Vaultoro Announces VGold, a Lightning-Based Bullion Token

Vaultoro, the first gold exchange to enable bitcoin trading pairs, is working to add a new Lightning-based token called VGold. This new digital asset is built on the RGB protocol and is expected to launch by the end of 2019.

According to Vaultoro’s communications and media officer, Gabriel Escalona, the company has opted in favor of Bitcoin’s second layer (as opposed to other popular token-issuing protocols) because Lightning is “super-fast, instantly transferable without confirmation times, and with near-zero costs.”

“It’s really amazing,” Escalona continued. “We want to help build on that, to add nonfungible tokens on actual Bitcoin. Bitcoin, for me, is still the strongest chance we have to take on the legacy banking system.”

In regard to the market valuation of one VGold unit, Escalona clarified that the asset is backed by one gram of investment-grade bullion. Additionally, thanks to Vaultoro’s experience and sustained presence in the gold market, the physical reserves that back the new token are more substantial than the sum of all their competitors’ holdings. 

VGold is also insured just like its physical counterpart.

“Helvetia insures any bullion we hold in the top-tier Pro Aurum facility, but this year we have expanded to also have a contract with the top-tier Brinks Vaulting facilities in Switzerland,” said Escalona. “This facility is both audited and insured by Brinks, which has revenue of over $3.9 billion.”

Escalona also suggested that RGB tokens will likely appeal to retail cryptocurrency investors looking to hedge in gold as an alternative to current stablecoin solutions. He described Vaultoro’s VGold as “a less volatile solution that is insured, bank-independent, and vaulted offshore.”

VGold and Vaultoro’s September Network Upgrade 

On October  1, 2019, Vaultoro revealed a new version of its platform, which brings improvements that are both aesthetic (a new design for the user interface) and technical (a new frameless, modular C++ machine that is expected to handle up to 1.2 million transactions per second). The upgrades serve existing and new services in order to handle the trading demand, but will also support the VGold integration.

At a time when tokenization is pivoting toward Bitcoin, thanks to the development of Lightning and its underlying security and robustness, Vaultoro has identified a better way of selling investment-grade bullion. This innovative approach is intended to bridge the bitcoin and commodity markets in a novel way, and it follows a company trend of integrating new technologies: In May 2018, Vaultoro also announced a Lightning-based instant deposit method. 

In 2018, Vaultoro CEO Joshua Scigala told Bitcoin Magazine that “Bitcoin is one of the greatest peaceful revolutions the world has ever seen.” 

In an announcement for VGold, Scigala said, “We see so much potential in payment channels and RGB provides the framework we need. This will enable use cases like serialized gold bars to be fully allocated, while the ownership is transferred over the Bitcoin network using the much faster second layer.”

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