Pecunix

Pecunix is a digital gold currency founded in 2002 by Simon Davis. Similar to competing systems such as e-gold, Pecunix allows for the instant transfer of gold between user accounts.

Estimates at the end of 2004 suggest that there were over 6,500 funded accounts in the Pecunix system at that time. As of October 2006, Pecunix had 2375 oz (73,625 grams) of gold in storage, which is worth approximately $1,425,000 . Pecunix gold bullion is stored with Mat Securitas Express AG in Zurich, Switzerland. Pecunix, Inc. is incorporated in the Republic of Panama.

Features

Pecunix provides an alternative to fiat currencies, as do the other competing digital gold currencies. One benefit claimed by many proponents of digital gold currencies is that by keeping assets out of fiat currencies, one avoids some inflationary risks. Another claimed benefit is low fees. Transactions made in the Pecunix system are charged a fee of 0.50% of the payment amount up to 100 grams of gold and 0.15% of any amount over 100 grams up to a maximum fee of 3 grams. The minimum fee payment is 0.0001 gram. These fees are considerably less than the fees associated with other banking systems and online currencies such as PayPal. For discussion of other claimed benefits see digital gold currency.

The headline benefit of Pecunix, however, is security. Pecunix is a leader in the digital gold currency world in terms of security. According to Jim Davidson, author of The Indomitus Report, Pecunix has never had a security breach of any kind and never had an account emptied by trojan or phishing attacks. Its software integrates PGP in order to enhance privacy and security. In contrast, e-gold users have sometimes been the targets of trojans and phishing attacks, and through these attacks or by other means have had their accounts fraudulently emptied.

Exchanging fiat currency

Pecunix does not sell its currency directly to clients. Instead numerous digital currency exchangers act as market makers selling Pecunix in exchange for fiat currency and a transaction fee.

Criticisms

The biggest criticism of Pecunix probably has to do with its ease of use. Users are given computer-generated codes upon creating an account, as well as a PIN, which, if not written down right away, will be lost forever. These codes are not even sent through e-mail to the user. The user never types in the PIN, but rather clicks on number buttons in order to circumvent keyloggers.

The PIN and a user-created password are used to log in to an account, and by themselves give nothing but read-only access to the account. The other codes (called PIKs) are used to access certain account functions: the Account Details PIK allows the user to view their account's details, and the Payment PIK allows the user to send a payment or access the merchant tools. While these measures are all in the name of security, they can be tedious and cumbersome to the casual user.