Track precious metal provenance end-to-end
Sector: Secondary sector · Industry: Metal industry · Organisation: aXedras AG, World Gold Council, Industry consortium members (refiners, logistics, vault operators) · Maturity level: Pilot
Swiss technology provider aXedras AG, together with the World Gold Council and partners including the Royal Canadian Mint, piloted a blockchain solution for tracking gold bullion bars. Using the permissioned Bullion Integrity Ledger, gold bars are digitally documented from refining and transport through to secure vaulting. The participating stakeholders can verify ownership transfers and provenance data in real time without risk of tampering.
Documentation status
- Project status: Pilot (as of 05 March 2024) — The Bullion Integrity Ledger is being tested by industry players such as the Royal Canadian Mint as part of the Gold Bar Integrity pilot project.
- Evidence: Evidence medium
- Editorial review: pending
Description
aXedras AG provides the Bullion Integrity Ledger, a decentralised platform on which refineries such as the Royal Canadian Mint securely document the journey of gold bars against tampering. Until now, proof of purity and ownership in the precious metals trade often relied on isolated paper documents and manual verification steps between trading partners. By using a shared distributed ledger, all authorised actors in the value chain can verify the status and history of a bar in real time.
Within the Gold Bar Integrity pilot project, aXedras, the World Gold Council, as well as refineries, logistics providers and vault operators cooperate to increase transparency in the global gold market. The technological basis is the Bullion Integrity Ledger, a permissioned distributed ledger network in which aXedras operates a so-called Governance Node. Refineries such as the Royal Canadian Mint record the refining and issuance of gold bars directly in the system and link physical bars with cryptographic data sets. Every subsequent ownership transfer or storage in authorised vaults is immutably recorded in the ledger and validated by the network nodes. This eliminates media discontinuities along the entire supply chain and reliably protects traders and end customers from counterfeits or unclear sources of origin.
Perspectives
B2B — organisations perspective
The solution connects refineries, logistics providers, banks and vault operators on a shared DLT infrastructure for seamless ownership transfers. Companies can digitally manage bar inventories without time-consuming manual reconciliations and transmit provenance proofs to business partners in compliance with regulations.
B2C — consumers perspective
End investors and commercial buyers can trace the complete history to see from which certified refinery their bar originates. This strengthens trust in the authenticity and value retention of the physical gold purchased.
Employees perspective
Employees in logistics and warehousing record bar movements via standardised interfaces directly in the DLT system instead of maintaining paper-based accompanying documents. This noticeably reduces input errors during bar inspection and accelerates daily customs and audit processing.
Benefits
General
- Complete traceability from the melting process to the vault
- High tamper resistance through cryptographic logging
- Reduction of media discontinuities and manual document reconciliation
B2B — organisations
- Accelerated ownership transfers in B2B trade
- Simplified compliance with regulatory ESG and supply chain laws
B2C — consumers
- Increased certainty about the authenticity and origin of purchased gold bars
Employees
- More efficient goods inspection on receipt and dispatch
- Fewer manual investigations in case of discrepancies in bar data
Challenges
General
- Need for broad industry acceptance by competing players
- Reliable linking of physical bars with the digital data set
B2B — organisations
- Harmonisation of existing ERP and warehouse systems with the ledger
- Clarification of data access rights among competitors
Employees
- Transition of established workflows to digital capture tools
Technology foundation
The solution is based on a permissioned distributed ledger network called Bullion Integrity Ledger, in which aXedras operates a Governance Node to ensure transaction rules and data security for all industry participants.
Implementation examples
Bullion Integrity Ledger in the Gold Bar Integrity pilot
In traditional precious metals trading, fragmented paper excesses and non-transparent supply chains make it difficult to prove authenticity and ethical origin.
aXedras AG provides the Bullion Integrity Ledger platform to digitally track the transfer and ownership of gold bars as part of a global industry initiative. Among others, the Royal Canadian Mint uses this solution to record refined bars.
Within the framework of the Gold Bar Integrity Pilot project, aXedras established the Bullion Integrity Ledger as a DLT-based industry network for refineries, vaults, and logistics providers. aXedras operates a Governance Node that monitors network rules and ensures data integrity. As a prominent participant, the Royal Canadian Mint uses the solution to digitally and tamper-proof record refined gold bars from processing to storage.
The integration of heterogeneous IT systems from various market participants as well as the prevention of counterfeiting and fraudulent ownership transfers of gold bars.
Tags
Supply chain, Distributed ledger, Proof of origin, Precious metals, Governance Node