The business is e-currency, which allows Internet-based purchase and sales transactions involving almost anything to be safely conducted at lightning speed. Safeguards are in place to make identity fraud, chargeback prevention and funds verification much more of a surety than anything the conventional means of payment in the non-cyber world can provide.

E-currency may only exist in the cyber world, but that is nothing new. The euro began in the same manner. It was officially accepted by the countries of the European Union in 1999 to simplify business by eliminating exchange rates, but it began life 20 years before that by private financial institutions who saw it as an idea that had to happen. By 2002, the euro evolved from cyber-tender to hard cash and is now arguably the second-most influential currency in the world.

The Internet’s globalization of commerce on an instantaneous basis means that, where the euro has already gone, today’s e-currencies will follow.

However, there is still one major issue that needs to be resolved before all is proclaimed to be perfect in the rapidly expanding multi-billion-dollar world of cyberspace. There are still many different e-currencies in existence, with no universally accepted forum for exchanging them with one another or converting them to hard cash.

So, a company called GDT --- Global Digital Transactions --- has stepped forward to create a solution. Their endeavor is called DXinOne, or DXiO. The term 'DX' pertains to a unit of e-currency. ‘DXG’ is used to describe that unit in terms of its equivalent value in gold; it's currently pegged at DXG 1.00 = USD 1.00 for exchange purposes. Most e-currencies are backed by gold reserves held privately by the companies that issue them. A unit of 'DXG' is called a 'digot' --- a combination of 'digit' and 'ingot' --- and the popular pronunciation is 'dig it.'

The reason this should be interesting to you is that you can make money with it --- serious money --- by becoming an e-Merchant who facilitates these e-currency exchanges. Tens of thousands of them occur daily. Soon it will be tens of millions.

Basically, if you study the DXiO system in detail, you'll see that it’s a fee-based settlement operation rather than a market-based investment activity. GDT has designed DXiO to perform the same function in cyberspace that title companies do for real estate brokers and that clearing houses do for stockbrokers. DXiO does not have an equity stake in any of your transactions. It merely accounts for them on behalf of the participants in each transaction. It then takes a fee for its services.

If you take the time and commit to the requisite study of the system, its proponents claim you cannot lose with it.

Currently, the DXiO system is in a beta-test mode in preparation for its full introduction and deployment to the public. As a participant, you will become a 'member' of a private organization. As such, you will interact with other members in ways which enable you to learn the intricacies of the DXiO system. Ultimately, you'll advance to the e-Merchant stage, where you'll be handling transaction claims for e-currency exchanges and taking a fee for doing it. Your profits will not come from your investment into the business, per sé, but from your utilization of funds in your portfolio account serving as a 'float' which will facilitate the transition of one e-currency to another and allowing you to earn a fee for doing so.

You need to create a substantial float in order to conduct such transactions at a practical level. Based upon five years of performance to date, the beta-stage of DXiO's operations enables you to achieve that with very little capital invested. (Believe it or not, you can start with $50!) In that respect, their system is certainly more egalitarian than anything else currently out there.

Perhaps you'll wonder why GDT based these operations in a lesser-known tax haven like Vanuatu. Well, it seems that when the market for phone-porn became a booming industry a decade ago, many of those businesses set up shop in Vanuatu. Ultimately, the authorities there chased them away, but the aftereffect was that Vanuatu inherited a very sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure. If ever a high-volume Internet business wanted to establish itself in a tax haven with lower-than-usual start-up costs, Vanuatu became the ideal place to do it!

It’s prudent to remember that, if you do choose to become involved in DXiO, only commit capital that you can afford to do without, no matter what the future may hold. That should be everyone's philosophy in any new venture such as this.

In more ways than one, becoming an e-Merchant for electronic currency exchange can be a capital idea. It could also make for a very interesting rest of the century.

©2005 by G A Sherman