Introducing Aurus: A New Standard for Tokenized Precious Metals

Over the past two decades, the financial industry has evolved drastically. However, its underlying infrastructure relies on intermediaries to maintain operations, adding layers of additional complexity that extract significant value from the overall ecosystem. The emergence of blockchain technology has spawned a global network for value transfer. 

We foresee that tokenization could make the financial industry more accessible, cheaper, faster, and easier, possibly unlocking trillions of euros in currently illiquid assets and vastly increasing the volume of trades, which will meet for a more inclusive and efficient world economy.

“The digitalisation and tokenization of the market is essential to modernise the gold market and make it more accessible to investors now and in the future.” – David Tait, CEO of World Gold Council.

Introduction to Aurus

What is Aurus?

Founded in 2018, Aurus specializes in blockchain-based tokenization of precious metals, offering tGOLD, tSILVER, and tPLATINUM. Each token is backed by and redeemable for 1 gram of physical gold, silver, or platinum respectively.

Tokenized precious metals offer investors a convenient and cost-effective alternative to traditional physical metals, with the additional benefits of instant settlements, 24/7 real-time trading, and reduced intermediaries.

Precious metals, such as gold and silver, have served as essential financial instruments for thousands of years due to their unique properties and ability to preserve value. Central banks around the world continue to hoard these precious metals, reinforcing their role as a stable resource and sound money for the foreseeable future.

Aurus’ vision is to create a truly decentralized system that fosters a more inclusive and efficient precious metals market. By leveraging blockchain technology, our mission is to democratize access to precious metals ownership, enhance their usability, and explore modern use cases. We aim to re-establish precious metals as viable investments and currencies for the future. 

The Aurus Ecosystem

The Aurus ecosystem is a highly scalable, global network of accredited precious metals refineries, vaults, and dealers that work in synergy to independently mint and distribute tGOLD, tSILVER and tPLATINUM tokens to the broader retail market. Aurus serves as a bridge, connecting the traditional precious metals market with the rapidly evolving Web3 and DeFi landscape.Instead of competing, Aurus collaborates with and empowers the traditional precious metals industry, creating an open system that the entire industry can participate in and benefit from.

A notable example of Aurus' partnerships is with SEMPSA JP, a leading LBMA bullion refinery in Spain, which has tokenized gold and silver using Aurus’ blockchain protocol to offer tGOLD and tSILVER to its network of bullion dealers including Andoranno, CIODE, and Oro Express. 

Guido van Stijn, CEO of Aurus, emphasizes the importance of industry-wide participation, stating, "To achieve mass adoption for a product like tGOLD, you have to include the entire industry and make it beneficial for everyone, as that's the only way it will be accepted and successful."

Aurus Unique Features

Competition: What Makes Aurus Unique?

The concept of tokenized precious metals isn’t new. Since the emergence of blockchain technology, more than 100 gold-backed crypto tokens have entered the market, most of which have failed to gain traction for various reasons. Notable examples include Digix, Cache Gold, and PMGT. 

Currently, the main market contenders are PaxGold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT). However, these tokens are fundamentally flawed in their centralized nature, as the token issuer has full control of the underlying metals. A centralized gold-backed token is exposed to exploitation, which ironically undermines the very attributes that make gold appealing as an investment in the first place.

In the case of Pert Mint Gold Token (PMGT), which recently seized operations, Jeff Yew (Backer of PMGT), explains that the centralized nature of the token and the partnership structure posed inherent problems from the beginning. He states “the centralized nature of the token meant its design has been problematic from the onset. Gold’s physical nature means it cannot ‘live’ in the digital space without human central points of control and failures,”

Decentralized Tokenization process

Aurus has developed a sustainable, decentralized method for tokenizing physical assets through a global network of delegated partners. Accredited entities can initiate a tokenization request by storing gold, silver, or platinum bullion at any partnered vault. New tGOLD, tSILVER, and tPLATINUM tokens can only be issued once provenance and proof of ownership have been validated by the custodian and an external auditor.

