Blockstream
Samson Mow’s new company JAN3 helping build Bitcoin City in El Salvador
Bitcoin entrepreneur Samson Mow has launched a new company called JAN3, reportedly raising $21M in funding at a $100M valuation.
Samson Mow, former chief strategy officer of Blockstream and founder of Pixelmatic, said on Thursday that he has started a new company called JAN3 which will focus on accelerating Bitcoin adoption.
The Chinese-Canadian Bitcoin entrepreneur told Reuters that JAN3 has already signed a memorandum of understanding to assist in developing digital infrastructure in El Salvador.
"It's a general MOU that says we'll work together to build digital infrastructure for the country and for Bitcoin City.”
Mow added that making the decision for JAN3 to work with El Salvador was an easy choice, "I just set up my company and I said 'do you want to work together?' and they said 'sure.’”
Mow and his new firm will work alongside El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, and its government to assist in the establishment of Bitcoin City, a development that will reportedly use geothermal power from nearby volcanoes to power Bitcoin mining as well as the city‘s infrastructure.
According JAN3’s recently established Twitter account, which boasts a rapidly growing follower count of 3,300, the company has reportedly raised $21 million in funding at a valuation of $100 million.
The funding round was led by Alistair Milne, the CIO of Atlanta Digital Currency Fund, Chun Wang, the co-founder of crypto mining firm F2Pool, as well as El Zonte Capital, a new investment fund founded by prominent Bitcoin bull Max Keiser and his wife, Stacy Herbert.
The news comes as Mow spoke at the Bitcoin 2022 Conference, where he announced that two new jurisdictions — The Caribbean island of Roatán and Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal — would be adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. Mow also mentioned Mexico, however the country is still considering the idea.
Related: Bitcoin 2022: Thiel calls Buffett 'sociopathic', Mexican billionaire has 60% in BTC
The name “JAN3” is a reference to Jan. 3rd, 2009, which is the day that Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block — also known as the “genesis block” — of Bitcoin. Playing on this namesake, the company’s first tweet was a not-so-cryptic reference to The Times’ headline on that day.
President Bukele hits out at Bitcoin Bond ‘FUD’ as CZ jets in to El Salvador
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele publicly called out Reuters for spreading “FUD” about delays in the country’s $1 billion 'volcano bond.'
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele took to Twitter on Wednesday evening, hitting out at a Reuters report claiming Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was flying in to save El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bond.
“Please don’t spread Reuter’s FUD,” Bukele tweeted to his 3.6 million followers, rebuking the claim that CZ was flying in to assist after the $1 billion bond offering, originally scheduled for mid-March, was postponed until September. He was responding to a tweet on the subject by Bitcoin Magazine, which has now deleted the post.
I’m a fan of @BitcoinMagazine, please don’t spread @Reuters FUD.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 23, 2022
The #Bitcoin Volcano Bonds will be issued with @bitfinex.
The short delay in the issuance is only because we are prioritizing internal pension reform and we have to send that to congress before. https://t.co/chUGgdDBDc
Bukele stated that the delay in the “volcano bond” offering was primarily due to legislative delays in Congress, that his meeting with CZ has nothing to do with the bond offering and that the pair intends to discuss “other issues”.
Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex — the company underwriting the bond — came to Bukele’s aid stating that the delays were largely due to laws concerning the bond issuance tha still needed to be passed by Congress. Samson Mow, former chief strategy officer Blockstream — El Salvador’s partner in the bond launch — also joined in, tweeting that “nothing has changed”.
Earlier in the week, El Salvador’s Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya said that the $1 billion bond, originally scheduled for mid-March would be delayed until September, citing geopolitical instability as the primary reason behind the delay.
Three hours after hitting out at Reuters reporting, Bukele was back on Twitter complaining about the US Government, responding to a proposed bill that seeks to minimize American exposure to El Salvador's financial system following its adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. The Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador Act was passed out of committee on Wednesday, and it is set to be voted on by the full U.S. Senate.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the U.S. Government would be afraid of what we are doing here,” Bukele tweeted in response to the news, adding, “The US Government DOES NOT stand for freedom and that is a proven fact.”
