Hi mikeb270-ga,
Thanks for your question.
The whole concept of e-Gold revolves around the basis that it is an
electronic currency whose title is passed back and forth between
buyers and sellers. All e-Gold is actually backed up 100% by gold
(in a similar fashion, other e-metals are also backed up 100% by that
metal) being stored by e-Gold Inc. (a Nevis corporation). You can
learn more about the e-Gold concept here:
http://www.e-gold.com/unsecure/qanda.html
Now to focus on your specific question; there are actually two
components that are closely tied to any site that uses e-Gold for
exchanges:
1. e-Gold Shopping Cart Interface (SCI)
"The e-gold SCI provides checkout capability to any e-gold account
holder by allowing them to place a button on their web page to accept
e-gold payments."
So this method is more or less pre-programmed (except for filling in a
few values in the script they provide) button that goes onto a website
and allows a method for merchants to accept payments. An e-mail
notification is sent to the merchant once the payment has been
received. The full specifications of the SCI is available here:
http://www.e-gold.com/docs/e-gold_sci.html
OR
http://www.e-gold.com/docs/e-gold_sci.pdf
2. e-Gold Automation Interface
"These defined methods allow programmers to perform e-gold actions
(spend, balance, history) via their own program."
In short, this is a way for sites that already have a defined
interface to build in the functionality of e-Gold without having to
conform to the SCI. Functions such as account balance, account
history, e-metal preview and spend are permitted. Sample PERL scripts
are also available, but naturally there is a disclaimer exempting
e-Gold Inc. from responsibility due to faulty coding. The full
specification of the Automation Interface is available here:
http://www.e-gold.com/docs/e-gold_automation.html
OR
http://www.e-gold.com/docs/e-gold_automation.pdf
The more concise description of both components can be found here:
http://www.e-gold.com/unsecure/sci_home.html
If you're curious as to how other organizations have put e-Gold to
use, you may want to check out some of the sites on this page:
http://www.e-gold.com/unsecure/links.htm
The other part of your question was how to convert cash into e-gold -
the main thing to understand here is that e-Gold is not just a
buzzword, it is actually very much like real gold, which can be bought
and sold in various markets with/for other currencies. Some sites that
provide this are listed here:
http://www.londongoldexchange.com/buyegold.htm
http://www.goldcurrencies.com/e-gold.html
http://www.anytrans.com/site/eng/index.htm
http://www.goldmountainexchange.com/
http://www.bishopsgold.com/
I hope that answered your question sufficiently, but if you have any
probelms understanding the information above please post a
clarification.
Cheers!
answerguru-ga |