Aurus Brings the DeFi Revolution to Tokenized Gold, Silver, and Platinum

Aurus is embracing the concept of DeFi to disrupt the precious metals industry. The firm has built a genuinely decentralized platform that allows companies like refineries, distributors, and vaults to tokenize gold, silver, and platinum autonomously. The ingenious part of the Aurus system is their revenue-sharing token, AurusDeFi (AWX), which enables holders to earn a share of the platform's revenues.

Aurus to Disrupt The Industry With Platinum, Silver, and Gold-Based Cryptocurrency

Trading app Robinhood positions itself as democratizing finance for all. However, the centralized nature of the platform- where one party holds the ultimate decision-making power, is in direct conflict with this mission.

Just ask the Redditors of the WallStreetBets community. As they discovered in January, traders have zero control over managing the exchange. So if they have a problem, their only recourse is to withdraw their funds and switch to another broker (where they'll probably face similar issues, for the time being anyway).

This incident helps to explain why the concept of decentralized finance- or DeFi as it's commonly known- has gained so much traction. DeFi removes the need to rely on intermediaries and the associated bureaucracy or manipulation which has burdened the traditional financial system for so long. 

Instead, DeFi relies on smart contracts, programs that automatically execute the terms of an agreement, such as the ones implemented by metal-backed blockchain protocols, to complete transactions. Smart contracts allow markets such as brokerages and exchanges to operate unhindered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The technology is still nascent, but the projects leveraging it build a faster, more transparent, and accessible financial system for all.

Aurus is embracing the concept of DeFi to disrupt the precious metals industry. The firm has built a truly decentralized platform that allows companies like refineries, distributors, and vaults to tokenize gold, silver, and platinum autonomously.

The ingenious part of the Aurus ecosystem is their revenue-sharing token, AurusDeFi (AWX), which enables holders to earn a share of the platform's revenues. But to understand the hows of the metal-backed blockchain protocol and AurusDeFi, you must dive deeper into how the ecosystem works.

How We Built A metal-backed Blockchain Protocol

As well as making precious metals more accessible to retail investors, Aurus also removes the single point of failure risk associated with centralized systems. The firm is building a global ecosystem of precious metals refineries, vaults, and brokers that work together to mint their tokenized gold, silver, and platinum. In the case of the AurusGOLD (AWG) case, each token is backed by one gram of 99.99% LBMA-accredited gold and held in fully insured and audited vaults worldwide. It's worth noting that Aurus, as a technology provider, is not involved in the minting process and therefore has no influence on the gold traded or vaulted.

UK-based, Direct Bullion became the first precious metals dealer to join the Aurus ecosystem, tokenizing 5 kilograms of the yellow metal in 2019. The firm has since added AurusGOLD to its offerings as a more convenient and liquid form of gold ownership.

The incentives for industry partners to participate in the ecosystem come from the platform's revenue-sharing mechanism. Gold providers and vaulting partners receive an equal share of 50% (25% each) of the minting, transactional and storage fees generated from this gold-backed cryptocurrency token. The other 50% is proportionally distributed among holders of a revenue-sharing permit called AurusDeFi. This unique business model makes the ecosystem highly scalable and entirely self-sufficient.

AurusDeFi has a limited supply of 30 million tokens and represents a stake in the Aurus ecosystem by providing holders with a passive income stream, paid in AurusGOLD or crypto backed by gold. As the ecosystem grows, so do the generated revenues. To put this opportunity in context, bitcoin hit the headlines recently when it reached a market cap of US$1 trillion for the first time. In contrast, the total value of the global gold supply is estimated to be more than ten times bigger.

Aurus completed their final fundraising round in February this year- raising three times the expected capital. Launched in London in 2013, CEX.IO is one of the most well-established crypto exchanges with over four million users globally, while Biki has more than two million users in Asia. These partnerships represent a significant milestone for Aurus as both exchanges offer deposits and withdrawals in fiat and other staking and interest reward-bearing products for retail and institutional clients.

The Bigger Picture For Gold-Backed Crypto

The vision for Aurus is to build an open, highly scalable ecosystem that the entire precious metals industry can benefit from while making it simple for anyone to invest and transact with precious metals, whether that's crypto backed by gold or silver crypto coins. 

With that in mind, the firm recently launched a new token for another asset class targeted by the traders of WallStreetBets. 

AurusSILVER (AWS) offers the same benefits as AurusGOLD, such as easy access to the US$1.5 trillion market for the metal. Each token is backed by one gram of LBMA-accredited silver.

Aurus' ambitions don't end there. With AurusPLATINUM (AWP), Aurus is set to become one of the earliest platforms to tokenize platinum. While not as high profile a precious metal as tokenized gold and silver, this is a groundbreaking event for retail traders. Currently, one of the only ways they can digitally acquire platinum is through an ETF on the South African stock exchange.

The launch of AWS and AWP will make AWX even more valuable, as holders of AWX will benefit from 30% of the revenue they generate. Aurus is planning to list both tokens on CEX.IO in the coming months.

Aurus is also pleased to add new industry partners to the platform. The demand for gold-backed crypto has already been so high that Aurica ran out of stock and had to tokenize more gold on several occasions. The firm also recently started selling AurusSILVER and plans to expand operations to other Latin American countries. 

Elsewhere, the firm will be onboarding an international bullion trading company from Turkey, and one of the largest precious metals brokers in Singapore called Aurica Metales, the oldest and largest precious metals broker in Chile. Demand for AurusGOLD Indigo Precious Metals (IPM). 

The Turkish trader was founded over 25 years ago and counts central banks and government agencies among its clients. At the same time, IPM is run by leading metals experts and will be the first partner to issue AurusPLATINUM.

Monetizing Cryptocurrency Backed by Gold, Silver, and Platinum

Aurus does not get involved in supplying, minting, or distributing gold standard tokens, platinum, or silver crypto coins. However, they serve a significant role by enabling the stability of Aurus tokens to be used to their full potential: as a medium of exchange, a means of collateral, a reward-bearing instrument, or simply an easy-to-access investment product.

The upcoming listing with CEX.IO is an example of the types of partnerships Aurus engages in to add value for its users. 

Aurus has also recently partnered with and launched its stablecoin-supported point of sale terminals. Holders can load their platinum, silver, or golden tokens (AWG, AWS, AWP) onto the Aurus Vault Signer Card, a crypto hardware wallet that will soon allow users to pay with gold, silver, and platinum at merchants over the world.

From this perspective, the future looks golden for Aurus as there's a lot to look forward to in the coming months — most defi(nitely) a revolution for the precious metals market.

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