Gold’s industrial applications include cancer treatments, racing cars and mobile phones; Gold will integrate with blockchain technology – Joe Cavatoni
(Kitco News) – Gold nanoparticles can be integrated with chemotherapy for cancer treatments. The McLaren F1 sports car uses gold foil in the engine compartment as a heat sink. And gold is used in semiconductors for mobile phones and computers.
These are just some of the surprising industrial uses for gold, said Joe Cavatoni, the World Gold Council’s head of global sales and regional managing director.
“You don’t have an iPhone unless you have gold, you don’t have an iPad unless you have gold,” he said.
Cavatoni also said The World Gold Council hopes to use blockchain technology to track and trace gold transactions so consumers can be confident about gold quality and purchases.
Cavatoni spoke with David Lin, anchor and producer at Kitco News.
Gold in racing cars and cancer treatment
The World Gold Council recently released its Golden thread documentary series, which can be seen on YouTube. Presented by BBC presenter and mathematician Dr Hannah Fry, the series examines the various uses of gold in religion, art, science and industry.
“We are very proud of the work the team did to put it down The golden thread series together,” Cavatoni said. “Everyone is thinking, especially in North America, about futures contracts, about the next three months, about investments, and they worry about the price [of gold]. But what people are really missing is that gold is everywhere.”
Cavatoni said that the use of gold in car engines personally appealed to him.
Asked if he envisioned a situation where the supply of gold failed to keep pace with rising industrial demand, Cavatoni replied: “I think the supply side and the recycling side are more than adequate to continue to bring raw material into the system.”
Gold Bar Integrity Program
In March, the World Gold Council announced that it would partner with distributed ledger companies aXedras and Peer Ledger to develop The Gold Bar Integrity Program (GBI). The program will record gold transactions on a blockchain, allowing gold to be tracked and traced. GBI is currently under development.
“[The point is] to have the type of blockchain database construction in place to help the industry standardize reporting, track and trace the integrity of these gold bars, and take it all the way back to procurement so you can feel good and comfortable knowing where the gold is coming from ,” Cavatoni explained.
The program will be optional, according to Cavatoni, although he mentioned that a “group of organizations” within the gold industry already have a plan to implement GBI.
Some gold investors prefer their gold to be off-grid and untraceable, and may worry that integrating gold purchases with blockchain technology makes gold easier to confiscate.
“An industry has to be trusted by people who want to be a part of it,” Cavatoni said. “If trust is an obstacle to greater use in gold, because some people feel that being offline is a better way than being online, we’d rather embrace trust and transparency and grow the industry legitimately and do better … Nothing we do is going to prevent anyone from simply [taking] physical delivery of gold.”
To find out Cavatoni’s analysis of gold demand trends in 2022, and how investors can best benefit from gold, watch the video above.
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