© Reuters.
Investing.com – As gold as an investment grows in appeal amid recessionary risks, Randy Smallwood, the chairman of the World Gold Council, believes its future will lie in digitalization.
In a recent interview with Kitco News, he said gold continues to establish itself as a global store of value, attracting a new generation of investors in the face of unprecedented uncertainty and volatility.
Smallwood further judged that the weak performance of the until 2023 could allow gold to shine in the digital market, pointing out that the WGC has seen significant interest from banks around the world in the digitization of the physical gold.
He also suggested that gold, once digitized, could render the (often thought of as digital gold) obsolete.
“Bitcoin is the promise of something that has no backing. There is no real value,” he said.
“The world today needs a gold-backed digital token that, through the blockchain, represents physical gold and can be freely traded. The world is ready for a digital currency backed by the promise of real value,” he added.
Mr. Smallwood also addressed the question of the Dollar’s dominance over the international system being challenged, noting that although there is growing competition to challenge the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency, countries as the BRICS have a long way to go to compete with the greenback.
“If the US dollar is the main reference currency in the world, it is because it has the strongest gold backing of any currency in the world. China knows it; it is one of the reasons why it continues to accumulate gold reserves in its central bank,” he said.
“If a currency wants to compete with the US dollar, it has to be strongly backed by gold. That can’t happen without people, young people, millennials, understanding a little bit more about what gold is,” he said. he concluded.