Is the London Bullion Market going to implode

Uriziel

OP you are delusional if you think anything that happens in the UK like Digital ID would impact something as global as the price of silver globally. The UK is a very small and tiny country these days. What people do in the USA, China, Japan and Germany impacts the world but not little UK implementing digital ID.

The price of silver is up because very simply they are building electronics more than ever before in history and each electronic device, whether it is an EV, solar panel, data centre and anything else they are using for the AI race requires an ounce of silver. Silver also just like gold is a safe haven and the world is not as safe and stable as it used to be a decade ago. The US is now starting to build war ships and nobody truly knows what the plan is for tomorrow. China is also going to stop exporting their silver from 2026 simply because they are on the other side of the AI race and they need the silver for themselves so it will likely go up even more.
Silver is also not mined for as it is a merely a by-product which is also why the supply is very low.

I don't really understand why you think there is anything suspicious going on.

[Deleted User]

Buy silver, buy gold, you shouldn’t really look at it with a short term view. You want to hold it for a long period, it retains value overall. Not really about making a profit, but instead retaining wealth in a safe place. If it crashes tomorrow it wouldn’t bother me, like the housing market. It’s a long term process. 

I’d be very surprised if digital ID even happens. If anything I’d imagine it would push the price up, with people wanting more privacy and trading in cash or metals only.

masonic

[Deleted User] said:

I’d be very surprised if digital ID even happens. If anything I’d imagine it would push the price up, with people wanting more privacy and trading in cash or metals only.

It already has happened. Passports have been electronic (with a physical counterpart) since 1988. Ten years later a digital photograph and signature were added, and biometrics from 2006. Meanwhile the first centralised driving licence database was introduced in the 1970s with the paper counterpart being abolished in 2015. Over 90% of the UK adult population are opted in to one or both digital ID systems. It is just that the subject of the database doesn't yet have electronic access to their own data in order to prove their identity using electronic means. Credit reference agencies allow others to perform digital checks, but if those fail, database subjects must fall back on sharing original/certified paper or plastic documents (which can then be cross referenced with the digital ID record) - a rather inconvenient and insecure process.

The number who have opted out of the passport, driving licence, and credit account systems must be a tiny minority, and not all of them will be doing so to stay under the radar. So it seems unlikely the hold-outs will cause any sort of global impact on precious metal prices.

ColdIron

Yes it's happened, it's real and will expand

GOV.UK Verify was introduced as a single login to replace all other government systems (basically Government Gateway)

It no longer exists, GOV.UK One Login has replaced it. You can use it to change your state pension payment frequency, Apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate and Submit a pleasure craft voyage plan to the coastguard amongst other things

Next to come will be the GOV.UK Wallet and eventually I suppose it will include all the Government Gateway services

flaneurs_lobster

ColdIron said:

Yes it's happened, it's real and will expand

GOV.UK Verify was introduced as a single login to replace all other government systems (basically Government Gateway)

It no longer exists, GOV.UK One Login has replaced it. You can use it to change your state pension payment frequency, Apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate and Submit a pleasure craft voyage plan to the coastguard amongst other things

Next to come will be the GOV.UK Wallet and eventually I suppose it will include all the Government Gateway services

My Local Authority (a City) have already moved to a single, unified, access portal for all council services.

Unfortunately they chose Capita to implement this glorious vision. Several years late, millions over budget and it doesn't work. Can just about view your Council Tax bill but changing the details of your car for your resident's permit will take a visit to City Hall with a fist full of paper.

PixelPound

plumb1_2 said:

Just been reading about investing in silver , surprised that there’s a 300 million oz shortage of physical silver.
Al these paper notes issued are not worth anything, as there’s nowt in the vaults.
The bullion banks and the boe, are pushing for digital I’d, and digital money. To cover up this price fixing scam.

What happens if there is a repeat of 1933. Roosevelt brought in an act that made private ownership of gold illegal requiring everyone to sell their gold to the government at a fixed price due to the gold shortage?
Maybe you think paper notes or gold ETF is not worth anything, but if you think buying bullion is the only way, that's no guarantee. 

wmb194

PixelPound said:

plumb1_2 said:

Just been reading about investing in silver , surprised that there’s a 300 million oz shortage of physical silver.
Al these paper notes issued are not worth anything, as there’s nowt in the vaults.
The bullion banks and the boe, are pushing for digital I’d, and digital money. To cover up this price fixing scam.

What happens if there is a repeat of 1933. Roosevelt brought in an act that made private ownership of gold illegal requiring everyone to sell their gold to the government at a fixed price due to the gold shortage?
Maybe you think paper notes or gold ETF is not worth anything, but if you think buying bullion is the only way, that's no guarantee. 

Back then they were still on a version of the gold standard so it mattered. It no longer does.

