One of the UK’s oldest bullion producers and the entity that strikes British coins, the Royal Mint has just announced a gold-backed blockchain effort. In partnership with one of the world’s largest options and futures firm CME Group, the two companies aim to release its blockchain project in 2017.
RMG websiteThe companies reveal that RMG may be funded with up to $1bn worth of gold bullion. CME Group will launch the digital gold platform and operate trading 24 hours a day. Furthermore, traditional costs associated with management and storage fees will be nonexistent. The Royal Mint details that if there is significant demand for the RMG product, the firm will issue more in the future.
Is blockchain destined to be a gold ETF killer? If you're going to "hold" gold through a digital representation, blockchain technology is vastly superior than the ETF method, at least in principle.
The fact that this is a Royal Mint project is quite telling. Institutions and corporations are scrambling to not be left in the dust.
