Goldmoney Update from Roy Sebag
Roy Sebag
Posts: 21 Admin
Hello Goldmoney Community!
With the brand unification now behind us, I wanted to take a moment and share with you our product roadmap at Goldmoney for these next two months. I hope this will help you when communicating areas of improvement and impending enhancements to the service as you do so well here in the community and as advocates for our company in general.
In terms of how we have decided to communicate the new brand, were calling the old BitGold the "Goldmoney Network" which encompasses the personal and business accounts. This is the backbone network enabling gold to circulate freely and democratically utilizing the technology we developed to rapidly settle physical gold bullion. We then have two other divisions: Wealth and Physical. Wealth is the former Goldmoney business which offers more bespoke services and lots more options to manage an increasing nest egg. Goldmoney Physical will combine our prior physical redemption business, the newly acquired SchiffGold, and a retail branch strategy. This will allow users to purchase physical metal directly (shipped to them) or through a redemption facility from network/wealth accounts.
Upcoming Launches:
In closing, I would like to thank you all for being such an energizing community. You may think that Josh and I don't read the community board but I would say we check in at least every week and it almost always brightens our day. We see whats happening here and it helps motivate us beyond the hard data we see on the Network side.
I will end with a quick anecdote: every so often, my wife will ask why I continue to work so hard. To be fair, shes been asking me this question for about 5 years now, and it generally coincides with my persistent ability to destroy our summer vacations by working through them. My reflex response has always been: its not about the money, its about the puzzle of trying to build or invest and I simply can't turn off my curious mind once I latch on to something. Lately however, I have been coming up with a better reason: How can I stop working when I see how many lives we touch? It is no longer about my own personal journey, this business is way too important and provides utility to way too many people for us to stop. You have helped me understand this to a certain extent with this community. For that, I thank you.
All the best,
Roy Sebag
With the brand unification now behind us, I wanted to take a moment and share with you our product roadmap at Goldmoney for these next two months. I hope this will help you when communicating areas of improvement and impending enhancements to the service as you do so well here in the community and as advocates for our company in general.
In terms of how we have decided to communicate the new brand, were calling the old BitGold the "Goldmoney Network" which encompasses the personal and business accounts. This is the backbone network enabling gold to circulate freely and democratically utilizing the technology we developed to rapidly settle physical gold bullion. We then have two other divisions: Wealth and Physical. Wealth is the former Goldmoney business which offers more bespoke services and lots more options to manage an increasing nest egg. Goldmoney Physical will combine our prior physical redemption business, the newly acquired SchiffGold, and a retail branch strategy. This will allow users to purchase physical metal directly (shipped to them) or through a redemption facility from network/wealth accounts.
Upcoming Launches:
- T-Shirt Redemptions from Goldmoney Physical
- Bank account redemption back to nearly 60 currencies at the fixed 0.5 gram redemption fee (we discussed this before and are just completing our final testing but this feature will be extremely important for many of you, especially those living in Asia and Latin America). You will now be able to earn gold on the network and redeem it as currency back to your linked bank account in say Thailand, Peru, or Indonesia - No FX friction just the 1% redemption spread + 0.5. Gram bank redemption fee.
- Full responsification of the network post-login environment. The issue here was responsification done right takes time and as we all know, time is the scarcest commodity. By the end of September, the experience on mobile will be 100% analagous to that on a desktop and will include all functionalities. That is, if you access the network from a mobile/tablet browser.
- Unified Mobile App with ONE Login for all three accounts - We know the mobile app is extremely deficient. Again, we have the majority of our engineering resources working to complete and launch the new mobile app. It will have most of the functionality on the desktop version and be available for both android and iOS. We are also improving its performance so it runs much faster and smoother. This should also be ready around the end of September.
- Enhanced Prepaid Card Experience - We are going to be unveiling an imporved Card experience. No more Cardportal. You will be able to complete all actions from requesting a card, activating, requesting PIN and most importantly, viewing all your POS/ATM transactions from within the Network account. This will also pave the way for another surprise which I can't yet discuss.
- Enhanced Wealth Account Post-Login Environment - We know that our Wealth account post-login experience is sub-par. Thus far, we have worked hard at integrating the back-end and improving the less sensitive areas of the Wealth site. Within the next two months, we will launch the enhanced Wealth Account which will look and feel as good as the Network account post-login except it will include all of the additional features and services we provide on the Wealth side. I appreciate the patience from Wealth clients thus far and guarantee that you will be very satisfied with the new experience.
