RBZ’s gold-backed digital tokens coming on 8 May 2023

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Staff Writer

We talked about the upcoming digital gold tokens earlier this week. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has now revealed when we can expect the innovative tokens. They are coming in 10 days’ time, on the 8th of May.

Here’s the RBZ’s circular on this,

ISSUANCE AND USAGE OF GOLD-BACKED DIGITAL TOKENS

Pursuant to the resolution of the Monetary Policy Committee (the MPC) on 28 March 2023 to complement the issuance of physical gold coins with gold-backed digital products, the Bank wishes to advise that it will be issuing gold-backed digital tokens with effect from 8 May 2023. The gold-backed tokens will be fully backed by physical gold held by the Bank.

As previously advised, the issuance of the gold-backed digital tokens is meant to expand the value-preserving instruments available in the economy and enhance divisibility of the investment instruments and widen their access and usage by the public.

The issuance and usage of the gold-backed digital tokens shall be in two phases as follows:

(i) Phase 1: Gold-backed digital tokens will be issued for investment purposes with a vesting period of 180 days and redeemable in the same way as the existing physical gold coins. The tokens will be available for sale, through banks, in both foreign currency and Zimbabwe dollar. Banks will create dedicated or specific accounts for the holding of the gold-backed digital tokens (e-gold wallet or e-gold cards). Holders of physical gold coins, at their discretion, will be able to exchange or convert, through the banking system, the physical gold coins into gold-backed digital tokens

(ii) Phase 2: The gold-backed digital tokens held in ether e-gold wallets or e-gold cards will he tradable and capable of facilitating Person-to-Person (P2P) and Person-to-Business (P28) transactions and settlements. It therefore means that the gold-backed digital tokens would be used both as a means of payment and a store of value.

The Bank also advises that the pricing of the gold-backed digital tokens in foreign currency shall remain the same as the pricing model of the physical gold coins as informed or guided by the International gold price as determined by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) PM fix. Payment for the gold-backed digital tokens or physical gold coins in Zimbabwe dollar shall remain at the current 20% margin above the willing-buyer willing-seller interbank mid-rate.

John P Mangudya,

Governor

28 April 2023

Also read:

The RBZ’s digital gold coins are a good idea but may be undone by just one word – trust

Zim govt introduces gold coins which could be a game changer, commitment to multicurrency regime commendable too

Zim govt looking at central bank digital currency, what is that and why won’t it fix our problems

20 comments

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  1. Anonymous

    Haa muchazvirega henyu soon you will be told kuti kana usiri miner you do not have a claim on the gold. Unoita sei ipapo? Only foolish people will buy into these schemes.

    Reply
  2. Tigu

    I thought it was going to be something a regular joe like me wld be able to use but its just gold coins in digital format and we wont be able to afford them.. so how will this help us? They have their thinking caps on apa vachifunga dondo

    Reply
  3. XYZ

    Despite the readily availability of gold coins the ZWL continues o an accelerated downward spiral. This is proof that demand for USD behind the rapid downfall of ZWL is requirements of foreign currency for immediate consumption paying bills and buying things and services not the demand for USD for use as a long-term storage of value. Immediate loss of value of ZWL is another reason people and businesses are shunning ZWL.

    There are smaller gold coins and the question is if people don’t have the trust in RBZ to trade in the smaller gold coins, will the digital tokens solve the problem of the deprecation of the ZWL?

    Reply
    1. Politeness

      I think they should experiment with precious metal coins for values equivalent to about 10USD 20USD AND 50USD so ordinary people can use them for immediate storage of value and buying and selling goods and services. The coins will be considered liquid assets just like the gold coins.

      Reply
      1. M2

        USD10 = 0.1569 grams of gold. There is a problem in verifying that kind of weight in every day person to person transactions

        Reply
        1. Experimenter No 1001

          The comment does not limit the coin to gold but to precious metals; silver, platinum etc.. 100g silver is approximately 100usdd

          Reply
      2. Imi Vanhu Musadaro

        There’s a reason why precious metal coins are no longer used for day-to-day transactions.

        They will slowly be trimmed and scraped till their actual value by weight will differ from the face value. Traded coins have a plastic shell, to make any tampering evident.

        There’s more incentive for counterfeiters. Fake a 50 USD gold coin, use it in a shop and get genuine coins or USD as change. Coins are harder to test for authenticity, as I can just gold plate a cheap alloy with the right weighting.

        They are also not guaranteed to stay in circulation, as they are easily removed from circulation for repurposing, e.g, by jewellers, or even miners if an arbitrage opportunity exists.

        Reply
  4. eh ok

    good luck with that sh!t from these master baiters !!!

    Reply
  5. Leave some soup for us when you eat our meat

    Wasn’t it supposed to be peer to peer first before investment? The mbingas already have gold coins while trade is suffering on the street level. Is this coz all eyes are on Dubai?!😂

    Reply
  6. Anonymous

    Yes things haven’t been going on well in Zim, but there is one thing you got to remember, there is no gold on the US$ notes that you use at the moment. Why does it work? It’s fiat currency, the USA citizens have agreed that it works. Do not be negative, it’s affecting you. If there was no politics this world would be by far better off, the more dollars you have on the street there the more problems you have because no one is printing US dollars there and the happier the people who are printing those US papers. Remember some people in the USA are already rejecting those papers you still call money. NOTHING BEATS GOLD!

    Reply
    1. History Rhymes

      What’s that saying… Once bitten, twice shy? How many times have we been bitten by now? Asking me to trust is like asking DV victim to go back to a wife beater! My trauma is telling me that once they are done squeezing this new scheme, I’ll be left holding the empty plastic bag again!

      Reply
    2. Anonymous

      Iwe uri fuza remunhu iwe. Negative kuita sei. These guys are busy printing money to pay debts and you think it should retain it’s value. Morons like you think they are economists busy buying Gold Mafia’s propaganda that there are saboteurs destroying this country-they are the actual saboteurs.

      Reply
  7. King

    This could work if the our reserve bank has enough gold to back the entire system but the truth is we don’t have that kind of gold.

    Reply
  8. Lancet 3 suicide drone

    US dollar is in demand only in Africa and South America coz these two continents live brainless people only … In Asia the share of US dollar was 73% in 2000 and 55% in 2020 and now it’s 47% coz Asian countries are now trading with their national currencies frequently.. China is no longer buying oil in US dollars even Japan is no longer buying oil from Russia in US dollars that means Petro dollar is dead in Asia but it will take years for this to happen in Africa coz we don’t actually produce anything…countries like China will continue to dump US dollar in exchange for minerals coz it’s cheaper than bringing lots of high quality products to Africa.

    Reply
  9. JesusIsComing

    Which means crypto trading (with ecocash etc) is now, almost legal on Zim, nice.

    Reply
    1. I miss steak

      😅This is one of those ‘technically true’ things. Everything besides the central bank digital currency will continue to face existing roadblocks.

      Reply
  10. JesusIsComing

    Well, governments trusting open-source software? Interesting, considering what huge code monkeys, Vitalik’s band is (Ethereum devs). Interesting still.

    Reply
  11. MinuteMan

    They always assure us they’re on top of things
    Personal don’t see how given the state of things
    anyone can see this is where the road end

    As they say, too poor to paint, too poor to whitewash

    Reply
  12. ed

    Why not back Zim dollar with gold rather than wasting time with these crazy ideas

    Reply
  13. sh i t pindula cr ap

    your new pindula news site is sh i t

    Reply

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