How can we leverage Web3 to rebuild a closed-loop payment system based on gold pricing?

Written by: imToken

As we all know, the role of gold in the global monetary system has been repeatedly defined throughout the past thousand years of financial development.

The most recent shift in its role undoubtedly occurred after the establishment of the modern fiat currency system based on credit. Gold gradually moved away from daily transactions, existing more as a "safe-haven asset," "central bank reserve," and "macro hedging tool." Especially in ordinary people's lives, apart from the value of "three golds" or "five golds" in specific cultural contexts, gold has almost completely disappeared from payment scenarios.

However, if we shift our perspective away from developed economies and observe regions where inflation is out of control and monetary systems frequently fail, we will find another new approach that can be reconsidered:

With the support of blockchain technology, gold is expected to regain the ability to be "priced, circulated, and used for payment," thus no longer just a safe-haven asset on paper, but returning to the forefront of the monetary system.

This article will also explore whether, in the current economic and technological context, revisiting the gold standard is merely a retrogressive fantasy, but a real discussion about the credibility of units of measurement. I. The Problem Is Not Just Inflation, But a Failure of the "Measurement of Value" Objectively speaking, in countries like Venezuela and Argentina, the pain of inflation faced by the people goes far beyond the simple phrase "rising prices." The real, fatal problem lies in the complete loss of the currency's function as a "measure of value" due to drastic fluctuations in the local currency exchange rate. Simultaneously, the fruits of people's labor shrink rapidly during inflation. Imagine, under hyperinflation, the price of a glass of iced lemonade could double in a week or even a few days. At this point, people might not even know "what is worth." This uncertainty not only leads to the silent harvesting of labor but also means that the unit of measurement naturally becomes unreliable, leading to a systemic problem deeper than "declining purchasing power." In such an environment, people will instinctively seek alternatives to save themselves. This explains why stablecoins like USDT and USDC have rapidly penetrated the public sphere in countries like Argentina, becoming de facto "parallel currencies." A recent example of this is a classic case of cross-border success: Globally renowned influencer iShowSpeed, while shopping in Nigeria, faced numerous limitations with traditional financial payment methods (he mentioned bank cards and Cash Apps). Ultimately, he chose to pay with USDT/USDC, which the merchant readily accepted. As the video shows, a transaction worth approximately 2.3 million Naira (about $1,500 USD) was settled within seconds. Ultimately, the widespread adoption of USD stablecoins isn't because they are "more advanced," but because the US dollar remains the most globally accepted unit of account. Furthermore, stablecoins bypass local banking systems, avoiding cumbersome foreign exchange controls and clearing and settlement hurdles. Consensus (USD) + technology (blockchain)—both are indispensable. This leads to a logical question: if people are looking for a long-term, reliable unit of account, then the reason why gold, with its millennia-long history as currency, lost to fiat currency in the competition for private payments is not because it was not a good store of value, but because of its fatal physical limitations as a medium of exchange—it cannot be circulated and used for payment. After all, its physical form makes it difficult to divide, transport, verify, and has low settlement efficiency and high transfer costs. This is why, in traditional financial systems, gold is more often regarded as a "store of value" than as true "currency." In fact, even in historical gold standard monetary systems such as the British pound, gold's significance was more as a "reserve," serving as the ballast of the entire system, rather than being directly used as a unit of account. This has led to gold gradually receding into the background, existing only on balance sheets and in central bank vaults. II. Transforming Gold from a "Dead Asset" into a "Living Currency" Ultimately, what truly prevents gold from returning to its monetary role is never consensus, but rather technological limitations. If gold cannot participate in payments, it will forever remain a "held asset," never a "used currency." This is precisely where RWA and Crypto have brought about a fundamental change for the first time—based on blockchain technology, heavy gold bars can be broken into countless tiny digital particles, allowing for free circulation globally 24/7. Taking Tether's