16 TUESDAY 21 AUGUST 2018FEATURE CITYAM.COM 17TUESDAY 21 AUGUST 2018 FEATURECITYAM.COM
Our objective? To structure our com-pany in such a way that we turn ourcorporate stock into an official regu-lated stock. Then issue tokens that willtradeable on regulated exchanges likeChaintip.io or the new crypto assets ex-change the Singapore regulators arebuilding. The route, contracts, and allother legal documents will be open-sourced on our GitHub, so everyone can
Having left London to celebrate mybirthday (tomorrow!) in Nice, I havehad a chance to reflect on my Crypto
A.M. journey in this, my tenth edition. I havehad a remarkably enlightening ten weeksmaking sure that I met as many as I could ofthe UK’s leading figures in AI and the BlockchainIndustry, and am now a member of several groupswanting to drive these industries forward.
Many believe that 2018 has been the inflection point in thegrowth of the Blockchain Industry and that it is indeed hereto stay, as Thomas Power wrote in my first edition (18thJune 2018).
I recognise that, as with all nascent and now rapidly growingindustries, there are divergent views on where the direction oftravel should be and also varied opinions of what will winthrough - and what won’t. That being said, common themesdo emerge and top of the list is to clean up the image of InitialCoin Offerings, which have had a bad press because of the badactors the ‘wild west’ nature of the space attracts, and it’sgenerally recognised that the only real way forward for that iscredible, flexible and safe regulation.
Although I believe that there is much the BlockchainIndustry can do to self-regulate, it is vital that the financialauthorities and government step in and provide the same.This will provide peace of mind to our entrepreneurs notwanting be exposed to retrospective action, investors wantingto be protected from rogue operators and also open the doorsto regulated investment funds who can’t invest their clients’funds into an unregulated space.
With the fast pace of progress of integrating AI andBlockchain into key solutions, leading to the advent of theDigital Economy 2.0, I strongly believe that there is anopportunity for the UK to become a leader in the space whichcould be vital in a post Brexit Britain. Watching Bermuda,Malta and Singapore move with lightning speed to embracenew legislation and seeing by default the UK, throughGibraltar, Jersey and the Isle of Man, doing the same, I amstruck by how we might just make a success of this.
The Commonwealth is made up of 53 member states andhas a population of around 2.5bn. Most, if not all, have derivedtheir laws from English Law and of course the Head of theCommonwealth is the Queen. With all of the countries I havejust mentioned being members it highlights my theory thatthe powerful network of the Commonwealth could beharnessed to create a uniform regulatory framework - and thatthe UK should not be slow to jump on board and help drivethis agenda forward.
use them as a map to set sail to thiscalmer sea. Together with Liqwith.io, we man-aged to solve the most pressing prob-lems. Liqwith.io offers us thetechnology to manage our sharehold-ers, tokenize the shares and a solid legalbase to start this project. As thismethod is still in its infancy, we also in-vited our own lawyers to take aim and
have a go at it. Basically what it boilsdown to is to create enough shares in aholding company, certify those sharesand put them into a trust office foun-dation that is owned by the sharehold-ers, in the foundation put a blockchainon top that acts as a shareholders regis-ter, ensure the smart-contracts for thetokens take care of the dividend andvoting rights and sell them to investors. This approach gives some benefitsover regular shareholder ownership.For the start-up, it makes dealing withshareholders, votes, dividends, andcommunications less of a drag. It savesa ton in legal costs as this is replaced bythe Blockchain and opens the way toonboard smaller investors as well. Forshareholders it simplifies life; they re-ceive dividends directly in their ETHwallets with messages, votes and meet-ing notifications being received in thesame way.
I want to personally call on the sectorto create their own innovative mecha-nisms to deal with lack of regulation,whether you are an investor who wantsto learn more about new fundingmethods, an entrepreneur who is look-ing for funding or an investment bankwho is afraid we will sink your fleet ofexisting investment strategies. I believethere is enough Dutch courage to goaround. London just might jump shipand set sail to discover exciting new lands.
