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Australian Broadcast Corporation reports
Australia's biggest gold refiner, the Perth Mint, is developing its own cryptocurrency backed by physical precious metals.
The ambitious plan, which is subject to a confidentiality agreement, will make it easier for consumers to buy gold.
[...] For the Perth Mint, the need to bring investors back to precious metals after a boom in alternative investments such as cryptocurrencies posed an opportunity, according to chief executive Richard Hayes.
"I think as the world moves through times of increasing uncertainty, you're seeing people look for alternate offerings," he said.
But Mr Hayes said the volatility of some of the current cryptocurrencies meant they did not suit all investors.And that is where a gold-backed offering may fit.
"With a crypto-gold or a crypto-precious metals offering, what you will see is that gold is actually backing it," Mr Hayes said.
"So it will have all the benefits of something that is on a distributed ledger that settles very, very quickly, that is easy to trade, but is actually backed by precious metals, so there is actually something behind it, something backing it."
What do you see here: some golden cryptocurrency dust sprinkled around or a decentralized ledger of precious metal transactions?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @12:11AM
I don't know the Perth Mint's stated reason for doing this (because, let's be honest, I read nothing but the summary here), and I also don't know their actual reason for doing this (because I'm just an anonymous coward who, living on another continent, is not privy to the machinations of the Perth Mint).
But you can bet your sorry ass that they, out of all crpyto-minters imaginable, are not doing it as a social or economic experiment (because they're not a research institute), are not doing it as a sorely needed public service (because it isn't), and are also not doing it for the fun of it (because they're not being paid good australian dollars just to have fun).
I'll bet you ten of my AC-Coins to one that they're doing it to make money. You have but one try to tell me whose money it is going to be that they are going to make. But mumble blockchain mumble magic mumble get rich quick mu
Hint 1: not everybody is going to come out of this scheme richer than before
Hint 2: in the end, it's not going to be the Perth Mint holding the bag
Did anybody say "gold certificates" ? But mumble blockchain mumble magic mumble make money quick (tm) mumble.