History of Digital Currency in the United States (eBook)

P. Carl Mullan is a 15-year veteran of the digital currency industry. He runs a consulting firm, the Digital Currency Intelligence Authority Ltd., and regularly writes about the business. Mullan splits his time between Portland, Oregon, and his residences in Central America. This book is his second for Palgrave Macmillan on digital currency and his fourth book related to private currency systems. 

Contents 6
List of Charts 8
Chapter 1: Introduction 9
Who Uses Digital Currency and Why? 12
What Is Digital Currency? 14
New US Financial Regulations 15
Legal Cases 15
Building a Better Mousetrap 18
A Lack of Early Digital Currency Regulation 19
Notes 26
Chapter 2: E-gold 27
Why e-gold? 33
One Hundred Percent Reserves at All Times 35
Grams, Troy Ounces, and Kilos 36
Financial Risk 41
E-gold Versus Bank Payments 41
The Ponzi Tsunami 46
Ponzi Payments 50
The Elephant in the Room 52
Iranian Accounts 55
E-gold Asset Seizures 61
18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968 (RICO) 62
§ 981—Civil Forfeiture 63
OmniPay 78
The Judge’s Opinion 80
Guilty Plea and Consent Order of Forfeiture 82
Notes 88
Chapter 3: The Liberty Dollar and Bernard von NotHaus 95
NORFED 98
American Liberty Currency Circa 2000 99
Bernard von NotHaus 101
Recognized Issues 102
Issue 1 102
Issue 2 102
Issue 3 103
100 Percent Gold and Silver 103
Digital Liberty Dollars 104
eLibertyDollar Consumer Transactions 107
Federal Bureau of Investigation Raid and Seizure 110
The Liberty Dollar Case 114
2015 Sentencing 115
Notes 116
Chapter 4: E-Bullion and Mr. James Fayed 118
E-Bullion Advantages 122
James Michael Fayed 122
E-Bullion History 123
Competition 127
Innovation 129
E-Bullion’s Competition 130
Computer Operation, Servers, and Security 131
Exchange Agents 135
Background 137
Why Accept E-Bullion? 140
Fraud Prevention 141
HYIP Ponzi Scams and E-Bullion 141
AdSurfDaily ($110 Million) 143
Legisi ($72 Million) 143
FEDI HYIP Ponzi Scheme (2003) Multimillion 144
Gold Quest International ($28 Million) 144
Pathway to Prosperity ($70 Million) 145
Profitable Sunrise (Estimated in the Tens of Millions of Dollars) 145
Liquidity in the E-Bullion Marketplace 145
Murder of Pamela Fayed 154
Remission 155
Notes 157
Chapter 5: Crowne Gold 160
Terry Neal 161
Crowne Gold 167
$7 Million Hack 168
Finanzas Forex/Evolution Marketing Group (EMG) 169
Affidavit of Brian DiPerna 171
Forfeiture 175
Notes 176
Chapter 6: Liberty Reserve 178
Background on Liberty Reserve 181
2006 Goldage Indictment 185
The Liberty Reserve S.A. Indictment and Case 191
Notes 200
Chapter 7: IntGold 204
Notes 211
Chapter 8: OSGold 212
StormPay Example 213
A Time of Acceptance 214
Off-Shore Gold and OSOpps 216
Exchange Service 217
The Shills 221
The Scam 225
The Foreign Banks 227
Debit Cards 227
The Complaints 228
Notes 233
Chapter 9: GoldMoney 236
Building a Better Mousetrap? 237
Created by Bankers 239
Cambios 244
Why All the Patents? 245
Belief Versus Reality 248
Notes 250
Chapter 10: WebMoney Transfer 251
WMID 253
WebMoney Passports 253
Formal Passport 256
Personal Passport 256
Bitcoin 257
WebMoney Transfer 258
Keeper Standard (Mini) 264
Keeper Mobile 264
Keeper WebPro (Light) 264
Notes 266
Chapter 11: New FinCEN Rules 267
Prepaid Access 271
The MSB Rule 272
Definition of MSB 276
Foreign-Located MSBs 276
Activity Threshold 276
Penalties 277
Money Transmitter 277
Suspicious Activity Reporting 277
Notes 277
Index 279