It seems that Overstock's visionary founder, Patrick Byrne, is going deeper into the blockchain development space. In fact, according to recent reports, he intends to sell Overstock and focus on a variety of blockchain projects held by Medici Ventures.
Initially, Medici Ventures was a vehicle for funding and developing blockchain-based ideas, but now it seems to be the only activity of Patrick Byrne.
So far, the companies that Medici Ventures has created or purchased have not achieved much profit. Patrick Byrne does not seem to worry and told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that, "I do not care if tZero (one of Medici Ventures' biggest projects) is losing $ 2 million a month and we think we have a cold fusion on the blockchain side."
Even Overstock was a crazy idea
While tZero is not making much money, the new trading platform has not had any trouble raising funds. The company raised about $ 134 million USD at the start of this year through an ICO and also received about $ 30 million from GSR Capital, in exchange for to Zen token.
GSR's investment was part of a greater investment push both in Overstock and in tZero, which was worth more than $ 250 million dollars.
Saum Noursalehi, CEO of tZero, commented after the capital increase was announced, "This funding will enable us to scale our blockchain capital market platform quickly, ushering in a" trust in global technology ".
It is a good thing that investors want to support tZero, because Medici Ventures is emitting money. The WSJ estimates have lost $ 22 million in the last year, and so far this amount has grown to about $ 40 million. Overstock is also experiencing a difficult year and has lost more than $ 160 million in the first nine months of 2018.
Really fantastic projects
Doctors Ventures may not make much money, but they are advocating technology that could change the world for the better.
Another blockchain program that Medici Ventures is developing has attracted the attention of the Zambian government. The population of the African nation does not have a real land system, which makes access to capital extremely difficult.
Unlocking the economic potential
Doctors Land Governance is a blockchain-based platform that will help people in countries that do not have legal title on their land. Zambia has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Doctors Land Governance and wants to create a system that will change the way land ownership is approached.
The CEO of Doctors Land Governance, Dr. Ali El Husseini, said that, "At Doctors Land Governance, we believe the first step towards global poverty reduction is to build a secure and stable way to register property and land rights, and using our blockchain experience, mobile apps and other technologies, we are building the technology this can do it I look forward to a future where all land and property services – including utility payments, national and municipal tax exemptions and mortgages – are managed on a secure and user-friendly system that provides equal access for all people. "
The platform developed by Medici Land Governance has numerous scenarios of use cases. Like any new technology, there will be a period of big investments, with few gains. Patrick Byrne might be more suitable than many to be an innovator in the blockchain space.
Patrick Byrne has vision and faith
Unlike many people at the end of the 90s, Patrick Byrne has embraced the Internet as a way to connect people in new ways. Despite the collapse of the dot-com, he was able to ride through difficult times and create a very successful business after the dust settled.
Read: Bitcoin vs. The Dot Com Bubble
Overstock was one of the first big companies to accept Bitcoin in 2014, and their decision to get encrypted as payment led to a massive increase in the price of their shares over the last year. While the increase has faded with the fall in the price of Bitcoin, Patrick Byrne seems to be positive about a technology that could be the next leap forward in information technology.