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Zimbabwe’s Central Bank launched gold coins in July as part of efforts to help curb surging inflation amid a slump in the country’s currency. The move sparked interest in whether gold could serve as a safe haven investment during a market crisis.

Based on Zimbabwe’s development, Blockchain.News recently had a conversation with Collin Plume, the President and CEO of Noble Gold Investments, regarding whether gold could be a safe haven investment that investors should rely on during turmoil times.

The global pandemic raging for over two years has created unemployment, supply chain problems, and more that disrupted economic growth. With the rise of inflation, the US dollar has lost its value and purchasing power. But on the other hand, gold has increased its purchasing power because its value tends to rise with the price of goods.

In light of pandemic worries, rising debts, market downturns, business failures, and mounting inflation realities in regard to economic policies coming out of central banks and other regulators, investors have appeared to rush to invest in gold to secure their financial positions.

Meanwhile, several crypto companies are facing bankruptcy, while many tech firms (such as Klarna, ClickUp, Lacework, Bolt, PayPal, among others) recently announced massive layoffs of employees. But questions remain about how investors can protect themselves from the risks of the ongoing financial crisis.

In the current times of financial instability and turmoil, investors seek opportunities to protect their assets and values.

Inflation Hedge

Asked whether gold is a good investment, Plume said YES. While this can be demonstrated by Zimbabwe’s recent gold adoption, generally, gold is viewed as the ideal hedge against inflation. This is because fiat currency loses its purchasing power when things become more expensive, but gold tends to be priced in those currency units.

Plume explained: “Although the gold market can’t do anything about economic inflation on a macro level, it’s easily the best hedge against inflation for an individual’s investment portfolio”.

Nowadasy, gold’s uses and the demand for physical gold have increased. According to Plume, “Gold’s industrial uses are steadily growing (gold is used in electronics, cars, biotechnology, and even on Mars) while its global supply is quickly shrinking, so its value is guaranteed to go up over time.”

Geopolitical and Economic Instability

Gold also provides investors with a safe haven during economic and political instability. The precious metal has often taken the role of an inflation hedge and a portfolio stabilizer during turbulent financial markets.

The gold market rose above the $2,000 an ounce level in March for the first time since August 2020, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. Geopolitical uncertainty has increased the attractiveness of the precious metal for investors seeking a safe haven for their funds.

Prices have since retreated, declining by around 6% year-to-date, and have struggled to regain ground above the $1,800 an ounce level where it started the year. 

This year, gold is getting investors’ attention following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions against Russia have already taken the commodities market for a wild ride, fueling concerns of stagflation — a combination of high inflation and slow economic growth — both of which is positive for gold.

In July, Zimbabwe’s central bank started selling gold coins to the public to help protect people’s savings against the country’s runaway inflation and offer an alternative to the widely used US dollar.

Zimbabwe still remembers the country’s economic collapse under the late Robert Mugabe, who ruled for nearly four decades.

Hyperinflation forced the nation to abandon the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009, and it opted instead to use foreign currencies, mainly the US dollar. During the worst of the crisis, the government stopped publishing official inflation figures, but current statistics put the inflation rate at 89.7%.

Gold Tokenization 

Despite physical assets like gold, silver, among others, having weathered countless financial storms throughout history, Gold might still need alternative trading platforms to help democratize access to gold using modern technology through tokenization.

Investment in physical gold has many advantages, but it has a few drawbacks. The main challenges that investors face in the investment of physical gold are issues associated with accessibility, storage, security and ability to resell on a regulated market.

While Gold is considered a safe bet, buying it is often a challenge for retail investors. For example, an average person will need to pay the costs associated with gold acquisition, trust an intermediary, and have a storage solution. 

In recent years, the excitement surrounding cryptocurrency has been attracting precious metal buyers away from their traditional investments as they dipped their toes into the crypto pool. But with the recent digital asset market crash, that seems to be changing. Many investors are returning to gold to tame the prevailing financial winds in the crypto markets.

Yet, cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is in a tough year because of the recent market crash. Major Cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, and Ethereum, have plummeted, triggered by inflation and Fed’s interest rate hikes.

For the long term, blockchain technology is increasingly being used to address all these constraints in today’s internet era. Blockchain enables the tokenization of gold and other commodities. The technology allows users to invest in digital gold, therefore helping to resolve various issues tied to physical gold ownership.

Gold as Key Portfolio of Investment 

Gold’s performance moves independently and has low correlation with other assets such as stocks, real estate, commodities, bonds. The precious metal may therefore help serve as a return diversifier within a broader multi-asset portfolio.

