[Webfunds-users] [Fwd: e-gold: DigiGold]

Mon May 22 17:10:47 2000

Edwin Woudt wrote:
> 
> For those who don't read the e-gold list...

Ah, ta.

Craig:
> 
> I've been playing with DigiGold for about a month now, and I must say
> that I
> like the idea of having a currency which does not accumulate fees, and I
> like the ability to fascilitate a payment or a collection even when the
> DigiGold Server is unavailable. However, I cannot think of any other
> advantage to using DigiGold. I know there are people who want to do
> transactions anonymously, and DigiGold may be an asset to them, but

Actually, few people really want to do transactions so
anonymously that nobody can help them sort it out.  What
they really want is a service that protects their privacy
in general.  The remaining few who do want an anonymous
or untraceable transaction are a) a small group, b) big
enough to look after themselves if something goes wrong.

> otherwise, what else is there that you can do with DigiGold that you
> cannot
> do with e-gold?

> It is not that easy to teach the average person to use e-gold.  Many
> people
> fail to understand that gold is being bought when money is sent to the
> e-gold website. However, with a little bit of work, people DO figure it
> out,
> but DigiGold is far more complicated than e-gold, and the WebFunds
> Wallet is
> NOT intuitive.

Correct.  One way to approach this is to develop a front end
to the WebFunds world that looks just like e-gold.  That is,
have a server be a client and offer a web interface.  We will
do this some day.  Once this is done, it should make the world
of WebFunds as easy to access as e-gold.

> I succeeded in losing 1/2 gram of gold in the WebFunds
> wallet
> my first day of using DigiGold. I did this by ordering DigiGold from
> Omnipay.net, and then deleting my account before the DigiGold arrived.
> Moreover, it is NOT clear to users that DigiGold will be lost if the
> user's
> hard-drive crashes, and an adequate backup is not made. How many people
> even
> know how to restore a backup after a hard-drive crash?

This is a "mere" bug in WebFunds or more correctly, a lack
of a feature.  The reason for this is that the best solution 
is quite a bit of work to write.  And we are resource limited.
But you are right to maintain pressure on this point, we need
to be continually reminded of user priorities so that we start
on the important things next when programmer resource becomes
free.

> I think that the average person will never bother to learn how to use
> DigiGold if it means that he has to first learn to buy e-gold, then buy
> DigiGold, and then learn how to use the Webfunds Wallet. From my view,
> DigiGold will remain an obscure currency. Am I missing something?

Yes, sorry!  There are several advantages for WebFunds
over e-gold.  Or, Ricardo over e-gold technology:

    * Ricardo can do infinitely complex currencies, e-gold
      will be limited to the four metals.  Dollars, shares,
      bonds, loyalty, etc.

    * Ricardo is designed to be fast and programmatic.
      e-gold hasn't got that, although will get a limited
      version of this access method in the next generation.

    * Ricardo has special features that make it ideal for
      new applications.  At least one of those new
      applications is in the works now.

    * WebFunds is a platform for multiple systems, rather
      than just the one that is there now, and work is being
      undertaken now to add a different payment type on to
      it, one that is sufficiently exciting to its fans that
      they are forking out the cash to have it done.
      In theory, one could add a wallet to WebFunds to also
      do e-gold, so if WebFunds were to take off in a big
      way, we would not be faced with competition, but
      cooperation.

I apologise for the delay, especially in point 3, above.
That's me at the keyboard that is taking so long there.

iang