On February 5th, 2020, Novem Gold AG, the company behind a gold-backed token on the Neo blockchain, delivered a presentation to investors, highlighting progress achieved since the project’s inception, expectations from the recent enactment of the Liechtenstein Blockchain Act, and plans moving forward.

The presentation was delivered by Novem COO, Fouad Soultana, and began with an overview of the team and the three critical elements of the Novem ecosystem: physical gold store locations in Austria, gold-backed NNN tokens, and NVM tokens used for discounts and paying for services.

Soultana went on to highlight various reasons why Novem incorporated blockchain into its company processes and how the team believes its services will offer positive externalities within the gold market.

First, gold bars can easily be counterfeit. Through audits and recording transactions on an immutable ledger, Novem claims it can transparently show the supply chain of the gold tracing back to the refineries from which they source their gold. Second, the use of a blockchain removes the need for intermediaries to store and sell gold, which purportedly reduces fees for trading gold by a noticeable amount. Third, Gold ETF’s do not offer the investor access to the underlying gold asset, as also carry high fees. Lastly, potential gold investors can purchase fractions of gold, which wasn’t previously possible without the use of nascent blockchain technology. Novem anticipates fractional gold purchases will increase access to smaller investors across the globe.

Progress achieved in 2019

In 2019, Novem opened its first store in Linz, Austria, which Soultana claimed, “is the world’s first gold store that uses blockchain technology.” Additionally, Novem appeared in more than 500 articles internationally, attended more than 15 conferences, and grew its social media profiles across multiple platforms.

Throughout the year, Novem attended conferences in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East to establish global partnerships. In November 2019, Novem attended BlockShow Asia in Singapore, where it was part of the Neo Eco Zone exhibit—an installation staffed by various projects and partners of the ecosystem.

Soultana conveyed it was through its presence at conferences that the Novem team met representatives from the Austrian State Printing House (OeSD), a security firm specializing in identity. Through this partnership, OeSD has printed physical cards via Chainlock, which have similar characteristics to physical ID cards, but allow users to access their Neo addresses through a mobile app.

Finally, Novem ended 2019 with the equivalent of $2.3 million in gold under management, which equaled 3.4 million NNN tokens.

Liechtenstein Blockchain Act, token sale, and exchange listings

In Summer 2019, Novem submitted its NNN token prospectus to the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority (FMA). At the time of the submission, the NNN token was proposed for regulation under the classification of security. However, in January 2020, the Liechtenstein Blockchain Act took effect, rendering the security prospectus Novem submitted to the FMA in 2019 null.

The new guidelines were able to define NNN as a utility token clearly, and Novem states it has a clear understanding of what token-based regulations will entail in Liechtenstein.

Once the FMA can confirm Novem’s application for regulatory approval, Novem will suspend the currently ongoing NVM presale, three weeks before the two-round public token sale.

Following its public token sale, Novem states its goal is to list on medium-sized exchanges first, then move up to larger-scale exchanges once it has a better understanding of the centralized exchange listing process. The first two exchanges NNN and NVM tokens will list on were noted as ProBit and p2pb2b.

Looking Forward

In the coming quarters, Novem intends to incorporate staking into its ecosystem, launch a mobile application, issue a wrapped NNN token on the Ethereum blockchain, open new stores in Austria, and expand its brand internationally.

In the presentation, Soultana stated Novem seeks to integrate a NVM staking system into its ecosystem, to stimulate price stabilization and create general scarcity.

The presentation also offered a preview of the work that Novem has put into the development of a mobile application, which will allow users to purchase gold and integrate their Neo-based wallet.

Novem seeks to add support for the Ethereum ecosystem, by adding by wrapping an NNN token (wNNN) into an ERC-20 smart contract. Soultana went on to say, “it doesn’t mean we’re going to move away from the Neo blockchain. It just means that we’re going to introduce another gold-backed token [to the Novem ecosystem].”

Finally, this year, the Novem Gold AG company intends to open two more stores in Austria, which will be the second and third stores under the company’s management. Further, the team is currently developing a franchise system to expand the Novem Gold AG brand internationally.

To expand its brand abroad, Novem has formed strategic partnerships with market subject matter experts to help increase its foothold into Asian and Middle East-North Africa (MENA) markets.

The full presentation to investors can be found at the link below:
https://youtu.be/BzryhWXd4Lo

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