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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: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday January 25 2018, @03:34AM (2 children)
If you don't have physical possession of it you don't really own it.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Thursday January 25 2018, @01:10PM (1 child)
While I see your point, I don't have physical possession of:
* The balances in any of my bank accounts
* The investments in my retirement plan
* The house I'm renting out
The economy that surrounds us depends heavily on record-keeping instead of physical possession. Is there a risk involved? Probably. Are most people essentially compelled to take that risk? Yeah. Is the risk of a "gold certificate" higher? Depends on whether you're dealing with a thief at the vault. And humans have developed many ways over the years of detecting and dealing with thieves. Not always successful, surely, but not a novel risk just because you add "on a blockchain".
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday January 26 2018, @02:57AM
That's all well and good while society remains civilized, but when Rome falls you will own none of the above.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek