SMX and FinGo Enter Into Collaboration Mandate to Develop a Joint 'Physical to Digital' Platform Service To Enhance Mining Industry's Ability to Report on Sustainable and Ethical Supply Chains

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / November 7, 2024 / SMX (Security Matters) PLC (NASDAQ:SMX)(NASDAQ:SMXWW), a pioneer in digitizing physical objects for a circular economy, announces its collaboration mandate with Sthaler Ltd, which markets FinGo ID, a cutting-edge Human Identity SaaS. Together, they intend to develop a centralized reporting platform to ensure transparency within the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector, and through the entire supply chain to ensure all ASM gold exported comes from an ethical and responsible source. According to the World Bank, one widely used estimate is that more than 100 million people globally depend either directly or indirectly on ASM for their livelihoods.

SMX believes the global marketplace for ASM gold is becoming increasingly complex, and the global gold market faces rising regulatory pressure to comply with stringent environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulations. It further believes that governments are under pressure to ensure that all gold exports are ethical, compliant with government regulations, and able to report evidential data accurately in real time. This collaboration mandate is the first step in a planned broader relationship between SMX and Sthaler expected to address:

• Ethical sourcing of precious metals

• Child labour

• Use of chemicals

• Location identification of artisanal miners and mining operations

SMX's proprietary technology enables the seamless marking and tracking of physical materials throughout the supply chain, providing traceability and authentication from the source-be it a mine, aggregator or refinery-through to the final product. FinGo complements this with its Human Identity-as-a-Service (HIDaaS) platform, which uses a highly secure, biometric-based digital ID system to verify and authenticate the individuals and entities involved in the supply chain. This collaboration may offer the ability to authenticate each partner in the supply chain and create value by ensuring commodities are tracked transparently, compliantly, and securely. Additionally, it is expected to be designed to integrates FinGo's digital identity and payment solutions to streamline counterparty payments securely.

SMX believes that FinGo offers a robust and efficient identity verification system, connecting individual identifiers such as national ID, insurance, claims, and location details using its VeinID technology. This approach is expected to provide high-level security by identifying individuals through their unique, invisible subcutaneous vein patterns, ensuring privacy and protecting personal data. SMX further believes that VeinID is particularly well-suited for industries like mining, as the small data packets used for matching allow for authentication in remote areas. FinGo's platform is designed to verify individuals at the source-whether they are miners, or other key supply chain actors-and SMX believes integrates seamlessly with SMX's system to enable secure payment transactions between verified parties.

Nick Dryden, Executive Chair of FinGo, added: "I believe that the need for an inclusive, accurate and reliable, identity system is greater than ever, and I believe FinGo VeinID is proven to be the most reliable biometric because its less affected by climate and demographic factors. FinGo's technology is designed to combine secure digital identity service with associated data which can document each stage of the ASM supply chain with human ID to create a smooth, secure, and fully auditable end-to-end service."

At SMX, we believe that the ultimate goal of this collaboration mandate is to provide authentication solutions from individual actors to multinational organizations at both the biometric and molecular levels. This allows all data and physical materials to be linked in one centralized digital structure, ensuring full traceability and regulatory compliance.

The collaboration mandate is expected to offers several key benefits:

1. Enhanced Transparency: SMX's molecular markers combined with FinGo's biometric identity solutions is expected to offer secure tracking of commodities from origin to final product, ensuring compliance with stringent regulations.

2. Improved Governance: The platform is expected to help businesses look to onboard new sources of precious metals from artisanal and small scale mining operations that meet their governance and reporting requirements continuously throughout the daily operations.

3. Real-Time Digital Auditing: It is expected to offer a shift from manual, paper-based auditing to real-time, digital reporting, reducing the cost and time associated with compliance and improving operational efficiency across the mining sector and mine license programs run and managed by existing Ministries.

4. Secure and Compliant Payment Systems: FinGo's secure payment gateway is designed to ensure transactions between verified stakeholders are protected and compliant with international standards, ensuring fair compensation for suppliers.

5. End-to-End Traceability: The combined technologies are expected to provide full traceability of materials from farm, mine, or production facility to the end consumer, maintaining data integrity and ensuring all stakeholders are verified and registered on the system.

This collaboration mandate, which runs on a three-month review cycle, is expected to mark a transition from manual and paper-based auditing to real-time digital reporting, reducing compliance and audit costs, lowering reputational risks, and enhancing overall productivity across supply chain operations. In addition, it is expected to offer a practical, scalable, and commercially viable solution to modern supply chain challenges. Additionally, it is expected that the platform will also facilitate enhanced visibility and reporting, assisting businesses to access new precious metals sources where previously compliance and traceability did not allow.

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About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

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SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters)