As a
precious metal, gold is often associated with wealth, prestige and power. And
as a commodity it has long been considered a prized asset for scores of
investors throughout the world.
Beginning
with bitcoin in 2009, cryptocurrencies have also seen their prominence rise due
to some of the qualities that they share with gold, the most prominent of which
is their scarcity.
One
of the big issues that has continued to hamper gold as a physical asset is that
it can often be difficult to transfer from one place to another. Moreover, the
managing and handling of gold can be quite logistically challenging and
laborious.
With
the emergence of today’s digital age, a startup called GoldMint is seeking to alter this trend with a new means of
exchange for physical gold, with transactions occurring over a blockchain-based
platform.
This
gold-based venture aims to assist
investors and traders in managing volatility risks and gaining competitive
commissions on commodities sold via GoldMint to financial institutions, pawn
shops, and other business and individual stakeholders.
GoldMint’s
platform will leverage the private and individual gold trading market,
including potentially the management of larger physical stocks such as those in
central banks. It will also deliver an electronic payment solution tethered to
physical gold, as well as a gold-backed peer-to-peer lending system.
The
GoldMint ecosystem is fueled by two types of tokens, GOLD and MNT.
The GOLD cryptoasset is an investment
tool that is 100 percent backed by physical gold and/or an exchange-traded fund
(ETF). One GOLD token represents one ounce of gold on the London Bullion Market
Association (LBMA).
MNT is GoldMint’s native cryptocurrency,
which is used to confirm GOLD cryptoasset transactions. For GoldMint miners,
the amount of MNTs reflects how many assignments, or transaction blocks, they
can accept.
Fostering
Digital Gold Trading
There are two options for trading GOLD for fiat or cryptocurrencies. First,
there is a method for seeking a GoldMint-guaranteed buyback. And second, a loan
can be requested. For either option, the process is as follows:
● Through the use of a special app which is
not yet available, GOLD can be transferred as collateral to a designated
GoldMint account.
●
GoldMint utilizes
the current price of gold, as set by the LBMA,
to fix the rate of a loan.
●
GoldMint requires
the customer to undergo its know-your-customer (KYC)
process as well as consent to GoldMint’s loan terms to receive the loan.
Various repayment options for the loan amount and the means of repaying it are
then offered.
●
If a customer
defaults on repayment, their GOLD cryptoassets are transferred to GoldMint.
GoldMint also has a process for
converting gold into GOLD tokens and reconverting these tokens into gold for
cross-border passages. This is designed to alleviate the hassles associated
with carrying gold from one country to another, often resulting in untold
expense and aggravation. By converting gold into GOLD, this hassle can not only
be avoided, but a person can retrieve 100 percent of the value of their
gold at the end of their travels.
“Custody Bot” is GoldMint’s decentralized
storage unit, which computationally identifies and stores gold jewelry, small
ingots (up to 100 grams) and coins. In this case, it functions as a DApp, a decentralized application that runs
rapidly and efficiently without the need for a third-party intermediary to
control it. Through the use of cutting-edge technology, Custody Bot inspects
and assesses the value of incoming gold to ensure its purity and quality.
GoldMint ICO Accelerates Ahead
On
September 20, GoldMint launched its initial coin offering (ICO), allowing users to send
bitcoin or ether and receive MNTP (MNT pre-launch) tokens, issued on the
Ethereum blockchain at a price of $7 per token.
The
value of these tokens is expected to grow, because MNT is limited in its supply
and is used in the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. Participation in
the GoldMint crowdsale involves more than the purchase of cryptocurrencies. It
involves a stake in the consensus algorithm that will be utilized by the
GoldMint blockchain post-launch.
Owning
MNT allows users to achieve 75 percent from commissions earned when
transactions are validated through the GoldMint blockchain. The number of MNT
tokens owned determines the number of transactions that can be validated.