[Deleted User]

masonic said:

[Deleted User] said:

I’d be very surprised if digital ID even happens. If anything I’d imagine it would push the price up, with people wanting more privacy and trading in cash or metals only.

It already has happened. Passports have been electronic (with a physical counterpart) since 1988. Ten years later a digital photograph and signature were added, and biometrics from 2006. Meanwhile the first centralised driving licence database was introduced in the 1970s with the paper counterpart being abolished in 2015. Over 90% of the UK adult population are opted in to one or both digital ID systems. It is just that the subject of the database doesn't yet have electronic access to their own data in order to prove their identity using electronic means. Credit reference agencies allow others to perform digital checks, but if those fail, database subjects must fall back on sharing original/certified paper or plastic documents (which can then be cross referenced with the digital ID record) - a rather inconvenient and insecure process.

The number who have opted out of the passport, driving licence, and credit account systems must be a tiny minority, and not all of them will be doing so to stay under the radar. So it seems unlikely the hold-outs will cause any sort of global impact on precious metal prices.

You are being slightly disingenuous here. We are discussing recently enacted legislation in regards to “digital ID” as announced by the UK government in September 2025, not existing systems. I understand these systems may eventually be part of it.

[Deleted User]

ColdIron said:

Yes it's happened, it's real and will expand

GOV.UK Verify was introduced as a single login to replace all other government systems (basically Government Gateway)

It no longer exists, GOV.UK One Login has replaced it. You can use it to change your state pension payment frequency, Apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate and Submit a pleasure craft voyage plan to the coastguard amongst other things

Next to come will be the GOV.UK Wallet and eventually I suppose it will include all the Government Gateway services

Yes I had an account gov.uk, actually operated by Barclays among other providers. 

With “digital ID” what we are talking about is what was announced in September. I.e every citizen of the UK would have an app on their phone which can be loaded, checked and confirmed when someone takes up employment. This is what I am saying I don’t think will actually come to fruition. For a start even the government admit it will be set up just about before 2029, the department in charge of it has not even got their team in order, nobody wants the brief. Given the tight deadline and likelihood that the administration will change, I say again, I don’t think it will happen. 

The government have also started, that if you don’t want the app, alternatives will be available, although this has not been decided fully yet what form it will take.

masonic

[Deleted User] said:

masonic said:

[Deleted User] said:

I’d be very surprised if digital ID even happens. If anything I’d imagine it would push the price up, with people wanting more privacy and trading in cash or metals only.

It already has happened. Passports have been electronic (with a physical counterpart) since 1988. Ten years later a digital photograph and signature were added, and biometrics from 2006. Meanwhile the first centralised driving licence database was introduced in the 1970s with the paper counterpart being abolished in 2015. Over 90% of the UK adult population are opted in to one or both digital ID systems. It is just that the subject of the database doesn't yet have electronic access to their own data in order to prove their identity using electronic means. Credit reference agencies allow others to perform digital checks, but if those fail, database subjects must fall back on sharing original/certified paper or plastic documents (which can then be cross referenced with the digital ID record) - a rather inconvenient and insecure process.

The number who have opted out of the passport, driving licence, and credit account systems must be a tiny minority, and not all of them will be doing so to stay under the radar. So it seems unlikely the hold-outs will cause any sort of global impact on precious metal prices.

You are being slightly disingenuous here. We are discussing recently enacted legislation in regards to “digital ID” as announced by the UK government in September 2025, not existing systems. 

I’m not being disingenuous, I’m putting the topic in context and highlighting that the September 2025 proposals don't create a new surveillance state or gather any additional information for the vast majority. They simply create a framework for some of the data that the government and credit agencies have held on us for decades. If the existence of a digital ID were going to drive people toward gold and silver, that 'rush' should have happened when the DVLA digitised or when passports became biometric. The new legislation is largely about creation of a user interface - moving that existing data from a paper booklet or plastic card in your wallet to a website or app on your phone. The rest of the infrastructure already exists.

If someone hasn't felt the need to exit the banking system while their entire financial history and biometric profile were already stored digitally, it’s hard to see why giving them a level of access to that data themselves would suddenly trigger a collapse in confidence in banking that would be sufficient to move the price of gold or silver.

The historical context is also important to understand for those doubting the new measures will ever happen. The initial legislation on establishing the digital verification services trust framework was passed in June 2025, 3 months before the September announcement. This will be a decentralised system with GOV.UK One Login as its foundation. The 2022 Voter ID legislation was the "proof of concept" that the public would comply with mandatory ID requirements if framed as a security measure. The 2025 legislation is just the next step and formalisation of a process that has been running as a pilot since 2021. There has been an ever growing mandate from the public for successive governments to ensure that only those legally entitled can be here, and access work and state services, so the new legislation will widen the scope from voter fraud to the more general protection of the taxpayer.