London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the World Gold Council (WGC) are partnering to develop and implement a blockchain-powered international system of gold bar integrity, chain of custody and provenance.
The move will help digitize the global supply chain of gold bars with all gold bars being registered and tracked across the entire supply journey from mine to vault, and ultimately to end consumers such as jewellery manufacturers.
The use of blockchain technology will help consumers, investors, and market participants to trust that their gold is genuine and has been responsibly and sustainably sourced.
The Gold Bar Integrity Programme supports greater industry alignment to ensure the future growth of the international gold market as international trade in wholesale, physical gold depends on confidence. All participants in the market can have confidence in the integrity and accountability of the gold they trade, and the gold they buy.
LBMA and WGC have launched a pilot phase of the project by bringing together the major organizations from the global gold supply chain, including Barrick Gold, Brinks, CME Group, Metalor, Newcrest Mining, Argos Heraeus SA and Asahi. The market participants will be able to verify the authenticity of the gold bars being traded.
Two distributed ledger companies, aXedras and Peer Ledger, will participate in the initial phase of the pilot to demonstrate how their technology can best create an immutable record of a gold bar's place of origin and chain of custody.
This blockchain-backed ledger will register and track bars, capturing the provenance and full transaction history. It will have a permanent and immutable digital record of the unique data and events, supported by a Statement of Provenance.
LBMA and WGC plan is to encourage all major participants in the gold industry to adopt this technology, and add to the digitized global ecosystem over time.
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