[Foundation-l] e-gold proposal

Sun Dec 12 12:15:34 UTC 2004

Dori wrote:

>Nice pitch, but I still don't get what Wikimedia would have to do.
>When you say "Post a prominent link to the e-gold site" do you mean a
>link on the wiki pages itself, or do you mean a link on a single page,
>specifically http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising (like the
>already existing PayPal ones)?
>
The link to the e-gold site isn't essential or required. Its just a way 
to capitalize on the likelihood that many members of the Wiki community 
never heard of e-gold before. That would be good for you because if they 
visit the e-gold site by following a link structured like 
http://www.e-gold.com/e-gold.asp?cid={your account number} and end up 
eventually creating an e-gold account and using it, a portion of all 
e-gold payment processing fees generated by their subsequent usage would 
automatically be distributed to the account you designate. It is a 
permanent entitlement. Whatever these new e-gold users do over the 
years, whether buying stuff online (as more prominent merchants 
eventually undertake to accept e-gold), paying bills, or using it for 
international remittances, their activity would still be generating 
revenue for the Foundation. 

>
>I also don't get the referral system. Would e-gold donate to Wikimedia
>besides what the users are donating? Does this effectively mean that
>the percentage that e-gold takes from the user donation will be
>smaller for Wikimedia?
>
Yes, that is, the part about the net transaction fee being even lower 
after taking the incentive bit into account. In fact you could game it a 
little further by having the Foundation set up an account first that was 
only for the purpose of receiving incentive revenue, then making sure 
that that account was the "Originator" of the e-gold account you use for 
accepting donations. The net effect would be to lower the (already low) 
transaction fee 10-20%.

One of our tech people could walk your tech guys through any subtleties 
of implementing the e-gold Shopping Cart Interface and optimizing the 
logic of referral links.

>
>On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:54:17 -0500, Douglas Jackson <djackson at e-gold.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>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
>>_______________________________________________
>>foundation-l mailing list
>>foundation-l at wikimedia.org
>>http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>
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>>
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