Pardon my ignorance on the matter but if main purpose is preservance of value (as opposed to gains on invested capital which is what most people seek) why simply not invest in gold? Why the hassle with all this? What I'm missing?
The difference is in the diversification of your risk. If you only invest in one asset (or peg a tokens value to only one asset, such as gold, USD, etc.), you are completely exposed to the movement of the value of the chosen asset. Thus, there is no effective solution in case of a black swan event (the value of the asset significantly decreases) and your portfolio loses on value.
You can significantly lower you risk/exposure by investing (pegging a token) in several assets. In the case of X8C there are 8 different fiat currencies and gold coins.
In our project we have also taken a next step in the process of lowering risk/exposure. The value of X8C is not pegged to the value of the backing assets. Rather than that, the backing basket is actively managed by ARM AI. Thus, the distribution of assets in the basket is not always the same, but it changes together with the market. Example: if the value of gold would decrease, our ARM AI would lower the percentage of gold in the basket to ensure and even lower exposure to the negative market conditions.