USS - Eligible Silver Collateral Standard
GG-SS-01 — USS-Eligible Silver Collateral Standard
Version: 1.0
Status: Ratified (Draft pending Council vote)
Effective Date: Upon Council Adoption
Applies To: USS (US Silver) issuance, backing, and redemption
1. Purpose
This standard defines the minimum physical silver requirements for assets eligible to back USS (US Silver), the fungible silver token of the Global Gold Protocol.
Its purpose is to ensure that:
USS represents real, deliverable, institutional-grade silver
Every unit of USS is redeemable into equivalent physical silver
Redemption outcomes are predictable, liquid, and economically fair
The protocol avoids historical failures associated with paper silver, pool silver, and fractional backing
This standard governs monetary collateral only.
It does not restrict the trading of non-eligible silver assets elsewhere in the ecosystem.
2. Core Principle
USS must be backed exclusively by silver that is interchangeable at redemption.
Silver’s higher volatility, lower unit value, and more fragmented market structure make standardization even more critical than in gold.
Accordingly:
USS may only be backed by silver that is institutionally deliverable, globally recognized, and operationally fungible at exit.
3. USS-Eligible Silver Requirements
To be eligible to mint or back USS, a silver bar must satisfy all requirements below.
3.1 Purity Requirement (Non-Negotiable)
Minimum purity: ≥ 0.999 fine silver
Silver below 0.999 purity is not eligible, regardless of weight or valuation method
Rationale:
Lower-purity silver introduces inconsistent refining requirements, delivery discounts, and non-uniform redemption outcomes — incompatible with a fungible monetary instrument.
3.2 Bar Format & Weight
Eligible silver bars must conform to standardized, institutionally accepted formats, including:
1,000 troy ounce bars (COMEX/LBMA standard)
100 troy ounce bars
1 kilogram silver bars
Non-standard retail formats (coins, small bars, specialty products) are excluded from USS collateral.
3.3 Refinery Standards
Eligible silver must be produced by:
LBMA Good Delivery List refiners,
COMEX-approved refiners, or
Refiners explicitly approved by the Global Gold Council
Approval criteria include:
Exchange deliverability
Market liquidity
Refining consistency
Auditability
3.4 Vault & Custody Standards
Eligible silver must be held in:
An Approved Global Gold Reserve Partner vault
Fully allocated storage
Non-hypothecated
Free of liens, pledges, or encumbrances
Vaults must:
Support silver-specific handling and storage standards
Provide cryptographic custody attestations
Enable legally enforceable redemption and delivery
3.5 Documentation & Metadata
Each USS-eligible silver bar must be:
Serialized
Assay verified
Vault-attested
Registered on-chain with immutable metadata, including:
Serial number
Purity
Weight
Refinery
Vault ID
Jurisdiction
Custody status
4. Minting Rules
When minting USS:
USS is minted strictly based on verified pure silver content
No user-defined premiums or discounts are permitted at mint
Eligible bars are placed into the USS Available Pool
Title transfers to the designated collateral trust or vault-as-agent structure
Minting occurs at spot purity value only
This ensures:
Uniform backing
Transparent accounting
Predictable redemption
5. Redemption Guarantee
Because all USS-backing silver meets identical eligibility standards:
Any USS holder may redeem into:
≥ 0.999 fine silver
Standard institutional bar formats
Globally deliverable silver
Redemption outcomes are:
Deterministic
Non-discriminatory
Free from quality-based slippage
There are:
No tiered redemption paths
No class-based routing
No preferential delivery rules
USS is one asset with one redemption promise.
6. Explicit Exclusions
The following may not back USS:
Silver with purity < 0.999
Coins or numismatic products
Retail bars below approved sizes
Specialty or collectible silver
Encumbered or pledged silver
Silver from unapproved refiners or vaults
Such assets may still:
Exist as Conditional Claim NFTs
Trade on the Global Gold Exchange
Be sold at market premiums
They are excluded only from the monetary base.
7. Governance & Amendments
The Global Gold Council exclusively governs:
Eligible silver bar standards
Approved refiners
Approved vaults
Collateral structures
Amendments to this standard
All changes require:
A formal Global Gold Proposal (GGP)
Council approval under applicable thresholds
Public notice and documentation
This prevents:
Silent collateral dilution
Fragmented redemption classes
Backing inconsistency over time
8. Why This Standard Is Critical
Silver markets are historically vulnerable to:
Fractional reserve claims
Pool silver ambiguity
Delivery failures during stress
Paper-to-physical mismatches
This standard ensures:
USS remains physically redeemable at scale
Backing remains visible and auditable
Market confidence compounds over time
The protocol survives stress scenarios
9. Canonical Statement
USS can only function as sound digital silver if the metal that backs it is standardized, institutional-grade, and interchangeable at redemption — not merely equal in ounces.
10. Effective Status
This standard becomes binding upon Council adoption and applies to all current and future USS issuance.
Strategic Note (Not Part of the Standard)
Together, GG-USG-01 and GG-SS-01 establish a clean separation between:
Collateral layers (boring, standardized, predictable)
Marketplace layers (expressive, premium-driven, price-discovered)
This separation is what allows Global Gold to scale without breaking trust.
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