Gold has been on a remarkable run in 2025, steadily climbing through the summer and reaching new heights in September, with prices now hovering around $3,859 per ounce. This surge reflects a mix of persistent inflation, shifting interest-rate expectations, and continued central bank accumulation, underscoring gold’s enduring appeal as a safe-haven asset.
Against this backdrop, Ayni Gold is bringing a fresh approach to gold mining, bridging traditional extraction with blockchain innovation. In an exclusive conversation, we speak with Daniel C. Tschinkel, CTO of Ayni Gold, about how the project tokenizes real‑world gold production and what it means for investors looking to participate in this evolving market.
CryptoDaily: Hi Daniel, it’s great to have you with us. So, tell us a bit about yourself — how did your journey in blockchain lead you to join Ayni Gold?
Daniel C. Tschinkel: I have always been fascinated by how things work at their core. Since my younger days, I spent most of my time surrounded by computers — disassembling, experimenting, and putting them back together just to understand the essence of how everything connects. That curiosity naturally evolved into a deeper passion for technology and systems thinking. When I first discovered Bitcoin, I immediately felt the same pull. I needed to understand it from every angle — technically, economically, and philosophically — and that became my rabbit‑hole moment.
Daniel C. Tschinkel at European Blockchain Convention. Source: ayni.gold
It started with mining. I built rig after rig, optimizing every setup to squeeze out more efficiency. Over time, my interest expanded to the broader blockchain ecosystem, especially when I realized how decentralized finance could completely reshape our financial infrastructure. After experiencing several market cycles — each one aging me about forty years in eight — I came to understand that the next major evolution in blockchain would be the tokenization of real‑world assets.
That is where Ayni Gold comes in. Having worked previously with one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies that successfully tokenized hashrate, I saw firsthand that almost anything tangible can be represented digitally. Ayni Gold represents that next step, bridging the physical world of gold mining with the digital economy, creating access for participants globally. For me, joining Ayni was about contributing to something meaningful — making real assets borderless and accessible through blockchain. I truly believe we are on the right path to achieving that vision.
CD: That’s fascinating. You mentioned Bitcoin mining earlier — so how did the idea of tokenizing gold mining actually come about, and who do you see as the ideal participant for this project?
Daniel C. Tschinkel: The idea really came from watching tokenization work successfully in other areas, especially in Bitcoin mining where hashrate was tokenized and fractionalized. That showed me that it is possible to take something complex and physical and make it accessible to a much broader audience through blockchain. Gold mining, in many ways, is a perfect fit for this approach because it is an asset people already understand and value.
The commercial potential lies in opening a completely new way for people to participate in a traditionally closed market. Until now, access to mining profits or physical gold production was limited to high‑net‑worth individuals or institutional investors. Through Ayni Gold, we are changing that. This project is built for everyone — from individual miners who want exposure to gold through a transparent blockchain model, to funds looking for stable, asset‑backed rewards in the digital space.
At its core, Ayni Gold is about inclusion and financial equality. It is about giving people the opportunity to participate in something real and tangible, without the barriers that have always existed in traditional finance. That is where I see the true power and commercial potential of what we are building.
CD: Interesting — given that context, why did you choose Peru, and what made Minerales San Hilario the right partner for this project?
Daniel C. Tschinkel: Peru was an easy choice for us because it has one of the richest gold mining heritages in the world. The country is consistently among the top global producers of gold and has a long tradition of responsible mining operations supported by a well‑established legal framework. Beyond its mineral wealth, Peru also offers stable mining infrastructure, skilled local labor, and a clear regulatory environment — all essential for building a sustainable and transparent operation.
Minerales San Hilario, a licensed Peruvian concession holder, became our partner of choice because it already holds a valid gold mining concession in the region, secured in 2023. In many other tokenized mining projects, the biggest point of failure comes from relying on external operators. By operating directly via licensed concession, we remove that risk completely.