New episode of El Diner: gold, the king metal

11Onze’s animated series dedicates an episode to gold. We explain mankind’s relationship with this precious metal since its origins in a special episode.

If you thought we had already explained everything about gold, you were wrong. What makes gold so safe and so prestigious? Well, the human history with gold goes back a long, long way. That is probably why there is this atavistic behaviour: when things go wrong, we go back to gold. When there is a crisis, when currencies can no longer be trusted… we always look to the king metal. It’s normal, it’s thousands of years of relationship. Already in prehistoric times, around 4600 BC, humans were making gold jewellery. And we haven’t stopped since then. Gold has always been a symbol of wealth and stability.

In this episode of El Diner we take a look at this history and the role of gold in the global economic system. From the Gold Standard to the Dollar Standard and the present day. We say it is a special episode for several reasons. Because it is longer than usual, because it incorporates a new main character and because, for the first time, 3D had to be incorporated into the animation. An effort by 11Onze and Luee studio for a protagonist who is not just anyone: he is the metal king. That’s why our ingot is akin to Elvis.

At the end of the chapter, as always, you will be able to test your acquired knowledge with a quiz. Are you already an expert in gold? That’s exactly what we wanted: if you decide to protect your savings with Preciosos 11Onze, you will have all the training you can get.

You can see the full chapter here.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

15 March 2021 was a very important day in the history of 11Onze. The first employees entered an intensive academy that prepared them to become agents of the first Catalan fintech community. We remember it with some of its protagonists.

The values of 11Onze have been widely publicised. We are a community fintech that wants to put people at the centre, in a broad sense. Giving them good service, meeting their needs, enabling them to train, giving them tools to coordinate and making sure we are transparent, explaining ourselves clearly. With these objectives in mind, the employees had to be trained, because it was clear to everyone that we had come to change the banking logic.

This is why the Academy was set up. A three-week training course, running from Monday to Sunday, where around fifty employees had to learn everything they needed to set up 11Onze. And, committed to transparency, we collected the experience of the Academy in a documentary series that you can watch here.

It was necessary for it to be a coexistence of a large bubble group; the pandemic situation did not allow us to be coming and going. So the future agents left everything behind and entered the 11Onze academy, where they not only learned, but also created a spirit of brotherhood that continues to this day in the company. “We were in the middle of a pandemic, we were coming from isolation. It was a shock, we needed to embrace each other, to touch each other,” explains head of agents Lara de Castro.

The work experience of my life

Agent Pilar Oltra defines her time at the Academy as follows: “it is the work experience of my life”. Núria Rambla, executive assistant at 11Onze adds that “it was special. It has marked us and what 11Onze is like“. All of this, doing an academy of this type and making a documentary series, is extremely unusual. It hasn’t been done before. Surprised? Pilar Oltra already suspected in January 2021 that 11Onze would not be a normal financial institution: “When we joined the Academy, we already came from the Circuit, right? Lara de Castro, about the Circuit, points out that “it was crazy” and that she already foresaw that 11Onze would be an opportunity to do things differently.

“I came out convinced”

For his part, the financial director of 11Onze, Oriol Tafanell recalls his time at the Academy saying “I left convinced that I hadn’t made a mistake and that this was the right thing for me to do“.

That intensive experience created the necessary bond to build what is now beginning to be perceived as 11Onze. We talk more extensively about what that experience was like and how they remember it in this conversation.

11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!

The new digital revolution is also reaching the art world, and NFTs are making a strong entrance as a virtual reference for certificates of authenticity of digital works. A business model that moves millions around the world. But what are NFTs? And how important will they be in our economy? Gemma Vallet, marketing director of 11Onze, explains it to us in a new episode of Estat de la Nació.

NFTs, which stands for ‘Non Fungible Token’, are digital certificates created using blockchain technology. The same technology used by cryptocurrencies, but unlike cryptocurrencies, they are unique, non-fungible, i.e. irreplaceable, non-duplicable units of reference that credit the author and owner of the work.