XAUt (Tether Gold) as an example, each XAUt corresponds to one ounce of physical gold in London vaults. This physical gold is stored in professional vaults, making it auditable and verifiable. Furthermore, tokenized gold holders have the right to claim the underlying gold. When an on-chain transaction occurs, the system automatically redistributes the gold shares in the vault to ensure that the tokens held by users always correspond to specific physical assets. The physical gold is stored in a high-security vault in Switzerland. Although the custodian is an affiliated party, it operates independently with its own financial accounts and customer records. Users can also access the official "Look-up Website" and directly query the serial number, weight, and purity of the gold bars associated with their assets by entering their on-chain address. This design avoids complex financial engineering and does not attempt to amplify the attributes of gold through algorithms or credit expansion. Instead, it deliberately maintains respect for traditional gold logic. Furthermore, thanks to the transparency of blockchain, anyone can verify the sufficient collateral of on-chain assets at any time—a transparency unmatched by traditional gold savings accounts. Ultimately, tokenized gold like XAUt and PAXG is not about "creating a new gold narrative," nor is it as simple as "moving gold onto the blockchain" as RWA projects like real estate tokenization. It enables gold to simultaneously possess the capabilities of being priced, circulated, and used for payment for the first time. This is equivalent to repackaging the oldest asset form using blockchain technology. Therefore, in this sense, XAUt is more like a rebirth of "digital physical gold" (further reading: "Tether's 'Gold Standard' Ambition: Disassembling XAUt, How the Stablecoin Giant Buys Up Gold?"): Infinite Splitting: You no longer need to cut gold nuggets; RWA allows you to pay for 0.00001 grams of gold. Instant Verification: No need for burning or chemical testing; on-chain signatures are the best proof of purity. Global circulation: Gold is no longer limited by geographical location; it has become a 24/7 circulating digital information. It is in this sense that Web3 + RWA is not about speculating on gold, but about bringing gold back to the core of monetary discussions. Of course, on-chain gold mainly solves the problems of asset form and settlement layer. To truly "monetize" gold, we still cannot avoid the last practical problem: How can it be truly "spent" in the real world? III. How to form a closed payment loop? A theoretically closed payment loop must simultaneously meet two conditions: it must be simple and seamless for users; and it must not require changes to the existing system for merchants. This requires an efficient terminal tool, which is precisely the reason why various payment card products currently on the market exist. Take imToken Card as an example: if a bridge can be built connecting on-chain gold with the real world, then it truly has the potential to transform "gold standard payment" from a geek's idea into a daily occurrence at supermarket checkouts. The core value of imToken Card lies in its ability to streamline the back-end clearing of complex assets. For example, if a user holds RWA gold assets (such as XAUt) in their imToken wallet, the system automatically completes the following closed loop at the moment of a transaction: Asset Preservation: During non-consumption periods, your wealth exists in the form of "gold tokens," enjoying their inflation-resistant properties; Instant Clearing: When you swipe your card at tens of millions of merchants worldwide that support Mastercard, the back-end will convert a portion of your gold tokens into fiat currency at the real-time exchange rate; Seamless Payment: Merchants receive fiat currency settlement, while you pay with your gold token balance; The entire process is seamless for the user, yet it completes a "gold →" transaction at the underlying level. The value transfer of "payment" is achieved through a personal on-chain wallet, where the assets are always stored, rather than in a traditional "paper gold savings account" or bank account. This means you have absolute ownership and control over the gold tokens, rather than relying on a bank's redemption promise. If RWA solves the problem of "how to put gold on-chain," then payment cards solve the problem of "how to spend on-chain gold." In summary, when gold can be held long-term as a value anchor and used at any time like cash, it truly completes another leap from "store of assets" to "medium of payment." It is at this moment that we may be standing at a rather interesting turning point: an ancient form of currency with thousands of years of history is being revitalized with the help of cutting-edge technology that has only existed for a little over a decade.