Therefore, based on the above analysis, gold is a good investment that investors can use to hedge and diversify their portfolios. However, according to Plume: “Some people believe gold is just for older investors, or they don’t understand the use for it. Many bullish investors focus on the hottest, newest assets, and while gold may not offer the same spikes in value as Tesla or crypto, it also doesn’t bring the same risk of loss as they do.”

Investors are advised to hold around 5-10% of their portfolio’s value in a form of gold, whether physical bars and coins, or digital coins, or instruments such as gold ETFs (exchange-traded funds), to diversify their holdings and potentially hedge against crashes in the value of cryptocurrency, stocks, and bonds.

Gold aligns perfectly with the investment mantra of “not putting all your eggs in one basket” — providing a safety net against events that may plummet the value of popular investments like cryptocurrency and stocks.

“Like any good financial advisor, we highly recommend using gold to diversify your portfolio. Gold is a low-risk, easy-to-access wealth-building tool that can balance out the volatility of other investments like tech stocks or cryptocurrency. It yields the best return when held over a longer period of time, but many younger investors just don’t know about it yet!”, said Plume.

Image source: Noble Gold Investments

Working out has become a trending conversation on social network platforms. Exercise, especially indoor-style, is influencing lifestyle amid a wide range of COVID-19 lockdowns globally. 

Blockchain.News spoke to Keith Rumjahn, CEO of OliveX and Founder of DOSE token, to explore the potential development of a move-to-earn business model and how cryptocurrency shapes the virtual fitness and sports industry.

Riding a bicycle is more than just a fun physical activity nowadays as the connection between fitness facilities and personal mobile devices is about to introduce users to a new chapter in the virtual world.

Move-to-earn: Dustland Rider

OliveX, a Hong Kong-based fitness startup company founded by CEO Keith Rumjahn in 2017, demonstrated their latest upcoming product, Dustland Rider, in a recent press event in Hong Kong. It provided an alternative way to encourage the public to get into the crypto space by simply riding a bicycle. 

By completing specific missions by linking users’ mobile devices, a so-called move-to-earn (M2E) approach and it’s application mechanism so that users can enjoy their fitness achievements in exchange for earning token rewards.

Specifically, the digital health platform designed a series of scenarios with immersive stories and missions for users to experience in the Metaverse while exercising. Users would need to tackle some challenges in this virtual game to win points or tokens; for example, users might be rewarded a unique golden yellow sports suit if they complete riding 100km in the game.

Tokens would be able to purchase additional equipment or upgrades to characters in the game or be traded on the secondary market.

The company said their Dustland Rider would go live soon, expecting to roll out by the end of September or October of this year.

OliveX is a gamified fitness ecosystem to enhance the workout experience through game design techniques and play-to-earn mechanisms, according to its whitepaper.

Prior to launching the Dustland Rider, the company rolled out another similar move-to-earn audio fitness application to the market in 2021, called Dustland Runner, a survival theme-based fitness game. 

The official whitepaper reads that Dustalnd Runner is the first proof of workout audio game, allowing players to earn some native token or even gain Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or other monetary incentives through physical running in daily life. In addition, its NFT, named Kettlemine, can be minted on the Polygon chain, followed by earning more DOSE tokens by burning Kettlemine NFT.

CEO of OliveX and Founder of DOSE Token Keith Rumjahn Rumjahn

In an exclusive interview with Blockchain.News, Keith Rumjahn, CEO of OliveX shared his journey of running a startup business.

“One of the reasons I founded this company is that I realised some data apps could sell out our exercise data to other commercial companies. As a user, however, we lost our ownership of data ourselves, not aware of (our data) being sold, and even we do not get any benefits or cashback from it,” said Keith Rumjahn. 

OliveX’s Rumjahn disclosed that some well-known data-driven service platforms would purchase or utilise these users’ movement data to enhance the purpose of their sale, such as deploying more rental vehicles to a specific area where more people exercise.

On the other hand, the higher traffic acquisition costs for tech giant platforms such as Google or Apple dominating the market is another reason why Keith Rumjahn intends to establish a decentralised platform by himself.

When asked how to differentiate and make the brand more unique to maintain its advantages among competitors, Keith Rumjahn said understanding the gaming lifecycle and the rate of retention among users are critical to designing gaming products, as users typically intend to look for more stylish or trending products within a short period, said Keith Rumjahn; bringing innovation and a fresh product idea would be key elements for OliveX to differentiate their products among competitors.

