
UK’s Royal Mint Launches Gold-Backed Cryptocurrency - walterbell
https://cointelegraph.com/news/uks-royal-mint-launches-gold-backed-cryptocurrency
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Canada
Let me guess, you can't redeem tokens for physical gold, and you can't use
physical gold to purchase the tokens?

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ApeTheRick
On the FAQ:

Will an RMG® buyer be able to take physical possession of their gold?

Yes. One RMG represents ownership of 1g of 999.9 gold stored securely within
The Royal Mint’s vault. RMG holders can request physical delivery of their
gold . Fabrication fees apply to any gold bars if an investor requests
delivery of gold in smaller quantities than London Good Delivery bars.

The cost of purchasing RMG does not include fabrication charges because it is
more cost effective to own gold in the form of London Good Delivery bars
(circa 400oz gold bars) than in smaller gold bars. If RMG holders choose to
take physical delivery of smaller bars, they do need to pay the fabrication
charge for those smaller bars prior to taking physical delivery.

Delivery fees do apply to all gold deliveries although The Royal Mint
encourages RMG holders to arrange their own carriage/delivery.

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Canada
I vouched this comment because it quotes relevant information from the RMG web
site. My guess that the token is irredeemable is incorrect, though my general
lack of enthusiasm for this offer remains.

What I would like to see is a token accepted by a wide network of gold dealers
and depositories. It would be useful to be able to exchange the tokens for
gold both ways and also be able to exchange the tokens for crypto and fiat
currency at exchanges.

This provides no benefit whatsoever over the pooled gold options depositories
using a centralized ledger that already exist, and is less attractive than an
ETF for those who only way to trade the market.

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ethiclub
One of the biggest issues declared for many cryptocurrencies seems to be that
they are 'a store of value that has no backup use', which is also a major
complaint about gold, being that so little is used for electronics et al.

Naive question: Would copper have been a suitable contender?

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mikro2nd
So pretty much the exact antithesis of a real cryptocurrency, then. A form of
e-currency (is that too Olde Schoole?), issued by fiat is not what
cryptocurrencies are about -- the very point of them is to take the issuance
and control out of the hands of sovereigns.

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King-Aaron
> the very point of them is to take the issuance and control out of the hands
> of sovereigns

I think a lot of cryptocurrency enthusiasts are going to be solely
disappointed when history teaches them the lesson that the common man cannot
take the keys to the kingdom.

It's a nice utopian idea to take take the issuance and control out of the
hands of sovereigns. However I feel that history has taught us that this just
doesn't happen. Eventually the cryptocurrency "free market" will get regulated
and the leash will tighten, and central reserves will begin to issue token-
based currency backed by a traditional resource.

The technology will almost certainly carry over, but the open source element
of it likely won't.

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mikro2nd
Except that historically money was issued by all and sundry. The notion that
ONLY sovereigns may/can issue money is historically quite a recent one (and
quite wrong in any case -- witness the innumerable local-exchange systems all
over the world.)

