Last time we spoke about BlockMEX, the company pivoted into a digital asset exchange. Due to theICO craze, BlockMEX is exploring issuing a token. The following is a conversation between BlockMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, and Gary a principle at a VC firm.
Gary recently pivoted as well. Unable to raise his second fund to follow on with Blockchain companies with no hope of exiting, he now runs a fund solely dedicated to ICO’s.
Arthur: Did you hear about DogShit token? They just raised $100 million in under 5 seconds.
Gary: Really, what does DogShit token do?
Arthur: They take pictures of dog shit and put it on the blockchain. Every time you want to view thepictures, you have to spend DogShit token. The ticker is DOGE.
Gary: Wow revolutionary, why don’t you issue an ICO?
Arthur: Funny you say that, we are speaking internally about issuing one. We think we can be the first project to raise over $1 billion.
Gary: That is amazing. One question, why would your platform ever need tokens to operate?
Arthur: Well that’s the trick, we need to invent some plausible reason why users of BlockMEX need to use a token to trade.
Gary: Also, don’t you think some regulators might view ICO’s as securities? That could land you in some trouble. Especially if you raise $1 billion.
Arthur: We aren’t worried about that. We just need to get some fancy Swiss lawyers and just won’t sell equity. The financial regulator rubber stamps all these token sales and we can hide there if we get into any trouble.
Gary: Hmm, don’t you remember how the US government made all the Swiss banks roll over on their clients. In one action, Swiss privacy protections were rendered worthless.
Arthur: It’s a token, it’s the future. We aren’t worried.
Gary: Ok so what is this token going to be used for?
Arthur: Do you want the sales pitch or the reality?
Gary: Both.
Arthur: We will tell potential token holders that in order to buy or sell any product on BlockMEX you must spend 1 MOLLY token alongside posting the relevant Blockcoin collateral. The more transactions that we do, the more useful MOLLY tokens are, and hence the more valuable.
In reality, we will just buy a Lambo in every color of the rainbow. Then houses on the Peak in Hong Kong for all employees.
Gary: MOLLY is the name of the token, that doesn’t make any sense.
Arthur: Brah, I was inspired by Future’s song Mask Off. Seriously go to Youtube and listen to it. Music these days is sooo deep.
Gary: So why should I buy this token, it sounds like you are just going to scam all your token holders.
Arthur: Brah, didn’t you read Balaji’s recent Medium article on ICOs? I mean if the guy can convince VC funds to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, you included, to build a Raspberry Pi to sell on Amazon, he surely must be right about the ICO market. If he’s selling, I’m buying. Don’t worry about whether the project is worthy or not. Just buy it. It’s the new paradigm.
Gary: Ok, sold. Can I get in on the pre-ICO distribution. I only go in pre-ICO, it’s the only way I can justify my 75% performance fee. Otherwise my investors can just visit your website and purchase thetokens directly from you. They don’t need to pay me.
Arthur: Sure I’ll give you a 20% discount.