PAMP Suisse developed a technology called Veriscan which allows buyers to authenticate gold bars and reduce the number of counterfeits on the market.
Using an app on their cellphones, buyers can scan a gold bar’s surface with or without packaging and verify whether it was produced at one of the refiner’s facilities. The way it works is that each gold bar has a specific set of impressions or identifiers on its surface based on the mold used to produce it. These impressions are not visible to the human eye but mobile phones can capture them.
Once the back of the bar is scanned, the app will let the user know whether it passed the test or not and, thus, whether it is the real thing or not.
According to precious metals dealer Strategic Wealth Preservation, PAMP Suisse is working on improving Veriscan by adding a blockchain technology that will allow users to see the complete history of the gold bar, starting at the mine where the metal was extracted all the way to the dealer selling it.