This is my concern, honestly. Madoff is a perfect risk example everyone coulda-shoulda seen from the outside but trusted from the inside until the collapse.
Also, in my younger years I had crossed path with unsavory characters whose entire existence was based on scams, which made them excessively cash rich. I'd learned that their biggest project was to lease vaults from under a reputable stock exchange and promote themselves as a non bank, secured vault for gold deposits. Their intention was simply to wait a few years, empty the vault and disappear....I don't know if they ever succeeded, only that they had to leave Europe quickly.
But, assuming it is not a scam, the reason I shared this is because clearly, before BTC or as a result of BTC, some in the gold industry devised ways to turn the metal into a alternative payment method, not so much as a way to bypass government regulations and taxation (although the latter may be), but as a way to stem inflationary pressure on currencies, also a primary goal of the Bitcoin community.
From my understanding, the holding entity isn't storing gold bars but gold coins, purchased/traded around the world. I really don't know how the payment mechanism works, but they clearly have to track clients expenses against their gold holdings. They must also have charge limits and approval thresholds. I don't know what their processing charge is, but the last 10 years inflation has been atrocious while gold has shot through the roof so if this is legit, it's an interesting proposition.
