Alan"s Money Blog

Jul 24, 2007

Liberty Reserve - Interview with Mr. Joul Lee pt.1















Liberty Reserve is a 100% irrevocable payment system and digital currency. Liberty Reserve customer funds are protected by an offshore Trust, and at all times accounts are 100% backed by U.S. dollars for LR-USD accounts and gold bullion for LR-gold accounts and Euros for LR-Euro accounts. Customer privacy, security and absolute confidentiality are top priorities for the management and staff at Liberty Reserve. Incorporated in Costa Rica this organization is also a long time member of the Global Digital Currencies Association.

(Q) How long has has Liberty Reserve been in operation?

Liberty Reserve (LR) started as a private currency exchange system for import/export businesses that was later open to the pubic as it became more popular. It is functioning publicly since 2001.

(Q) Let’s pretend I’m a new customer asking about Liberty Reserve. I’m thinking of adding it to my 60 online retail sales web and giving you a lot of new business. Please list some reasons I should add Liberty Reserve to my business plan & convince me I should be doing business with Liberty Reserve.

Liberty Reserve is a one-stop, all inclusive, merchant facility where any online business, no matter in which country situated, can accept payments from anyone in the world. Liberty Reserve has exchange providers that accept deposits in Europe, Asia, United States, Australia, Central and Latin America, etc., and the number of agents is growing. LR also does not compete with exchangers by running its own exchange, unlike other digital currencies. This way, 100% of all volume passes via independent exchange providers who have no fear that LR will steal their clients. All this, plus our low rates and superior privacy and friendly jurisdiction is why Liberty Reserve is growing so fast already. It basically sells itself by word of mouth. Within a month, LR will add LR-Gold and LR-Euro.

(Q) Can I buy Liberty Reserve digital currency directly from your Company web?

Unlike other digital currencies that have gone out of business due to fraud and the like, we do not accept such risks. Liberty Reserve is a trust that holds assets for the benefit of the account holders. That is all that it does. In order to fund or outexchange value from a Liberty Reserve account, customers need to use an independent exchange provider.

(Q) In my opinion, the most important qualities which define a ‘digital currency’ are these three items (1) All transactions are final. (2) Can be bought or sold through a third party independent agent. (3) Can be exchanged for other digital currency also by an agent. Does LR meet these requirements?

Fortunately, Liberty Reserve is defined by the above three criteria, with an added benefit of extra security and privacy.

(Q) Does Liberty Reserve offer a Shopping Cart Interface (SCI) or some way for merchants to integrate your payment system into their retail web sites?

Yes. Liberty Reserve’s SCI and API are one of the most advanced in the industry. Both API and SCI offer all necessary notifications via e-mail and/or over secure protocol.

(Q) I see your web site provides SSL as do all other financial web sites but what other technical tools does Liberty Reserve offer to protect clients while accessing their accounts?

After two years of development and vigorous tests, most of advanced security features of new Liberty Reserve are well integrated into our system on the programming level, and can not be disclosed for obvious reasons. Among a few that we can mention are: third generation dual login system, advanced geographical region identification, IP and browser lock, personal welcome message, and many more. Feel free to visit our web site for more information.

(Q) Does Liberty Reserve allow HYIP type ‘investments’ or auto surf programs?

Liberty Reserve does not “allow” any activity that is illegal in the users’ own location. However, it is impractical to monitor every account for signs of trouble (not to mention illegal in some countries and unethical and costly). Liberty Reserve management will never become judge and jury over what accounts are good and what accounts are bad. We respond only to legitimate court orders or where we have direct knowledge of activity that is illegal in Costa Rica or that is in violation of Liberty Reserve’s terms of service.

That is not to say that Liberty Reserve does not do anything to warn its users, before they open an account, about the dangers and/or pitfalls on the internet. To wit, we display this excerpt from our terms of service in BOLD for everyone wishing to open an account:

“2.4.3 User understands and acknowledges that user is aware that Liberty Reserve spends are irrevocable and that user agrees to follow the policy of buyer beware (”Caveat Emptor”) when using Liberty Reserve at various merchant sites, especially merchants such as gaming or gambling or “HYIP” and other types of investment or chance games or matrixes or Ponzis (pyramid schemes), which are identifiable by their promises of extremely high (more than 1% per day) rates of return, and that should user still wish to deal with such merchants that it is at user’s own risk.”

(Q) Do you have an Anti Money Laundering policy and do you actively work to prevent the use of your digital currency for illegal operations?

Liberty Reserve posts its rules and procedures in its Terms of Service. We comply with legitimate law enforcement requests for information (we do not comply with fishing expeditions, where some foreign government agency may ask for a list of accounts or other information without stating a specific reason and court order). We comply with the laws of Costa Rica.

(Q) How many independent agents currently transact in Liberty Reserve? Can I use a credit card to buy Liberty Reserve from any of these agents?

There are currently many agents that buy and sell Liberty Reserve, and I know that at least one of them accepts credit cards.

(Q) How do you keep Liberty Reserve client information private and protected?

All information collected by Liberty Reserve is encrypted and can not be decrypted without unique keys located on separate servers. In a very unlikely event, when even our server gets physically stolen, the information is useless without unique encryption algorithms and keys, which are located off site.

To Be Continued...Click here to read the second part of the interview.

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