The price of gold has been declining of late and many of its past supporters are looking for a way out before their losses begin to mount. At the same time, the price of Bitcoin seems to be on an upward surge and for the first time in months its price has climbed over $400. DigitalTangible is one company that wants to take advantage of the situation by introducing a brand new innovation that seems designed to make it much easier for people who currently have gold to divest and reinvest in a safer commodity. The company is now offering Bitcoin for gold through a FinCEN compliant service. Not only are these trades being accepted by DigitalTangible but verified, registered users are able to mail physical gold in the form of gold bars or coins and receive their HD web wallet with their private keys.
The new program, called Bitcoin4Gold, also allows users to trade gold for Litecoin, Dogecoin or Darkcoin. DigitalTangible launched its crypto 2.0 exchange service in September and it allows users to move freely between bitcoin and gold using cryptographic tokens that are used to represent the physical gold. When the trades are made, shipping and review is handled by Dillon Gage, a Texas-based refinery and wholesaler and Agora Commodities and sellers receive their digital cash in the web wallet upon receipt of the gold by the buyer.
DigitalTangible gained a great deal of experience working with gold dealers and investors and the founder, Taariq Lewis said that this experience included keeping customer trust and security in the forefront of all of their operations.
“They control the private keys and we have two-factor authentication, so for new customers, they have a certain level of security they can start with and our goal is to further give them access to new, different tools they can use to secure their bitcoins.”
Gold has experienced multi-year lows and Lewis felt that this was the perfect time to open up the game to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and giving gold owners an opportunity to get easily into Bitcoin seemed like the perfect plan.
Easy Set-up
The first thing users must do is to set up a new account and get their online wallet. If they are trading gold, they must specify what type of bar or coin they wish to trade and designate the type of cryptocurrency they are looking for in the trade. This will generate how much of each coin will be received for the gold. Examples of the types of gold accepted are 1/10 oz. Gold Maple Leaf, 1/10 American Gold Eagle and 1 oz. Pamp Credit Bar.
Users will then have an option of selecting mailing options when submitting the gold for inspection, a process that can take as long as a week. Once the gold is inspected and verified the company issues another estimate and payment in Bitcoin is made to the seller.
Skeptics in the Metals Industry
Unfortunately, not everyone in the precious metals industry is on board with Lewis’s idea. Peter Schiff — host of popular financial radio show "The Peter Schiff Show", who has never been friendly to Bitcoin said recently:
"Chances are your average bitcoin holder is more likely to be a precious metal buyer than a person who doesn't own bitcoin. [...] I think it makes sense to target bitcoin holders as customers."
But Lewis said that there was a serious need in the precious metals industry to have methods of getting rid of their investments in case of a serious drop and currently fiat currencies were nearly the only way. While there is some movement in these types of trades, the metals community is mostly composed of a small circle of people. Lewis said that there was not a clear path for those in that community to switch to Bitcoin without going through fiats, usually after being forced to pay high exchange rates before they can trade.
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