RE: Physical gold on the blockchain, we would like to hear your ideas and requests
Yes there are several gold crypto orgs out there:
GOLDMINT which is very unattractive to someone who wants to buy or sell gold. They charge 5% a spread of 5% on sell and 3% on buy transactions. That's very uncompetitive.
ONEGRAM which effectively charges 10% annual fee on the gold under management. Horrible economics for a gold buyer or seller.
DIGIX which I think has the tightest spreads which could attract some types of buyers. The problem is again price is fixed to LBMA + small spread.
The problem I see with all of these is that they are fixed to LBMA and very high spreads to spot. What is the point of buying gold that still has counter party risk, and yet is priced with higher spreads than an ETF?
What we propose is to deliver gold to a secure vault which is then tracked on a blockchain 1 ounce per coin. We envision that there will be no transaction costs incurred to buyers and sellers as the coin will become like any other cryptocurrency, with the ability to buy and sell directly without an exchange or intermediary. The only transaction costs will be:
KYC and AML plus a one time cost to redeem a virtual coin to physical gold (either in person or via normal gold logistics channels if it is an institution). This will be less than 1% (probably on the order of 50 basis points)
We will deliver the physical gold to the block chain at a discount to LBMA, which will attract buyers and provide high liquidity.
Once the gold is in the vault, on the blockchain and represented as a virtual coin 1 ounce = one coin, it will never be "priced" by the foundation or any person other than the buyer and seller in their direct transaction or by market makers who are buying and selling simultaneously to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities.
That would produce a crypto currency coin that is 1:1 backed by physical gold held by a 3rd party, yet priced independently to all other markets with only the buyer and seller involved in buy/sell transaction with no spread paid to anyone. That is a true gold backed currency :)
The whitepaper will be coming out soon!
clearly, you've put a lot of thought into this - I was thinking also the the main issue to being competitive would be to ensure that storage and protection fees are in line with what already exists. If it cost to much to hold it , protect it and distribute it then as you said - there is no reason for it . A one time fee for redeeming it or transferring it might be able to cover to cost of holding. Since the blockchain can track it all with minimal human intervention , the cost of processing should be MUCH lower than it is now with gold. I think there is a good case for it is someone can set up the infrastructure properly.