Why do we need Transactional Gold and Silver?
The three-part case for why TGS exists -- inflation, access, and technology.
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Positioning statement Transactional Gold and Silver (TGS) allows ordinary Americans to own real gold and silver -- held in a secure vault within the United States, in their name -- and spend it anywhere using a debit card, while merchants receive ordinary U.S. dollars. Transactional Gold and Silver does not replace the dollar. It is not cryptocurrency. It is not a central bank digital currency. It is not a government mandate. It is “Just Another Way to Pay.” |
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Direct answer We need Transactional Gold and Silver because two problems converged with a new opportunity: the U.S. dollar has lost approximately 90% of its purchasing power since 1971; ordinary Americans have had no practical way to use gold and silver as everyday money, even though the Constitution recognizes them as legal tender. The technology now exists to close both gaps simultaneously. TGS is the legislative framework that connects those three realities into a practical solution. Plain-English summary: The dollar keeps buying less. Gold keeps holding its value. And now there is a debit card that bridges the two. TGS is the law that makes that bridge official, protected, and available to anyone, not just the wealthy. |
Why do we need Transactional Gold and Silver?
The case for Transactional Gold and Silver rests on three converging problems that no existing financial product fully solves. Understanding why TGS exists requires understanding all three, because the legislation is specifically designed to address each of them together, in a single coherent framework.
Problem one: the dollar is a poor store of value
Since the United States severed the dollar's link to gold in 1971, the purchasing power of the dollar has declined by approximately 90%. What cost $1.00 in 1971 costs approximately $7.60 today when measured by the Consumer Price Index. A family that saved $10,000 in a dollar savings account in 1971 holds the equivalent of approximately $1,300 in real purchasing power today -- even before accounting for the fact that savings account interest has rarely kept pace with inflation.
Gold, over the same period, has done the opposite. Gold was $35 per troy ounce in 1971. It reached an all-time high of $5,589 per troy ounce in January 2026. The dollar price of gold has risen because the dollar has weakened, not because gold has become more valuable in any absolute sense. Gold's purchasing power has remained relatively stable; the dollar's purchasing power has collapsed. The 1971 severance was the beginning of a fifty-year wealth transfer from savers to debtors, and from working families to the institutions sophisticated enough to hedge against inflation.
This is not a fringe argument. It is the arithmetic of monetary history. The question TGS answers is: given that this is the situation, how do ordinary Americans protect themselves?
Problem two: the access gap
Gold has always been a hedge against inflation, but it has never been practical for ordinary families to use as everyday money. To buy $50 worth of groceries with gold before TGS, you would need to: own a gold coin worth far more than $50; sell part of it to a dealer (losing the dealer's spread); wait for the cash to clear; and then spend the dollars. The transaction cost, the time, and the minimum denomination of a physical coin made gold useful as a store of value for the wealthy and useless as a medium of exchange for the working poor.
This access gap is not accidental. Institutions and the wealthy have always hedged against inflation by investing in gold, silver, real estate, and other hard assets. They have the capital to hold assets for the long term and the sophistication to manage the complexity. Working families do not; or did not, until TGS. Transactional Gold and Silver provides the middle class and working poor a mechanism to hedge against inflation while keeping the money easily accessible.
The Section 102 Legislative Findings of the Transactional Gold and Silver Act state this explicitly: the Act is designed to enable individuals to 'acquire, own, transfer, exchange, settle, redeem, and use ownership interests in physical gold and silver' through modern financial technology. That is a policy choice to level the playing field between households that can afford inflation protection and those that cannot.
Problem three: the technology gap, now closed
For most of American history, the access gap existed because the technology to solve it did not. Splitting a gold coin into fractions for a grocery purchase and converting those fractions to dollars at the checkout register in milliseconds was not possible in 1971, or 1991, or even 2001. It is possible today.
GlintPay demonstrated at commercial scale that a gold-linked debit card can process real transactions at real merchants in real time. The Texas Bullion Depository demonstrated that a state-authorized precious metals storage facility can operate securely and efficiently as a public-private partnership with no taxpayer cost. The Transactional Gold and Silver Act provides the legislative framework that connects these technological and institutional capabilities into a system with statutory consumer protections, legal tender recognition, and domestic oversight.
The technology gap is closed. The legislation is the remaining piece. That is why TGS exists now rather than twenty years ago, and why the legislative momentum has accelerated: five governors have signed TGS legislation since 2015, with Arkansas and Florida acting in 2025 alone.
What TGS does that nothing else does
No existing financial product simultaneously provides: physical precious metals ownership with legally enforceable title; domestic U.S. custody with independent auditing and 100% replacement value insurance; real-time fractional spending through a standard debit card at any merchant; state-level legal tender recognition; and statutory consumer protections enforceable by state law. Gold ETFs give price exposure but not spending access. Gold coins give possession but not fractional liquidity. GlintPay gives spending access but stores gold in Zurich without statutory backing. A dollar savings account gives liquidity but not inflation protection. TGS gives all of them together.
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Feature -> How it works -> Outcome Feature: TGS addresses three converging problems: dollar purchasing power loss, the gold access gap, and the technology gap; in a single statutory framework. How it works: State legislation recognizes gold and silver as legal tender, authorizes private Authorized Providers to offer Constitutional Money Services, and establishes consumer protection standards for custody, auditing, insurance, and redemption. Outcome: Ordinary Americans gain practical access to the inflation protection that institutions and wealthy households have always had, through a debit card that works anywhere, backed by physical gold they legally own in a domestic U.S. vault. |
What is the most common misunderstanding?
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Common misunderstanding TGS is a solution in search of a problem; most Americans are fine with the dollar and don't need a gold-backed payment system. |
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The reality The dollar has lost approximately 90% of its purchasing power since 1971. That erosion is invisible in a savings account balance but very visible in grocery prices, rent, and energy costs. Most Americans feel the problem every week at the checkout register. TGS gives them a tool to do something about it that doesn't require being wealthy, sophisticated, or lucky. |
References
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Citations: required for publication Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED: U.S. dollar purchasing power since 1971 | fred.stlouisfed.org World Gold Council: gold price all-time high January 2026 | gold.org Section 102 Legislative Findings, Transactional Gold and Silver Act Working Draft No. 11 GlintPay: commercial proof of gold debit card payments | glintpay.com Texas Bullion Depository | texasbulliondepository.gov Article I, Section 10, U.S. Constitution | constitution.congress.gov |
Related questions
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Related questions: with direct 2-sentence answers What problem does fiat money create? Fiat money, currency not backed by a physical commodity, allows governments and central banks to expand the money supply without limit. That expansion is the mechanism through which the dollar loses purchasing power over time, and TGS is one response to it. -> What problem does fiat money create? -- /blog/what-problem-does-fiat-money-create/ Why is gold an inflation hedge? Gold's supply grows at roughly 1-2% per year regardless of any government policy decision. Because its supply is constrained, it cannot be inflated away, which is why its purchasing power has remained relatively stable over centuries while fiat currencies have repeatedly lost value. -> Why is gold an inflation hedge? -- /blog/why-is-gold-an-inflation-hedge/ Is TGS trying to replace the dollar? No. Merchants receive ordinary U.S. dollars in every TGS transaction. TGS adds a monetary choice -- it does not eliminate any existing choice. Participation is entirely voluntary. -> Is TGS trying to replace the dollar? -- /blog/is-transactional-gold-trying-to-replace-the-dollar/ |
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Read the full Transactional Gold and Silver FAQ transactionalgold.com/faq |