The decentralized nature of the Aurus ecosystem ensures that Aurus, as a company, can never "touch" or influence the underlying precious metal reserves. Such a system offers greater reliability and makes more sense to users as they aren’t dependent on a single source nor subject to a single point of failure.

"Decentralization is the first step to achieving a sustainable and globally-viable asset-backed token economy," says Mark Gesterkamp, CBDO of Aurus.

Tokenized Precious Metals

Tokenized precious metals, such as tGOLD, tSILVER, and tPLATINUM, offer a portable, transferable, and liquid alternative to physical precious metals, which are cumbersome, expensive to store, and carry high premiums. These digital assets possess the advantages of physical gold, silver, and platinum without traditional drawbacks, such as limited transportability or high storage costs. 

tGOLD, tSILVER & tPLATINUM

Three Aurus precious metal tokens exist tGOLD (TXAU), tSILVER (TXAG), and tPLATINUM (TXPT). Each token is backed by 1 gram of physical bullion sourced from refineries accredited by precious metal authorities including the LBMA, DMCC, and LPPM.

Free of recurring fees, tGOLD, tSILVER, and tPLATINUM provide a convenient and cost-effective alternative for investors, with benefits like real-time 24/7 trading, instant settlements, and fewer intermediaries. Tokenized precious metals grant access to global liquidity anytime, anywhere, transforming the way people invest in and trade these valuable commodities.

Use Cases and Products

Tokenized precious metals such as tGOLD, tSILVER, and tPLATINUM provide a more versatile and accessible alternative to traditional physical precious metals, which are primarily bought and held as a store of value. By leveraging blockchain technology, these digital assets offer a wider range of use cases, transforming the way precious metals are utilized and integrated into the modern financial ecosystem.

Use cases

• Accumulation: Simplifying precious metals investment for small investors through cost-efficient fractional purchases and easy digital wallet storage.
• Stablecoin: Offering protection from market volatility in the cryptocurrency space.
• Payments: Providing a stable, inflation-resistant alternative for everyday transactions, remittances, and cross-border payments with low-cost, instant transfers. 
• DeFi Rewards: Earn returns on precious metals by providing liquidity to decentralized exchanges.
• Gaming: Integrating real precious metals as in-game currency.
• NFTs: Minting NFTs backed by precious metals.

The possibility to earn a yield on your precious metals in DeFi is especially interesting, as traditionally, precious metals are considered non-productive assets. Additional use cases include wealth inheritance, escrow services, stablecoin primitives (e.g., DAI), lending and borrowing in DeFi.

Products

Aurus enhances the usability of precious metals, offering various products to facilitate convenient and secure access to tokenized metals.

The Aurus Mobile App is a multi-asset cryptocurrency wallet that enables users to easily buy, store, trade and earn precious metals, 24/7, and at minimal costs, at the convenience of their mobile phone.

The Aurus Vault Card is a highly secure cold storage hardware wallet that allows users to safely store, accumulate, and transfer Aurus tokens for optimal security. The card functions interacts with the Aurus mobile app via NFC technology, allowing users to send and receive tokens seamlessly.

Ensuring Security and Trust

Decentralized Storage and Proof of Reserves

The precious metal reserves backing tGOLD, tSILVER, and tPLATINUM are securely stored in globally distributed vaults, such as Brinks, Loomis, and Malca-Amit. These vaults undergo regular third-party audits, and tri-party agreements between the precious metal provider, vault, and Aurus guarantee a 1:1 backing.

Aurus is also collaborating with Chainlink oracle to implement Proof-of-Reserves (PoR), a real-time auditing system that verifies asset reserves and token supply consistency. The Chainlink Proof of Reserve seal is one of the most recognized certifications for stablecoin can acquire, serving as an additional layer of transparency.

Physical redemption

Users can redeem tGOLD, tSILVER, and tPLATINUM tokens for their physical equivalent at any time via select Aurus-partnered precious metal dealers, where they can choose from a list of available bullion bars or coins and their respective prices.

Alternatively, Aurus minting partners can initiate a vault extraction to withdraw underlying precious metals from vaults, resulting in the respective tokens being burned, ensuring a seamless connection between the digital and physical precious metal markets.

