Online giant Overstock announced during the International Futures Conference that it will issue its own shares via the tØ Blockchain platform.
Launched in August 2015, the tØ Blockchain platform aims to revolutionise asset trading and transaction by issuing shares and bonds as digital and blockchain-based assets.
According to company statements, Overstock intends to issue the shares in two different ways: the traditional way (Nasdaq) and the tØ Blockchain.
Overstock’s Cryptocurrency Manager Judd Bailey pointed out that 100% of the Blockchain shares are traded, transferred and recorded via the Blockchain and are therefore processed entirely via the decentralised account book.
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Bailey referred once again to the July 2015 test in which the $5 million Cryptobond was issued via the blockchain. At the time, CEO Patrick Byrne and the New York-based trading company FNY Managed Accounts were involved in the test. They successfully demonstrated how financial instruments can be digitized and settled via the blockchain.
Overstock will use an eligible ledger to issue the tØ share, but the transactions will be batched and hashed on the Bitcoin blockchain due to the transparency.
In total, Overstock will issue 1 million Blockchain shares with a total value of $25.29 million.
„We have chosen 1 million shares because this is a significant size to prove the concept,“ said Baily.
Two different markets
Due to the issuance on two different markets, it can happen that the value of the share differs on both markets.
For example, there is no link between the blockchain stock and the stock that is issued in the traditional way. Traders can therefore trade the stock on two different markets.
So far Overstock has not publicly announced a precise timetable.
Author’s comment (Mark): „I must say Overstock has real eggs. Already in the past we have heard a lot about the retail giant from the USA. Overstock was one of the first large companies to decide to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment and has had a close relationship to the digital currency ever since. CEO Patrick Byrne has become a true pioneer in the industry. I look forward to seeing which companies will follow suit after the hopefully successful launch“.