The sense of business and industry knowledge helped Keith Rumjahn to equip a sensitive awareness to meet customers’ needs. The Canadian Chinese basketball coach and software developer said users normally enjoy the diversity of sports, as some of them would participate in multiple sports within a period of time. The company would develop more types of sports, including Boxing or Yoga, to expand the “portfolio of game, so that users might have more options to choose their own favourite sports.” 

Nevertheless, the 37-year-old executive said he hopes the public to build up a regular exercise habit in the long term, “I hope the public would be able to build a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise habit, no matter whether playing our game or not in the future,” which is much more important objectives to him personally while leading the company to keep being competitive among competitors.

The company was acquired by Animoca Brands in 2017 and is a spin-off of the parent company. Over 27% of its shares are owned by the leading gamification platform. 

Initially, the former fitness app developer was running a business of establishing smart mirrors. This interactive device can track body movement for analysing body figures with fitness centres before entering the crypto world.

Yet, the pandemic of COVID-19 crushed many fitness centre operations, resulting in massive downsizing or even termination of those fitness centres, forcing OliveX to transform itself again.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-based company later discovered the potential development in the crypto space and declared to list on the National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX: OLX) in Australia in 2020 and launched its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The Australian-listed company has been raising over $2.6 million between 2017 and 2018 over the last three rounds, according to Fobes.

Furthermore, the company realises the potential business development in the crypto and virtual economy. Senior management decided to expand their footprints in the virtual space.

DOSE Token

Gamification could be an easier way to convince sports lovers who do not become familiar with cryptocurrency to get into virtual sports in the Metaverse. A recent survey by ChianPlay suggests that 75% of investors join the crypto space because of GameFi.

Unlike other traditional or developed fitness applications in the market, OliveX launched its native token called DOSE for its M2E in 2021, which can be traded on at least three major crypto exchange platforms, including OKex and Gate.io and KuCoin. 

Keith Rumjahn said their launching of Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is even earlier than their main competitors, including STPEN, Solana-based move-to-earn apps.

DOSE is the major trading medium within its ecosystem, allowing users and investors to unlock items, purchase NFT or join special events and game modes, according to its whitepaper.

In introducing why OliveX listed their own native token-DOSE, rather than adopting other mainstream or benchmark tokens, Keith Rumjahn Rumjahn said DOSE as an Ethereum-based token, “we wish to build our own specific token in terms of fitness,” adding that “adopting those mainstream or benchmark tokens might be hard to maintain its balance of internal economy (of the game)”

 “Many games (developers) would generate their own tokens to each different game but might not be connective to each other. DOSE token would connect all the products instead, including Dustland Runner and Dustland Rider,”

Subject to the character of the volatility among tokens in the crypto market, Keith Rumjahn further explained that that would be more difficult to peg with their products if they adopted other tokens. A consistent token would be necessary to maintain the stability of the product price and their “in-game economy.”

Keith Rumjahn believes the external and floating price of its token in the market would not undermine the company’s performance, adding that he would not set any targeting price for DOSE as the milestone for the long-term achievements.

DOSE reached its all-time high at $0.4051 on Nov 3 in 2021. As per the time of writing, DOSE was trading at $0.01097, according to data platform provided by CoinMarketCap, with a market cap of over $3,703,000, per the current circulating supply of DOSE of about 337.6 million. Its maximum supply would be reached 5 billion DOSE coins.

OliveX’s token offers different kinds of trading services, including staking and swapping with other token trading pairs.

Subject to recent crypto winter influenced by the collapse of LUNA and UST, most of the leading benchmark tokens sank from their all-time-high, 

Regarding risk management, Keith Rumjahn said the company has the expertise teams in managing risk and the tools of treasury governance for financial operations, whether in the stock market or the crypto market. The company is confident in avoiding liquidity risks from the crypto market, backed by Animoca Brand’s liquidity pool, especially to strengthen its liquidity when necessary. 

As a result, the fitness-based company could concentrate its resources on game development, “Our capital is mainly used for operating the game, rather than putting them for investment-purposed,” added Keith Rumjahn.

Building a virtual fitness centre in Metaverse

The fitness-based company also shows its ambition by entering into the Metaverse. OliveX enjoys a 12X 12 land plot on the Sandbox, where the company is establishing a virtual entertainment and even virtual Sales space, according to the official whitepaper.

By introducing strategic partners, including Stages Cycling, TRIB3, and TRAX, the company aims to bring digital fitness experience and NFT collectables to the Metaverse community. 

Through partnerships with some local fitness brands, the company believes that would be an effective way to attract sports lovers to join the Metaverse, who are outsiders to this industry.

OliveX intends to overseas market in the long-term, including Japan and South Korea, by recruiting local operation teams for community management.

