’re going to vote. And sometimes it works and sometimes it helps. But we have a long way to go. We need probably a couple hundred thousand people doing that on a regular basis, to put pressure on their members of Congress.

planetgold: Well that’s good to hear and we hope the UN doesn’t get too far at all. In February of this year you introduced the “Monetary Freedom and Accountability Act”. It’s long title being: “To amend title 31, United States Code, to limit the use by the President and the Secretary of the Treasury of the Exchange Stabilization Fund to buy or sell gold without congressional approval, and for other purposes.”. Why did you introduce this bill?

Congressman Ron Paul: There’s a strong suspicion that our government, in the Treasury department and specifically Exchange Stabilization Fund are probably dealing in the gold market with the purpose of keeping the price of gold down. They deny this and maybe they’re getting around it some way. But I wanted to make it explicit that they can’t do it, that it’s illegal, because the interpretation of the law passed in the 1930s did give the Exchange Stabilization Fund some authority to deal in gold. But I want to change that. And I want it to be out in the open. And I want Congress to know about it, if they’re going to loan gold or sell gold. They claim they’re not doing it, but if that’s the case, the Treasury shouldn’t have any objections to a law like this, that just says that Congress is just resuming their responsibilities that they should have had, and should have had never taken away from them.

planetgold: Right. …. I’d like to read a quote supposedly of President John Adams, and then ask you what you think of it. It appears to me, at least partly, that it still holds true today. And, here’s the quote: “All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.” What do you think of this statement?

Congressman Ron Paul: Well I think that he does place the morality of it all. Freedom doesn’t work unless you have a moral people. But I certainly would agree with him on this issue of ignorance about the coinage of the money. There’s so little interest in it and so little knowledge in Washington that it’s … it’s unbelievable. Even the committees that , like the banking committee that deals with it, or the sub-committee, the Domestic Monetary Policy subcommittee, those people that serve on there either get stuck on there, or they want to deal with not true coinage but just making the memorial coins or special coins for special occasions, like that.

As far as monetary policy goes there’s no interest and no knowledge about it and yet I consider that so significant. To me it’s the most important economic issue of the day. It’s the nature of money and the Federal Reserve system. It has a lot to do with ignorance but it’s also, I think, it’s convenient too. Because this way if the Fed is responsible for dealing with this major issue of money and banking, and also they know that the Fed can take care of debt that we can’t sell, and they keep interest rates down, I think it’s very convenient for the politician who likes to spend money. So it’s a lot of ignorance and a lot of convenience. But right now, I don’t know what it’s going to take to wake ‘em up. I think the Congress won’t wake up until the people wake up and realize the currency and the dollar is not a very good currency.

planetgold: Ok. Are you aware of private DGCs, Digital Gold Currencies, like e-gold, GoldMoney, e-Bullion, 3PPay and FastGrams?

Congressman Ron Paul: Yes I’m aware of this.

planetgold: Do you have any opinions on ‘em?

Congressman Ron Paul: I think they’re great. I don’t know any of them in detail. And I can’t compare them and tell which one is more efficient. I don’t have any opinion in that detail, but the the idea that we can have digital money and relate it to gold, I think is very very good. I think everything is vulnerable. Just because gold is a good idea doesn’t mean that everybody that comes up with this digital gold will be efficient and honest and all these other things. So that is required … the markets have to sort all that out.

I’ve been asked so many times about what we should do with the system now. If I don’t like the paper money and I don’t like the Federal Reserve, what would I do. And it generally is I wouldn’t get rid of the Federal Reserve in one day, because it would be very very chaotic. But I would like to fully legalize competition in currencies. And I think some of these currencies have .. or gold has trouble in really developing, getting people to use them, because the tax collectors can still come. If you’re using gold coins and your gold coins go from 300 dollars a coin to 400 dollars a coin, you could be taxed on the appreciation of that if you sell those coins and put it into paper. So, you have to eliminate all taxes. Sales taxes and capital gains taxes on gold coinage if we want to do anything to encourage the use of gold as a competing currency.

planetgold: DGCs are pretty much all offshore, right now, even though much of the action is being driven by Americans. In most cases, the central reason is that while the US might be the best place to do business, the Internet financial world is acutely aware that America has a past reputation of gold seizures, and a current and alarming reputation of asset seizures, all without due respect for normal human measures of property and legal process. What would have to be done to make people think America is a safe place for 100%-reserved gold money systems?

Congressman Ron Paul: Well, we’ve made a lot of progress. When I first went to congress gold wasn’t even legal. So in ‘76 with an effort we were able to restore legal ownership of gold. Technically contracts in gold are legal. We had the gold commission in the early 1980s. Something I was very much involved. We were able to get our government doing something that was constitutional. And, that was to mint gold coins, and that is where the Gold Eagle has come from. The precise one ounce of gold and silver. So in that sense we’ve made a lot of progress, but we have to always be concerned with what our government might do. They may confiscate our gold. They may confiscate our guns as well.

