As noted in an earlier post, it is the blockchain that gives crypto-currencies their utility and hence their intrinsic value. Without the blockchain, crypto would be nothing more than a number game, interesting for mathematicians, but completely useless for anything practical.
However, in combination with blockchain technology, crypto has utility. It can be traded.
The beauty of the blockchain is that it bypasses the need for a broker, and this fact has not gone unnoticed in industries that rely heavily on banks and brokers to sell their products.
The mining industry for instance do not sell their metals directly to the general public. They go through an exchange in order to sell their wares. However, this may be about to change.
Intex Resources ASA, a Norwegian mining company, has just announced that they will issue electronic tokens backed by their metal reserves.
These tokens will not be traded on an exchange, but on a blockchain platform.
Just like crypto-correncies, the asset backed tokens will completely bypass the traditional banking and brokerage industry.
If other miners catch onto this idea, traditional banking and brokerage firms may soon be completely bypassed by blockchain technology. Furthermore, asset backed tokens are going to be very reliable stores of value, because the value of a tonne of metal can be assessed much more easily than the value of a rare and unusual number, which is all that a crypto-token is.
This means that asset backed tokens can soon become a generally accepted form of money.Tokens issued by reliable companies, open to audit and public scrutiny, will be a very good alternative to fiat currencies issued by central banks.
Asset backed tokens have therefore the potential to unseat central banks as well as traditional banks and brokerage firms.
Mining companies like Intex may very well become the issuers of currencies for the 21st century.
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