Transferring gold over a blockchain is suddenly starting to gain more traction. The Royal Canadian Mint announced their plans to allow for gold bullion transfers over a blockchain network operated by Goldmoney Inc. This is quite an intriguing development, as it goes to show transferring gold in physical form is far too cumbersome. All of his is taking place on a closed-loop blockchain.
Royal Canadian Mint Trials Blockchain Transfers
Although the current plans do not involve issuing gold bullion over the blockchain just yet, the Royal Canadian Mint wants to promote near-instant bullion trades over a distributed ledger. All of the money changing hand is 100% reserved physical gold residing in the Mint’s Ottawa vault. However, this feature will only be available to users of the GoldMoney inc. platform.
It is also possible to send the gold title to anyone, a feature that its available free of charge. Doing so requires a phone number or an email address to initiate the transfer. Goldmoney users can also redeem their Royal Canadian Mint balance to a Goldmoney Mastercard Prepaid card, which allows for more convenient spending of wealth.
Additionally, the usage of Goldmoney’s blockchain platform will enable vault-to-vault gold transfers between the Mint and seven Bring’s vault locations around the world. Transfers can be initiated through an online dashboard, as well as the mobile application. All things considered, the blockchain will open up a whole new world for Royal Canadian Mint bullion owners.
But that is not all, as both parties have entered into an agreement to further collaborate on marketing activities focusing on boosting precious metals awareness and accessibility. For now, it remains unclear if blockchain technology will play a role in his process as well. However, it goes to show the Canadian Royal Mint is keen on embracing new technologies that can benefit the precious metal industry.
Canada is not the first country to look into bullion trading over a blockchain. A few weeks ago, the UK Royal Mint partnered with CME Group to create blockchain-based digital gold products. It is evident distributed ledgers can play a fundamental role in making precious metals more accessible, both to traders and people looking to enter the market for various reasons.
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