PRESS RELEASE

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DigiGold^TM
electronic currency enabling use of gold
as money over the Internet,
to be demonstrated at
financial cryptography '99 conference
in Anguilla

HAMILTON, BERMUDA, 3 February 1999 -- DigiGold.net, a Bermuda partnership, in conjunction with Systemics Ltd., announces new technology enabling secure payments over the Internet, in gold.

Beginning in 1999, millions of people will learn to reckon prices in new currency units. Much attention has focused on the euro, a synthetic unit mandated and promoted at taxpayer expense. DigiGold, denominated simply in grams of gold, is designed to challenge both euros and dollars as the currency of choice for the borderless world of Internet commerce. DigiGold, unlike all payment systems involving national currencies, is also completely independent of any national banking system.

"DigiGold is about cost and transaction security," asserts Stefan Metzeler, Technical Liaison. "Internet commerce is currently conducted with credit cards. DigiGold represents a complete departure from this deferred settlement model. With DigiGold, the consumer spends value he already owns. Payment is 'pushed' rather than 'pulled.' Overdrafts are impossible. There are no charge backs, interest charges, high merchant fees — in fact DigiGold entails no transaction fees at all. A bootstrap shareware vender in a third world country would enjoy faster payment and lower transaction costs with DigiGold than any multi-national firm that accepts plastic."

DigiGold is backed with e-gold®, a privately administered account based currency 100% backed by gold. The e-gold system has been in operation since 1996 and currently provides service to over 1700 customers. " Previous attempts to introduce electronic cash have failed because consumers were disinterested in holding 'cash' that was a derivative of bank deposits," explains Ian Grigg, President and Director of Technical Development at Systemics. " e-gold is an ideal backing for electronic cash. It provides an efficient and transparent mechanism for purchase and redemption, representing actual tangible value."

DigiGold is an implementation of the Ricardo system, embodying SOX (Systemics Open Transactions) technology developed by Systemics, Ltd. Ian Grigg will demonstrate DigiGold at the Third International Financial Cryptography Conference scheduled for 22-25 February in Anguilla, West Indies.

Additional information is at www.fc99.ai, www.DigiGold.net, and www.e-gold.com