Royal Mint Gold

Royal Mint Gold is a digital gold currency and a cryptocurrency backed by gold reserves in the UK Royal Mint. The Royal Mint began testing blockchain transactions in April 2017.[1][2] The first test transaction was in August 2017.[3] The rollout was originally scheduled to occur by the end of 2017.[4][5] US-based CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) is administering the trading.[1][5] The Daily Telegraph said it "appears somewhat similar to an exchange-traded fund such as ETF Securities Physical Gold".[5]

Implementation

The blockchain used is the Prova open-source distributed ledger. A proof-of-stake algorithm demonstrates ownership of the physical gold.[6] BitGo provided blockchain code.[7]

Backing gold

The Royal Mint states that "All gold is held within the highly secure storage facilities in The Royal Mint's vault and The Royal Mint acts solely as sub-custodian and has no claim on the gold" and that gold delivery is possible, with additional fabrication fees for amounts less than a London Good Delivery bar (400 oz, worth about US$400,000 on January 31, 2018).[6]

References

  1. 1 2 Anna Irrera (April 11, 2017), CME Group, Royal Mint test blockchain-based gold trading platform, Reuters
  2. ↑ "Blockchain could add lustre to gold market", Straits Times, Singapore, August 18, 2017
  3. ↑ Teresa Rivas (November 3, 2017), "Bitcoin $11,000? Expect Blockchain-Based Gold Trading Soon", Barron's
  4. ↑ New currency in race to remake one of world's oldest markets, Bloomberg, August 17, 2017 – via The Economic Times
  5. 1 2 3 James Connington (4 December 2016), "Buy Royal Mint gold using Bitcoin tech - via your Isa firm", The Daily Telegraph, London
  6. 1 2 FAQ, Royal Mint Gold official website, accessed January 31, 2018
  7. ↑ An Open Source Blockchain, CME, April 11, 2017

Further reading

  • Shelley Goldberg (December 22, 2017), How Blockchain Could Revolutionize Commodity Markets: The technology has already been adopted for gold trading, but could be extended to other sectors in the asset class., Bloomberg
  • Lucas Mearian (February 9, 2018), "Governments eye their own blockchain cryptocurrencies", Computerworld
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