Symbol blockchain launches, with bourbon-backed security token

New Economy Movement has launched its enterprise-grade public blockchain, Symbol, supporting a boozy security token.

NEM’s Symbol is intended to run in parallel with its NIS1 protocol, expanding its capabilities to include decentralized finance (DeFi), security token offering (STO) and regulated assets applications, the company said in a  release. Symbol’s native currency is the XYM token.

And among the first tokens to launch on the proof-of-stake+ Symbol blockchain: The Kentucky Whiskey Digital Fund security token, backed by an inventory of roughly four million bottles of bourbon. 

It will also support the company’s first central bank digital collector token, the Bank of Lithunia’s LBCOIN, which launched on the NIS1 public chain in July of last year. There were 4,000 units sold, containing a total of 24,000 LBCOIN tokens and 4,000 physical collector’s coins. It will transfer to Symbol, which supports both public and private blockchains, as well as hybrids. 

NEM hopes that its collaboration with central banks will result in the institutions selecting a familiar option when choosing a platform for their own central bank digital currency (CBDC). 

Developments in the space are accelerating, with The Bahamas having already launched its Sand Dollar and China having completed several large-scale pre-launch tests of a digital yuan. They are not alone. Last week a representative of Russia’s Central Bank said that it will test its CBDC next year, and Ukraine has contracted with R3 to build a CBDC. And in late February, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell promised that 2021 will be “an important year” in testing the feasibility of a digital dollar. 

“We believe we are at the start of an entirely new economic and digital system that is more inclusive and accessible,” said NEM CEO David Shaw. “Symbol is uniquely positioned at the forefront of the movement towards decentralization, digitization and tokenization”

This makes the feature-rich platform “suitable for a number of industries and use cases, spanning the enterprise, financial services, regulated asset and wider blockchain spaces. NEM has a vital role to play, alongside and operating with other platforms.”

Symbol introduces support for public and private hybrid models, trustless cross-chain asset swaps, and application-programming interfaces (API) that can be integrated with existing infrastructure. In addition, swap support allows it to eliminate intermediaries by enabling independent transfer of value and data from one blockchain to another. 

“It also permits the creation of specialized digital assets, going beyond tokens to represent shares of stock, signatures, votes, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or other currencies,” the release said. “Each asset has configurable properties, and a unique identifier and can enforce logic-based account or asset-based restrictions at a protocol level… Symbol already integrated with Propine, a regulated issuance and custody platform for Security Tokens.”