DGC Magazine • May 2008 IssueHere is my very informative interview withAdriaan Brink, CEO of iCoins. This is a Gibraltar registered company and new to the Internet in2007.

(Q) What is or what are iCoins?

iCoins is a system designed to provide a linkbetween disparate wallet systems in muchthe same way that SWIFT/IBAN provides for conventional banking, but with real-time fundstransmission (from the consumer’s point of view).The goal is to break down barriers between themany competing services, and provide an easyway for new wallets or accounts within merchantsto integrate with others. The system is modeledon a digital representation of cash.

(Q) What is an iCoins Wallet and what can itdo?

There is no such thing. There is an iCoinsenabled wallet – that would be your account atPaypal (for example) integrated with iCoins.

(Q) What does this mean (from your web site)“iCoins provides a global addressing systemwhereby all these diverse eWallets can beassociated with the an iCoins Wallet Address(much like an IBAN number in the bankingsystem) and then transfer funds betweentheir wallets.” I have PayPal, Moneybookersand e-gold accounts...how can they all beused with iCoins?

If we were integrated with all 3 of those entitiesthen your account at each entity would be as

signed an iCoins Account Number. This is a glob

ally unique number, but each eWallet or AccountServer cannot tell where the remote account is.So you could then issue an instruction throughyour interface within Paypal to send money to(say) account 1234567890123456 which is your iCoins Account Number at Moneybookers. Thefunds would ow instantly between the two at nocost to you and Paypal would not know that theyhad gone to Moneybookers (and vice versa).

(Q) How did you come to end up as iCoinsCEO?

I invented the concept and put it together.

(Q) What is your business background?

I have been writing computer software for 25 years. During this time I have writtensoftware and launched companies for CharityLotteries (International Lottery in LiechtensteinFoundation), Payments (Earthport PLC) andrecruitment (Peoplebank).

(Q) With a DGC system like e-gold, all ac-counts are the same and there is no dis-tinction between a merchant or customer account. When describing iCoins, are thereseparate and distinct ‘customer’ and ‘mer-chant’ accounts that act differently depend-ing on the transaction?

No – in that respect it is similar to DGC system.

(Q) Is iCoins 100% anonymous for the user?

Yes.

(Q) When funding iCoins, do I send money

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Adriaan BrinkChief Exectutive Officer

Coins

‘The Currency of the Internet’

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May 2008 Issue • DGC Magazine

directly to iCoins?

No – you deal through Account Servers and theydeal with Treasuries.

(Q) Compare and contrast your paymentsystem with all others now out there such asPayPal, Webmoney and e-gold...why shouldI be using iCoins instead of these other popular systems? What’s the big iCoinsadvantage here that all my readers shouldknow about?

Most payment systems set out to be the “biggestwallet around”. We are not a wallet, in fact our intention is never to operate a wallet (althoughCoinjars is a wallet in a sense). Our intentionis to integrate with as many disparate paymentsystems/wallets as possible and provide the gluebetween them – all secured and underwritten bya strong Treasury network.

(Q) Comparing iCoins to a PayPal typemerchant transaction, which is cheaper? IsiCoins a better deal?

Yes – as long as the coins stay digital transfersare free of charge.

(Q) What characteristics do iCoins andregular cash dollars share?

They move instantly, are only ever owned by asingle person at an instance in time and there isno cost associated with them changing hands.Transfers are anonymous (from the consumer’sperspective).

(Q) Where do iCoins and cash differ?

iCoins provides a full audit trail for AML purposes,but only where required by an authorityinvestigating a crime in the jurisdiction of theTreasury.

(Q) You have a popular application onFacebook named CoinJars, what does thatallow Facebook users to do?

It provides a mechanismfor the free movement of funds down to as little as 1c(US) between users and tomerchants.

(Q)Doyouhaveanyspecictargetmarkets

for your products such as online gamblingor un-banked Net users without a creditcard?

Clearly this is of more use to users where aconventional credit card system does not workwell. We are integrating at the moment withsome great non-credit card systems such asdirect to bank. Our target markets are SocialNetworks (we are on Facebook with Coinjarsand will launch on Bebo very soon, hopefullyMySpace not long after that).

(Q) Is there a mobile iCoins application?

Not at this stage.

(Q) If I had a web site selling retailmerchandise online, can I accept iCoins

Yes.

(Q) Do you offer an API?

iCoins offers an API to all Account Servers. Ialso anticipate that some Account Servers willoffer their own APIs for merchants (Coinjars will

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DGC Magazine • May 2008 Issue

The following scenario depicts the use of iCoins to pay a merchant who has its accounts for customers.Certied Wallet is a Wallet that can Create or Redeem iCoins. It has a contractual agreement with a Treasury1.to exchange cash for iCoins and vice versa, and procedures for settlement through the normal bankingnetwork. Any other wallets have to act through the Certied Wallets to Create and Redeem iCoins.Once an iCoin exists it can change hands with no intervention from the Certied Wallet. The Face Value of 2.the iCoin is secured and guaranteed by the Treasury.Treasuries have contractual relationships between one another to exchange iCoins and settle the value.3.A Wallet Server takes care of the technical integration with the Treasury and authentication of the consumer.4.It has a contractual relationship with a Treasury for trust delegation and transaction verication.

Customer wishes to purchase at Merchant

A customer wishes to purchase at a merchant but is not able to use any of the merchant’s other supported payment mechanisms. He selects “Pay with iCoins” and is given an iCoins Wallet Addressby the merchant.

Customer gets iCoins from Wallet Server Provider

Customer purchases iCoins from Wallet Server. This can be done with cash, credit card or any other payment mechanism. Wallet Server creates the iCoins by interfacing with its parent Treasury, and theiCoins are stored in the customer’s wallet.

Customer Pays Merchant

Customer sends funds directly to their Wallet at the Merchant by making the transfer within the WalletServer system to the iCoins Wallet Address earlier provided by Merchant. In this example the mer

chant is a customer of a separate Treasury, although this will often not be the case.

Merchant Settles iCoins

At any point Merchant can settle its iCoins by redeeming them at its Home Treasury in return for cash.It may also hold some in order to return them to customers (for example as afliate payments) and thusavoid the redemption fees. Treasuries settle their liabilities between one another on a regular basis.

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