Is e-gold going to make a comeback?

Posted by Mark B on November 11, 2009 under Marks Blog Posts | Be the First to Comment

Return of the original e-currency?

 Egold opened it’s doors in 1996 to offer an e-currency service that was soon copied by a whole range of others, including Liberty Reserve and the ill-fated e-bullion.

Because of the jurisdiction of the e-gold company their service was suspened last year to prevent the potential use of their service by terrorists, drug dealers, money launderers and other undesirables.

Then there was the total collapse of their competitor e-bullion among a frenzy of reports of murder and curruption.

Other e-currencies survive by being based ‘off-shore’ in countries where rules are not so strict and virtually anything goes. Liberty Reserve is a secure service for users but is also the favourite of many scammers and HYIP programs who don’t want to use ‘proper’ payment processors or give out their bank details so they are able to remain totally anonymous while they fleece people. And all transactions are permanent, there are no refunds or comebacks afterwards. You can see why the ‘dodgy’ merchants insist on only accepting these methods of payment.

When e-gold was suspended it hit a lot of people hard. Funds in e-gold accounts were effectively frozen and many people were left with thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars that was theirs but they could no longer access.

Then when e-billion imploded many of the same people lost even more money, some were even left in serious financial difficulty or even bankrupt. People I was dealing with at the time had lost tens of thousands with each currency and were totally ruined.

But e-gold didn’t disappear altogether. Accounts remained open and the website remained live. The administrators of the service still replied to all emails and regular updates have been posted on their website. But funds remained locked inside e-gold accounts with their owners unable to access them.

To understand the impact of e-gold being frozen you should realize that whole websites and programs had been build around e-gold as the sole payment option. Tens of thousands of them. There is a LOT of money sitting in e-gold accounts that nobody can access.

But is there a light at the end of this particular tunnel?

E-gold’s last information update was on November 2nd 2009 and it does still look positive. They have done a lot of work to completely restructure their business model, insisting on full identification details and proofs of ID from it’s account holders.

In addition to the possibility of e-gold coming back online as a legal and popularly accepted e-currency, they are also working on a ‘Value Access Plan’ that would allow account owners to access the value of their accounts in US dollars. They state on their latest update:

“We are, however, working diligently to develop a means by which account Owners will be able to access the value in their account.  Included in this effort have been intensive discussions with various US Federal and State government authorities, including the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, the state where e-gold’s Operator is located.  We hope in the very near future to finalize a Value Access Plan that satisfies the requirements of the Office, at which point we will engage with other jurisdictions where e-gold Owners reside. Subject to the prerequisite discussed below, the Value Access Plan will allow account Users on accounts with Owners residing in jurisdictions in which the Plan is not prohibited or otherwise restricted by law to direct the exchange of value in the e-gold accounts they control for US dollars.”

So fingers crossed, e-gold account holders may soon have access to their funds which would be a very nice bonus especially in the current economic climate where many people are struggling.

You can view the latest e-gold update by clicking here.