Upon his return from medical leave, Overstock CEO Patrick Bryne has appointed Jonathan Johnson as the head of Medici, the firm’s group of fintech and Blockchain businesses, to maintain its long-term growth and investments.
Since the launch of Medici in early 2014, Overstock has been long involved in the fintech and cryptocurrency industries, developing various Blockchain-based products and funding several fintech and Bitcoin companies.
Development of T0.com
Amongst its many projects, Overstock’s Medici has focused on the development of T0.com, a cryptographically protected asset and transaction settlement platform, as a core part of their operation and business. The T0.com platform successfully demonstrated the potential of the Blockchain technology in the financial settlement and clearance market in early 2015, after offering US$25 million corporate bond as the world’s first crypto security.
It continued to prove its efficiency in the market since then securing numerous partnerships, including a contract with shareholder intelligence provider Georgson, to publicly offer digital securities on a regulated platform.
With the expertise and pro-freedom instincts of Jonathan Johnson, Bryne believes that Medici will continually pioneer the application of the Blockchain technology to financial systems by maximizing its potential and advantages over centralized financial institutions.
Bryne says:
“Jonathan shares my pro-freedom instincts, and therefore also shares my excitement about the Blockchain revolution’s potential to reduce society’s dependence upon certain rent-seeking and capture-prone centralized institutions.”
Fintech and Blockchain startups
Johnson will also be overseeing Medici and Overstock funded fintech and Blockchain startups, to kickstart the development of innovative Blockchain-based financial applications and platforms. Some of the startups include Bitt.com, PeerNova and IdentityMind, all of which leverage the Blockchain technology to offer services that are not offered by existing companies and centralized institutions.
Bitt for instance, a Caribbean Islands-based Bitcoin startup, has received US$ 4 million from Overstock to provide Bitcoin-based remittance services for mainstream users.
Overstock and Jonathan Johnson-led Medici will continue to revolutionize the finance industry and demonstrate the potential of the Blockchain technology in the market.