Security

ICON utilises Hedera Hashgraph to achieve the gold standard for security in the field of distributed consensus: Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (ABFT). Other platforms that use coordinators, leaders, or communication timeouts tend to be vulnerable to  Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against those vulnerable areas. Hashgraph is resilient to these types of attacks against the consensus algorithm, and achieves the theoretical limits of security defined by ABFT. Achieving this level of security at a scale of hundreds of thousands of transactions per second is a fundamental advance in the field of distributed systems and it is the gold standard for security in this category.

Many applications require that the consensus order of transactions match the actual order in which the transactions are received by the network. It should not be possible for a single party to prevent the flow of transactions into the network, nor influence the order of transactions in the eventual community consensus. A fair consensus algorithm ensures that if a user can submit a transaction to the network at all, then the transaction will be received by the network and the order in which it was received will be a fair ordering. Hashgraph uniquely ensures that the actual order transactions are received by the community will be reflected in the consensus order. In other words, hashgraph ensures both Fair Access and Fair Ordering.

Formal proofs of the ABFT and fairness properties for the hashgraph consensus algorithm exist and have been available for public review since June, 2016. Furthermore, the hashgraph algorithm has been validated as ABFT by a math proof checked by computer using the Coq system in October, 2018.

Discretion

Creators and Custodians of Intergenerational wealth readily acknowledge that new statutes and regulations targeting their wealth ensures that Privacy and Compliance are top of mind. There are four states of Privacy including:

  1. Solitude ~ Establishing physical separation from other individuals;
  2. Intimacy ~ Inviting select individuals into trusted relationships;
  3. Anonymity ~ A desire to restrict information available in the public domain;
  4. Reserve ~ Protecting and Controlling access to your data and assets.

In 2010, as part of FATCA, US Congress enacted new disclosure requirements for specified foreign financial assets (“SFFAs”). The types of reportable assets include: direct holdings of stock in foreign entities, interests in foreign funds, depository accounts, custodial accounts, or interests in financial institutions.

In 2018, the CRS was adopted across the G20 requiring the name and identifying number of the reporting foreign financial institution (FFI) as well as the name and the account number, year end balance, address, tax identification number, date and place of birth of each reportable person.

Interestingly, Gold held in a custodial account maintained by an FFI (bank) would be considered reportable, however, Gold held in an independent vault or safety deposit box is exempt from declaration provided (i) the vault is not in an FFI (bank) or (ii) the storage arrangement is not a financial account.

ICON CAPITAL RESERVE SA is not an FFI.

Trust

Fibonacci’s Golden Mean is a mathematical formula that permeates the fractal design of our world from subatomic DNA structures the patterns of the stars in the universe. The Golden Mean is embedded in the architecture of our most iconic buildings from the Great Pyramids to Sydney’s Opera House. Since the dawn of humanity, Trusted Sacred Symbols found in places of worship have been generating carrier waves that are literally broadcasting information.

Trust can be traced to the neurobiological activity of our human brain. Our increasingly complex world slows decision making, so we use heuristic defaults like intuition and common sense to help the process. Gold has become the heuristic default for 6000 years because across geography, language, culture and economics, it is the numeraire that the entire world agrees on. Gold is Value.

The stock of Gold refers to the available c200,000MT mined throughout history and the flow refers to the c2,700MT mined annually. Mathematically, Gold has a stock and flow ratio of 1.35%. The stock of our Planet refers to the c7.45b inhabitants and the flow is a net 80m people added per year. Mathematically, Humanity has a stock and flow ratio of 1.20%. As people move up through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, they create surpluses that are stored in a trusted reserve asset like Gold. Hall’s Law suggests that the stock and flow ratios of Gold and Humanity have been correlated for centuries and the ratios are immune to manipulation.

Vaults


ICON utilizes fully insured, non-bank vaults in free zones that include Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Switzerland, where our partners operate a former military facility inside a mountain, complete with a private air strip.

Locations


Shanghai

China

The fully insured Shanghai Gold Exchange was established in October 2002 by People’s Bank of China (“PBOC”). The Shanghai International Gold Exchange (“SGEI”) was founded in September 2014 and is registered in Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone. The SGE enables foreign institutions and individuals to access the Chinese precious metals market by providing trading, clearing, delivery and vaulting services for gold. The  SGE assumes full responsibility and if one trading party defaults when clearing or delivering physical bullion, the SGE will guarantee the other party’s interests.

Swiss Alps

Switzerland

The fully insured mountain vault in Switzerland is one of 26,000 former military bunkers built deep into the Swiss Alps, complete with a private airstrip and customs office. It was acquired from the Swiss government and the facility was further hardened as a “zero-risk” infrastructure offering protection against nuclear, biological and chemical attacks; full EMP (electro magnetic pulse) protection, including separate explosion proof security zones with bullet proof lock gates, facial recognition, video surveillance and 24 hour civil and military surveillance. Atmospheric over pressure prevents gas from entering the facility, and a full; ABC protection and a high performance cooling system utilizes an underground lake to cool down all IT installations for ICON encrypted servers completed with an automated assay and storage facility for up to 1500MT of Gold Bullion.

Hong Kong

China

The fully insured Hong Kong International Airport Precious Metals Depository, was unveiled by the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong in September 2009. It is operated by the Hong Kong Airport Authority (rated AAA by Standard & Poor’s), which in turn is owned by the Hong Kong Government. Gold moves tax free in and out of the city and literally 50% of the world’s population, including residents of China and India, can be reached within 5 hours of the Hong Kong airport.

Dubai

United Arab Emirates

The fully insured DMCC vault in Dubai began operating in April 2009 and is believed to be the largest non-sovereign vault in the Middle East. Dubai is conveniently situated to connect the growing gold and precious metal trade flows to and from the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia, Europe and Africa and the vault has been designed to store large volumes of bullion while benefiting from the facility’s close proximity to Dubai International Airport, the Deira Gold Souk and Jebel Ali Port.

Singapore

Republic of Singapore

The fully insured Singapore FreePort in Changi airport opened in  May 2010 as a high tech secure storage vault for Gold Bullion and high value collectibles. It is modeled after the freeport’s in Switzerland, as it provides Gold bullion traders and wealthy collectors with a facility for long term storage and trade of their Gold bullion and collections without attracting customs duties or Goods and Services Tax. Singapore’s strategic location, sound infrastructure and excellent connectivity to key markets in Asia makes it an attractive location for vaulting Gold Bullion.

 

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Contact Information

No matter where you are, we are easily accessible in each country.