Crypto founders are going out oftheir way when it comes to en-suring that their token classi-fies as a utility token. The fearof being regulated and having
the government peek into their belovedproject makes them shiver. In theiropinion being regulated equals moun-tains of work to be done and keepingup with ever-stricter compliance guide-lines. But is this really something to beafraid of or is regulation somethingthat will be able to bring some much-needed stability to the volatile sea thatis the crypto market? Does Londonneed some Dutch courage when itcomes to tokenization? Off course there are many projectsthat thrive well on a utility, but let's faceit from last December the top 100 listedICO’s dropped an astonishing 90% ofvalue in total with investors seeingtheir investments evaporate if not dis-appear in their entirety. HODL (Cryptoslang for Hold On for Dear Life) has be-come a trend word that if used as amotto could sink one’s entire invest-ment capital especially with pumpsand dumps combined with large shortsgetting more common. Just look at themarket in the last week. The sea isrough enough to scare any sane sea-soned captain. But, as the saying goes:“Remember, rough seas make greatcaptains.”For our own project here in Holland,we have been working on a way to turnthe tide not only to launch a more sta-ble token but also put real value under-neath it. And yes, as sure as the sunrises in the east, we did run into the fi-nancial regulators instantly. We con-sider this a good thing. Our vision forthe market is to skip the STO (SecurityToken Offering) strategy in its entiretyand launch a full ETO (Equity Token Of-fering) instead. Creating the first fullyregulated token that is in full compli-ance with the regulatory offices andbacked by the bricks and mortar of thecompany. The tokens will offer full div-idend rights, voting and meeting rightsand in the future even a tender offersystem that notifies the shareholdersdirectly via their wallet. We believe thatregulations are an opportunity to cre-
ate a somewhat calmer market, whichcould even be used as a hedge againstnormal crypto volatility. Given that the first publicly tradeableshare, as we know it, was originally in-vented in Amsterdam in 1602 by theVOC we feel it is almost our duty to setthe pace once again! Where the old ver-sion powered and funded de Ruyter andour fleets of ships to go global, this time
we look to have all hands on deck topush the boundaries in such a way itbenefits entrepreneurs equally, createsopportunity and spreads the cryptofever.Just like any new route, we will runinto obstacles, rough seas, and naviga-tional issues. We figured that it’s onlyfair to share this knowledge with ourfellow crypto captains and pirates alike.
Author: Sander Kooger– Founder ofThis Is Fashionand theTIFstock token
Image designedby Phill Snelling,Bowater Media
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: THE VIEWS ANDOPINIONS PROVIDED BY CITY A.M.'S CRYPTOINSIDER ARE OF THOSE NAMED IN THE ARTICLEAND SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS INVESTMENTADVICE. THIS COMMUNICATION IS MARKETINGMATERIAL.
In association with
While some investors scramble forthe latest crypto opportunity,other more traditional types are
on the fence, unconvinced of the risksand uncomfortable with losing theirhard-earned capital in a young volatileand unregulated market. With this inmind, Mirox Crypto Ltd feels it has a cre-ated a unique concept, which provides amore managed approach for crypto in-vesting by providing security and marketeducation to their clients.The firm and their team of advisors
from the Token Lounge have recentlylaunched a fixed income bond to alimited class of investors. The new bondcombines a hedging strategy that coversany underperforming investment andstructures them into three levels of risk;Mining, Initial Coin Offerings (ICO's) andTrading.City A.M.’s Crypto Insider met with
Mirox Crypto Director, Benjamin Beal, toget an inside track on what the bondaims to do.Benjamin Beal stated, "We created the
bond as a large number of investors arelooking into crypto, but feel the marketis too unstable and they don’t have the
sector knowledge to invest strategically.”“At any one time, there are countless
projects claiming to create new solutionsto industry problems through crypto andblockchain technology. We identify thebest opportunities and structureinvestments in a strategic way to helpprovide security over our clients funds.”“Specifically, we have identified three
areas within the crypto market thatcome with different levels of risk. We seeinvestment into crypto mining rigs ashaving the lowest exposure as its assetbacked, and we have assessed a numberof projects in Europe that requireadditional funding. ICO's are the next
Rick O’Neill,Founder of Look, Touch & Feel - a Specialist DigitalMarketing Agency, pulls back the curtains on ICOs, and their Marketingcampaigns, to reveal the real indicators of potential success and failure.
