Gold, the Barbarous Metal, Makes a Mobile Payments Push with Ecryptostore Deal

July 2, 2018 By: Steven Anderson

Gold has been sometimes derisively dismissed as the “barbarous metal,” its investment value shaky at best. Others, meanwhile, view it—and its immediate cohort silver—as being a store of value unlike any other since the dawn of time. A new partnership between Ainslie Bullion and Ecryptostore, meanwhile, suggests that the barbarous metal and the new investment class on the block may have a whole new link.

Ecryptostore tipped us off about this particular venture, which has been described as the eBay of cryptocurrency. Customers can pay for goods and services therein with either cryptocurrency, or with normal fiat currency. Items run the gamut from truffle oil to an actual gym. Meanwhile, Ainslie Bullion represents the primary distributor of the Perth Mint, and offers gold, silver, and platinum products including the Ainslie Stacker silver bar.

It’s actually a way, reports note, to give Ainslie Wealth—part of the Ainslie group that also owns Ainslie Bullion—a chance to shine and give the bullion business a more liquid complimentary offering. It also becomes possible to directly convert cryptocurrency to bullion, giving it quite possibly the most tangible value it’s ever had.

Transactions under $5,000 don’t even need to go through the Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, so it’s a good way to try the service out without having to commit a lot of personal information to Ecryptostore and Ainslie’s care. Those over $5,000, meanwhile, will require an online ID verification that’s described as “simple”.

While there isn’t exactly a lot on Ecryptostore—at least not that I saw—the notion is sound enough. Cryptocurrency has been pushing toward the mainstream for some time, and while it’s been doing reasonably well on the investment side, it’s not so great as a fully mainstream option. Sure, we’ve got institutional players stepping in to buy and hold—or perhaps buy and HODL—but cryptocurrency isn’t much use beyond “buy it cheap and stack it deep” protocols.

A move like this, however, provides much more value to the concept overall, and being able to trade it for gold might well catch some eyes. The barbarous metal and the newest investment class connected has a certain poetry to it, but only time will tell how well it actually works.