BitGold Connects Blockchain Platform To 9 Major US Banks

BitGold originally set out to be a gold and bitcoin exchange, operated in several Asian and European countries, and only more recently opened up to the US market. The company hopes to make it possible to pay for everyday items like coffee or groceries, through gold-based payment options. Besides it online platform, the firm also offers a debit card.

“True gold ownership requires gold to be safely vaulted and stored, making it extremely difficult to spend, especially in micro-transactions. At Bitgold, we solved this problem by developing a platform that is part gold exchange, part payments technology and part custodian, resulting in a powerful user experience that advances gold from a physical element to an instantly accessible unit of account and store of value for the internet, an operating system for gold.” Roy Sebag, BitGold Founder and former CEO.

BitGold members with bank accounts at Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi, US Bank, USAA, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Capital One and American Express will now be able to instantly deposit money from their bank account into Bigold, and vice versa.

"The BitGold platform is breaking down the barriers to enable access to gold for customers around the world. We’ve now enabled the most modern interaction with US banking systems for enhanced verification, security and unprecedented simplicity in buying and storing vaulted gold for US bank customers.”
— – Darrell MacMullin BitGold CEO and former head of PayPal Canada

The announcement means being able to easily move in and out of the BitGold system, which allows you to transact with gold as you would with dollars.

While some people think that gold is a good store of value, the inability to transact with it has stopped it from being a currency we use in daily life in the modern era. BitGold built its platform, which it calls Aurum, with blockchain and distributed ledger technology.

“Since my days as a professional investor I have wondered why there’s no easy way to own and spend gold in a legal, transparent, and tax-compliant manner.”
— – Roy Sebag, BitGold Founder and former CEO

The company  claims to match all BitGold with real gold on a 1:1 ratio, and states that the company has no legal right to the physical precious metal, “Every metric gram, kilogram, or tonne of gold that a customer has acquired through BitGold is owned and allocated to the customer once transactions have settled. BitGold Inc. Customer Agreement and Terms of Service unequivocally state that all customer assets are held by BitGold Inc. as bailee for the benefit of customers.”

BitGold allows users to fully redeem their gold if they wish, and send payments to anyone around the world for free. Also, storing gold in their Bricks Company insured vaults is free, and available in a variety of location, including Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Singapore, Toronto, and Zurich, among others.

A 1% fee is charged when buying gold from the firm, which can be done with a credit card for an extra 2%. Physical Vault Redemption costs $25 USD, plus shipping and insurance. They also offer an affiliate program for those onboarding new users onto the system that pays in gold.

Benefits of the ACH integration include no minimum transaction sizes, reduced fees, and greater control and visibility of transactions for users.

“Blockchain technology has unleashed a wave of payments innovation that will empower people the world over by lowering costs and increasing access to safe and transparent financial services,” said  BitGold Co-Founder, Josh Crumb. “We see gold, the asset bitcoin was designed to mimic, as an important element in this empowerment.”

“The flexibility of the Bitgold platform allows gold to be a core savings account coupled with digital currency for seamless global payments, or as a natural-world storage and safety valve for an inevitable internet of money. The internet of money should be rooted in choice and individual empowerment, and we provide that in a flexible and secure platform.”
— – Josh Crumb, BitGold Co-Founder

Earlier this year, in May, Bitgold completed it’s initial public offering on the TSX Venture Exchange, a Canadian stock exchange and raised severals millions of Canadian dollars (CAD) from investors like Sprott Inc. founder and portfolio manager Eric Sprott, as well as the Soros Brothers Investment which is run by George Soros’ son. In June, the firm acquired GoldMoney Network Limited, a popular gold vault service and financial news publication, for $51.9M CAD.

Details of any blockchain implementation are hard to come by, and all references to Bitcoin and BlockChain have been removed from the companies site, however Roy Sebag has stated that “Technological breakthroughs in decentralized payment technologies such as the blockchain and ripple have created a historical opportunity to solve one of the main challenges preventing gold from being useful again in daily transactions.”