Re: Менялы третьего тысячелетия

OmniPay Primary Exchange For e-gold Is Moving To Africa

Mark Herpel, Panama@cryptoheaven.com
May 26, 2007

"It ain't over, till its over" these famous words have been spoken by many fine people over the years. People who held beliefs and vision that drove them beyond everyday business situations and into what was later called 'greatness'.

It was announced today that OmniPay, e-gold's primary exchange agent, has temporarily suspended exchange operations for a short period while they transition to 'OmniPay Africa'. This move is an obvious and wise attempt to protect the OmniPay business and assets from additional disruptions and US DOJ attacks. This move, is long overdue.

The surprise here is NOT the fact they are moving jurisdictions (I hope e-gold Ltd follows) the surprise comes from the new African jurisdiction. I would have thought Panama or Costa Rica is better suited. However, its widely known that Africa has opened their business environment to foster new technology such as mobile payments and digital currency.

Just as Webmoney http://wmtransfer.com/ works with tailor made local regulations in it's home town of Russia, e-gold's OmniPay business model should be well accepted and ideally suited for positive growth headquartered in West Africa.

This area of the world has made a rapid sublimed move from no banking directly into futuristic m-commerce and digital money. I've written about the growth of e-money and mobile banking in Africa many times http://www.digitalmoneyworld.com/new-cell-phone-technology-offers-those-without-banks-an-easy-way-to-pay/ . Its a great move for OmniPay and a real treat for Africa.

Democracy/Hypocrisy

The post 9/11 United States regulations, which are choking some of the life out of the US online business world, seems hell bent on defeating any future growth of digital money or private currency. That includes DGC (digital gold currency http://www.digitalmoneyworld.com/the-top-of-the-pyramid-is-digital-gold-currency/ ), GSM mobile commerce http://www.digitalmoneyworld.com/gsm-mobile-phones-enabling-low-cost-global-financial-transfers/ , private barter money such as the Liberty Dollar http://www.digitalmoneyworld.com/liberty-dollar-sues-the-us-government/ , payments for online gambling http://www.digitalmoneyworld.com/anti-online-gambling-feds-play-whack-a-mole-with-online-payment-processors/ and the list goes on.... Instead of building constructive regulations and taxing online business, the US has fostered an environment of 'fear' http://www.digitalmoneyworld.com/gsm-mobile-phones-enabling-low-cost-global-financial-transfers/ which has ultimately killed many digital business deals in just the past 12 months.

Wow, with all my writing about 'bad US businesses' readers may get the wrong impression that I am anti-government or anti-US. This is simply not true. While I disagree with a few of these business policies and regulations I understand rules are rules and when clearly defined, US businesses should not step over that legal line. I not only believe in following the rule of law but also the 'spirit' of that law when regarding new online technology. Rules and regulations are keeping Americans safe, and I am 100% in favor of anything that keeps people safe. If this means that while visiting in the US someone is listening to my overseas calls and I can't play that hand of virtual poker from my US hotel room, that's OK with me. I'm not complaining I make my permanent residence outside of the US.

Since the business climate in the United States is not conducive for long term Digital Gold Currency success, I've advocated, for many moons now, to change jurisdictions. I really hope that e-gold Ltd, their servers, offices and talented management will also be moving soon.

The following statement appears within the OminPay web site when current client's log in.

OmniPay temporarily suspends exchange to transition to OmniPay Africa

Effective immediately, G&SR will be leasing the OmniPay business to OmniPay Africa. All OmniPay exchanges will now involve e-gold transfers and money payments into/out of OmniPay Africa's e-gold and bank accounts respectively. G&SR has contracted to serve as the Operator of OmniPay but will not be a party to actual exchanges.

In terms of immediate impacts:

* The OmniPay exchange service will suspend operation pending provisioning of a suitable bank account for OmniPay Africa. It is anticipated this service interruption will start May 24, 2007 with service resuming on or about June 18, 2007.

* With resumption, all bank wires from customers must be directed to the new bank coordinates which will be posted on the omnipay.com website http://www.omnipay.com/.

The original plan was for OmniPay Africa to organize as a licensee of G&SR, the US company that owns OmniPay. A substantial development effort was underway to support the additional requirements for over-the-counter exchange operations such as biometric validation. However, recent actions of the US government, originating from a long-standing and misguided animus on the part of the US Secret Service, necessitate immediate action. Specifically, SEB Bank in Estonia has notified G&SR it is closing its bank account at close of business May 25, 2007 explicitly because of the Press Release from the US DOJ http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/April/07_crm_301.html .

We regret the temporary interruption of OmniPay services. Just as the US government's recent actions in seizing e-gold accounts of e-gold Ltd., G&SR, The Bullion Exchange, AnyGoldNow, IceGold, GitGold, The Denver Gold Exchange, GoldPouch Express and 1MDC (and forcing G&SR to liquidate the seized assets!) have severely damaged not only these exchange businesses but also their innumerable customers, their forcing this complex transition to be performed on an emergency basis is simply shameful.

We do not however regret the transfer of OmniPay responsibilities to OmniPay Africa. As will become abundantly clear in coming months, the OmniPay Africa team is highly qualified to guide OmniPay to a higher level, a genuinely global service that will foster a beneficial surge in e-gold's emergence while bringing significant advantages to emerging economies.

Strategic Background

A major strategic emphasis for e-gold is to provide sophisticated remote payments capabilities to the majority of mankind underserved by or excluded by the banking system. An important focus is international remittances - payments from migrant workers living in advanced economies sending a portion of their earnings to their home country. For many developing economies, migrant remittances constitute a significant portion of foreign exchange income and even GDP. Traditional remittance mechanisms, however, are expensive and inflexible.

It is estimated that lowering the net cost of remittances by a few percentage points could measurably enhance economic development. There is also increasing awareness that non-traditional banking such as micro-credit facilities can also aid in bootstrapping lesser developed economies.

OmniPay Africa, an entirely non-US company, majority owned by prominent business leaders from the Francophone countries of West Africa, was therefore organized to extend the usefulness of e-gold by providing support for over-the-counter exchange and by fostering the integration of e-gold into micro-credit lending institutions. The combination of e-gold (settling the international transfer of value with no need for a financial intermediary) and OmniPay (offering standardized, reliable, low cost exchange to/from local currency) will serve as a flexible low cost alternative to the traditional systems.

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DigitalMoneyWorld http://www.digitalmoneyworld.com/omnipay-primary-exchange-for-e-gold-is-moving-to-africa/