HelloGold Foundation Update #27– 21st November 2019
Highlights
- AUM growth continues on the positive trend observed over the summer, moving from 31.7kg on Sept. 1st to 39.5kg on Oct. 31st
- HelloGold invited to New York alongside the UNGA to present its innovative financial inclusion products
- “Add cash” function replaced by “Buy gold”
AUM and Marketing
The good growth trend of AUM witnessed since June has been confirmed over the past couple of months. 24% growth over September and October! The Marketing team has been very busy rolling out promotional campaigns and extending HelloGold’s presence on social media.
A more down to earth tone, a patient educational effort to change the brand image from investment to savings, and a lot of fun: This has been HelloGold’s marketing magic mix to drive sales forward.
If you haven’t checked HelloGold’s website in a while, have a look at the news section to see all the original content that has been added over the past month. And if you’re more of a Twitter traveller, have a look at what HelloGold has been doing under the following hashtags: #EmaszingMalaysian, #HelloGoldBingo and #UnlockTheGold!
Oh, and by the way, have you taken a moment to process how beneficial it has been for your financial health to save with HelloGold over the past couple of years?
International Development
HelloGold has been working all through 2019 in collaboration with the UNCDF and its Innovation Lab. This work crystallised in the last days of September when HelloGold’s Malaysia Lead, Ita Jalaluddin, was invited to present the company’s innovative solution at the “Good Servant, Poor Master: Capturing the Promise and Managing the Risk of Financial Technology for a Sustainable World” summit in New York, alongside the United Nations’ 74th General Assembly.
You can read more about it here or from UNCDF themselves. The event was a most interesting occasion to connect with world and business leaders and share with them HelloGold’s insights regarding financial inclusion. It also provided the perfect platform to share knowledge with other South-East Asian pioneers of Inclusive Digital Finance. Finally, the occasion provided for extensive press coverage, both off and online (see for example the New Straight Times, Digital News Asia and Islamic Finance News)
Other news bites from HelloGold
- Robin invited to speak at the BFM New Frontiers event
- HelloGold participating in Ant Financial South East Asia Accelerator under the 10x1000 Tech for Inclusion Program
- News in Thailand’s Bangkok Post: As good as gold!
- HelloGold joins the DIFC Fintech Hive in Dubai
- Participating in SCxSC19
- Deepavali Celebration
Technical
Improved SmartSaver cycles
SmartSaver has benefited from backend enhancements to smoothen the transition from one cycle to the next. The modifications came to solve some glitches that happened when the first day of the cycle landed on a weekend or a bank holiday. It also changes the cancellation mechanism. Any cancellations requested by the user will now take effect once the ongoing monthly cycle ends. Upon reaching the end of the cycle, funds saved under the SmartSaver plan will be transferred to the user’s main HelloGold account.
Moving from add cash to buy gold
HelloGold users have witnessed a change in the UX of their favourite savings app. “Add Cash” has now disappeared to give way for “Buy Gold”. This means that users will no longer be able to top-up cash into the app without converting it first into gold. This change comes to solve two issues identified by the team over the past year. Firstly, many users would KYC fully and add cash but not convert it into gold. Secondly, a small number of users were “gaming” the add cash feature through the Boost mobile wallet, moving funds in and out through HelloGold to claim cashback rewards. They can now stop tapping their day away for a few cents and enjoy the security and peace of mind associated with buying gold for their savings.
No worries, you’ll thank us later ;)
Blockchain accountability phase 2
The Merkle tree data architecture chosen to store database hashes onto Ethereum mainnet has now moved to phase two (read our previous update to learn about phase one). HelloGold’s blockchain team is now building different attribute layers through which the database can be divided and hashed before being pushed in Merkle trees onchain.
Storing information per transaction category and per user will allow a more refined data structure, allowing greater precision and reducing the amount of data needed to be revealed, should regulators seek to inquire for a specific event.
GOLDX distribution
HGF distributed rewards to HGT holders on 13th September 2019. The total rewards allocation was 5.646 GOLDX. HGF also distributed rewards on 13th of October to HGT holders, for a total of 6.566 GOLDX.
Please remember to keep HGT in your wallet and not on any exchanges to receive the GOLDX.
We will continue to provide updates every month. Please do get in touch with us in between updates if you have any thoughts, suggestions or recommendations.
The HelloGold Foundation Team
