Mark Gesterkamp did an ask me anything for Aurus on March 8. Herewith the results of the AMA:
- For those not familiar, can you briefly describe Aurus and what problems you aim to solve?
Aurus, founded in 2018, brings precious metals to the digital asset space with blockchain technology. We have created an ecosystem of precious metals industry players, including refiners, vaults and brokers who can interact with the Aurus platform to tokenize their own precious metals: tGOLD, tSILVER and tPLATINUM. Each token is backed 1:1 by 1 gram of physical LBMA-accredited gold, silver and platinum, stored in fully insured and controlled vaults.
(Problem): Physical precious metals are important financial instruments, having served as money for thousands of years because of their unique properties and ability to hold value. Even banks hoard gold and silver to this day. However, physical precious metals are cumbersome, making them difficult and expensive to store and transfer, and therefore carry high premiums.
(Solution): Tokenized precious metals are highly portable, transferable and liquid digital assets. They have the advantages of physically allocated gold, silver and platinum, but do not have the disadvantages of limited transportability or high storage costs usually associated with them. Instead, it has the divisibility, fungibility and tradability of any digital asset such as Bitcoin.
- How does the AurusX (AX) token function within the platform and why is it needed?
AurusX is Aurus' Ecosystem token that allows holders to share in the rewards generated by tGOLD, tSILVER and tPLATINUM transaction fees. As people around the world trade and transfer tokenized precious metals, the fees are distributed to AurusX holders. These fees can be claimed monthly as rewards in tGOLD, tSILVER and tPLATINUM.
Thanks to AurusX's unique functionality, the Aurus ecosystem is highly scalable and completely self-sustaining. AurusX is a scarce digital asset limited to a total inventory of 30 million tokens, which means that as the ecosystem grows, so do the rewards generated.
- Can you share the development status and progress of the project so far? Include key partners and perhaps some operational data.
Since 2018, we have been steadily developing our product and expanding our ecosystem of partners - with few resources for marketing, so far. We've seen key growth in the past year, growing our team to 20 employees, doubling our market cap of precious metals, and reaching over 20,000 app downloads. Some other key milestones achieved:
Important milestones achieved:
- Ecosystem rewards activated
- A trading license for crypto and commodities granted in Dubai (DMCC).
- Establishment of the Aurus Foundation (UK).
- Launch of the Aurus Mobile App
- Collaborated with largest precious metals refinery in Spain
- Who will be the users/customers of your projects and what are some examples of use cases for them?
Previously, the only way to invest in gold was to buy it from a precious metals dealer at a premium and pay storage fees, or through an ETF. While ETFs provide exposure to price, they do not represent ownership of physically allocated metals and cannot be redeemed. tGOLD is based on blockchain-based technology, which enables many unique features and makes gold accessible to a wider audience. The technology allows for: 24/7 trading; fiat/crypto exchange listings; peer-to-peer transfers and instant settlement on all transactions. Aurus addresses several use cases; as a network of stable value transfer in the global payments market, as a reward generating financial primitive in DeFi, and as stablecoin in gaming.
- What is your strategy regarding attracting more users to your protocol?
At Aurus, we are on a mission to unlock the full potential of precious metals. We are working with innovative partners to further expand and improve use cases for precious metals, including payments, DeFi, gaming and NFTs.
Our partner Tangem is experimenting with a Visa Payment Card that will allow you to use precious metals to make payments through the Visa network. This will greatly increase the speed, convenience and volume of transactions.
We also work with our vault partners and Chainlink to offer you Proof of Reserves (PoR), a real-time verification system that guarantees the transparency of your precious metals. ChainLink's Proof of Reserve seal is one of the most recognized certifications any stablecoin company can obtain, similar to the LBMA in precious metals, functioning as an element of trust and security.
- Let's talk about the current landscape of other projects doing something similar. What sets you apart from some competitors?
The concept of digitizing gold and silver is not new, it was rigorously tried even before blockchain technology. In the past 5 years, we have seen more than 100 gold-backed tokens come and go, with most not surviving for various reasons. Currently, the biggest players in the market are PaxGold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT).
The fundamental flaw of these projects is that they are fully centralized, meaning the token issuer has complete control over the underlying metals. A centralized approach to tokenizing assets leaves the door open for exploitation, which actually works against the attractiveness of precious metals - peace of mind and financial stability.
Aurus bullion tokens are created with sustainability in mind. The tokens are independently minted by a global network of established bullion refiners, vaults and traders participating in the Aurus Ecosystem. Aurus' decentralized approach to tokenization ensures that the company can never "touch" or affect the gold traded or vaulted, meaning investors are not subject to a single point of failure.
- What unique experience does your team bring that puts Aurus in a position to be successful?
For starters, Aurus was founded by traders with digital skills and with enough knowledge to know their own limitations and the ability to hire the best people with the right skills and experience. It has created an Ecosystem that includes all the elements of an efficient market, whether that be vaults, refiners, traders, investors, service providers and technical support. Even more interesting is that professional traders make their money from volatility and not just buying and selling; the more the price moves, regardless of direction, the more supply and demand and thus trading opportunities. Aurus used this knowledge to create the AurusX token, which generates rewards for the holder by getting a smaller percentage of each trade in the ecosystem. The greater the number of transactions, the greater the revenue and the greater the value of the AurusX token. - What does success look like for Aurus? What are the biggest risks and challenges Aurus will have to overcome for the project to be considered successful?
Aurus aims to create a more efficient and inclusive precious metals market with blockchain technology. Although cryptocurrencies and precious metals can have many synergies, they are completely different markets, with different user demographics. One of the most common challenges we have experienced is the learning curve that many precious metals companies must adopt to work with a technology like Blockchain; this includes not only understanding the process of tokenization and its benefits, but also making a conscious decision to expand their current business models to support an integration with technology. - Can you elaborate on the goals you want to achieve by 2023?
Yes, we currently have partners in (South America, London, Turkey, Estonia). And we are currently in talks for expansion to the following territories, including Dubai, Singapore, Hong-Kong, the Netherlands & Germany. Expansion involves a lot of strategic decision-making and therefore it can be a time-consuming process, as we want to get the right partner on board who shares our vision and understands what we hope to achieve.
The Aurus roadmap for 2023 and beyond!
- Expanding the ecosystem - onboarding more partners in new areas
- Aurus Ambassador program & multilingual expansion
- Gold-supported NFTs
- GameFi - Gold in Gaming
- Aurus Visa debit card
- DeFi - grow UniswapV3 liquidity pools
- Proof of reserves (Aurus x Chainlink)
- Tier-A listing (AurusX)
- As a non-project related question, which sector of the crypto markets excites you the most?
The DeFi sector definitely excites me the most. DeFi is a very broad sector that includes various components such as; DEXs, lending/borrowing protocols, stablecoins, ecosystems and even NFTs. The possibility of interrelationships of these components is what makes this sector so dynamic and exciting. There are endless utilities that can be decentralized and everyone - as individuals - can reap the benefits.
The concentrated liquidity function of UniswapV3, for example, allows liquidity facilities to be used extremely efficiently. This is extremely powerful for stable assets such as precious metals.
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