TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BitGold (TSX-V:XAU), a platform for savings and payments in gold, is pleased to announce the appointment of Darrell MacMullin as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of BitGold Inc. Darrell was previously the Managing Director and Head of PayPal Canada, and brings senior executive experience in building e-commerce companies from early stage growth to multi-million user platforms, including PayPal Canada, eBay Canada, and Chapters. Post-closing of the previously announced acquisition of GoldMoney.com, BitGold Inc will be renamed GoldMoney Group Inc and will become parent company of the BitGold payment and savings platform. Further integration details will be released following the closing of the GoldMoney.com acquisition. Post-reorganization Darrell will become the CEO of BitGold, focusing on the growth of an end-to-end international payment platform using gold for real-time settlement of cross-border and cross-currency e-commerce.
“Josh and I are thrilled to add Darrell to the executive leadership team of BitGold, a key addition for us to execute on this global vision,” said co-founder and CEO Roy Sebag. “As cloud computing and mobile phone distribution ubiquitously connects the planet, the BitGold platform and Aurum settlement technology can realize a real-time, debt-free network for gold-based international payments and commerce. Darrell brings valuable ideas, relationships, and an ability to execute on the immense value proposition of a gold-based payments platform for merchants during an era of increasingly uncertain foreign exchange.”
"Payments and settlement in e-commerce has been a contentious and ever-evolving issue, particularly in cross-border transactions,” said MacMullin. “BitGold has very quickly and successfully taken the best of today’s online payments technology and coupled it with a globally recognized store of value in gold. That being said, to be at this stage and execute on an innovation and vision of this scale in international e-commerce is a journey I’m more than pleased to be a part of."
Darrell MacMullin has driven successful new payment and commerce innovations for the past 15 years, including the launch and leadership of PayPal during its first eight years in Canada. He has worked closely both as an advisor and investor with entrepreneurs, developers and industry partners to accelerate the growth of new FinTech payments and commerce experiences. Darrell provided thought leadership and innovation expertise for the convergence of online, mobile and offline into one commercial stream with government, banks and new FinTech companies. Prior to PayPal Darrell was part of the successful launches and rapid growth of eBay and Chapters Indigo online into leading commerce players. Darrell has been granted options to acquire 550,000 common shares of BitGold for a period of five years with an exercise price of $4.65 per share.
About BitGold
BitGold’s mission is to make gold accessible and useful in digital payments and secure savings. The BitGold platform provides innovative solutions to the challenge of transacting with fully allocated and securely vaulted gold. BitGold accounts are free and convenient to open by virtually anyone, anywhere* in just minutes. BitGold provides users with a secure vault account to purchase gold using a variety of electronic payment methods. The platform will also provide transaction capability including: instant cross-border gold payments, merchant invoicing and processing for gold, prepaid card spending of gold at traditional points of sale, conversions to a customer's external digital-wallet or bank, and physical gold redemptions. All physical gold acquired through the platform is owned by the customer, stored in vaults administered by The Brink’s Company, acting through Brink’s Global Vault Services International, Inc. (“Brink’s”), which insures gold through third party insurance providers.
BitGold is a Canadian corporation with offices in Toronto, Canada, and Milan, Italy. BitGold has partnered with established professionals in bullion dealing, vault security and web security, payment processing, and is committed to best-practice systems for compliance with all applicable laws and regulations regarding anti-money Laundering (“AML”) and Know Your Customer (“KYC”).
*The BitGold Platform is unavailable to residents of sanctioned countries
About GoldMoney
GoldMoney is a gold and precious metals vaulting business founded in 2001 by James Turk and Geoff Turk. GoldMoney offers an easy way to buy gold, silver, platinum and palladium online and safely store for customers these precious metals in five countries. It is GoldMoney’s vision that the benefits and dependability of gold and silver should be easily available to everyone, while providing its customers with assurances of integrity so they know their money is safe.
No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains certain “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws that are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statements that involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as “expects”, or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, “plans”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “forecasts”, “estimates”, “believes” or “intends” or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results “may” or “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information and are intended to identify forward-looking information. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: risk factors relating to the acquisition of GoldMoney, being completion of satisfactory due diligence, settlement of definitive documentation, satisfaction of closing conditions, receipt of regulatory approvals and, generally, the completion of the acquisition on the terms as described if at all; the Company’s limited operating history; future capital needs and uncertainty of additional financing; the competitive nature of the industry; unproven markets for the Company’s product offering; volatility of gold prices & public interest in gold investment; lack of regulation and customer protection; the need for the Company to manage its planned growth and expansion; the effects of product development and need for continued technology change; protection of proprietary rights; the effect of government regulation and compliance on the Company and the industry; network security risks; the ability of the Company to maintain properly working systems; foreign currency and gold trading risks; use and storage of personal information and compliance with privacy laws; use of the Company’s services for improper or illegal purposes; global economic and financial market conditions; uninsurable risks; and those risks set out in the Company’s public documents filed on www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking information other than as required by law.
