Buy your next coffee with gold: GoldMoney (TSX.V

POSTED ON August 04, 2015 BY Andrew Nelson
CATEGORY Bitgold,

GoldMoney Founder, Roy Sebag and Co-Founder, Josh Crumb present to an eager crowd at the Sprott Stansberry Symposium (photo: CEO.ca)

Imagine if you could safely walk around town with a 10 Oz gold bar in your pocket which you could use to buy whatever you need in a day. You could grab your morning coffee, pick up a pizza slice for lunch, load up on groceries to cook the week’s meals, and buy a bouquet of roses for your special lady because you know she deserves them.

Granted, shaving gold flakes off a bar, weighing them, and then using them as currency would be more time-consuming than most folks would tolerate. But, the idea of executing daily transactions in gold is now a reality, thanks to a revolutionary fin-tech company, GoldMoney (TSX.V – XAU). GoldMoney just IPO’ed in May 2015 (07/29/2015, name change from BitGold), and owns and operates the BitGold payments and savings network and GoldMoney wealth business.

GoldMoney was one of the most highly anticipated companies presenting at the Sprott Stansberry Symposium last week in Vancouver. In fact, the presentation room was packed to the rafters with attendees spilling out into the hallway.

At the podium in the photo above is Founder, Roy Sebag and to his left is Co-Founder, Josh Crumb. Mr. Sebag is an accomplished finance professional and money manager who specialized in understanding market moving investment themes before they materialized to outperform major indexes for his clients. Mr. Crumb, CSO, MSc., BSc. Eng., was the former Senior Metals Strategist for Goldman Sachs and Director of Corporate Development for Lukas Lundin which has provided him with world class institutional experience and mentorship from a resource legend.

The presentation started off with Chief Strategy Officer, Mr. Crumb stating “Many multi-billion dollar markets are ripe for innovation & disruption in a new technological age for money with real-time global connectivity.”

He asked the crowd, “Why does a globally connected world continue to use offline payment networks moving through lots of different banks, none of which pay a real interest rate, and tied to the currencies of one nation’s system of debt? Why isn’t there a global, internet accessible “bank”, or network executing these transactions using a full reserve ledger that’s relevant and accessible anywhere on the planet but not taking banking risk?” Clearly, the innovative partners saw an opportunity that I think the market hadn’t identified yet, and there appears to be no shortage of demand.

In only 90 days GoldMoney has had 160,000 new signups for the BitGold service. Management believes in the coming 9 months they will hit the 1,000,000 user mark. The company has institutional backers such as Sprott Inc., the Soros family, Power One Capital Markets Ltd, Sandstorm Gold, GMP, Canaccord Genuity, Dundee Capital Markets, and others who believe in their business model and have been instrumental in the roughly $35M raised so far.

Mr. Crumb went on to discuss his thoughts on gold, “How we view gold is as both money and technology, not an investment. The general public has viewed gold primarily as an investment in the last 15 years because there’s been so much friction in buying, selling, and storing gold, it hasn’t been a seamless medium of exchange compared to all the technology that’s come about and helped us use fiat money. But Gold has always been a money for savings, its not an investment that depends on third parties to perform like a security or fiat currency. Gold as a commodity requires the same inputs to extract it as it did 3,000 years ago, labour and energy, but it effortlessly holds that value over time, unlike the policies that dictate fiat currency value. All the foundational industries, most immortally food, are a function of that same labour and energy needed to make them possible. Thus gold has held a tight correlation with these other necessary commodities over time, making it very useful for savings, but also making it relevant to everyone on the planet regardless of local currency.”

“When you are trading LBMA or COMEX gold contracts it is a long process to obtain the physical metal. To make BitGold a reality where rapid e-commerce would be taking place we had to find a way to shorten the transaction time so that it would result in settling in physical gold simultaneously. We created our own settlement system to make sure we can settle a gold trade quick enough to use it in a transaction.”

“The main inhibitors for people buying gold are the cost, percentage over spot, storage fees, and insurance. We wanted to simplify this for our customers. We are not going to charge anyone for storage fees or insurance, that comes as a benefit courtesy of us. To make it accessible we tied all the major payment systems across the globe such as Visa, MasterCard, and Interac to our vaulting system to enable users to purchase gold via their smartphone while standing in line at Tim Horton’s. The purchase will be within 1% of spot, physical gold, and stored in your vault.”

“This platform we have created enables anyone to purchase gold in real-time from anywhere in the world with internet access. We are proud to have democratized access to buying and selling gold to anyone in the world.”

“Now that you have gold, you’re wondering how are you going to spend it? It can be spent with the BitGold or GoldMoney MasterCard and be used like money at any point of sale. If you are feeling fancy you can opt for the more luxurious 18 carat gold debit card. In the coming months we will also be rolling out our merchant and invoicing tools, so customers anywhere in the world can spend gold for free directly with merchants. And we are currently in the process of rolling out ATM machines so customers can access those capabilities of a traditional baking ATM machine too.”

“All of the technology made for the banking system we are making for gold. If you would like to redeem your gold, it is incredibly simple and available in quantities as small as 10 grams which can be shipped right to your residence. If the quantity is larger, such as a kilo, Brinks, our global partner, will store your gold in their vault and you can retrieve it during business hours.”

After listening to their presentation and doing some high level due diligence, I have signed up for BitGold and am looking forward to buying my next coffee with gold!

The company also came out with news this morning: GoldMoney Inc. Reports July Key Performance Indicators for the BitGold and GoldMoney Businesses

DISCLAIMER: The work included in this publication is based on current events, interviews, and corporate press releases. It may contain errors, and you shouldn’t make any investment decision based solely on what you read here. This publication contains forward-looking statements, including but not limited to comments regarding predictions and projections. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. This publication is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always thoroughly do your own due diligence and talk to a licensed investment adviser prior to making any investment decisions

Andrew Nelson

Andrew Nelson is pursuing the CPA designation as an auditor at Davidson & Co., the leading service provider for junior mining clients globally. Mr. Nelson has experience working with TSX venture listed explorers in Kazakhstan, Paraguay, Peru, Namibia, Madagascar, West Africa, United States, and Canada reporting under IFRS framework. He is an Executive Officer with Young Mining Professionals a not-for-profit which holds networking events for young professionals in Vancouver's resource sector. His interests are reporting on Canadian precious metal explorers and holding informative interviews with accomplished mining professionals. If involved in junior mining he would love to hear from you at Andrew.GM.Nelson@Gmail.com. More →

Twitter: @https://twitter.com/ANelsonMining

andrew.gm.nelson@gmail.com

Andrew Nelson

Twitter: @https://twitter.com/ANelsonMining

andrew.gm.nelson@gmail.com

Disclaimer:

Readers are advised that the material contained herein is solely for information purposes. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and due diligence, and/or obtain professional advice. Nothing contained herein constitutes a representation by the publisher, nor a solicitation for the purchase or sale of securities. The information contained herein is based on sources which the publisher believes to be reliable, but is not guaranteed to be accurate, and does not purport to be a complete statement or summary of the available data. Any opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. The owner, editor, writer and publisher and their associates are not responsible for errors or omissions. They may from time to time have a position in the securities of the companies mentioned herein, and may change their positions without notice. (Any significant positions will be disclosed explicitly. This article is not intended to meet your specific individual investment needs and it is not tailored to your personal financial situation. Nothing contained herein constitutes, is intended, or deemed to be — either implied or otherwise — investment advice. Thomas Humphreys, Pacific Website Company Inc., and other entities in which he has an interest, employees, officers, family, and associates may from time to time have positions in the securities or commodities covered in these publications or web site. We reserve the right to buy and sell such securities or commodities without notice to readers. While the information herein is believed to be accurate and reliable it is not guaranteed or implied to be so. The information herein may not be complete or correct; it is provided in good faith but without any legal responsibility or obligation to provide future updates. Neither Thomas Humphreys, nor anyone else, accepts any responsibility, or assumes any liability, whatsoever, for any direct, indirect or consequential loss arising from the use of the information in these publications or web site.

Forward-Looking Statements: This article may include certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "forecast", "expect", "potential", "project", "target", "schedule", budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the potential of the Company's properties are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Company's expectations include actual exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, delays or inability to receive required approvals, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and accordingly readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date of this article. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Always do your own due diligence. We seek safe harbor.