Webmoney Interview – Q & A with Peter Darakhvelidze Part 2
(Q) I think one of the smartest tools the Webmoney system offers is the WMpassport. I see from your web that there are more than 10 variations of Webmoney Passports. Which Passport do must users have?
Internet-based currency, even being not formally linked to banking system, should comply with AML[Anti Money Laundering] rules and recommendations; any e-currency without authentication will face troublesome questions from the side of legal authorities. We allow users to register as alias, but for some operations, for example withdrawals to the bank account, you should get verified. There are three main types of passports: personal – it means you send us a notarized application; initial – you are authorized by a friend, who holds a personal passport; formal – you filled a form with passport data, which are verified at our side. Several passport types – Capitaller, Service, Operator etc. – designated to mark out WebMoney system sites and services.
Q) Every time I visit the Webmoney Transfer web site, I am amazed at the size and structure of your operation. Even from just a few years ago, it seems Webmoney has grown and added so many new features. The fast growth that you are now experiencing, will Webmoney ever grow too large and clash with government regulations in it’s home country? Do you have plans to ever open company offices in the United States or Canada?
Here we face a well-known contradiction between being local or going global. DGS work everywhere – [however]and are not treated as 100% legal everywhere too. We have developed separate legal models for each currency, individually tailored by our lawyers for local legislation and market peculiarities. For example, WMR are circulating as electronic bank bearer checks, WMU – electronic rights of demand for the bank deposit, Byelorussia has a regulation covering e-money, and WM fall under this regulation. We are interested in US and Canada market, but after 9/11 penetration to these countries is extremely difficult. The requirement of the US banking legislation to identify every participant of the transaction, even for micro payments are by default contradicting with the nature of electronic cash. Even in Europe these requirements are not so tough and you can make transactions with amounts less than 150 Euro easily without long and complicated verification procedures
(Q) I hear this statement a lot from new e-gold users when they want to make a retail purchase online, “How do I know an e-gold merchant will deliver the items after I pay them in e-gold?” What is a Webmoney coded transaction and how does that help protect buyers using WM?
WebMoney code-protected transaction is used exactly for such cases. You transfer funds to the merchant protected by a code. Funds are withdrawn from your account so the merchant sees that you are a fair customer. The merchant can’t do anything with these funds unless you have received the goods/service you paid for and you will reveal the code to him. In case this measure is not enough, seller and buyer can establish mutual WM trust: http://trust.webmoney.ru/.
(Q) Can I have a third party fund my WM Purse via bank transfer? In other words, can I have my friends send wires to fund my WM purse?
We do not allow this due to AML issues[Anti Money Laundering]. It is typical situation, when wrongdoer publishes bank requisites for his purse funding, and sells prohibited goods or services that way. Who looks guilty in the eyes of public and police? It is e-currency’s company and bank, even if e-currency brand is not mentioned in payment details. To avoid this in WebMoney, we do not publish bank details for public. You should at first authenticate yourself at WM banking site, request a payment and obtain one-off payment number and other details.
(Q) I’m very excited about the new partnership between Webmoney Transfer and Ukash. I see there are over 120,000 Ukash payment/purchase terminals in the UK, Germany, Ireland and Spain where anyone can buy a voucher using cash and instantly load their Webmoney account. If I were to walk in to one of these locations (newsagents, grocery stores, petrol forecourts) and buy a voucher does this method cost extra to fund my Webmoney account?
We work not only with UKash, but with another similar European system – paysafecard. Our fee is 0%, partners mentioned charge from 6% to 7.5%. We found these fees too high and will try to reduce them. Moreover, we are currently discussing an option of adding similar non-bank cards all over the world.
(Q) Ukash makes Webmoney funding available to millions of people who may not have previously had the ability so shop online & spend and transfer money on the Internet. These users often do not have local bank accounts or a wallet full of credit cards. Is this group of ‘unbankable’ people considered one of your target markets?
Of course, unbanked people are one of our target groups, because population of such users grows even in such technologically advanced countries like US.
(Q) In Russia and the surrounding areas, does Webmoney take the place of a regular bank account for many people?
You know, in Russia and CIS electronic bank products came to market in the beginning of century, and we started even earlier. So we has rather fair competition conditions, banks’ lobby in Russia couldn’t kill e-money in a cradle, like it happened in Germany for example. That’s why Russia is a country where several successful e-money systems conquer substantial market share.
(Q) Many people associate digital currency with scams, auto-surf programs, so called ‘investments’ and HYIPs. Does Webmoney Transfer allow HYIPs or autosurf programs?
No, all Ponzi schemes regardless of term (autosurf, HYIP etc) are prohibited; not just prohibited but persecuted. The legal way to lend WM to other WM user is with C-(credit) and D-(debit) purses and services http://debt.wmtransfer.com and http://credit.webmoney.ru ( this service only in Russian at this moment).
(Q) What other payment systems or payment processors would you consider to be the main competition for Webmoney Transfer? Why?
We believe that fundamental contradiction exists between current banking rules, allowing chargebacks, and nature of digital goods with zero cost of making a copy. That’s why we do not consider payment institutions working with banking products as direct competitors. Several e-wallet systems with non-reversible transactions, including DGCs, share our advantages. But just possibility to transfer funds from account to account is primitive; nobody but WebMoney Transfer allows such a big variety of tools and services, the full payments infrastructure.
(Q) I know Webmoney Transfer encourages all users to get verified, but is it required to present all this information in order to open and use an account?
We think that it is of vital property[importance] for electronic money to allow clients to open an account, top it up and buy instantly, without leaving a workplace. And this is a normal usage of WebMoney for most of our users. But to get access to advanced features, especially related with doing business online, you should get verified.
(Q) I don’t want to get into trade secrets, so if you do not want to answer this questions that is OK, but I know that even in today’s electronic world that some people will try to lie and give false information on their WM Passport applications.
To obtain personal WM passport, you should notarize your application, so the cheat possibilities are minimal.
(Q) In reading the application for a WebMoney Transfer Personal Passport, I notice that you require a lot of identifying information including ID number and type, date of birth, place of birth and permanent address. Is it important to users of the Webmoney system that the people they are doing business with are first verified and use at least a Personal Passport? Why is that important?
There is no special separation between merchant and user accounts in WebMoney, and anybody can start accepting WebMoney without formalities. But we stimulate businesses to get verified: one must obtain personal passport to use WebMoney automation interfaces. Only verified merchants can be represented in our MegaStock catalogue and inside our client program, WebMoney Keeper.
(Q) Will you release one user’s Passport information to another users if they complain or claim wrong doing?
Under the official request from legal authorities only.[court order]
(Q) Are there any new products or services in the near future for Webmoney Transfer? If yes, can you tell us about them?
I think that we are far ahead of all other payment systems thanks to the number and range of services we offer. It is now high time to promote them to customers from other countries.
I would like to thank Peter for taking the time to answer all of my questions. If you have not yet used Webmoney for your digital currency operations please visit their web for more information. http://www.wmtransfer.com
