What It's Like to Work at Beenz.com Inc. (2000)
computerworld.com
computerworld.com
It was a glorified loyalty reward program. They did however manage a partnership with MasterCard that allowed members to credit beenz to their account, and they allowed some other online reward point sites to convert their currency to beenz as well.
If I remember right, they dealt with a lot of scrutiny from governments since their end-game plan was to have beenz be a commonly accepted currency, and for members to convert real money to beenz. They even employed a few economists to orchestrate the buying/selling of beenz from/to partnering merchants, making their margin on the spread.
Now, someone comes up with a gold backed electronic currency, THAT is a real threat to the Fed, and they are shut down rather quickly. Why? Because, unlike Fed notes, a gold backed electronic currency would have real intrinsic value.
http://stakeventures.com/articles/2008/07/22/the-man-finally...
There are gold backed electronic currencies, and a lot of people will tell you gold is more valuable than fiat money, so they will gladly take all of your fiat money and give you some gold electronic currency in exchange. Gold is a crap currency. It's just as "fiat" as dollar bills, except (a) commodity backed currencies are totally ruined by gold rushes, (b) using commodities as currency distorts the market value of that commodity, and (c) a gold standard would lead to deflation, which would be an economic disaster.
All of which misses the main point, which is that you took a discussion of a failed startup from the dot-com era and used it as a springboard into a totally unrelated recitation of half-baked goldbug talking points that are off topic and for that matter rather crankish. Little different than if there was a failed dot-com that centered around teaching kids about biology, and someone commented on it just to push some creationist viewpoint.
(Trying to make up a little for missing the down-arrow and accidentally modding you up.)
From the article:
Any interesting views from your office? "Well, the building opposite of us has two ladies of . . . 'professional status,' shall we say."
... at least we know where the money went.
Again from the article.
What was the most unusual bonus? "It's not one we can publish."
Suspicions confirmed perhaps?
Once again from the article
Little perks: "We operate outside the law. . . . We go out for curry dinners and booze and a lot of other things I can't mention
... that's the 3rd allusion to possibly having spent the money on hookers in the same article... or I'm just suspicious.
Perhaps Jason Calacanis can add that to his list of tips for startups - don't spend investment money on hookers :)