Abstract
The e-gold platform was launched in 1996. No widely accepted commercial online payment system had ever existed before e-gold. It was the first consumer payment software platform that permitted users to execute complicated global financial transactions outside of the regulated banking system. E-gold was also the world’s first secure account-based monetary payment system that enabled the use of gold and other precious metal as currency. The judge’s opinion during the e-gold case changed the entire digital currency industry. Research shows that high-yield investment program (HYIP) Ponzi schemes were a substantial driver of e-gold’s business. Ponzi scams were a significant part of the marketplace for all digital currency companies that did not require user identification or have functional know your customer (KYC) rules.
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Mullan, P.C. (2016). E-gold. In: A History of Digital Currency in the United States. Palgrave Advances in the Economics of Innovation and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56870-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56870-0_2
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56869-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56870-0
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