[Foundation-l] e-gold proposal

[Douglas Jackson]

A proposal follows that is commercial in nature. I am posting it to this 
list per the instructions of one of the Wikimedia Foundation Board members.
*****************
I would like to encourage the Wikimedia Foundation to:

    * Accept e-gold www.e-gold.com donations,
    * Post a prominent link to the e-gold site, using syntax that would
      enable the Foundation to capture referral incentives.

e-gold is an alternative payment system that mobilizes the value of 
gold, as currency, for payments over the Internet. Online since 1996, 
the e-gold system serves over 1.5 million users in 165 countries. In 
2003 alone, the e-gold system processed 15 million payments, conveying 
an aggregate value of $700 million. The e-gold website receives about 
one million visits per week. There is over $26 million worth of e-gold 
in continuous circulation, backed by 1.88 metric tonnes of physical gold 
in appropriate custodial arrangements. The system is highly robust 
technically and can scale readily.

It costs nothing to create an e-gold account. There is no obligation and 
e-gold never sells/releases customer information (without a court 
order). There is no fee for the payer who makes an e-gold  payment. The 
payment processing fee is deducted from the recipient. It is around 5% 
for tiny micropayments but quickly falls below 1% for larger value 
payments. The maximum fee is 5 centigrams of e-gold, equivalent to about 
70 cents at current exchange rates.

Every e-gold account can pay or receive payment and there is no merchant 
application process required to use the e-gold automation interfaces. 
The pertinent automation interface is the e-gold Shopping Cart 
Interface. It can be implemented in a simplified form in a few minutes. 
The full spec is at http://sci.e-gold.com

The unique characteristics that would make e-gold advantageous for the 
Wikimedia Foundation include:

    * e-gold is truly global, enabling Wikimedia to receive donations
      from China or anywhere else as readily as from the US,
    * e-gold payments settle immediately and are irreversible.


The bits that sometimes confuse people...

    * Since e-gold represents real gold, it is denominated in weight
      units. This is best understood by thinking of e-gold as if it were
      a foreign currency. Like any other currency, its exchange value
      relative to the US dollar will continuously fluctuate. This is a
      source of exchange rate risk, but can also be a good thing.
    * People often ask "How do I get e-gold". The rigorously precise
      answer is "just like you get any other money - you receive a
      payment from someone who already has some". Practically speaking
      though, what people generally mean by their question is "where can
      I exchange dollars to get e-gold?". Well, for purposes of the
      Foundation accepting e-gold payments, the answer is "Who cares?
      The Foundation would be receiving donations and it doesn't matter
      how the people clicking to the Foundation acquired their e-gold.
      If there was a cost involved, none of that cost is passed through
      or borne by the Foundation". But the answer you probably think you
      are looking for is "Go to www.omnipay.com (OmniPay is a company in
      Melbourne, FL that I'm CEO of) and use the exchange interface.
      OmniPay has the most competitive spreads for exchanging USD for
      e-gold and vice versa".

Sorry for such a long post. But one more thing in closing. e-gold is an 
alternative that complements other payment systems. You would continue 
to accept whatever modes of payment you already do. But in adding 
e-gold, depending on the extent to which your website said nice things 
about it and/or emphasized the links, you could benefit pretty 
substantially by introducing your community of users to it. The e-gold 
Referral Incentive Program is detailed at 
http://www.e-gold.com/unsecure/incentive.htm

eff.org and mozilla.org accept e-gold donations too.

sincere regards,
Dr. Douglas Jackson
Chairman, e-gold Ltd.
CEO, OmniPay
djackson at e-gold.com