Digital currency may have a limited lifespan but the launch of corporate coins or tokens and the blockchain technology behind it will be winners
Momentum Public Relations
Blog: April 10 2018
If you don’t keep up with the world there is a tendency to be left behind. That thought may come back to haunt those who are scorning the topsy-turvy world of cryptocurrency. Then again the naysayers may be right to scorn digital currencies.
In a CNBC interview aired on January 10, 2018, billionaire investor Warren Buffet, sometimes known as the Oracle of Omaha said that cryptocurrencies are headed for trouble.
“We’ll never have a position in them,” Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending.”
Financial Post columnist Diane Francis sees investing in cryptocurrencies much like investing in Canadian Tire money and the biggest scandal since Bre-X.
Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, believes that unless cryptocurrencies are regulated they will become an oasis for money laundering and a method for financing terrorism.
Cryptocurrencies began life in 2010 when Bitcoins were launched as a digital currency independent of any regulatory agency. To say they have captured the imagination of investors is to understate the situation. According to Digital Trends there are 1,300 cryptocurrencies in existence. Among them are Dash, Ethereum, Einsteinium, Litecoin and Plasma. Some cryptocurrencies have turned out to be nothing more than frauds.
According to the CBC, Canadians lost C$1.7 million dollars to cryptocurrency fraud in 2017, double the amount lost in 2016. And then there are the cyberjackings that take place when cyberminers hijack your computer network and use it to mine bitcoins or some other cryptocurrency. In a Globe and Mail story, Troy Mursch was quoted as saying that up to 50,000 web sites had been taken over to mine cryptocurrencies. These included the websites of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and a number of municipal websites.
None of this appears to have quenched investors’ thirst for what some see as a valueless security. On March 23, 2018, The Toronto Star ran a story announcing that the owners of the TSX, TMX Group, through its subsidiary, Shorcan Digital Currency Network, was launching a cryptocurrency brokerage service. The new service will focus on Bitcoins and Ethers.
While people like Diane Francis and Warren Buffet scorn and avoid cryptocurrencies, other believe its time may have come. On February 23, 2018, CNBC published a financial commentary by Julian Hosp called, Five Reasons 2018 could be the best year yet for cryptocurrenices. To be fair, Hosp, who is heavily invested in Bitcoins, has also written a commentary for CNBC called Four triggers could cause a cryptocurrency crash. Hosp knows about cryptocurrency. He cofounded TenX which provides debit cards that people can use to spend their cryptocurrency. TenX has also issued a large Initial Coin Offering or ICO.
ICOs are the way that digital currencies are launched. To say that digital currencies have blown a breath of fresh air through the investment community would be an understatement. In one way or another, individual companies are jumping on the bandwagon and finding ways to take advantage of the situation.
Digital currencies are driven by blockchain technology where separate nodes all store essential ledger information. In order for a transaction to go ahead, it has to be verified in all the nodes. The information is encrypted and there are only two keys. One key is held by the digital currency and one key is held by the individual currency owner. This makes the currency or process tamperproof and provides a secure payment network. The ability to provide a very secure payment network is perhaps the chief attraction of digital currency.
On January 11, 2018, ATWTech, (TSXV:ATW), announced that it had partnered with the Einsteinium Foundation, EMC2 to launch Einsteinium coins, a cryptocurrency. ATWTech is a carrier billing company that is heavily invested in interactive communication. It provides telephone voting services for television shows and texting services that provide appointment alerts to consumers for the Quebec Ministry of Health, among other activities.
In order to diversify its payment options, Voxtel, a subsidiary of ATW Tech, plans to implement EMC2 cryptocurrency in all its platforms such as mobile donations, social communities, messaging, gaming and voice services. The Einsteinium cryptocurrency may as yet, be the only cryptocurrency with an altruistic bent. Its objective is to fund scientific research, advanced IT research and advance cryptocurrency projects.
One of the most interesting developments that digital currency has produced may be its use as a way to finance corporate development. Canadian Oil and Gas junior Hillcrest Petroleum (TSXV: HRH), announced in late January that it has signed an agreement with Entoro Capital to establish a digital Initial Coin Offering, ICO. The Hillcrest digital currency would be based on future revenue from its oil and gas business.
Hillcrest believes that launching an asset backed digital currency could provide it with substantial development funding and open the doors to a broader swath of investors.
As Hillcrest CEO Don Currie said in the press release announcing the decision, “The investment community has been extremely supportive of alternate currencies and Hillcrest looks forward to participating in this new and rapidly evolving investment process.
If the Bitcoin bubble does break, chances are that digital currencies will survive as an alternative financing mechanism when they are backed by real assets, as is the case with Hillcrest.
Relevium Technologies, (TSXV:RLV), a wellness and health care products aggregator, sees a slightly different angle in digital currencies. While it too is contemplating launching an ICO, it appears much more keen to use the blockchain technology that keeps digital currency transactions secure to ensure the security of its online transactions.
Whether or not cryptocurrencies are fated to fall as quickly as they rose is a moot point. On the surface investing in Bitcoins and the like does seem to be an advanced case of the Emperor’s new clothes.
Corporate tokens or coins, on the other hand, may very well have a long life because they are asset based, offer a new financing method for junior companies and in the end may very well prove to be the new form of company shares, with the advantage that you won’t have to go through a stock exchange to purchase or sell them.
Given that cryptocurrencies are havens for fraud and money laundering, that the bubble may or may not burst at any moment, the wise investor may see corporate tokens and blockchain technology companies as the best safe investments in the digital currency environment.
Check out our recent post, A Bitcoin Primer
- Published in Blog