“An NFT is a digital file, which can be a song, a video, or it can be a work of art. A concept that has acquired value during the Covid crisis, when the industry did not provide an outlet for artists’ works. In this context, NFTs are beginning to acquire value within digital art, as they allow a piece to be distributed in a universal, international way, while protecting intellectual property,” explains Vallet.

One consequence of the popularity of digital transactions has been the advent of blockchain technology, which essentially eliminates intermediaries, and has been key to the creation of NFTs. “The blockchain decentralises authorities and ensures that the piece is authored. It becomes a safety that you can have a transaction with both buying and selling,” she adds.

Guaranteed security

The very nature of NFTs and the functioning of blockchains guarantee the authenticity, exclusivity, and validity of the work or digital object purchased. As Vallet points out, “just as when you buy gold, and you have a certificate of value, the same thing happens when you buy a digital piece. You have a certificate, which, given blockchain technology, guarantees it”.

Therefore, NFTs are, in short, certificates of ownership of virtual or physical assets that allow us to acquire the original work signed by the author, or sell it on the digital art market if we are the creators. A decentralised and secure process, where the control of the process belongs to the users.

Fintech Talk about NFT with Gemma Vallet

If you want to know more, don’t miss the next Fintech Talk, where Gemma Vallet will talk about NFT. You can register here.

If you want to know more about superior options to make your money profitable, go to Guaranteed Funds. From 11Onze Recomana we propose you the best options in the market.

Inflation is already affecting us in our day-to-day lives, but the scenario will get even worse because of the conflict in Ukraine. “February’s CPI rate closed at 7.4%, and all forecasts warn that the figure will go ‘in crescendo’,” warns Sandra Molas, Head of Strategic Partnerships at 11Onze, in a new episode of L’Estat de la Nació. In this context, what can ordinary citizens do?

“On 10 March, we will see what the European Central Bank decides about interest rates, and how much it expects inflation to rise,” the Head of Strategic Partnerships explains. The 7.4% rate is the highest figure in 30 years in Spain, specifically since 1989. “In Europe, the figure is not much better, it is 5.8%, the highest rate since the creation of the euro,” she denounces.

To deal with this context, Molas explains that 11Onze is providing many tools for better savings management. “It is clear that, with inflation like the one we have, if you don’t move your savings from a current account, they lose value,” she summarises. For this reason, one of the options that the fincom is offering its community is the purchase of gold as a safe haven with Preciosos 11Onze. 

Coping with rising prices without savings

But what about all those citizens who do not even have savings and who have to face unprecedented price increases? “Then we have to consider ways to reduce spending. And we recommend starting to look at fixed costs,” the Head of Strategic Partnerships warns.

“The fixed cost brings together the contract for electricity, gas, water, housing… You can start looking at whether another company allows you to spend less money. And this is something you can do in the medium term. In the short term, you can also try to control your family’s spending on everyday purchases. Perhaps saving 20 cents may seem silly, but in the current context it does come from here,” Molas explains.

Another key to controlling spending is to team up with a community. “As we have done with Preciosos 11Onze, which, because we are a community, we can negotiate a better price, we also hope to offer other services and products in La Plaça that allow our community to make savings,” she explains. 

The presence of women in finance

On the eve of 8-M, Women’s Day, Molas has taken the opportunity to call for a greater presence of women in the financial world. “The first thing you find when you Google the word ‘money’ are men in jackets and ties. They are the ones who manage, who wield the power,” Molas warns. The Head of Strategic Partnerships considers that, in a geopolitical and economic context of crisis such as the one we are experiencing, we must once and for all commit to female leadership.

11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!

The banking organisations have reached an agreement with the Spanish government to combat the financial exclusion that leaves thousands of vulnerable people in the lurch. But the solutions they have proposed do not seem to be the best. Lara de Castro, head of 11Onze agents, discusses it in a new episode of L’Estat de la Nació.

