The Universal Protocol Alliance, a coalition of leading blockchain organizations including Bittrex Global, Certik, Ledger, and Uphold, today announces that Infinigold, issuer of the world’s first government-backed gold token on a public blockchain, has joined the Alliance as a full member, together with Silicon Valley investment firms Hard Yaka and Fifth Era.
At the same time, the UP Alliance is announcing the appointment of its new Chairman.
Matthew Le Merle is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Fifth Era, Keiretsu Capital and Blockchain Coinvestors; the world’s leading decentralized-ledger venture fund of funds. An expert on corporate growth, innovation and business transformations, he has advised leading companies including Amazon, Cisco, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, and PayPal.
“I am thrilled to join the UP Alliance as Chairman, especially at a time of such extraordinary opportunity,” said Mr. Le Merle. “Now is the moment when the promise of blockchain technology is finally crystallizing into significant institutional adoption and there is a growing realization of its enormous potential to transform the way financial services are provided worldwide.”
A significant new member of the UP Alliance, InfiniGold allows investors to buy, sell and hold physical gold stored at The Perth Mint, the largest refiner of new gold in the world, in digital form. The company aims to democratize gold investing by overcoming virtually all of the traditional drawbacks: its digital GoldPass Certificates represent physical, government-backed gold and offer zero custody costs and digital portability.
GoldPass Certificates back each Universal Gold Token [UPXAU], the UP Alliance’s most recent and successful ERC20 stablecoin that represents 1 troy oz (31.10348 grams) of pure gold held at the Perth Mint in Australia.
“We’re delighted to join the UP Alliance and to support its goal of helping blockchain technology achieve mainstream adoption,” said Infinigold CEO, Jon Deane. “The industry needs such technology to build trust and transparency, and the platform the Alliance has built should help to drive mass utility and adoption.”
Another important new UP Alliance member is Hard Yaka, the investment vehicle of Greg Kidd, a storied Silicon Valley Investor who was the initial investor and advisor at Twitter and Square and who has invested in more than 100 financial technology companies.
On December 1st and December 8th 2020, the UP Alliance will launch two new Tokens that will break new ground and, respectively, address some of the biggest challenges facing the cryptocurrency industry – and the future of our planet. Watch this space.