A blockchain platform called Desico claims it’s the world’s first way to issue and trade security tokens in full compliance with the law. Taking its name as an acronym of “decentralized ecosystem for security ICOs,” the company was founded in the first quarter of 2018 by the three-person team of Laimonas Noreika, Ethan Pierse, and Audrius Griskevicius. The entrepreneurial trio has an established track record in financial technology. In 2015, they started FinBee, a peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding platform that has already funded more than $15 million euro in loans for businesses and individuals. Now they turn their attention to the world of crypto and blockchain. One can think of…
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This blank white paper still has more detail than most because it has the name of an actual person on it (via Shutterstock)Study rings alarm bells on some of the biggest ICOs
Findings show troublesome inconsistencies with many popular token offerings
What many of the biggest ICOs promised in their white papers aren’t found in their code—and that could pose a serious problem for investors. That’s the conclusion of a study that came out this week titled “Coin-Operated Capitalism”. The 104-page report bills itself as “the legal literature’s first detailed analysis of the inner workings of Initial Coin Offerings” and their findings show troublesome inconsistencies on the part of many popular ICOs. A University of Pennsylvania team headed by law professor David Hoffman with comp sci doctoral student Shaanan Cohney, JD/MBA grad Jeremey Sklaroff, and CTIC fellow David Wishnick wrote the piece. “We began with simple curiosity about smart contracts,” said…
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Leading ICO attorney Joshua Klayman leaves Morrison Foerster, starts own firm
Klayman is now 5th of 12 top blockchain lawyers to switch jobs this year
Top ICO attorney Joshua Klayman has left her firm of five years, Morrison Foerster, to strike it out on her own. The move is the latest among leading blockchain barristers bolting for greener pastures as the industry takes off. Klayman was a rising star at “MoFo,” where she was the founding chair of its blockchain and smart contracts group. Among the deals she worked on was the Sprint/T-Mobile merger. In addition to her new firm, Klayman LLC, she will be consulting for global legal firm Shearman & Sterling LLP. Klayman has also started a consulting business, Inflection Point Blockchain Advisors, LLC. (IPBA’s CTO, Alex Rass, is a technical consultant and…
- This blank white paper still has more detail than most because it has the name of an actual person on it (via Shutterstock)
Why most ICOs will fail
A long chat with the team from Monetago, a blockchain company that never did—and will never do—an initial coin offering
Almost every day, I get an email about a hot new initial coin offering (ICO). These come from tech companies selling their future services. In my stock portfolio, I’m happy to find anything that can give me 10 percent return over the course of a year. These days you can measure a crypto portfolio in 2x, 3x, or even 10x (as in, 1,000 percent). But lately, all this good news has been bothering me. The financial magic works like this: imagine if someone builds a casino in your neighborhood and they fund the entire operation by selling their poker chips ahead of time. With that money, they will pay for…
