$2 Billion Precious Metal Dealer Ready to Accept Bitcoin

GoldMoney.com, the James Turk founded company that manages over $2 billion in precious metal assets for its 23,000 customers, has released a survey suggesting that they are willing to not only store Bitcoins for customers, but use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange for those wishing to buy or sell precious metals.

The relevant survey questions are as follows:

12. How much are you interested in using Bitcoin for online transactions? 
      
13. Please specify below which Bitcoin functionality you would like to use:

• Use Bitcoin to buy precious metals with Goldmoney
• Use GoldMoney to store Bitcoins in a secure wallet
• Other

Ironically, in December of 2011, GoldMoney shut down a service which allowed its customers to convert precious metals into different currencies or to transmit units of gold and silver to pay other GoldMoney customers (hence the name, 'GoldMoney'). The site, which should now probably be called "GoldStorage," sited a "global increase of compliance requirements for payment service providers" as the reason for eliminating the feature.

Now, they are looking at the unregulatable (yes that's a word, I Googled it) Bitcoin as a means of getting around these requirements. In essence, James Turk is saying that "Bitcoin is as good as gold!" Personally, I think it's better.

It appears that the survey is accessible to non-clients, so feel free to have your say, here.

Trace Mayer has an excellent take on the situation over at his "Run to Gold" blog.

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GoldMoney is No Longer... Money

In yet another example of a business being strangled by regulation, GoldMoney has been forced to remove the ability of its Full Holding customers to send and receive payments in precious metals. In other words, GoldMoney is officially no longer a competitor to Bitcoin.

Unfortunately, Edwin Vieira will have to recommend a different alternative currency (linked to an earlier part of the video for context. "GoldMoney" is mentioned at 49:38).

This email was sent out to GoldMoney customers, today:

Dear Customer,

We are writing to advise you of a change of services we currently offer to our customers with a Full Holding. Since the launch of GoldMoney in 2001, we have continued to change and adapt to the global increase of compliance requirements for payment service providers. Due to this growing trend of regulation we have decided to suspend the following services until further notice with an effective date of the 21st January 2012:

* The facility to make and receive payments in precious metals to or from other GoldMoney Full Holding customers.

* The facility to convert directly between the various currencies.

Basic Holding owners do not have access to these features and are therefore not affected by this change.

Our research has proven that our customers' use of the metal payments and currency exchange services is not significant and we trust that the suspension of these services will not be inconvenient for the majority of our customers.

In accordance with our Customer Agreement, we are providing advance notice of this change to our services that will take effect on the 21st January 2012 at 12am local London time (GMT). You will be able to make metal payments and currency exchanges up to this date.

We continue to provide a secure and reliable platform for the purchase, sale and storage of your precious metals. This includes enhancing our systems, introducing and adjusting our products and services, and making our website the most effective tool for managing your precious metals portfolio.

With this in mind, we have prepared a brief survey to gauge your interest in current products and also possible future products we may introduce, depending on the feedback we receive from you. The survey can be completed at the link below. All feedback received is anonymous unless you choose to provide us with your contact details.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/goldmoney

We thank you for your continued business, and we will sincerely appreciate any feedback to help us determine the products and services that are of most interest to you.

Kind regards
Your Relationship Management Team

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Robert Prechter Calls Bitcoin "Brilliant"

Over on the Bitcointalk Forums, cypherdoc brings us this interesting development:

Robert Prechter, one of the world's most renowned stock market analysts and proponent of Elliot Wave Theory, in his latest report, calls Bitcoin "brilliant:"

"In June, Senator Charles Schumer (D, NY) called the brilliant on-line transactional unit, Bitcoin, “a form of money laundering.”

Robert Prechter postulates that Bitcoin, while brilliant, will likely fall victim to government action. As with Liberty Dollars in the United States and GoldMoney in the Netherlands, he believes Bitcoin will be declared illegal, thus dissuading legitimate business from accepting it in exchange for goods and services.

Unlike other alternative currencies, however, Bitcoin can never be shut down.

Robert Prechter's praise for Bitcoin truly is a step towards its legitimization, and as long as Gavin Andresen and the core development team continue to work with government to build a framework for Bitcoin's regulation, it is unlikely that it would be declared illegal.

It should also be noted that GoldMoney's currency, called "GoldGrams" has been around since 2001, and remains legal in the United States.

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