Coinvest Q2-2018 Quarterly Update
Summary
- Announced Coinvest Vault — Premium cold storage hardware wallet. Security architecture and hardware engineering are completed and the product is on track for pre-orders starting holiday of 2018 and shipping in Q1 of 2019.
- Upgraded COIN protocol and smart contracts to V2
- Launched CoinLabs —Resident technology incubator program for blockchain innovation
- Launched CoinDNA — Simple beautiful Data, News, and Analytics for the world of cryptocurrencies
- Executed Republic investment offering for non-accredited investors which closed in a few days
- Inaugural exchange listing partners with HitBTC, YoBit, and IDEX
- Continued recruiting including key experienced industry hires including VP of Product and Chief Security Architect
- Coinvest and Coinvest Plus phase one development is completed and have reached private beta. Our team is currently bug-fixing and conducting internal security audits in preparation for public audits and public beta. Both products are on track for public release in Q3 of 2018.
- Exploration of blockchain partnerships with WanChain, EOS, and Tezos
- Execution of partnerships with Dillon Gage, Quantstamp, AirSwap, Republic, and more. Details to be announced in the future.
- Compliance activities including broker / dealer, ATS, money transmitter, and banking licenses
- Collaboration with the requirements and governments of Malta and Puerto Rico for relocation of International and US businesses
- Creation of marketing strategies and programs for upcoming product launches and the remainder of 2018
Q2 has come to a close and it has certainly been a wild ride for the entire blockchain industry. The hype surrounding cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has lessened as the market has become more educated and FOMO has subsided. What once was a euphoric gold rush, has now evolved to increased regulation and diligence amongst investors entering this space. Companies that previously raised larger than required check sizes have been given a year to prove themselves. Still to this day, we have yet to witness meaningful technology or traction from the industry and its participants. This has resulted in market stabilization and company valuations decreasing. All of which we believe is extremely healthy, as we flush out the bad actors and companies that have no viable business model.
At Coinvest, we have been heads down in executing our own mission. As we have always stated since the inception of our company, Coinvest is a long-term vision with a focus on execution and output. We pride ourselves in creating results versus marketing a false narrative or half-baked ideas that never come to fruition. As part of our ongoing quarterly updates, we would like to summarize our achievements and take a look at what we have accomplished together in the last quarter:
April
April started off with a bang as we announced Coinvest Vault, our premium cold storage hardware wallet. We are excited to report that we have completed our security architecture and hardware engineering for the device. Both of which are unique and is arguably the most secure security architecture on the market today. Coupled with premium materials and design, we expect Coinvest Vault to turn heads equally as much as keeping digital assets safe for both consumers and institutions. We are on pace to begin pre-orders this holiday season which shipping to occur in Q1 of 2019.
Shortly thereafter, we announced upgrades to our original COIN protocol and smart contracts. These updates included additional features and improvements around security, privacy, performance, and efficiency. Those updates were successfully deployed including an open token swap mechanism for previous COIN token holders to seamlessly upgrade to V2. For those that have not upgraded your tokens, please do so while using this guide to assist.
During the month, we also announced the introduction of CoinLabs, our resident technology incubator program for blockchain innovation. We are still seeking to fund entrepreneurs and teams looking to advance our industry through technology innovation. Whether part or full-time, we are seeking talented professionals who share our vision and aspire to change the world. If you’re interested in working with together, please email at labs@coinve.st.
Lastly, we surprised our token holders and community members with an announcement of CoinDNA — Simple beautiful Data, News, and Analytics for the world of cryptocurrencies. Through quality content and insights, CoinDNA aims to build trust and credibility with average and sophisticated investors. Once investors are ready to invest, that trust and credibility assists in converting the user to the Coinvest platform. In just two months, the site has organically grown to approximately 2,000 daily user views. We’ve recently updated the site to include ICO data, new reports, tools, and views. We encourage you to view it and use it as your daily source for data, news, and analytics.
