BitGold

 
BitGold logo

BitGold is a Canadian company offering international savings and payments services which allow people and businesses to send payments and hold savings with physical gold.[1]

Contents

BitGold Review

BitGold The New Gold Backed Currency

Early history

Founded in 2014 by Roy Sebag and Josh Crumb, BitGold is the sole operating business of BitGold Inc.[2]

Initial investors in BitGold were Soros Brothers Investment which is run by Alexander Soros, the son of George Soros.[3] On June 16, 2015, BitGold Inc. announced the completion of an additional $21.4 million secondary financing.[4]

On June 26, 2015, BitGold Inc. announced US residents can sign up on the BitGold platform and buy, sell or redeem gold.[5]

On June 30, 2015, BitGold Inc announced former head of PayPal Canada, Darrell MacMullin to be CEO.[6]

On September 4, 2015 BitGold Inc announced the launch of their mobile application on iOS and Android.[7]

On November 28, 2015 BitGold Inc announced the appointment of John Butler to lead the wealth services division. He is well known by writing the “Golden Revolution” in 2012.[8]

BitGold and GoldMoney Inc. acquisition

On May 22, 2015, BitGold Inc. announced the acquisition of GoldMoney Inc. and its subsidiaries for a purchase price of $51.9 million, integrating over $1.5 billion in assets and over 135,000 user sign ups into the combined company.

New and potential customers of BitGold will be interested to know that The company continues to advertise a business model offering free gold storage. The cost of storing the physical metal is the main expense item of any respected gold storage service, and a young and growing company must in one way or another compensate these transaction costs. Team really offers its customers a ‘free’ metal storage, but only due to the fact that until recently the company did not differ impressive size, in terms of just a quarter tons of physical gold, the possession of which had cost the company relatively inexpensive.

Main information

  • Country: Canada;
  • Headquarter: Toronto;
  • Type: Financial Services;
  • Round: Seed;
  • Cost: $1 million;
  • Date: 14-Jul-2014;
  • Investors: Massimo Agostinelli;

BitGold’s corporate headquarters is in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. BitGold’s European headquarters is located in Milan, Italy.

BitGold – How it works?

BitGold's original platform homepage

BitGold is currently available in more than eleven languages. BitGold’s services allow people to purchase gold and make financial transactions using the acquired gold between individuals and businesses.[9] As of 2015, BitGold operates in 166 markets and has 625,000 registered accounts. BitGold allows customers to send, receive, and redeem gold bullion.[10]

BitGold makes money on the volume of transactions – on purchases and sales of gold. The system charges 1% of every purchase and every sale of gold. BitGold users pay nothing for storage and insurance of gold, which means that all maintenance costs of The system must be provided from this 1%, and the rest forms the balance sheet profit of BitGold. In this example, I will ignore these costs and assume that, due to strong growth potential, the value of the company is equal to 10 times the revenue from sales. Based on this assumption, the current market capitalization of $126 million is justified at an annual sales volume of about $13 million.to get $13 million in sales, BitGold will require an annual transaction volume of $1.3 billion. The Company believes that the average annual transaction volume per user will be $1,000-$2,000. If we divide the total volume of transactions of $ 1.3 billion received from the current market capitalization by this range, we will get 650K-1.3 million in Other words, this method of estimation assumes that the current share price corresponds to the client base of 650K-1.3 million.

Vault accounts are provided to users along with transaction services including cross-border gold payments, merchant invoicing and processing for gold, debit card spending of gold at traditional points of sale, and conversions to a user’s external digital wallet.

BitGold debit card

BitGold allows users to send and receive gold as payment to and from any BitGold user or seller for free. Gold can be sent as payment to non-BitGold users with email or mobile phone.

Additionally, users can spend gold at outlets and online businesses, as well as withdrawal local currency anywhere MasterCard is accepted with the BitGold prepaid debit card. The first card is free and available in USD, GBP and EUR. It has no minimums and hidden fees, and BitGold charges a 1% of spot redemption fee.

Another feature that BitGold is offering is Automated Payments, which can be easily set up and tracked via the dashboard. Users can easily add and manage contacts. Consumers can choose to add an Automatic Redemption Plan to protect themselves from gold price change. Once set up, gold payments are automatically redeemed to either your bank account or debit card in a selected currency.

Regulations

Sebag, the co-founder of BitGold, has stated that he believes BitGold is not a bank because it does not engage in fractional-reserve banking.

BitGold is regarded by Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) as a dealer in precious metals and stones. BitGold offers its services under the Canadian Bailment Law.

Safety and Security

BitGold has an arrangement with The Brinks Company to provide access to vaults located in Toronto, London, Zürich, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong. All financial statements are audited by PriceWaterhouse.[11]

The BitGold Corporate By-Laws states that any customer transaction that is carried out must be commenced in their segregated subsidiary BitGold Vault Inc. The Corporation is required to buy or sell assayed and stamped .9995 pure or better bullion-grade gold for customers from an approved list in which their gold meets the minimum specification set by the London Bullion Market or New York Mercantile Exchange division Commodity Exchange resulting in the settlement of each metric gram, kilogram or tonne of physical gold. All vaulted gold must maintain adequate insurance coverage for every customer, in which the current insurance provider is “BRINKS”. All account holders are allowed upon request real-time “audits” of their physical gold bullion, this is done through the corporation’s patent pending technology “aurum”, in which an encrypted digital copy is sent to a third party auditor to conduct the audit at the vault custodian ensuring the reported gold is reconciled through physical inspection.[12]

See Also on BitcoinWiki

External links

References

  1. ↑ Toronto-based startup BitGold plans up to $20 million IPO next year
  2. ↑ Here’s a new way to use gold
  3. ↑ Bitcoin meets gold for Canadian startup seeking IPO
  4. ↑ BitGold Completes C$21.0 Million Bought Deal Financing http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2585872
  5. ↑ BitGold Announces Platform Launch in the United States http://www.techvibes.com/blog/bitgold-announces-platform-launch-in-the-united-states-2015-06-29
  6. ↑ BitGold Inc. – BitGold Announces Former Head of PayPal Canada, Darrell MacMullin to be CEO of Reorganized BitGold
  7. ↑ BitGold launches Android and iOS apps
  8. ↑ John Butler to lead GoldMoney’s new wealth services division http://www.wealthadviser.co/2015/11/30/234268/john-butler-lead-goldmoney’s-new-wealth-services-division
  9. ↑ BitGold: Returning to the gold standard http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/bitgold-returning-to-the-gold-standard-43311/
  10. ↑ Digital currencies: A gold standard for bitcoin http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/38d02382-f809-11e4-962b-00144feab7de.html#axzz3fABXr9co
  11. ↑ BitGold Announces a Bitcoin-like System for Gold Storage and Payments
  12. ↑ Transparency Buying Physical Gold https://www.bitgold.com/transparency-buying-physical-gold