- Gold Redemptions from Network to Wealth or Wealth to Network - This will become an important feature as users switch between their Personal, Business, and Wealth accounts. Gold will have to be at Brinks Toronto on either account type for the transfer to be possible. There will be no fee for these transfers. For Network users, that means there is a cost savings once you hit 1,000 grams as there is no sell fee at Wealth.
In closing, I would like to thank you all for being such an energizing community. You may think that Josh and I don't read the community board but I would say we check in at least every week and it almost always brightens our day. We see whats happening here and it helps motivate us beyond the hard data we see on the Network side.
I will end with a quick anecdote: every so often, my wife will ask why I continue to work so hard. To be fair, shes been asking me this question for about 5 years now, and it generally coincides with my persistent ability to destroy our summer vacations by working through them. My reflex response has always been: its not about the money, its about the puzzle of trying to build or invest and I simply can't turn off my curious mind once I latch on to something. Lately however, I have been coming up with a better reason: How can I stop working when I see how many lives we touch? It is no longer about my own personal journey, this business is way too important and provides utility to way too many people for us to stop. You have helped me understand this to a certain extent with this community. For that, I thank you.
All the best,
Roy Sebag
Comments
Thank you for this splendid platform. It is reshaping peoples lives every second.
Looking forward to all the reforms and modifications.
This is a glimpse of the hidden gems(I mentioned in on earlier discussions) this company/platform is busy working on and has yet to reveal. @GoldMatters @GoldIsCurrency .
Your great efforts are very much appreciated. Keep up the good work.
Now the rovin’ gambler he was very bored
He was tryin’ to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61
Or as Hunter S Thompson would say...
When things get weird, the weird turn pro!
Stay golden brother.
These are very exciting times. I am glad to have been along for the ride (almost) from the beginning. Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do.
• "product roadmap at Goldmoney for these next two months"
This is only for the next two months - guys and gals. Do you recall the interview with Roy when the interviewer asked what was planned in the next few years and Roy Sebag responded to the effect of "We innovate on a time scale of weeks and months- not years." I would post the interview, but there have been so many that I just don't have the patience to watch them all again. If anyone else recalls which interview it was an wants to repost it … please do.
• "Bank account redemption back to nearly 60 currencies"
This is a major step toward Goldmoney becoming a true global financial alternative.
• "unveiling an improved Card experience. No more Cardportal."
This is bigger than it appears at first glance and will give Goldmoney much more flexibility and control of the user's card experience.
And finally (at least for this post), Roy Sebag's ending paragraph.
• "I will end with a quick anecdote: every so often, my wife will ask why I continue to work so hard. To be fair, shes been asking me this question for about 5 years now, and it generally coincides with my persistent ability to destroy our summer vacations by working through them. My reflex response has always been: its not about the money, its about the puzzle of trying to build or invest and I simply can't turn off my curious mind once I latch on to something. Lately however, I have been coming up with a better reason: How can I stop working when I see how many lives we touch? It is no longer about my own personal journey, this business is way too important and provides utility to way too many people for us to stop. You have helped me understand this to a certain extent with this community. For that, I thank you."
This reals sheds light on the inner Roy Sebag. This is a man on a mission … an intelligent, thoughtful, articulate man on a mission. Roy values our feedback and he follows the community. I truly believe that Goldmoney is a paradigm shift in the world of global finance and as I said above I am thankful to have had the good fortune to have been part of it from the beginning.
No slight to you intended.
I work hard to keep my bank accounts separate and did not like how the GoldMoney bank account manager actually made me login to my bank account and then it automatically hooked up all accounts within the one bank to my GoldMoney account. I detached my savings and just left the checking attached but I do not know what information was stored by GoldMoney or that somebody could not come back later and access my savings account with the information they already have. Previously when associating bank accounts with other apps I just entered a routing number and account number for the particular account I wanted to associate and did not have to log into my bank account through anyone's else's "Secure Window". I am not saying that GoldMoney did anything wrong here -- just admitting that even that little bit of association makes me nervous, based on what I have experienced in combat.
One thing that I think a lot of us westerners do not have good perspective on is what happens when government and social structures start to fall apart and security is compromised. Anyone who is a law-abiding citizen today thinks that they will remain in good standing. This is not the case. All it takes is for the political climate to change and your people (e.g. Intellectuals, Businessmen, Religious affiliations, Racial Group, Political Ideology -- or Owners of Gold) could suddenly be declared outlaws. Then the government or ruling authority at that time has every "legal" right or at least enough resources and leverage to track you down like a dog and take your stuff and drag you in as a detainee. Been there, seen it, participated in a mortified sort of way when we occupied Iraq.