May and June
In the month of May, we had two large announcements including exchange listings on HitBTC, YoBit, and IDEX. Additionally, an updated product portfolio and roadmap through 2019. The execution of these offerings complete our short-term vision for democratizing cryptocurrencies and bringing them to the masses. Instead of outlining those specific details again, we welcome you to view them here.
In order to round off a full investment offering for all audiences, we opened a final round specifically targeted for non-accredited investors through Republic. The offering closed the max legal raise as declared by the SEC of $1.07M in just a few days time. This round welcomed over 700+ new members to the Coinvest family with a waitlist of over 300 investors that are seeking to join.
In June, we announced the addition of new key hires to our organization including Abhay Kamble — VP of Product and Josh Datko — Chief Security Architect. Both of which have credible industry experience from companies such as Microsoft and the US Naval Academy.
Throughout both the months of May and June, (and in addition to Coinvest Vault) our team has been heads down in engineering the Coinvest and Coinvest Plus platforms. We are excited to report that we have completed the initial phase of both products and are on track for a Q3 release. We have opened a private beta from a small number of participants for initial testing and product feedback. Our plan is to continue fixing bugs, executing internal and external code and security audits. From there, open up the platforms for broader public beta testing in the near future. To join our beta, please register here.
Behind the Scenes
As with every company, there are activities that our business conducts that we can not publicly disclose due to competitive reasons. Some of which may or may never be released publicly. With that, there have been a large number of activities we have been working on including those that we plan to announce soon. Some of this work has included the collaboration with teams from WanChain, EOS, Tezos, etc. on potential partnerships to leverage their blockchains as an alternative to Ethereum. While this is still work in progress, we have engineering contingencies in place in the event that the Ethereum blockchain doesn’t meet our business needs.
Additionally, we have been vigorously working to create strategic alliances to scale and grow our business through partnerships. As an example, through our work with Dillon Gage, we will be able to offer the trading of precious metals (such as gold, silver, etc.) through Coinvest. All backed, redeemable, and drop shipped to token holders, if desired. We will be announcing this and a number of other partnerships with companies such as AirSwap, Quantstamp, Republic, and more, in the coming weeks. These partnerships will help us expand and scale our footprint of services in the industry much faster than attempting to execute these activities alone. Additionally, demonstrate our willingness to collaborate and work together in a concerted effort for the betterment of the overall industry.
As our industry evolves and we learn more about consumer behavior, institutional interests, and overall market direction, our intuition and forecasting provides us with a path and guidance to execute our vision. To that end, we believe the long-term opportunity doesn’t exist in the current $250B+ cryptocurrency utility token market. Rather, the value is in multi-trillion securities token industry. More specifically, exchange of digital assets backed by equity (stocks and bonds), real-estate, commodities, etc. In preparation for this shift, Coinvest is working to acquire a broker / dealer license and become a compliant alternate trading system in the United States. This alongside acquiring the respective money transmitters and banking licenses as originally identified in our original scope of business. To prepare for this shift, as well as support full legal and compliant operations, we have been working directly with government officials from Malta and Puerto Rico (U.S.) to support our Coinvest International and US business interests.
Lastly, our team has been working on devising marketing strategies for the remainder of the year (including our upcoming product launches). We’ve intentionally been quiet as we prefer creating organic growth through execution and innovative technology. Nonetheless, our token holders and community members should expect creative marketing programs that the industry has yet to witness.
On behalf of our team, we’d like to thank you for a wonderful quarter. It brings us great pleasure to have accomplished so much in such little time with a small amount of resources. We’ve never been more optimistic about our future as we are now. We truly believe that those who are patient and believe in the long-term viability of a legitimate, credible, compliant company that is built upon the foundation of high-quality impactful technology… will be pleased and extremely rewarded. We are honored to be working together to help realize our mission and continue to look forward to this journey with you.
Much respect,