The e-gold payment system is an electronic payment system that enables account holders to make secure payments on the internet using value stored in precious metals like Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium in their account. These metals are called e-metals.
To understand e-gold you must look at it as a commodity and not a currency. It is an electronic commodity that is now accepted by a lot of merchants as a means of payment for their goods and services.
To use e-gold you must first buy it. However e-gold Ltd does not sell egold rather they only store it and help you maintain and manage your account. However, there are independent exchange providers that will sell e-gold to you. Independent exchangers also buy e-gold from you when you want to sell.
These exchangers support a wide range of remittance methods (bank wires, money orders, cash, credit/debit card, PayPal, Western Union and lots more), making e-gold one of the most widely available electronic payment system on the internet today.
In fact e-gold is very popular (and perhaps is the only electronic payment option) in countries like Nigeria where credit/debit cards are inexistent or requirement for getting them are too tedious. Any one can buy and use egold all that is required is to find an independent exchanger that accepts remittance from channels available to you.
If you can find an independent exchanger in your country you may be able to buy with cash deposits in banks or even over the counter. For example, all exchangers in Nigeria accept cash deposits (Naira) for e-gold. One such exchanger is www.epaymentservice.net
Note that independent exchangers as their name imply are independent and are not under the control of e-gold Ltd. Hence you should not take the inclusion of the link as an endorsement. However, if you are not satisfied with the services of any independent exchanger report to e-gold so that such information will be made available to other users.
You must have an e-gold account before you can buy. Opening an account is easy and free; you simply fill out the application form and verify your account via email. Once this is done you can buy or sell e-gold. You can even be an exchange provider or a merchant once your account is active.
Once you have an e-gold account you can immediately start receiving payments online. This is because e-gold provides you with a link that enables your website visitors to make payments to your e-gold account directly from your website. This may be okay if you have very few products or service to display.
However if you need more automation or you have a wide variety of products and services you should go for a shopping cart. You will also need to interface your shopping cart to e-gold website using a shopping cart interface (SCI). SCI is based on html forms and is relatively easy to implement.
e-gold is 100% backed by gold bullion. It is accounted on the weight of the e-metal in your account. The currency denomination you see in your account (say the dollar) is for your convenience. The currency value may increase or decrease depending on the exchange rate between gold and currency. Hence egold can be used as a store of value (hedge on currency fluctuations).
Account holders pay two types of fees in the e-gold system. One is Agio fee, which is the fee you pay for storing e-gold in your account. This value is calculated monthly. The other is spend fee and is the fee you pay each time you buy a product or service with e-gold.
These fees are calculated based on the weight of the e-metal involved.
Need more information? Visit the e-gold website for more information.
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