Online Blockchain pleased with early cryptocurrency business development

Online Blockchain updated the market on its ongoing project development on Tuesday, which its board said was in response to recent investor questions.

The AIM-traded firm said its first blockchain project, announced in December, was the first phase of its ‘PlusOne Coin’ cryptocurrency project, which the company developed in conjunction with ADVFN.

It explained that PlusOne Coin was its initial project announcement, and was a “social validation blockchain”, where content platforms, content providers, users and other stakeholders could use the blockchain as a means of interacting with each other.

“Online's development of PlusOne Coin has continued following this initial launch, with functionality added, and further developments planned later this year,” the board said in its statement.

“As of today, PlusOne Coin has been implemented on ADVFN's UK, US and Brazil internet platforms and approximately 85,000 PlusOne Coin receipt transactions have been validated through mining on the PlusOne Coin blockchain.”

As it had previously announced, Online Blockchain and ADVFN were each bearing their own costs in respect of the PlusOne Coin cryptocurrency cooperation project at the current stage, and while there were currently no financial arrangements between the two companies in respect of this project, the Online board anticipated that it would charge publishers like ADVFN a license fee for its software which supported the wallet, on terms to be agreed.

“We have also begun to work with teams of independent blockchain developers on new project initiatives, and which opens new and potentially interesting possibilities for Online, particularly in ‘mining’ activities.

“Mining is a key activity that underpins blockchain transaction validation by third parties, and Online has started to develop its own capabilities in this area in cryptocurrencies, but is not focusing on bitcoin at this time.

“As well as augmenting our general technical knowhow, mining activities have the potential to create revenue streams and become the basis for additional products.”

The company’s first new activity in that area was its recent development of ‘Happypool.co’ - a mining pool that enabled miners to pool their computing power together to mine blockchains.

It said that, for individual miners acting alone, it could be “extremely difficult” to mine cryptocurrencies successfully, as an individual typically had limited available computing processing capacity to use.

“A mining pool enables online communities of individual miners to collaborate and combine their computing processing resources to earn collectively cryptocurrency and to then each share fairly in the rewards.

“Happypool's platform can now be accessed … and provides a cloud-based software environment that enables a pooled mining service for individual miners, for which Happypool charges a small commission which is paid in the respective cryptocurrency generated from successful mining by the mining pool.”

Online Blockchain said Happypool was currently at an initial stage, enabling mining in a small number of cryptocurrencies, including PlusOne Coin, and had begun to generate some commissions paid in successfully-mined cryptocurrency.

Those sums were not yet material, but the board said it foresaw growth potential.

It added that it believed blockchain mining activity was more than the simple generation of cryptocurrency for profit, and while it was now generating some revenue from mining, it was looking beyond that to other potential opportunities.

“We intend that Happypool will be an initial foundation on which we can develop additional blockchain support services to miners and blockchain creators alike.#

“For example, a blockchain creator can need mining support for a new coin or a new fork of an existing coin as in initial development stages, community support may be sporadic or non-existent.

“Additionally, there are other potential opportunities enabled by creating pools of computing power.”

The company said it was also planning to mine more generally as part of both its research and development activities, and to generate revenues.

Its initial focus would be on crypto-currencies other than bitcoin.

“We have purchased ASIC, GPU and hybrid mining processors, and are in the process of expanding our facilities to support this planned activity with additional office premises.”

Online Blockchain said it anticipated that it would commence that activity during this second quarter of the year.

“We are enthusiastic about the potential opportunities for blockchain technology.

“Shareholders should note that the company's own development of blockchain products are still at an early stage and we look forward to reporting further progress this year.”