Related: 14% of Salvadoran businesses have transacted in BTC: Chamber of Commerce
The Bitcoin-backed bond is being issued by El Salvador as a way of amassing larger BTC reserves and to fund the construction of “Bitcoin City”, a development dedicated entirely to Bitcoin and associated blockchain technology. It will reportedly use geothermal power from nearby volcanoes to power Bitcoin mining as well as the city's infrastructure. Half of the $1 billion proceeds will go to construction costs and the remaining $500 million will be invested directly into Bitcoin.
Samson Mow leaves Blockstream, plans to focus on ‘nation-state Bitcoin adoption’
“Now is a pivotal point in Bitcoin’s evolution — we’re on the verge of mass adoption, and I think that I can make it happen faster,” said Samson Mow.
Blockstream chief strategy officer Samson Mow has announced he will be leaving the blockchain firm after five years.
In a Tuesday Twitter thread, Mow said he would continue to be a “#BlockstreamSpy” following his departure from the Canada-based firm where he had worked since April 2017. He said he would stay on as CEO of game development company Pixelmatic, a position in which more “attention is being demanded,” but planned to focus on “nation-state Bitcoin adoption” in the future.
”With everything happening at light speed in El Salvador, and more and more countries interested in adopting #Bitcoin, I found my time each day just no longer enough anymore,” said Mow. “So with @Blockstream in a very good place and well capitalized after a successful B round, it was the right time to move on. It also feels like now is a pivotal point in #Bitcoin’s evolution — we’re on the verge of mass adoption, and I think that I can make it happen faster.”
Today is my last day with @Blockstream. It's been a grand adventure working with @adam3us for the last 5 years and together we've accomplished a great deal from sidechains, to mining, to satellites. So what’s next? I plan to focus on nation-state #Bitcoin adoption!
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) March 1, 2022
Mow has been involved in plans to build a Bitcoin City in El Salvador. The project aims to use geothermal energy from the country’s Conchagua volcano to power Bitcoin (BTC) mining in the innovative city, which will be built at the foot of the mountain. According to the Pixelmatic CEO, a $1 million BTC price could help make the Latin American nation “the financial center of the world.”
Related: Bitcoin Core developer Samuel Dobson decides it is ‘time to go’
The now-former Blockstream chief strategy officer added he would continue to “support and advocate” for Blockstream’s sidechain-based settlement network, Liquid, as “It has an important role to play in the reformation of the legacy financial system.” He previously worked as the chief operating officer of BTCC, the crypto exchange behind one of the largest mining pools in the world at the time, and as the director of production and executive producer at Ubisoft.
An advocate of Bitcoin for many years, Mow also recently made the Cointelegraph Top 100 for his work at Pixelmatic, Blockstream, the El Salvador project and more. The full list of some of the most influential in crypto and blockchain is now available.
Bitfinex security token platform goes live in Kazakhstan
While the Bitcoin mining trading is fading in Kazakhstan, Bitfinex debuts its STO platform with a BTC mining-related token.
Major global cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is finally moving forward with its security token platform (STO) in Kazakhstan, opening the first day of trading.
Bitfinex Securities, Bitfinex’s blockchain-based investment platform, is officially starting on Tuesday, the company representatives announced to Cointelegraph.
Announced in September 2021, the new STO platform is regulated within Kazakhstan’s national financial hub known as the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). Bitfinex Securities specifically operates from a special economic zone in Kazakhstan, which has an independent court system, according to Bitfinex Securities chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino. The platform is not available to citizens or residents of countries like Canada and the United States.
According to the announcement, Bitfinex Securities is debuting trading with the Blockstream Mining Note (BMN), a security token offering qualified non-U.S. investors an option to mine Bitcoin or invest in BTC mining stocks using the associated hash rate of BMN. The token is issued on the Liquid sidechain of Bitcoin and will be trading against BTC and the U.S. dollar, enabling accredited investors to obtain exposure to Bitcoin mining.
“This underlines a pent-up demand among accredited investors for the opportunity to obtain exposure to Bitcoin mining, made available by BMN’s enterprise-grade facilities,” Ardoino told Cointelegraph. He added that the company continues working closely with local regulators as well as companies seeking to raise capital on the STO platform.
