Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Joins Blockchain Startup Equi Capital 🚨 This article is 6 years old...
Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Joins Blockchain Startup Equi Capital
2 min read
Updated: Oct. 7, 2018 at 4:03 am UTC
Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash
Since the ICO fervor of 2017, software pioneer and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been reluctant to join the blockchain sector. Changing his sentiment, Wozniak revealed plans to join blockchain startup Equi Capital.
Woz’s First Blockchain Venture Might be a Bust
Apple 1 inventor and Bitcoin bull Steve Wozniak revealed his upcoming involvement in fintech blockchain startup Equi Capital, according to NullTX.
Equi Capital aims to make investing in company equity more accessible for retail investors in an effort to replace traditional investing firms.
In an interview with NullTX, Wozniak described his newest venture:
“[It’s] called Equi. … Our approach is not like a new currency, or something phony where an event will make it go up in value. It’s a share of stock, in a company. This company is doing investment by investors with huge track records in good investments in things like apartment buildings in Dubai.”
Equi utilizes a hybrid structure that combines VC-style funding and crowdsourcing–allowing users to invest Equi tokens in select ventures through the platform. While sound in theory, the startup faced a few bumps in the road during its public launch.
After raising $7 million in private token sales earlier this year, Equi launched an initial coin offering (ICO) that was later canceled due to diminishing public interest and initial investors were refunded soon after. To make matters worse, the startup experienced a falling out with its marketing partner, leaving a community of bounty participants without promised compensation.
According to Wozniak, the startup plans to open operations in Malta around November 2018. In early July, Malta became the first nation to establish a regulatory framework for blockchain enterprise.
“We might be starting up in Malta around the time of their blockchain conference. Some countries are very positive about [blockchain] the same way they were about electric vehicles.”
Woz: Bullish on Blockchain
Although Equi might not show great promise, Wozniak seems resolute about his belief in blockchain technology. Naming Bitcoin as a solution to fiat currency, Wozniak described its mathematical appeal:
“It’s based on mathematics. There’s a certain number of Bitcoin that can ever exist. … Mathematics to me is like nature. It’s much better than human beings. … I trust those things of nature more than what man makes up. Man makes up currencies, controls them, issues new U.S. dollars every year; Bitcoin was immune to that.”
Adding to his statement, Wozniak described the burgeoning digital economy as reminiscent of the internet’s early inception:
“I’ve encountered people working in real estate avenues, types of Uber systems, everything we’ve got in our life, especially involving transactions–retail sales, car sales, manufacturing of goods … working on Bitcoin applications … and they all have value. Every single one you hear about, to me, has value. … A few people can see the value, which reminds me very much of the early internet days.”
Posted In: Adoption, Investments
