Gold Standard Making a Comeback? Here's a thought experiment: how can Web3 help rebuild the payment ecosystem based on "gold valuation"?

Written by: imToken

As is well known, throughout the past thousands of years of financial development, the role of gold in the global monetary system has been repeatedly redefined.

And the most recent shift in its role undoubtedly occurred after the establishment of the modern fiat currency system based on credit. Gold gradually moved away from everyday transactions, existing more as a “hedging asset,” “central bank reserve,” or “macro hedge tool,” especially in ordinary people’s lives. Aside from specific cultural contexts such as “Three Golds” and “Five Metals,” gold has almost completely exited payment scenarios.

However, if we shift our perspective away from developed economies and observe regions with runaway inflation and frequent failures of their monetary systems, we will find a new way to reconsider this transformation:

With the support of blockchain technology, gold is expected to regain the ability to be “priced, circulated, and used for payments,” thus no longer just a hedging asset on paper, but re-entering the forefront of the monetary system.

This article will also explore how, under current economic and technological conditions, revisiting the “Gold Standard” might not be just a nostalgic fantasy but a practical discussion about the credibility of units of account.

1. The problem is not just inflation, but a “measurement” failure

Objectively speaking, in countries like Venezuela and Argentina, the suffering caused by inflation is far beyond what the words “rising prices” can describe. The real deadly issue is that, due to sharp fluctuations in the local currency exchange rate, the function of money as a “measure of value” is completely lost, and people’s labor results rapidly shrink in inflation.

Imagine, under hyperinflation, the price of a glass of fresh lemon water could double within a week or even days. At this point, people might not even know “what amount of money is worth something.” This uncertainty not only silently erodes labor results but also means that the unit of measurement becomes inherently untrustworthy, leading to a deeper systemic problem than just “decreased purchasing power.”

In such environments, people instinctively seek alternatives for self-rescue, which explains why stablecoins like USDT and USDC have quickly penetrated the informal economy in countries like Argentina, becoming de facto “parallel currencies.”

A typical recent example: the globally renowned internet personality “Brother Hyperthyroidism” iShowSpeed, when shopping in Nigeria, faced frequent restrictions on traditional financial payment methods (such as bank cards, Cash App, etc.). Ultimately, he chose to complete his payment with USDT/USDC, which merchants were willing to accept directly.

As shown in the video, a transaction worth about 2.3 million Naira (roughly $1,500) was settled within seconds.

Ultimately, the reason why USD stablecoins are widely adopted is not because they are “more advanced,” but because the US dollar itself remains the most widely accepted unit of account globally, and stablecoins bypass local banking systems, avoiding cumbersome foreign exchange controls and settlement hurdles.

Consensus (USD) + Technology (blockchain), both are indispensable.

This naturally raises a logical question: if people pursue a long-term credible unit of account, then the gold of thousands of years of monetary history, which lost to credit fiat currency in the competition for everyday payments, is not because it is insufficiently store-of-value, but because as a medium of circulation, it has fatal physical limitations—unable to circulate and be used for payments, after all, physically it is difficult to split, transport, verify, and has low settlement efficiency and high transfer costs…

This is also why, in traditional financial systems, gold is more often regarded as a “store of value” rather than a true “currency.” In fact, even during historical “Gold Standard” monetary systems like the British pound, gold’s role was more as a “reserve” and a ballast for the entire system, rather than a direct unit of account.

This has led to gold gradually retreating into the background, existing mainly on balance sheets and in central bank vaults.

2. Turning gold from a “dead asset” into a “living currency”

Ultimately, what truly prevents gold from returning to a monetary role is not consensus but technological conditions. If gold cannot participate in payments, it will forever remain a “held asset” rather than a “used currency.”

And this is precisely where, with the support of RWA (Real-World Assets) and crypto, a fundamental change has occurred—based on blockchain technology, heavy gold bars can be broken into countless tiny digital particles, enabling free circulation 24/7 worldwide.

Take Tether’s issued XAUt (Tether Gold) as an example: each XAUt corresponds to one ounce of physical gold stored in a London vault, which is stored in a professional vault that is auditable and verifiable. Token holders have the right to claim the underlying gold.

When on-chain transactions occur, the system automatically reallocates gold shares in the vault to ensure that the tokens held by users always correspond to specific physical assets. Meanwhile, the physical gold is stored in a high-security vault in Switzerland. The custodian, although an affiliated party, operates independently with its own financial accounts and client records. Users can also access the official “Look-up Website” to directly check the serial number, weight, and purity of the gold bars associated with their assets by inputting their on-chain address.

This design does not introduce complex financial engineering nor attempt to amplify gold’s properties through algorithms or credit expansion. Instead, it deliberately respects traditional gold logic. Moreover, thanks to blockchain transparency, anyone can verify at any time that the on-chain assets are fully collateralized. This transparency is unmatched by traditional gold certificates.

In essence, tokenized gold like XAUt and PAXG is not about “creating a new gold narrative” nor simply “bringing gold onto the chain” like real estate tokens or other RWA projects. It makes gold capable of being “priced, circulated, and used for payments” for the first time.

This is akin to re-encapsulating the oldest form of assets with blockchain technology. In this sense, XAUt is more like a new form of “digital real gold” (see also the extended reading: “Tether’s ‘Gold Standard’ Ambition: Dissecting XAUt, How the Stablecoin Dominance Sweeps for Gold”):

• Infinite divisibility: No need to cut gold bars; RWA allows payments down to 0.00001 grams of gold;
• Instant verification: No need for fire testing or chemical analysis; on-chain signatures are the best proof of purity;
• Global circulation: Gold is no longer limited by geography; it becomes a 24/7 digital information that flows freely.

In this sense, Web3 + RWA is not about speculating on gold but about bringing gold back to the core of monetary discussion.

Of course, on-chain gold mainly solves issues related to asset form and settlement layers. The real challenge for “monetizing” gold remains the last practical problem:

How to truly “spend” it in the real world?

3. How to form a closed payment loop?

Theoretically, a closed payment loop must satisfy two conditions: be simple enough for users to use seamlessly; and require no changes to existing merchant systems.

This calls for an efficient terminal tool, which is precisely the purpose of many current payment card products. For example, if the imToken Card can connect the bridge between on-chain gold and the real world, it could truly turn “Gold Standard Payments” from a geeky idea into everyday checkout at supermarkets.

The core value of the imToken Card lies in its ability to connect complex assets with backend clearing. For instance, if users hold RWA gold assets (like XAUt) in their imToken wallet, then during a transaction, the system will automatically complete the following closed loop:

• Asset retention: During non-spending periods, your wealth exists as “gold tokens,” enjoying their anti-inflation properties;
• Instant settlement: When you swipe at millions of Mastercard-supported merchants worldwide, the backend will convert part of the gold tokens into fiat currency at real-time exchange rates;
• Seamless payment: Merchants receive fiat settlement, while you pay with gold tokens.

And the entire process is seamless for users, yet it completes a “gold → payment” value transfer at the bottom layer. The assets are always stored in your personal on-chain wallet, not in traditional “paper gold certificates” or bank accounts. This means you have absolute ownership and control over your gold tokens, rather than relying on a bank’s promise of redemption.

If RWA addresses “how to bring gold onto the chain,” then payment cards solve “how to spend on-chain gold.”

Overall, when gold can serve as a long-term value anchor and be used like cash at any time, it truly completes the leap from “storage asset” to “payment medium” once again.

And at this moment, we might be standing at a fascinating inflection point: An ancient form of currency with thousands of years of history is being revitalized through cutting-edge technology that has only been around for just over a decade.