Argo: Developing a Digital Wallet for a Gold Trading Platform

As the dominance of the USD wanes on the global stage, a rising number of investors are considering precious metals as a stable and reliable investment alternative. This shift has amplified the need for trading platforms that are not only secure and efficient but also specifically designed for the nuances of precious metal trading. This case study explores our partnership with a FinTech client based in Canada to develop a cutting-edge platform that meets these growing demands.

Client’s Profile  

4IRE was approached by a Canada-based client, Argo Digital Ltd, with a request to develop a trading platform specializing in precious metal trading. The platform’s mission is to give retail investors access to precious metal ownership, investment, and trading. 

Client’s Requirements and Goals 

The Client needed the assistance of 4IRE with the trading platform’s functionality development, e-wallet adjustment, and the introduction of required third-party integrations. The expected functionality should cover the users’ needs to deposit and withdraw fiat money, complete precious metal trades, and file requests for redeeming the owned precious metals in the physical form. 

Business Challenge

The 4IRE team encountered the following challenges when working on the project.

• The absence of a Product Owner at the initial product stages resulted in costly project revisions after 1.5 months of work. 
• Absence of multi-currency support in the selected payment provider’s business offer. 
• Price spreads between estimated and actual transaction weights. 
• Repeated functionality reviews in line with legal and regulatory requirements. 

Implementation 

The project took almost 10 months of work and involved six 4IRE employees. One back-end developer, one QA expert, one business analyst, one Project Manager, and two front-end programmers worked on the project throughout this period. 

In terms of the technology stack, we used the proprietary low-code platform ProcessMIX for back-end development, React for the front-end design of the client app, and Angular for the front-end admin portal development. 

Value Delivered 

The team of contributed to the project with the following completed phases:

E-Wallet Adjustments

We adapted and refined the Client’s existing e-wallet functionality in line with the project’s specifics, and the understanding of the user needs on the platform. We incorporated the features of user registration, profile management, fund deposit and withdrawal, and financial report generation. The introduced changes enabled gold trading, asset management on the company and end-user side, physical gold redemption requests, and gold allocation and reallocation features for a convenient asset overview. Since the chosen payment partner didn’t provide multi-currency support for the wallet, we implemented CAD support in the wallet, with the addition of USD currently underway.   

Platform Functionality Development 

The 4IRE team worked on the initial functionality design and its multiple reviews in the process of the platform’s development. The initial functionality revision took place after the Product Owner’s entry into the project; a later substantial revision was undertaken 3.5 months later to bring the platform to compliance with regulatory and legal requirements. The final approved set of features included gold purchases and sales, storage fees, accurate allocation and reallocation operations among the platform’s users, and a comprehensive support portal. 

Dynamic Gold Cost Calculation 

The system of gold price calculation was developed to minimize price slippage after the initiation of a new transaction. The algorithm for price control within the range of upper and lower bounds of ounces allowed us to increase price stability and provide an accurate comparison of estimated and actual transaction weights. 

Third-Party Integrations 

To link the platform with a broader ecosystem of financial services, we integrated a secure payment provider for financial transactions, a KYC service provider for compliance issues, an email and SMS notification system, Jira for convenient internal communication, and a real-time gold price provider. 

Admin Portal Rework 

Our team reviewed and reworked the admin portal functionality for the sake of bringing it in compliance with user needs. We added user and employee access management, configurations for limits and fees, internal system wallet setup for business accounting purposes, and precious metal trade initiation. 

Project Outcomes  

The project’s release was scheduled for August 2024, enabling the Client to launch a fully functional gold trading platform, with a feature-rich e-wallet supporting all kinds of transactions with gold assets, dynamic allocation and reallocation algorithms, and real-time gold price updates. The project currently offers CAD as a currency for transactions, with the USD currency underway.