“Traditional banks have made a proposal on how they intend to approach and take a step towards reducing financial exclusion, especially for the elderly. But, basically, what they have agreed is that they will offer minimum services,” De Castro warns. As part of the agreement, it has been agreed to open offices from 9 am to 2 pm with a cash service and telephone service. In other words, if there is an elderly person who comes to the office in that time slot, they will have to be assisted by at least one office worker.

“These measures are nothing more than common sense,” the head of agents denounces. “If you have customers, you have to serve them, and you have to do it well. To me, all these measures make me think that the traditional banks are managing in such a way that we will still have to thank them for offering almost minimum services,” she adds.

To avoid making the same mistakes as traditional banks and to offer a powerful alternative for the future, 11Onze was born as a totally digital fintech, but it has “never forgotten that most vulnerable part of society.” Lara de Castro recalls that, in order to meet this founding objective, 11Onze has a team of agents who provide 24/7 service, and has also launched services such as 11Onze at Home.

The effort to train

Within the package of measures against exclusion, financial training has also been included. “Now traditional banks have realised that we need to train people financially, but we have to take it with caution, because they have been deceiving us for many years, and now they will be the ones to explain everything well,” De Castro warns. 

The head of agents recalls that, from day one, 11Onze has organised itself around La Plaça, to collectively train its community. “It’s an effort that we have to make autonomously, but they have to guide you well. Everything is changing so fast that anyone who is not financially educated will not understand anything of what is to come,” Lara de Castro explains. How can we demand more confidence from our financial institution? Watch the whole section in the video below.

11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!

11Onze has launched an ambitious plan with 11Onze School. Recently, the European Commission has presented a new framework to promote financial education, because it estimates that only 30% of the population has basic knowledge. Head of agents Mireia Cano explains why it is really important to know about the financial world in order to emancipate oneself in a new episode of L’Estat de la Nació.

“In our day-to-day life we can’t do anything without money. It affects all our decisions. In this context, the responsibility to educate ourselves allows us to make better decisions, both individually and collectively,” Mireia Cano says. The head of agents says that ideally, we should learn the first financial notions from a very young age and, little by little, we should be given the keys to know “how the financial world works.” Unfortunately, in most cases this is not the case.

Precisely to combat this lack of knowledge, 11Onze was set up around La Plaça, “a platform aimed at making this collective intelligence grow, and which publishes a lot of content,” according to Cano. La Plaça is fed by the Magazine, 11Onze TV and the Learn section, with courses, training and even animated series such as El Diner.

“When we talk about financial knowledge, we don’t mean the ambition to read a newspaper like the ‘Financial Times’ every day. It is rather that we read complex concepts that appear in specialised economic media, and that we can understand them,” the head of agents says. Moreover, not only do we need to be able to understand these concepts, but we also need to know how to apply them in our daily lives. “This is happening right now, for example, with inflation and with a public debt that is skyrocketing,” she adds.

“This is an individual responsibility that we have to take on collectively. If no one helps you get these complex ideas down so that you can understand them in a simple way, we are lost,” says Cano. This is how we do it at La Plaça, where we encourage our community to become financially empowered, and we reward them when they do so with Peles, our own currency. 

Financial education at 11Onze School

In the same vein, at fincom we have also set up 11Onze School. “The project came about thanks to a follower of La Plaça, who is a high school teacher, and asked us if we could come and give a financial education session to his students,” the head of agents recalls. “We decided that we would not only do that session, but that we would open an educational space in all the educational centres, companies or business schools that need it,” she adds. 

In short, the aim is to ensure that as many people as possible have the financial knowledge they need to make the best economic decisions. Just watch the video below and find out how we can help you.

11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!

The second presentation of Fintech Talks focused on fintech trends. The founder and president of 11Onze, James Sène, talked about how neobanks are leading the financial revolution and ousting traditional banking. Agent 11Onze Xavi Viñolas tells us how the day went in La Plaça.

