GoldMoney
GoldMoney is a payment network for digital currencies each backed by a precious metal.
The company holds the precious metal in reserve and issues currency units denominated in units of the metal.
The currencies and units offered are:
- Gold - Goldgrams
- Silver - Silver ounces
- Platinum - Platinum grams
- Palladium - Palladium grams
Transactions made to a merchant or sent to another GoldMoney member clear instantly. Only customers with "full holding" accounts are able to make payments using the currency. Payment are non-repudiable[1].
With GoldMoney payments being irrevocable (i.e., no charge-backs) it is a method embraced by Bitcoin traders as bitcoin payments are irrevocable as well. These traders may be found on the bitcoin-otc marketplace, for instance.
Fees
There are fees when buying the currency, for demurrage (storage), and when making payments or withdrawing funds. The rates are disclosed on the GoldMoney site.
History
GoldMoney was started in 2001 and by 2011 it had $2 billion USD of customer assets in storage[2] Though offers to trade bitcoins for GoldMoney and vice-versa were discussed as early as October 2010, the first bitcoin to GoldMoney trade appears to have occurred in July, 2011[3].
The GoldMoney P2P digital currency was restricted to accounts domiciled in Jersey in 2011 because of regulatory concerns and eventually discontinued by the company. However in an ironic twist GoldMoney created a Bitcoin-to-gold exchange company called Netagio in 2014 and in 2015 Goldmoney was acquired by BitGold[4]
See Also
External Links
- GoldMoney web site