Last week we looked at being a truecommunity member. This week Iwant to talk about Partnerships.
Let’s look at partnerships in ICO projects.They can be incredibly powerful for anICO, because both their perceived andstrategic value are great indicators ofsuccess for the campaign and future of thecompany.
Strategic partnerships have always beena great way to grow and scale, but in ICOsthey’re particularly powerful because theygive reassurance to potential investors-especially if the partnerships are withpeople “above the paygrade of the ICO, asa start-up”.
One ICO from early 2018 is a companycalled TriForce, operating in the videogame sector. Their Token (FORCE) seeks to
become the universal gaming currencybuilt on the Ethereum platform.
Their campaign attracted a huge partnerin Latin America called Busca Todo, whosewebsite (levelup.com) sees 50 milliongamers visiting every month. This was, ofcourse, a big deal for TriForce (a smallteam from Milton Keynes, UK), who gaineda gaming giant on-side, with all themarketing and brand support that entails,plus access to a new community ofgamers and potential investors.
Another great example of an ICO formingstrategic partnerships is Contract Vault,based in Crypto Valley (Zug, Switzerland).They formed strategic partnerships withseveral highly renowned and influentialfirms around Legal counsel, techimplementation etc and gained a massive
spike in attention to their campaign as aresult. Their biggest partners, Eternitasand ChainSecurity, opened up newaudiences for them and providedreassurance to potential investors abouttheir ability to deliver their entire visionbeyond the ICO and into real payingcustomers and business growth.
Partnerships also show that wellestablished companies are endorsing andsiding with the ICO and believe in theirtechnology and ability to succeed. Be verywary of ICOs that are not forming strategicpartnerships, as this could be becausethere aren’t any partners that feelcompelled to join them or, worse, they arejust in it for an exit scam and so are notfocused on future success, just ICOcontributions!
CITY A.M.’SCRYPTO INSIDER
City A.M.’s Crypto Insidermeets Mirox Crypto’sBenjamin Beal
Blockchain and ICOs are not just for pay-ments, but hold promise to revolutionisea wide range of industries - from musicand wine to logistics.Amazon famously disrupted publish-ing - but will blockchain disrupt the dis-ruptors? As most authors will tell you,not only is it near impossible to makeany money at it, but you have to do yourown marketing these days - and eventhen you’re only going to get a smallpercentage... eventually. The lion’s sharegoing to Jeff Bezos’ empire.There are plenty of 21st century waysof getting your words out, from bloggingand e-books to Unbound, print on de-mand, Smashwords, CreateSpace –there’s little guarantee of quality, and noway to ensure getting paid properly. Oryou’re back to publishers giving the nod,or the ‘Amazon mass grave’. Not any more if Publica.com’s JosefMarc, who I interviewed for this week’sshow, has anything to do with it. Likewise Sukhi Jutla, who’s writtenthree books - including the first in theworld published on Blockchain, aptlycalled “Escape the Cubicle”.Josef, who calls Publica “the Gutenbergpress for the 21st century" became fasci-nated with Bitcoin which led him toapply the technology to publishing. NowPublica enables authors to self-publish,
or raise funds through a book ICO, sell-ing their token - yes, a book token! - via asmart contract provided, managed en-tirely by themselves. Including settingthe price. When a sale’s made, the reader imme-diately gets the key in their wallet andthe author gets instant payment intheirs – in Publica’s own, freely convert-ible, Pebblecoin. No third parties taking a cut - thewriter gets 90%! Even better enabled byblockchain, you can loan it, give it, or re-sell it, just like a ‘real book’. Plus if youresell one of my books I get whatever per-centage I set when I set it up!“This blockchain technology now allows authors unprecedented freedomto both crowdfund and distribute theirbooks” commented Jutla who says it’seasy to setup, taking a few minutes. Provided you own the rights you canupload your book and have another outlet (from which you get 90%). Orcrowdfund a new one. Running a bookICO is like kickstarting your book, getting your fans to vote with their wal-lets. There’s a ton of titles in the app already, so - what you waiting for?