Related: Kazakhstan likely to lose Bitcoin hash rate leadership in next index update
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Bitcoin mining industry has apparently been somewhat fading in Kazakhstan recently as the local government was terminating multiple mining operations and proposing energy price hikes as well as new crypto mining taxes.
As of August last year, Kazakhstan was one of the world’s biggest BTC mining counties in terms of hash rate distribution, housing over 18% of the global BTC hash rate, following only the U.S., according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
El Salvador to Issue $1 Billion Bitcoin Bond to Fund ‘Bitcoin City’
President Nayib Bukele, of El Salvador, announced yesterday he would issue a $1 billion “Bitcoin Bond” to build the first Bitcoin City in the world. The city would feature no taxes of any kind except VAT, and it would be carbon neutral, with most of the energy powering it coming from geothermal sources. Bukele also […]Blockstream raises $16M for its Bitcoin mining STO in a matter of hours
Blockstream allows investors to mine Bitcoin by simply purchasing the Blockstream Mining Note security token.
Major blockchain technology company Blockstream has completed six tranches of its Bitcoin (BTC) mining security token offering (STO), securing a total of 30.9 million euros ($36 million).
Blockstream officially announced Thursday that the company raised 13.9 million euros ($16.1 million) in the sixth tranche of its Bitcoin mining-focused security token known as Blockstream Mining Note (BMN).
According to the announcement, the latest raise was the largest tranche that Blockstream has ever issued, marking increasing interest from individual and institutional investors. The raise brings the total BMN supply to more than 122, with the total number of investors amounting to 70.
Blockstream officially introduced its BMN security token in March 2021, offering non-US qualified investors an alternative to mining Bitcoin or investing in Bitcoin mining stocks by mining BTC using the associated hashrate of BMN. Issued on the Liquid sidechain of Bitcoin, each BMN1 entitles investors to up to 2,000 terahashes per second of Bitcoin mined at Blockstream’s enterprise-grade mining facilities.
The BMN token can be traded with other qualified investors, delivering associated BTC to the BMN holder upon maturity of a three-year term from July 2021 to July 2024.
Related: Bitcoin-based security token offering approved in Germany
The news comes amid Blockstream preparing to list its BMN security token on Bitfinex Securities, a new STO platform by Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange and regulated in Kazakhstan’s national financial hub, the Astana International Financial Center. As Bitfinex Securities progresses with its launch, BMN is set to become one of the first assets listed on the new platform.
Blockstream’s Liquid Sidechain Criticized Over Long Outage — Block Signing Issue Related to Upgrade
On Tuesday, cryptocurrency supporters on social media and forums discussed Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain product as block signing had been down for over 20 hours. While Blockstream had noted the sidechain was undergoing a hard fork upgrade planned for October 5, a number of crypto proponents still scorned the project for being hypocritical toward blockchains like […]Liquid network block production resumes following transaction processing issues
Pending Liquid transactions had been queued in the mempool for roughly 22 hours after the network reported an issue which caused "block signer nodes failing to validate certain parameters against each other."
Block production on Blockstream’s Liquid network has resumed after technical problems related to a functionary upgrade caused many transactions to queue for hours.
In a Monday update from a Liquid oversight board member identified only as Wiz, Liquid’s failsafe mode was activated yesterday as “an unexpected issue occurred causing block signer nodes failing to validate certain parameters against each other.” As a result, the network stopped producing blocks and transactions steadily queued in the Liquid mempool for roughly 22 hours, starting at approximately 5:19 pm Eastern Time on Monday.
Wiz reported Liquid developers have upgraded 10 of the 15 functionaries, with block production expected to resume once one more has been fixed. Pending Liquid transactions had been queued in the mempool until the nodes were upgraded, which was completed on Tuesday as the network reported blocks were coming in.
Related: Blockstream’s Liquid pushes for DeFi with new decentralized exchange
First announced in 2015, Liquid was designed to be a Bitcoin (BTC) sidechain aimed at speeding up BTC transactions settlements for crypto exchanges. The network supports its LiquidBTC (LBTC) tokens pegged to Bitcoin — there are 3,293 currently in circulation. In addition, the Liquid Federation has 57 members, including crypto exchanges Bitfinex, BitMEX, and Huobi.