# Why Gold and PAXG? Gold, arguably more than any other asset of value, has stood up to the test of time, and its use, utility, and store of value have been proven again and again, over the course of centuries. For the most part, it is assumed by us all that at any given time, gold will not only have value but is also capable of being used as a measuring stick for exchange and trade. Gold has numerous utilities that we all know and understand - from a store of value and crisis hedge, to use in valuable jewelry, to a medium of exchange. On the other side of the fence, gold’s Achilles' heel is often thought to be a lack of yield earning potential. By Oracles in a realm other than blockchain, we have been told: “Gold has no utility.” Not only do we fundamentally disagree with this thought process, but we believe GoldMint can help prove this statement false, and show that gold actually CAN produce stable, long-term yield. The current (April 2022) total market cap for ALL cryptocurrencies globally is just over 2 trillion USD. Likewise, at the time of writing, the total world market cap of gold sits at over 12 trillion USD. This is approximately SIX TIMES THE MARKET CAP OF ALL CRYPTOCURRENCIES COMBINED. Only a small fraction of gold’s market cap has some exposure, if at all, to blockchain technology and the crypto universe. GoldMint Finance hopes to help bridge this gap, and help bring some of gold’s massive global market cap into the cryptocurrency and decentralized finance space. PAX Gold (PAXG) is a *“digital asset token which is backed by one fine troy ounce (t oz.) of a 400 oz. London Good Delivery gold bar, which is stored in Brink’s vaults. If you own PAXG, you own the underlying physical gold, held in custody by Paxos Trust Company.”* Thus, every PAXG token is backed by actual, real gold. In addition to being backed by gold, PAXG also reports to be *“the only gold token that you can redeem for LBMA-accredited Good Delivery gold bullion bars….”* and *“Paxos customers can always redeem for USD at current gold market prices.”* These characteristics form the basis for our ideal initial gold token, and thus our choice to peg to --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://goldmintfi.gitbook.io/whitepaper/main-protocol/why-gold-and-paxg.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.