The idyllic sunset from the Monday coworking, located on the west side of the Port of Barcelona, marked the start of the second Fintech Talks organised by 11Onze. The cameras have been set up and the 50 chairs have taken the place of the ping-pong table, the anti-stress puffs, and the tantra chair. Monday’s staff are all set. James Sène, president of 11Onze, Gemma Vallet, CMO of 11Onze, and Xavi Bassons, CEO of Monday, prepare for the presentation as the room fills up. The event has sold out.

The conference begins with three key questions: Are neobanks a real threat to traditional banking? What will customer service be like with the digitalisation of banking? What is our opinion of community banking? The barrage of questions continues with the audience. “Where is the fintech ecosystem at?”, “Are we pioneers?”, “When will this transition take place?” ask the audience.

The table is gone, but the dialectic ping-pong between Sène and the audience gradually increases in pace. When asked about the paradigm shift that fintech may represent, and how states will adapt to digital money, the president of 11Onze replies that it is already happening, that physical money will soon disappear, that digital money such as the e-dollar and its equivalents in China or Sweden, with blockchain technology, are already in the testing phase or coming into operation.

In turn, Bassons asks how we can explain this change to a society that understands what physical money is, but finds it difficult to assimilate digital money. Sène says that, in fact, we have already been using digital money for years when we receive our salaries or pay with cards: “Everything is done digitally and cash only represents 0.3% or 0.5%. The economy needs a ‘reset’, and this can only be done with a digitised economy”.

Other participants question the usefulness of traditional banks as financial intermediaries and Sène explains how open banking has facilitated the entry of new players into the market, fintechs such as 11Onze, which introduce “a very clear message, a very polished service, and at a fraction of the cost of traditional banking“. And he makes a prediction: “For me, banks are finished and will disappear in ten years”.

It is well into the evening and the formal talk comes to an end, but the conversation continues between the speaker and the audience. One guy wants to know to what extent governments will be able to regulate and control cryptocurrencies, others comment on the future of decentralised finance. 11Onze’s fincom has become a reality: an increasing number of people learning from people, motivated by similar values, where financial education has to be at the centre. Soon, you will be able to watch the full talk at La Plaça.

11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!

In times of rampant inflation we have to look for ways to protect our savings. And this is what 11Onze has done: we have launched 11Onze Precious to help our community buy gold. Jordi Sánchez, 11Onze’s product owner, answers all your questions in a new episode of Ens Interessa.

Far from the stereotype, which associates the purchase of gold —often family jewellery— with extreme necessity, the central banks of major world powers, such as China and India, are buying gold to protect their reserves in the face of a possible global debt crisis. This is why it is important, says Sánchez, to differentiate very clearly between buying gold for consumption and as an asset investment and buying physical gold for savings, which is what 11Onze proposes with Preciosos 11Onze.

“When you realise that governments are already making these purchases, then you think that the confidence that until now was towards currencies such as the dollar is perhaps not the same… These governments are thinking about a very stable asset such as gold,” argues the 11Onze’s product owner. And why shouldn’t citizens have the same opportunities as the great world powers?

A safe haven value on the rise

During the last three years of the pandemic, the value of gold has risen by 40%. But why does everyone feel so confident about the evolution of the value of gold? “It’s a question of confidence. We have to see a precious metal like gold not only as protection, but also as a long-term investment, an asset that forms part of our wealth,” Sánchez says.

And he exemplifies this with data: “If we analyse the historical evolution of gold beyond these three years of pandemic, which have been the most outstanding of the last ten years, we can see that, despite some specific moments of correction, gold is a true safe haven, a safe value.” At La Plaça we have picked up on this evolution.

A reliable service

With Preciosos 11Onze, the fincom is making it easier for its community to buy an unparalleled safe-haven asset. All information about the Preciosos 11Onze service is available at La Plaça. With the help of an 11Onze agent, customers will have two options when it comes to safekeeping their purchase: keep the asset at home or hire a security service to take care of it.

