Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/638235
L ate last spring, entrepreneurs Roy Sebag and Josh Crumb launched a technology company with a goal of solving one simple problem, "we wanted to buy our Tim Horton's coffee with gold." What they created was BitGold, and after taking the TSX Venture by storm last year (GoldMoney Inc. [XAU-TSXV]), they say that 2016 is about utiliz- ing the technology to deliver a wide range of solutions to businesses and consumers using vaulted gold as the backbone of their payments platform. Although gold has long been globally recognized as a great store of value over time, the costs and friction involved in purchasing, stor- ing and transacting with gold have limited its everyday utility to the average consumer or business. With BitGold and its underlying payments technology, the cost and friction have largely been removed, creat- ing a new platform through which people can acquire, store, and now, spend gold. "We have successfully established a platform for users to purchase and hold gold that is much like their online bank account; they can make and receive instant pay- ments, and interact with gold in a way that has not been done before. We are now expanding our solutions further, allowing workers or service providers, for example, to receive their pay in gold, and companies to lower foreign exchange costs by processing international transactions using gold; and we will facilitate mining companies offering gold as a dividend option." BitGold describes itself as a plat- form for savings and payments in gold. The service allows its clients to buy vaulted gold online, with free storage and insurance, at multiple vaults located worldwide and oper- ated by Brinks, and offers payment services through online gold trans- fers and a prepaid MasterCard linked to a user's vault account. As of the end of January, just nine months since launching the Internet based platform, BitGold has attracted nearly 700,000 new account sign- ups and enabled over $40 million in transaction volume on the platform. With the service offered globally in over 150 countries, initial pay- ment services include peer-to-peer transfers – useful for cross border transfers due the global nature of gold – and multiple-currency pre- paid MasterCards that are linked to the gold vault accounts. BitGold is now offering accounts for businesses as well in 2016, paving the way for merchant processing services and gold-account treasury features. Some of the services will include invoic- ing, payroll, prepaid MasterCards in multiple currencies for travel, cross- border payments, and even gold dividends. Payments technology for the mining industry In the second half of 2015, BitGold brought on two new executives in advance of their business account and treasury services. Payments and technology veteran, Darrell Mac- Mullin, is now CEO of BitGold, hav- ing formerly launched and headed PayPal Canada, and Katie Sokalsky is the new CFO; previously working in financial service auditing at Price- WaterhouseCoopers she has a family background in the gold industry. BitGold believes that the min- ing industry is a natural fit for their technology and their corporate ac- count services. "After spending over a decade in the global metals and mining sector, it is clear to me that mining companies large and small could benefit from our technology," said Mr. Crumb. "Gold has always been money, but more importantly, it has always been international money. Our settlement network now makes it a fungible international currency as well, meaning that an international mining sector can ben- efit from the friction we reduce in settling cross border transactions." Mr. Sebag added, "As crazy as it sounds, the fact that the money on our network is produced by this industry is actually secondary in our excitement. Our technology will benefit gold companies without question, but could equally benefit zinc companies, oil companies, or anyone else with regular foreign currency exposure and the fees and delays that come with paying international vendors or traveling employees." In addition to international cross border payment benefits, BitGold believes that it can provide an at- tractive alternative for in-country payments as well, especially for companies operating in global juris- Gold-Backed Pay Cheques and Dividends for Mining Companies? CORPORATE PROFILE