LAToken raises millions in ICO to create “the first asset-backed token exchange”

As the ICO fever continues to rise, LAToken, a blockchain platform which aims to make tradable potentially any type of assets, raised the equivalent of $9.6 million in late August. In just three days, investors bought 30 million tokens, each one amounting to 0,001 Ethereum (ETH).

hack skype 2017

Founded by Russian entrepreneur Valentin Preobrazhenskiy, the LAToken platform (short for “Liquid Asset Token”) tokenizes virtually anything from real estate, to bank loans, to works of arts or even antiques.

On Sept. 5, the company announced its “compliance with all the SEC regulations as a token utility.”  Thus US citizens and residents can buy the tokens to purchase fractions of assets or convert the tokens into other cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin or Ether.

Trading fractions of real-life assets

LAToken aims to provide asset owners with a new way to gain liquidity by selling tokenized fractions of their real-life assets with minimal transaction costs. While keeping the actual assets for their use, owners do not need to borrow money and pay interest. (see LAToken’s whitepaper).

To trade real-estate assets, LAToken is based on an already existing home equity marketplace which Preobrazhenskiy claims has already facilitated 12,000 mortgage offers and over 1,000 deals from several different banks and investors.

“The secondary and primary markets of fractional ownership of home equity and mortgages are now on the verge of a breakthrough, thanks to cryptocurrency blockchain smart contracts,” Forbes quoted David Drake, chair of LDJ Real Estate Fund and member of LAToken’s Advisory Board, as saying.

In early August, the platform began tokenizing Apple shares. Since each share is traded for $160, it is impossible for an investor with just $50 to buy it on the stock exchange – but LAToken allows him or her to buy the corresponding fraction of a tokenized Apple share.

“My dream is to build a NASDAQ on Blockchain with a wider range of tradable assets, blurring the boundaries between the crypto and the real economies, and offering our clients a dramatic reduction of listing costs, settlement time, and transaction costs,” Preobrazhenskiy said.

According to estimates cited by LAToken, the turnover of asset-backed tokens may exceed $1 trillion by 2025.

During the three next stages of the ICO, which will take place in September and October, LAtoken plans to issue 150 million additional tokens.

Among the recent notable ICOs involving Russian companies, or companies with Russian roots, were those of real-estate investment platform Propy, crowdvouching platform Suretly, startup accelerator Starta, and metallurgical waste recycling facility ZrCoin.

A variety of other projects have announced ICO plans and already conducted pre-ICOs.

This story is published in partnership with East-West Digital News, an international news resource about innovation in Central and Eastern Europe.

This Russian-designed token wants to tackle crypto-volatility

In this Blockchain era where technology promises to digitize virtually any type of assets, the emergence of gold-backed tokens comes as no surprise.

The concept is not new, but we are now witnessing its first applications. One of these projects is propelled by Goldmint, a company with Russian roots now preparing for an ICO and the subsequent launch of a gold-backed crypto asset. Christened ‘GOLD,’ the token will have its value equal to that of one ounce of gold on the LBMA exchange.

This implies that GoldMint’s real gold reserves “be equal to or exceed its mined amounts of ‘GOLD’.” Thus GoldMint will “buy, sell and repurchase ‘GOLD’ at the current market price for physical gold, using exchange-traded funds (ETF) or physical gold (of 999 quality) as its security.”

What will investors be able to do with their ‘GOLD’ tokens? One of the key strengths of gold-backed assets lies in their relative stability — which is particularly appreciated as cryptocurrencies are demonstrating their high volatility.

Thus Goldmint will promote its ‘GOLD’ as a stable financial instrument to pay employees, conduct transactions or even ICOs. “If the cryptocurrency you receive in the ICO varies too sharply, there are two possible outcomes: either the currency becomes too expensive, in which case investors will be dissatisfied, or it becomes much cheaper, which is very bad for the founders who started the ICO,” the Goldmint team explained to East-West Digital News.

Even though most members of blockchain community are aware of the issue, “there is currently no practical possibility to use a gold-backed cryptocurrency for an ICO — and this is the market need we’re going to address,” Goldmint says.

‘GOLD’ may also be used by traders and other cryptocurrency users to “hedge their gold commodity with ‘GOLD’ on any cryptocurrency trading exchange, without leaving that particular platform. Traders [will also be able to] diversify their trading portfolio with ‘GOLD’ assets,” according to the company.

The company also recommends ‘GOLD’ as a means to purchase and transport physical gold: “You can convert your physical gold into ‘GOLD’ in any bank that uses the GoldMint blockchain platform. This does not only protect your gold in cross-country transportation, it also simplifies the process.”

Her Majesty’s government in the running

No such gold-backed crypto assets seem to be available yet to individual investors — but Goldmint is not the only startup in the running. One of its strongest future competitors could be Singapore-based DigixDAO, which plans to launch its ‘Digix Gold Tokens’ (DGX) in the near future. These crypto-assets are set to become “the future gold standard for value exchange in the Ethereum ecosystem,” claims the company. Launched in 2014, DigixDAO raised $5.5 million in Ethereum’s first on-chain crowd-sale in March 2016.

Chinese ZenGold (ZGC) also successfully completed an ICO in May 2017, raising over 2,000 BTC in less than a minute. Its plan is to launch “a smart asset system backed by physical gold” using the Metaverse blockchain, but the current activities of the company and its platform are unclear at least to non-Chinese speakers (1).