Passive Precious Metal Rewards: AurusX

AurusX (AX) is the Aurus ecosystem token that can be staked in the Aurus app to earn passive rewards in tGOLD, tSILVER, and tPLATINUM. Rewards are generated from ecosystem fees; every time precious metal tokens are transferred, minted, or burned, the fees are proportionally distributed to Aurus minting partners and AurusX holders. As ecosystem activity grows, so do the rewards generated.

AurusX Reward System

The ecosystem's foundations are designed to align the interests of all its participants. Precious metal businesses are incentivized to participate in the Aurus ecosystem by receiving a share of the rewards generated from tGOLD, tSILVER, and tPLATINUM fees. Ecosystem fees are distributed as follows:AurusX derives its value from the transactional velocity of precious metals, making it a unique portfolio diversifier that provides passive rewards in gold, silver and platinum regardless of market conditions or price fluctuations. 

AurusX is an essential component of the Aurus ecosystem, enabling it to be highly scalability and ultimately, completely self-sustaining. It allows anyone to benefit from the growth of Aurus and earn a share of the ecosystem rewards, creating a natural incentive for supporters and further decentralizing the system. 

AurusX Governance Voting

In the future, Aurus plans to introduce AurusX governance voting to further decentralize the ecosystem in the sense of democratic decision-making. AurusX token holders can collectively implement changes and determine resource allocation by voting on ecosystem proposals and community initiatives.

AurusX Tokenomics

AurusX has a fixed total supply of 30,000,000 tokens, distributed as follows: View AurusX Tokenomics

Aurus Organization

Aurus places a strong emphasis on regulatory compliance and has established its legal structure as a Foundation to ensure adherence to necessary regulations. Furthermore, all Aurus tokens have obtained legal opinions from Capital Law, a premier UK law firm, reinforcing its commitment to operating within the required legal frameworks.

Aurus Foundation

The Aurus Foundation is an independent non-profit UK organization dedicated to expanding and developing the Aurus Ecosystem. It works with ecosystem stakeholders to promote tokenized assets by developing standards, best practices and thought leadership. The Foundation's ultimate goal is to establish Aurus as the global standard for tokenized assets, including precious metals and other commodities.

The rewards generated from the 4,500,000 AurusX tokens held in the Aurus Foundation treasury will fund the ongoing expansion and development of the Aurus ecosystem and its offerings.

Aurus Markets DMCC

Aurus Markets DMCC, headquartered in Dubai, holds a cryptocurrency and commodity trading license and focuses on the expansion of the Aurus ecosystem in the MENA and SEA regions. It aims to onboard local partners and promote the adoption of tokenized precious metals in the global retail market.

Aurus DAO

Aurus aspires to ultimately become a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to achieve the highest level of decentralization. The Aurus DAO aims to expand the Aurus Ecosystem through democratic consensus among AurusX token holders, actively involving ecosystem stakeholders in decision-making and shaping the direction of Aurus and its offerings.

Transitioning to a DAO offers enhanced trust, increased security, community governance, greater resilience, and lower operational costs. This transition aims to solidify Aurus as a leading issuer of asset-backed tokens, fostering trust, security, and community involvement in the process.

Future of Aurus

Aurus is on a mission to unlock the full potential of precious metals by working with innovative partners to expand and enhance their use cases, including payments, DeFi, gaming, and NFTs. The Aurus roadmap outlines exciting developments for 2023 and beyond!

Aurus Roadmap

A key highlight of the roadmap is the Visa Payment Card in collaboration with Tangem. This development will enable users to spend gold, silver, and platinum as effortlessly as fiat currency. With millions of merchants and ATMs worldwide on the Visa network, this integration offers unparalleled access and convenience for users.

Team and Community

Aurus is led by a dedicated team of commodity and financial industry veterans with extensive experience in their respective fields. Learn more about the Aurus team.

Aurus Team

Aurus Community

The Aurus community has a strong presence in several regions, including the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Israel, and more, Aurus aims to foster a diverse and supportive network of users and partners worldwide.

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