Novem Gold
A blockchain-powered gold trading system with an immutable audit trail for legacy banking integration.
The story.
What they wanted
“Novem Gold wanted to make buying gold as easy as buying a stock, but with physical ownership transparency. The challenge wasn't just code; it was trust. How do you prove digital tokens equate to physical gold in a vault?”
The hard part
We had to integrate with legacy banking APIs for payments (SOAP/XML) while providing a modern, real-time React frontend. Security was non-negotiable; any discrepancy in the ledger would destroy trust. We also had to handle complex KYC/AML compliance for users in 50+ countries.
The call we made
We prioritized 'Auditability over Speed' for the core ledger. I chose Python (Django) for the backend due to its robust financial libraries and strict typing support. We built a 'Private Sidecar Chain': an internal immutable log of every transaction that auditors could verify independently of the database.
How we built it
We built a modern Next.js frontend that decoupled the user experience from the slow banking backends using webhooks and optimistic UI updates. For KYC, we integrated an AI-driven verification partner but added a manual fallback dashboard for the ops team. We containerized the entire infrastructure (Docker) to allow for on-premise deployment if regulations required it.
What it did for the business
The platform processed over $40M in transactions in its first year with zero security incidents. The automated KYC flow reduced onboarding time from 3 days to 3 minutes, increasing conversion rates by 200%.
“We needed bank-grade security with startup speed. Witsberry delivered exactly that. Their decision to build the audit layer gave our investors the confidence to back us.”
More work.
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You're not hiring a company. You're hiring a person who signs their name to it.
Rikaz Zarook, Founder & CTO. Thirteen years in software. Two builds a month, that's the whole capacity.