Gold has a six thousand year track record as a safe store of value and is the only money that carries no counterparty risk.
Gold therefore offers savers a safe haven that protects their wealth, especially during times of volatility and economic uncertainty. This is particularly true for physical gold held outside of the banking system – the quintessential off-grid private wealth solution.
However, this gold sits idle and illiquid - mostly in dark vaults and safety deposit boxes - without the holder being able to access financial products that one can with its fiat money counterpart.
Bastiat and Dane Viljoen identified this gold owner’s plight and created a homegrown solution to solve the liquidity problem on gold. The brothers co-founded Stellenbosch-based goldtech Troygold in 2018 and concentrated on building their own proprietary gold digitisation technology. “Our mission was to ‘light up’ gold sitting in the dark with utility, and turn it into something gold owners can use for day-to-day finance and transactions,” Bastiat Viljoen, Co-Founder and CEO of Troygold, explains.
The South African Gold Coin Exchange ( SAGCE )& The Scoin Shop, are companies built on the premise of individual physical gold ownership. They have been in business for close to fifty years during which time their philosophy has been that all South Africans should have the ability to own physical gold. This principle has been backed up by their desire to innovate and reimagine gold ownership, through launching the first retail stores dealing gold, a powerful online e-commerce presence, and the pioneering acceptance of cryptocurrency as a payment method.
So, what happens when the established and the innovative team up? The result is a collaboration agreement giving people choice. A choice to be free from the inflation inherent in paper currencies and the ability to be able to save, borrow against, and spend gold – all from the palm of their hand.
“Troygold digitises physical gold, physical bullion and Krugerrands via Troygold’s Fractional Ownership Technology (FOT). This home-grown technology developed by Troygold aligns with our belief that gold is for everyone,” adds Rael Demby, CEO SAGCE & The Scoin Shop. The gold’s digitised value is then made available on the Troygold mobile app and bank account, along with a slick Mastercard, which means the gold can be traded or used to access borrowing facilities.
This joint cooperation benefits existing customers, and any gold owner holding existing gold coins, as The Scoin Shop network of physical stores creates on-ramps into the digital Troygold platform. South African retail investors can now upload their gold Krugerrands into the Troygold platform by delivering their coins directly to any one of The Scoin Shops’ physical retail outlets.
Watch the video below to find out more:
Dubbed a ‘Gold Upload’, this allows the uploaded gold to be stored safely and then digitised - providing the owner access to instant cash liquidity via a flexible loan facility, as well as 24/7 trading capabilities. This agreement will enable a broad market of gold owners to easily and safely do more with their idle gold.
Co-founder Dane Viljoen explains, “We saw a gap for a technology-led solution that would extend financial services to physical gold owners—in short, storing your wealth in a stable, non-inflationary money like gold, whilst enjoying the same financial products, like borrowing, that those with paper currency have access to. Linking with SAGCE and The Scoin Shop introduces more people to Troygold’s pursuit of bringing instant access and liquidity to gold”.
The ongoing volatility of the global financial system and the deteriorating value of fiat currency makes a strong argument for a return to gold... and now gold too is going digital. Read more about the SACGE & The Scoin Shop and the Troygold on their respective websites.