‘May Scale’ of Monetary Hardness
Why is it a bad idea to accept PayPal in exchange for a digital gold currency like e-gold?
According to the May Scale, PayPal is ’soft’ money and the transactions are reversible. E-gold is digital gold currency and considered ‘hard’ money…all transactions are final.
Generally, a person would not want to exchange hard money for a ’soft’ money reversible method of payment.
Who has more risk, …..A person offering cash US Dollars and accepting a personal check or the person writing the check? Which money is harder?
Why are credit card cash advances considered riskier carrying a higher transaction fees and interest rate? That might be considered a bad exchange, giving out ‘hard’ cash dollars for cream cheese ’soft’ credit card transactions. You better check the scale below.
Why is it a bad decision to accept a personal check or credit card in exchange for e-gold?
| Hardness | Vehicle | |
| Hard [Diamond] | 1 | Street Cash, US Dollars |
| 2 | Street Cash, Euro Currencies, Japan | |
| 3 | e-gold | |
| 4 | Street Cash, Other Regions | |
| 5 | Interbank Transfers Of Various Sorts (wires etc) & Bank Checks | |
| 6 | Personal Checks | |
| 7 | Consumer-Level Electronic Account Transfers (eg bPay) | |
| Soft [cream cheese] | 8 | Business-Account-Level Retail Transfer Systems |
| 9 | PayPal & Similar ‘new money’ Entities | |
| 10 | Credit Cards |
“Observe that say stock brokerages definitely do not accept credit cards or PayPal to fund an account. They will only accept instruments that are very hard, such as wire transfers or certified bank checks. When hard money is required, only money-types with a hardness of about 5 or better will do the job. On the other hand, if you’re purchasing an online subscription, or consumer goods from a large retailer, softer money-types are more acceptable. When dealing with conversions between different types of money, generally you can only go “downwards” on the May scale. Thus, for example it is very easy to accept cash-dollars, and handout PayPal-dollars in return. But it would be almost impossible to accept credit cards or PayPal-dollars, and hand out cash in return. It is extremely significant that individuals tend to require harder money in their transactions. Corporations and large bodies can get away with using softer money, as they have more political (in the broad sense) power to affect the outcome of dubious or revoked transactions.
For instance, selling you a car, I could only trust you if you pay me with a hard money. Say, no softer than 5 on the may scale. No-one takes a personal check when selling a car. A car dealership, though, can trust you with somewhat softer money .. say up to 7/8 on the may scale (they probably would not take credit cards, though). Wal-Mart can trust you all the way through to 10 when you buy goods at Wal-Mart. (Wal-Mart have more political recourse if a payment repudiates.)
We are entering the age of the “sovereign individual” where individuals will have ever-more power. More and more, individuals will be able to behave in ways previously reserved for large government or corporate entities. More and more, individuals will be able to fulfill functions previously dominated by large government or corporate entities. For instance, it would have been in inconceivable in 1900 for one individual to, say, set up and operate a stock market. That would be and could only be the work of a large, powerful, social-political-corporate group. However in 2000, one individual could completely program and operate stock market with a few hours programming and a web site. Money systems that are higher up on the may scale are more suitable for individuals.
As we move more and more into the age of the “sovereign individual”, where individuals will replace many of the functions of corporate/government entities, there will be more and more demand for money systems that are higher-up on the may scale.”
Source: Interestingsoftware.com/mayscale
