Secure environment public register (SEPR)
A Secure Environment Public Register (SEPR) provides a method and system that allow precious metals in the shape of bar(s) or units to be certified, specially numbered to provide exact linkage to an owner, allow secure movement of precious metals between secure facilities, and, through Blockchain, allow secure transfer of ownership between individuals and organizations. The SEPR allows gold and other precious metals to be easily held and traded in commerce with all the advantages of holding precious metals. The SEPR system allows exact audits of the metal bars on hand and avoids over-selling units since each bar is serialized and ownership is documented in a public register.
1 . A physical secure environment (PSE) system comprising:
a PSE service center configured to receive a conversion form from a PSE account holder, the conversion form including information regarding non-PSE precious metal of the PSE account holder received by a PSE processing facility and configured to be stored a target PSE storage facility after conversion into and certification of predetermined uniform characteristics;
the PSE processing facility further configured to:
convert the non-PSE precious metal of the PSE account holder into a certified precious metal unit per the information from the conversion form, wherein the certified precious metal unit includes the predetermined uniform characteristics of precious metal type, material quality, and weight; and
determine a conversion cost of the non-PSE precious metal of the PSE account holder and either reduce an amount of certified precious metal units held by the PSE account holder by the conversion cost or invoice the PSE account holder with the conversion cost for payment in a currency; and
a PSE certification facility configured to:
certify the converted precious metal unit providing an instruction to an equipment disposed in the PSE certification facility to engrave at least one unique serialized indicium on at least one of the certified precious metal unit and mark the at least one unique serialized indicium on a container configured to securely hold the certified precious metal unit;
transmit certification information of the certified precious metal unit to the PSE service center to create a corresponding certified precious metal unit record for storage in a certified precious metal unit registry; and
ship the certified precious metal unit to the target PSE storage facility;
the target PSE storage facility, upon receipt of the certified precious metal unit, is configured to transmit storage status information to the PSE service center thereby to update storage location information in the corresponding certified precious metal unit record in the certified precious metal unit registry; and
the PSE service center, upon receipt of the certified precious metal unit at the target PSE storage facility, is configured to update a PSE account holder account with information from the corresponding certified precious metal unit record.
2 . A method of operating a physical secure environment (PSE) system, the method comprising:
providing a PSE service center to receive a conversion form from a PSE account holder, the conversion form including information regarding non-PSE precious metal of the PSE account holder received by a PSE processing facility and configured to be stored a target PSE storage facility after conversion into and certification of predetermined uniform characteristics;
providing the PSE processing facility to:
convert the received PSE account holder non-PSE precious metal into a certified precious metal unit per the information from the conversion form, wherein the certified precious metal unit includes the predetermined uniform characteristics of precious metal type, material quality, and weight; and
determine a conversion cost of the non-PSE precious metal of the PSE account holder and either reduce an amount of certified precious metal units held by the PSE account holder by the conversion cost or invoice the PSE account holder with the conversion cost for payment in a currency; and
providing a PSE certification facility to:
certify the converted precious metal unit by providing an instruction to an equipment disposed in the PSE certification facility to engrave at least one unique serialized indicium on at least one of the certified precious metal unit and mark the at least one unique serialized indicium on a container configured to securely hold the certified precious metal unit;
transmit certification information of the certified precious metal unit to the PSE service center to create a corresponding certified precious metal unit record for storage in a certified precious metal unit registry; and
ship the certified precious metal unit to the target PSE storage facility;
the target PSE storage facility, upon receipt of the certified precious metal unit, transmits storage status information to the PSE service center thereby to update storage location information in the corresponding certified precious metal unit record in the certified precious metal unit registry; and
the PSE service center, upon receipt of the certified precious metal unit at the target PSE storage facility, updates a PSE account holder account with information from the corresponding certified precious metal unit record.