“Personally, I would recommend that the safekeeping is done through a security company, which has many years of experience. This material comes with all the documentation, an attachment and certified packaging that confirms the purity of the gold. We also recommend that, if the asset is kept at home, the piece is never handled, so that we can be sure that we can sell it at a later date,” Sánchez says.

A sum of advantages

One advantage to bear in mind, Sánchez adds, is that there is no VAT to pay when buying the metal. In addition, during the years that the asset is held in custody, no specific tax is payable. “And, when we decide to sell it, the capital gain we have obtained will be paid in capital gains or capital losses,” summarises the head of the 11Onze product team.

“In the end, what we want at 11Onze is for our community to be able to buy gold at the best possible price. As when it comes to acquiring all this metal, we do it for a whole community, 11Onze will have many more advantages and better conditions, which will be passed on to the customer,” Sánchez concludes. This is the big difference between going it alone or transforming collectively.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

The news that Zuckerberg wants to shut down Instagram and Facebook in Europe, if he is not allowed to manage users’ personal data, has once again brought to the surface the debate on how privacy is guaranteed. Do financial institutions really protect their customers’ rights? How do they do it? And how does 11Onze respond to this challenge? Iu Alemany, Head of 11Onze’s Back Office, answers this question in a new episode of L’Estat de la Nació.

“There is a regulation for the protection of personal data. In Europe it is very strict and in the United States it is not so strict. And that’s how this clash between Zuckerberg and the European authorities comes about. He wants to take the data to the United States and Europe reminds him that he can’t do that,” Alemany summarises. In this sense, the Head of Back Office explains that in 11Onze the data “are absolutely regulated,” even “rigid”, in order to comply with this European obligation.

La Plaça is the agora of the 11Onze community, where people interact, learn and build the financial sovereignty of this community, so that anyone who wants to join the project can do so convinced of the financial products they will find with all the information possible. “At the time we created our social network, from where we capture the data of the customers who want to be, and we use it only for mutual benefit. We never offer this data to third parties to do business,” Alemany says.

Financial empowerment is possible

“We try to put technology at the service of the customer to make it very easy,” Iu Alemany explains in reference to the financial exclusion suffered by thousands of people. “Traditional banks are mistreating these customers: they don’t teach them, they close branches, they close ATMs, they make everything very complicated,” the Head of Back Office denounces. 

Precisely to combat this financial exclusion, 11Onze launched the ‘11Onze at Home’ service, to resolve customer queries by video call. If you want to know more about 11Onze’s customer service and how we protect customer privacy, just watch the video below.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, go to Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the ultimate safe haven asset: physical gold.

11Onze is fulfilling another of its founding objectives: to help its community protect its savings. Just three and a half months after launching El Canut, it is now launching Preciosos 11Onze.

People need to know how to manage their money. We are here to provide training and tools so that everyone can find what they are most interested in. 11Onze has explained it a lot of times and follows a marked path: that of explaining things as they are so that an informed and responsible user can decide how to proceed.

That is why, faced with an inflationary scenario that is damaging savings, 11Onze has launched Preciosos 11Onze. From today, specialised agents will help those who wish to make grouped purchases of physical gold. All information is available here.

Should I buy gold?

At 11Onze we recommend the purchase of physical gold for all those who want to protect part of their savings from a probable debt crisis. With European states at record debt levels, with inflation rampant due to the excess of printed money, and with the United States in a delicate situation in the midst of the de-dollarisation of the world economy… everything seems to indicate that it is a good time to stock up on the safe-haven asset par excellence.

Since the launch of El Canut, 11Onze continues to expand its services. Today you can have a 100% guaranteed universal account, debit cards, make mobile payments, instant transfers, or group your accounts in our application. And now, the option to facilitate gold purchases has been added. What central banks do can now be done by individuals.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, go to Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the ultimate safe haven asset: physical gold.