I wrote here sometime back about e-gold, a very interesting value-transfer business suffering through some difficult legal troubles. They have now pled guilty to criminal charges.
A blog post by e-gold’s Douglas Jackson calls it a “new beginning.” The company will pay some fines, get square with U.S. regulatory law, and go on providing its services.
Payments is an interesting business. Once value is de-linked from a physical asset, representations of it can be transferred electronically, by “wire” or over the Internet. As is already happening with intellectual property, people will eventually create value transfer systems that operate outside the control of any government.
Whether the Secret Service and the Justice Department like it or not, e-gold is the next step in the beginning of the end of government-controlled currency. I don’t expect governments to lose control of payments quickly or to give it up easily, but they will.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.