The Royal Mint, a company owned by the UK government, has put its “more than 1,000 years of experience” in a project of gold-backed tokens, scheduled for launch in late 2017. Dubbed ‘Royal Mint Gold’ (RMG), these tokens are intended for investors through third-party investment intermediaries such as banks and brokers instead of being sold to individuals directly.

Another player, LAToken, comes from Russia. Having just raised the equivalent of $10 million in the first phase of its ICO, this platform aims to tokenize virtually any kind of assets including stocks, real estate, works of art, and of course silver and gold.

Tokenizing $100 billion worth of gold

Even tough the success of these new types of cryptoassets is yet to be confirmed, the startups propelling them are not short of ambition. “Our idea is revolutionary,” claims Goldmint: “We plan to convert [dozens of thousands of tons of gold] into blockchain-encrypted tokens to help owners protect their valuables, to help investors move their gold rapidly and easily from one part of the world to another, and to help companies and individuals hedge their gold against market volatility.”

Thus, the company aims to “gain access to 1% of global gold circulation (over 300 tons)” by launching its Custody Bot automated storage facilities in pawnshops around the world; “another 5%” of gold circulation by introducing them in shopping centers, with the ultimate goal of controlling “10% of gold reserves, worth more than $100 billion.”

Goldmint will initially target Asia and Eastern Europe: “We have many robust partnerships in these areas, which will help us to run our business faster. Then we see India and OAE as very interesting countries where our Custody Bot and the gold-backed crypto asset will be very in-demand,” the team told EWDN.

Goldmint has requested Deloitte, as well as Elina Sidorenko in Russia and Julia Zegelman in the USA, to establish the legal status of ‘GOLD’ in different countries.

“Once banks decide how to legally and fiscally regulate GOLD, clients will be able to exchange dollars, foreign currency, and gold bullion to ‘GOLD’ and to fully benefit from all aspects of the cryptocurrency market,” Goldmint claims.

This story first appeared in East-West Digital News, a tech news site covering Eastern Europe and a syndication partner of ReadWrite.
spy line chat

Russian government turns to Ethereum Foundation for blockchain plans

Last week VEB, a major state-owned Russian development bank, signed a partnership agreement with the Ethereum Foundation to develop and implement Blockchain-based government applications.

The Foundation’s founder Vitalik Buterin and VEB President Sergey Gorokov Chairman both took part in the signing ceremony, which was held during a Blockchain conference in Kazan, the capital of the innovation-friendly republic of Tatarstan.

spy line chat

See also: For future transactions, in blockchain we trust

The agreement includes a “long-term and effective partnership in the implementation of projects using a distributed registry technology and the Ethereum platform,” as well as the formation of an Ethereum expert community.

The partners will also launch joint educational and training programs within an upcoming VEB Blockchain competence center.

 The partnership agreement was signed personally by Ethereum Foundation founder Vitalik Buterin and VEB President Sergey Gorkov. Photo credit: VEB.

This competence center is designed to “unite the efforts of all interested parties and create an ecosystem of innovations,” said Gorkov. It is scheduled for opening in September at MISiS, a major Russian science and technology university.

“Cooperation between Ethereum and VEB gives a unique opportunity to engage in research and development on the use of blockchain technology for public administration and accelerating the adoption of this technology to government organizations in the Russian Federation,” Buterin stated.

Putin is watching

In June, the Russian government launched a working group to implement Blockchain technologies in state administrations, assigning a coordinating role to VEB, including the creation of the competence center.

That same month, during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Ethereum caught the attention of Vladimir Putin, which saw in it a potential tool for the country’s economic diversification. The Russian president personally met Buterin at the forum.

Just weeks ago, the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rosstandart) appointed a new technical committee to work on the standardization of software and hardware related to distributed register and Blockchain technologies, in coordination with the International Standardisation Organisation.

This story is published in partnership with East-West Digital News, an international news resource about innovation in Central and Eastern Europe.

IOTA gets ready to hack for climate change this fall

The IOTA Foundation will be the platform sponsor for the upcoming Hack4Climate conference, taking place from November 12 to 16 in Bonn, Germany, alongside the UN Climate Change Conference.

A blockchain hackathon for climate change is scheduled to last all four days. Developers will team up with climate experts to build unique solutions using distributed ledger technology (DLT).

See Also: For future transactions, in blockchain we trust

snapchat hacker app

“Our team is very happy to welcome IOTA Foundation as platform sponsor,” said Nick Beglinger, CEO of the Zurich-based Cleantech21 foundation and initiator of Hack4Climate. “IOTA’s focus and unique strengths regarding Internet of Things (IoT) are key tools in the fight against climate change. Climate action requires absolute transparency, and transparency requires completely reliable data.”

Developers will look into ways of verifying air monitoring data and enabling IDs for refugees escaping areas of severe climate change, using blockchain as the framework for new tools.

“We have fully committed to this first Hackathon, because IOTA is all about building a better world, and tackling climate change is a huge part of it,” said Dominik Schiener, co-founder of IOTA and Hack4Climate jury member. “IOTA is already working with many leading organizations from the private and public sector across the world as we were created because of the understanding of how important IoT is for making the global economy more sustainable. Starting with Hack4Climate, we aim to bring the climate and DLT communities together.”

There will be 15 pre-workshops for developers and climate experts interested in the Hack4Climate conference. For more information, check www.hack4climate.org.