But in the mean time I think we should get as many people as involved … the more people that own a gun .. I don’t think the federal government could take the guns away from the American people. It’s just that .. there would be so much resistance, that it wouldn’t happen. There’s not quite the same resistance with gold. And I think that if we had the same attitude with gold as we have with our guns, … we’re not going to allow our government to overstep and do such a thing. But it lingers out there. I just don’t think that it’s likely to happen. But I wouldn’t bet that it’s impossible. I think it is possible. Of course that’s one of the reasons why I’m in Congress hoping to wake people up. To make sure that enough people know that we should not do that. But the danger still exists.

planetgold: Is the world’s financial system systemically sick?

Congressman Ron Paul: I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. I think it has a disease and is systemically sick but it’s one of those hidden diseases, and nobody quite realizes it. But it will show it’s ugly features probably here in the future.

planetgold: Is it conceivable that there comes a time when we can make a contribution to your campaign; and buy your cook books and bumper stickers with a Digital Gold Currency?

Congressman Ron Paul: Well, I would think so. I think some people may have, but I’m not sure in the practical sense, but if it works I think we would welcome it.

Mark Herpel is the editor of Digital Gold Currency Magazine and resides in Panama.

For further reading:
"Is Digital Currency Viable?", Timothy D. Terrell, March 15, 2001

Pecunix Takes Proactive Approach To Curbing HYIP Ponzis

By Mark Herpel
American Chronicle
Friday, October 12, 2007

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/40064

A Digital Currency, like Pecunix, is about as-close-to electronic cash as we are going to get in this decade. Just like any cash transaction, it is impossible to regulate ‘who’ uses the currency or what it is used for….

As your local bank teller does not ask you what you are planning to do with your cashed paycheck, its impossible for digital currency operators to police all users, all the time and ask them how they plan to spend their electronic money.

This kind of supervision over a system has always been a big problem for the DGC industry. Many people expect that all DGCs should be operating like the super regulated PayPal or the paperwork intensive Western Union.

Advocates of regulation all say these plans and time tested regulations prevent misuse of the system. However, most experienced users will tell you that while these regulations and restrictive activities definitely help its not a 100% solution. People still misuse the PayPal system and steal from users [phishing] and the crooks still use Western Union to funnel out proceeds of their online crimes.

So digital currency operators are stuck between massive restrictive regulations or turning a blind eye to destructive fraud and criminal activity. This is NOT an easy problem to solve.

Consequently, if an operator identifies a grey area, not specifically a crime in progress, but a questionable transaction, what action should a responsible operator take?

• Should they act as judge and jury forcing people to obey their opinion (like the Christian Coalition-we feel its right so you must follow our rules) even though it may not be a disagreeable transaction in the actual users’ jurisdiction?


• Should the digital currency operator ignore the problem and pretend it does not exist, stating they are not responsible for what people do with their money?

What should the DGC operator do to prevent their digital currency from being used by scammers, crooks and con men?

After all, this is currently a self regulated industry and we want to keep it that way. We see that over regulation not only does not work, it spoils the free market.

Its a very tough question, but one that needs to be addressed.

For the last 6 weeks, Pecunix has been ‘piloting an experimental scheme’ and taking a very unique proactive approach to this problem.

They[Sidd & team] deserve some real credit and praise for their solution. Without being judge and jury, Sidd has taken a large step in the right direction and addresses this issue head on… and I like it.

Pecunix accounts are now actively monitored for HYIP activity and each account that is discovered or recognized gets ‘marked’. All ‘marked’ accounts then receive the following payment interface upgrade. Once upgraded, the effect is the same whether you use a payment link, the PRI (shopping cart) interface or a standard account to account payment, so all payment activity for that account is covered.

Anyone attempting a payment through the marked account will meet a large warning screen with the following text:

WARNING!

This account has been identified as a likely HYIP Ponzi scheme or SCAM. If you continue there is a strong possibility that you will lose your money!

It is not too late to cancel this payment.

Cancel Payment Button]

(RECOMMENDED)

If you decide to continue with this payment, you must accept full responsibility. Please carefully read section 6 and 7 of the Pecunix User Agreement before continuing.

Identified HYIP Ponzi accounts and ‘investments’ will now get this warning, and customers trying to send money to them must read and agree, thus accepting full responsibility for their actions if they continue.

You can click the following link which is a payment link to the A3union Pecunix account and see what happens.

http://pecunix.com/pay.me?payments@a3union.com

I think this is a fantastic move for any digital currency to make towards preventing their system from being used for fraudulent investment schemes. If a user progresses past this warning and spends money, they accept the responsibility in the case of a loss they are 100% responsible and acknowledge that they were warned.

For further reading:
"Pecunix Digital Gold: Top Security and 100% Offshore", Mark Herpel, September 12, 2006