More on this via ICOrad.io. PleaseTweet/Telegram your questions to @BarryEJamesor listen at ICOrad.io.
Last week, the total crypto market capdropped below £160 ($200) billion for the firsttime this year, as alternative cryptoassetscontinued their capitulative process. Whathappened? By the end of July, altcoins' performancedecoupled from bitcoin’s as the originalcryptoasset remained stable and itscompetitors started falling. Then, lastMonday, ether – the token that powersEthereum, a blockchain that enablesdecentralised applications and facilitatescrowdfunding - faced another major fall,which triggered 20% to 50% losses across theboard. Fingers were pointed towardscompeting projects which raised funds inether. The claim goes as such that thesemight have gone short before dumping theirholdings on the market. Zooming out, the truth is that the sun's raysfrom the holidays hasn’t been strong enoughto warm up investors who are still burnt fromthe downtrend that started last winter. Still,some traders found solace risking catchingfalling knives. How? Following the generalised
dump, several altcoins managed toappreciate 20% to 100%, provided one wasable to buy them at the bottom, of course.More importantly, another gamble will takeplace this week. The cryptosphere has beeneagerly awaiting for the US SEC’s approval ofa major ETF - a financial instrument thatenables institutions to gain exposure to acryptoasset. So far, all filings have beenrejected, and the market has even reactednegatively during times when a decision hasbeen postponed. But, this Thursday, the SECfaces the final deadline regarding thesubmission of ProShares, a popular ETFprovider. Experts claim it has no chance ofbeing approved, and many anticipateanother crash. However, if markets behaved the way everyone expects them to behave, then anybody couldbecome wealthy.
Subscribe to get ourdaily market reportat: https://lbx.com/register
ICO NEWS
LBX WEEKLY MARKET OVERVIEW
@CityAm_CryptoE:[email protected]
Can Publica Disrupt the Disruptor-in-Chief?
A ride on the crypto carousel withLBX, The London Block Exchange
DOES LONDONNEED SOME DUTCHCOURAGE WHEN IT COMES TOTOKENISATION?
ICOS AND STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
JAMES BOWATER
PARTNER CONTENT
level up, as our experts and partners areable to asses which of the opportunitiesavailable are more likely to succeed.Finally, crypto trading is the mostvolatile and therefore the riskiest of thethree.”“We have partnered with a UK firm
that has a consistent and proven trackrecord in profit creation. Their strategyincorporates arbitrage and delta neutral,which recent audits confirmed as morethan sufficient in covering off any riskexposure within the chosen cryptoportfolio, ultimately a gearing of 1:2,ensuring they were fully hedged.“We have gone so far as to be able to
fully indemnify the strategy throughleading underwriters within the Londonmarkets which protects capital andinterest. We feel this strategy is unique asit enables us to provide investors with anopportunity to position some of theirportfolio in crypto with the comfort thatcapital is protected.”Recent data has shown a volatile
market within crypto, but the simple factis this market is here to stay. However, itwill take time for it to fully mature andfor those that are looking for fixedreturns and peace of mind, the MiroxCrypto Bond could be a great addition totheir portfolio.
For more info on the bond check out www.mirox-crypto.com
We turn ourcorporate stockinto an official
regulated stock
Recent data has shown a volatile market
within crypto
Our series on AI, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and TokenisationCRYPTO A.M.