Outlook towards virtual industry development in HK

Developing blockchain-based startups in Hong Kong is challenging in terms of legal and regulatory challenges. Keith Rumjahn suggests local regulators should optimise policies, allowing more open-mind and crypto-friendly regulations in the city.

In terms of investment, that would be great to allow companies to invest in crypto-related industries or startup companies in terms of licensing so that more capital from the top-end might penetrate to the bottom-end side of the business. 

Image source: OliveX

As the Ethereum (ETH) merge slated for September 15 is a stone’s throw away, Blockchain.News conducted an exclusive interview with Anil Sawrup, the head of sales at Moneycorp Americas, to get more insights about what this much-anticipated event has to offer. 

Despite the merge being the talk of the town, it has been elusive for quite some time because it was launched in December 2020 as Ethereum 2.0 or the beacon chain, and it sought to transition the current proof-of-work (PoW) framework to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Nevertheless, various indicators show that September 15 is the most probable date for the merger. For instance, Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, recently hinted that this date was the day to watch.

Speaking in an exclusive interview, Sawrup told Blockchain.News that since the ETH merge was in sight, it would undoubtedly change various narratives about the crypto space. He noted:

“I believe the merge will increase the scenario around crypto being environmentally friendly. Obviously, reducing emission costs and changing the whole blockchain theory.”

Since the PoW framework necessitates solving a cryptographic puzzle, it is energy-intensive, which pollutes the environment.

Once Ethereum shifts to a PoS consensus mechanism, validators will replace miners in the confirmation of blocks because they will use the staked Ether. As a result, prompting a more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly approach. 

On the other hand, Sawrup stated that Bitcoin and Ethereum had emerged as notable equity market indicators. Therefore, this trend was likely to continue with the advent of the merger. He noted:

“Since everybody is looking forward to the merge based on the crypto winter, what we are finding more so Bitcoin and Ethereum are becoming the leading indicators of the equity market, which is very interesting.”

Is Ethereum’s deflationary aspect valid with the merge?

The burning mechanism introduced in the ETH ecosystem has played an instrumental role in slashing supply. Therefore, the merge is expected to continue cutting supply, leading to the notion that it will make Ethereum a deflationary asset.  

“Everything that we are seeing and reading shows it will become deflationary with the cost coming down,” Sawrup told Blockchain.News in an interview.

A recent report by American multinational investment bank Citigroup Inc. or Citi pointed out that the merger would slash the overall Ether issuance by 4.2% annually, making it a deflationary and yield-bearing asset. Therefore, shifting to a PoS consensus mechanism would enhance Ethereum’s quest to become a store of value. 

LuckyHash, a crypto service provider, had previously shared similar sentiments by noting that the merge would prompt a 1% annual deflation rate, Blockchain.News reported. 

Therefore, based on slashed supply, Sawrup hinted in the interview that Ethereum’s price was likely to continue increasing in the long term and said:

“If you reduce the supply, the price is expected to increase based on market forces.”

The merge is anticipated to happen in two phases. The consensus layer upgrade, Bellatrix will prompt the merge awareness on the Beacon Chain or Ethereum 2.0 and is expected to happen around September 6.

On the other hand, Paris is the execution layer that will trigger the transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. It is slated for September 15.

Bridging the gap between the crypto and FX markets 

As a leading payments fintech, Moneycorp recently launched a forex exchange (FX) liquidity management solution for crypto exchanges. 

The FX liquidity solution is powered by APIs and is meant to bridge the gap between the foreign exchange and crypto markets by eliminating some of the high rates accrued. 

During an interview with Blockchain.News, Sawrup stated:

“Since the blockchain or crypto is still considered a higher risk space, what we are finding is most of the exchanges or assets still need the fiat portion of moving money around the world even from a treasury. We come through our API channel, the FX liquidity, which helps bridge the gap between the foreign exchange and crypto markets because the fiat service is still needed.”

The FX liquidity solution is also meant to help financial institutions develop appropriate pricing mechanisms. Sawrup added:

“The current tier 3 and tier 4 financial institutions don’t have the pricing or the network to make sure that they are priced appropriately.”

Despite the crypto winter being experienced, Sawrup believes the dust will settle probably from next year because the market is currently correcting. He said:

“Volumes are down, but I think it’s a correction point. As we continue going through this high-interest rate environment and derisking, I think what we will see is things start settling down probably next year. We will see trade volumes start to come back into the crypto space from a retail perspective.”

Since the merge is around the corner, it remains to be seen how things play out in the ETH network, given that crypto exchange OKX recently unveiled precautionary measures ahead of this event.  

Image source: Shutterstock