Re: Loom Gold: Beyond Digital Currency

A Brief Loom Instructional

by Mark on June 8th, 2007

I just finished a couple of hours on Skype with Patrick Chkoreff, the gentleman who developed Loom Gold. Wow, it is simple, secure, private & very innovative. This system, is better and easier then anything I’ve ever seen. Enough small talk….let me share with you what I learned. Before reading any further, forget about all other online payments you have ever known and open your mind to the ‘Loom’.

“Loom Gold” is an Open Source software platform. That’s right it is Open Source and if Patrick will allow it you might even have one running on your own server. You would not be the first Loom on the block, there are a few successful Looms already in existence. Additionally you can customize your version with fancy colors, graphics, flash or secret access pages….basically you can do anything that floats your boat. However, when you visit this original Loom Gold web site you will notice it is pretty basic and designed for simplicity and easy navigation. “Welcome to Loom” is about all you will find on the main page.

From The Main Page…..
If you are new to the Loom system, you will need to follow the link labeled create a new folder https://loom.cc/ . What is a folder? This is where you keep your assets, or perhaps I should say digital money and that might be a better description for my readers. However, in Loom Gold, there are no folder names. The identifying information you need for any Loom ‘folder’ is simply the passphrase. With this system, your folder will have no identifying features beyond the passphrase. So when asked to create a folder, all you are actually doing is making up the lengthy passphrase. Loom also offers suggestions https://loom.cc/ for creating that large random code which is your passphrase. That’s all the access you will need to get into your Loom Gold ‘account’ …..the passphrase. Pretty simple eh?

Creating a folder requires two steps. As listed above, step one is creating the passphrase. Step two is having the usage tokens to ‘pay’ for the folder creation.

Enter usage tokens graphicGetting the usage tokens from a ’sponsor’ is very simple. New users to the Loom system will receive an identifying ‘location’ within the Loom (a drop point). That location (phrase) looks like this: 1cbc212c4aa0869494a23fe54fbcb403. To set up the new folder, simply enter your passphrase, then enter your ‘location’ (big number) and instantly the program logs you into your new folder. Your sponsor can email, fax or Skype you that location (big number) and you are ready to go. Thats all……you have created a ‘new account’.

Users can have as many folders as they want - there is no limit, but those tokens you need to create a folder are not free. Each time you create a folder - you burn disc space and for the Loom operator that cost money. Consequently, those small costs are simply being passed on to you. Folder creation fees are what amounts to a small usage fee and customers really should not think too much about it. The amount is not a million Pesos, but wisely, that small fee prevents waste and helps regulate excessive usage. (Why? If email cost .25 cents each to send, there would be no spam, right?)

How many usage tokens will you lose in the folder creation? As a general guess, a new folder will eat about 60-70 usage tokens….in that range. So as a new user, that big number above, the ‘location’ you need to get started probably contains about 200 tokens. That’s enough tokens to set up one folder and leave you with about 130 usage tokens in your account.

133 Usage Tokens Left As shown here, my new account had 133 usage tokens left after opening. The small cost of the folder depends on the length of the nickname, whether the system pads to 16 bytes for encryption and some other technical stuff I’m not really familiar with so let’s just say between you and me… as a rule its about 70 tokens. When you set up the folder and enter the program for the first time, you will also see the balance of usage tokens you have left.

Once you are logged in, you will see your folder and it should look something like this image:

The next image shows my handiwork and please note the upper Red area I have highlighted, is your folder area and will display all the assets in your possession. The lower blue highlighted area, shows ‘drop points’ and the assets currently positioned in each drop point. Your folder area (red highlighted) contains what I would call ‘protected’ assets. While the drop point area (blue) shows what I call ‘common area’ assets. They are still in your possession but may at any time be taken by the receiver. Assets in drop points can be taken by your receive if you have provided him the ‘location’ or you also have the option at any time to take assets back into your protected ‘folder’ area.

Again, let me describe what I would refer to as your ‘permanent’ assets which are all displayed above the drop down menu and the ‘common area’ assets listed in drop points, showing below the menu, may be taken by the receiver at any time. Just my way of thinking.

You can see from this graphic, that my sponsor, Patrick, gave me not only usage tokens but also 1 gram of Loom Gold and 25 grams of TEST gold. However, I have not yet ‘taken’ the Loom or the TEST items so they are still in their drop points awaiting me to ‘take’ them into my folder. Moving assets from the ‘drop points’ into your folder is instant and easy, you simply select from the drop down list, the asset, its location (nick names next to the green dots will also appear in the drop down lists) and click ‘Take’. That moves the asset from the ‘common area’ drop point to your ’secure’ folder. I’ve added some new locations below so let’s try to ‘Give’ and ‘Take’ some assets.

Below is the same folder and I renamed my drop point ‘Mark’s Drop Point’, created some additional drop points and now have a balance of TEST gold and usage tokens.

That is the basics of the Loom system, its super simple to use. Ah, one very important NOTE I will make here is that transactions between users, the Give and Take, have NO fees. There is currently no monthly fees and no transaction fees. The only fee you should prepare yourself for is the third party independent agent’s fee for selling you Loom Gold. You send them national currency, they place Loom Gold on a drop point and you pick it up….thus funding your account.

There are about a dozen other items to address when operating a folder ‘account’, but we’ll look closer at those in our tutorial video series. Next up, I’ll give you the tips and inside scoop on what makes this system so different & special to Internet users and we will discuss a bit more about the technical features of daily use.