Chinese Lunar Year of the Horse gold coin, in exclusive red velvet box, recommended for investment and collectors.
An overview of Goldtresor's origins, client base, development approach and its place in the future of gold trading.
HOW DID GOLDTRESOR START AND WHO ARE ITS CLIENTS?
Conclude has been a leading player in the Hungarian gold market for nearly 10 years. More than 2 years passed between the Goldtresor idea and the live launch. To write the specification, the developers had to understand the fine details of gold trading, while I had to immerse myself in IT. We placed enormous emphasis on security and chose a slower but very thorough development approach. Several cybersecurity experts tested the system before we went live. The development was entirely self-funded from Conclude's own capital, but since Goldtresor is effectively a "startup" within Conclude, I believe the cost was a fraction of what it would have been if we had engaged an external IT company.
Goldtresor went live in May 2018. We started our online marketing campaigns in the autumn, and we currently have several thousand Hungarian-speaking clients, more than 20% of whom live abroad. We were also surprised by how wide a cross-section of people are interested in Goldtresor — in terms of both age group and income level. This is of course a marketing challenge: how do you effectively reach such a broad target audience?
Our short-term goal is to reach tens of thousands of active clients in the Hungarian market.
How is Goldtresor being developed, and do you plan to raise capital?
Development follows a similar approach to what you'd see at FinTech startups. We regularly conduct client interviews to understand client needs and what new services they would value. We continuously try to simplify processes. No matter how complex a system like this is internally, the client should feel none of that complexity.
We currently have no plans to raise external capital — we're looking for partnerships instead. We want to reach a user base in the tens of thousands, and at that point launch Goldtresor as a standalone company while Conclude retains a majority stake. In that phase, we will enter discussions about the capital raise needed for international expansion. I believe Goldtresor has excellent prospects in Central and Eastern Europe, where physical gold services are still relatively underdeveloped.
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF GOLD TRADING AND WHERE DOES GOLDTRESOR FIT IN?
The future of gold trading cannot be separated from the broader financial, regulatory and macro trends playing out globally.
First, cash use will continue to decline worldwide, and governments will want to know more and more about their citizens. Classical cash-based gold trading will therefore decline. Gold mines will face increasing challenges due to the depletion of easily minable reserves and the environmental and social opposition that typically accompanies mining, which will reduce production in the medium term or at least make it significantly more expensive. It may also be that most people no longer want to buy gold from environmentally destructive and energy-intensive mining, but only products from recycled "green" gold — for which the entire supply chain will need to become fully traceable, something blockchain technology could be ideal for.
Whatever happens, gold as one of the safest stores of value will endure.
As I see it today, we will experience a financial crisis significantly more severe than 2008–2009, after which a new financial system could emerge. It is conceivable that the exclusive right to issue money could formally pass out of states' sole control and usher in the era of competing currencies — private money and state money — as envisioned by Friedrich Hayek. Why couldn't trust develop in currencies issued by Google, Amazon, Facebook and the like? Some cryptocurrencies could emerge as giants, and states with well-functioning economies and transparent monetary policies could also build new forms of trust — especially if their central banks are able to issue digital cash.
Gold will need to find its place in the new financial system, but it will remain somewhat apart from it — because it is the only "money" that can be physically withdrawn from the virtual world and held in your hands as a gold bar or coin.
We are developing Goldtresor with this vision in mind. Efficient, professional gold dealers who can meet the challenges of the digital age while maintaining a physical presence in a region will be needed in the long term too.
You can find the details in the User Guide.
