By Just as we thought the ever-shifting landscape of crypto couldn’t surprise anymore along come’s OneGram. A company that has launched the world’s first coin that is A – gold-backed and B – Shari’Ah compliant has landed on South African shores.
Why should we care? Well, it’s simple. The reason the world of crypto is gaining traction is that these currencies offer investors alternative opportunities that are not subject to the throngs of government and corporations.
OneGram, naturally, offers this but also have boldly assured everyone that the price of a OneGram (OGC) will never, ever dip below that of the price of gold. Real gold. You heard right. Each OGC unit or coin is backed by one physical gram of gold which of course is stowed away safely somewhere in a high-security bank vault thus OneGram has actually bridged the gap between one of the world’s oldest and safest assets with that of a digital platform! OneGram managed to raise more than $400 million last year in its initial coin offering with a maximum of 12 400 786 OGCs being up for grabs. OGC went into circulation last year in January in the resort wonderland of the rich – Dubai and has since launched in thirteen other countries including Russia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Germany to name a few. OneGram has finally reached sub-Saharan Africa by recently launching their spearhead operation from within South Africa.
OneGram’s decision to set up shop there and deploy a team was because of the amount of interest shown by potential investors. Currently, the coin has over 100 000 investors from 88 different countries around the world with many of them hailing from non-muslim regions and there seems to already be a good number in South Africa which is why the company decided the branch out here and step into African territories. This South Africa office was will eventually grow up to a team of about ten people and will act as a base for OneGram to penetrate other African regions such as Nigeria and Kenya which already have interested parties according to OneGram’s representatives on the ground.
“We anticipate the demand from Africa to be significant,”
OneGram presents potential investors here in Africa with a unique way to join the crypto-currency market with none of the risks typically associated with it. Backed by the powerful that is gold, OneGram is a solid digital token that joins the world’s most influential asset with the means to embrace digital innovation.
“Our approach to developing OneGram was to create a bridge between commodities and crypto using physical gold and package it together using innovative blockchain technology. In this way, we are able to give our users the best of both worlds and provide a degree of certainty around the notoriously fickle crypto-currency market,” said OneGram co-founder Ibrahim Mohammed.
“I’m hoping that the future becomes asset-backed because regulators can get on board quite easily with that. We have engaged with some already, including Pakistan and Malta.”
Mohammed also went on to say that another one of the revolutionary selling points about OneGram is that the fact that is no mining involved.
Another notable feature here is the fact that OneGram employs a proof of stake protocol instead of that of the traditional proof of work based currencies.
This, of course, means that the coin cannot be mined by the solving of complex mathematical problems instead the algorithm here assigns validation power to the proportion of the amount of coin held by the investor.
“Crypto-currency mining presents a significant environmental risk to the planet as these computers require an immense amount of power to operate. Some analysts estimate that in 2015, the amount of electricity needed for one Bitcoin transaction could power almost two American households for a day,”
But how does OneGram ensure that they have enough physical gold for their investors? Well, everyday 70% of their transaction fees goes towards purchasing more bullion. This also provides investors with a backup reserve which will continuously appreciate in value with each transaction that is made [fee charges at 1%].
Of the remaining 30%, 2.5% of these fees goes to the OneGram Foundation which is a charity focussed on enriching communities in need around the world, 2.5% goes toward the validator network and the remainder at 25% is OneGram’s profit.
As an investor, you can sleep well knowing that your gold is safely stored in vaults in Switzerland, Dubai & Singapore. If you’re ever keen on seeing the physical coin, pay a visit to OneGram’s Dubai office where the 20% of the gold owned by OneGram which equates to 2.4 tonnes will be on display.
That’s not all though, OneGram also plans on launching an exchange service called Huulk later this month. Upon launch, the service will only offer OGC solely but eventually will offer the twenty top performing currencies while boasting transaction on OneGram’s blockchain will take 15 seconds only.
He also noted that the Shari’ah compliance was important because it is the type of financing that protects the investor rights first and foremost.
“We thought that within the cryptosphere where there is no regulation, essentially we became the first regulated coin by following Islamic finance rules. After the 2008 crash, countries like France and Spain have been embedding Islamic finance in their core rules and regulations, because Islamic finance regulations always protect the investor. So it is about having transparency; it’s about having a tangible asset. Regulators also regularly check up on us and any time we divert from these principles our compliancy will be stripped.”
What are your thoughts on this meeting of digital currencies and old world asset management? Will you be purchasing OGC? Let us know by commenting below.
Follow CoinBeat on Facebook, Twitter & Telegram
Subscribe to our CoinBeat Newsletter
Submit an article to CoinBeat
View live Marketcap Prices here
Comments