@RocketDog This means that, after much demand, Goldmoney T-shirts will be available for order!
I live close to your former neighbourhood in Iraq.
We have the two biggest buyers of the A380 & 777, the tallest building in the world, & one already in the works to top out Prince Waleed, the biggest mall, a Louvre.....
Yet, across the Hormuz, the Russian air force is in Iran; the Saudis are in Yemen & the Pakistanis insist on being non-India.
India said thanks, but no thanks to Zuck's internet.org
I just figure that the less the world knows about my finances and spending habits the better. As it is … with Google, Bing, and Amazon … I am sure that "THEY" know all there is to know about me.
Well it is a discussion board and I thought we were having a discussion. Although in hindsight I attacked you by attacking MINT and for that I apologize. Yes I do follow the discussions on this board and I do frequently respond. This has tended to be a fairly social board and I have been a Community member since the beginning with BitGold.
It does appear that I have touched a nerve. You obviously like MINT. I don't. If that offends you I apologize. I don't expect any two people to agree on everything. If I were truly paranoid I would avoid all social media, but it is a fine balance isn't it? It is impossible to participate in social media without giving up some privacy. Yet I think that @RocketDog makes some valid points above.
I realize that "passive data collection from enterprising businesses" is the new normal. Based on your reaction, I am guessing that you are possibly either involved with MINT or a similar company and are as passionate about about it as I, and others on this board, are about Goldmoney. "MINT is the single best personal finance application. It should be used by every person on the planet -- think of the financial education and awareness people would have if they just used it to understand their current position." This statement alone indicates your passion for MINT. I can respect that. Since, as you say, the original GoldMoney (now Goldmoney Wealth) is already an offering on MINT, I am certain that the full Goldmoney Network will be as well in time.
With regard to paranoia …
What's worse, thinking you're being paranoid or knowing you should be? - From the 2004 movie Primer.
Just because you are paranoid, does not mean that they aren't out to get you. - unknown
When it comes to personal finance and wealth, I think a little paranoia is healthy.
Here is one article, and I am sure there are others like it, talking about data collection on the web and cell phone.
https://mic.com/articles/113078/all-the-secret-ways-you-re-being-tracked-that-you-don-t-even-realize
I can understand @TheRaveneer wanting to track his net worth. I think it is a valuable activity. I track mine monthly in an Excel chart -- have done that for at least 10 years. I manually enter my accounts, holdings, and mortgages at the end of each month and over time have watched my net worth grow and shrink. It does not track every daily expenditure, but there is no need for that. Many money-smart people will tell you that the whole "budgeting" and watching every penny thing is a waste of time once you understand your personal vices. Further, if people would just get out of consumer debt, they'd have plenty of money for their vices, and no need to track every penny. (Ironic though it is.) That is what you want. To be able to pay your bills and still have some cash leftover which does not need to be tracked -- cause it's more fun that way.
@TheRaveneer I am not commenting on your personal situation; your personal desire to use or recommend MINT is totally fine with me.
And thank you @Nigelmarkdias for posting the news of India's rejection of Basic Free Internet from Zuckerburg's company. That is interesting reading. It reminds of the old AOL.com browser experience from the late 1990's. If you typed in "Travelocity" it would send you to one of AOL's affiliate travel services. It was very difficult to navigate the real web from within AOL. Google currently tracks the stuff you look at and serves up more of the same in a kind of self-affirming cocoon of familiarity. When I think most of us hope to go the web to find out things totally new and undiscovered by us.
And I apologize for taking this discussion off on a tangent from Roy's original post -- which was Goldmoney Developments!
Yeah... Transactions and activation of new cards available now in the dashboard :-)
Thanks @Roy Sebag
The two features I am looking forward to the most are,
1. Sending/receiving gold from my account to a friends account in all of the US.
2. Using my Goldmoney card without having to pre-load it. I.E. The xfer of gold to $ happens at the time of swipe.
Keep up the good work!
Re point 1. … sadly Goldmoney must work with each US state individually. Currently Texas and Colorado allow person to person transfers. The Goldmoney legal team is aggressively pursuing this on a state-by-state basis. Even stranger - the state of Georgia - prohibits the issuance of the Prepaid Card.