Internet retailer Overstock has clocked up a long and eventful history with crypto. They were the first major international retailer to accept Bitcoin, and now accept a wide range of cryptocurrencies. This week the company has gone public with its plan to jump into crypto and blockchain with both feet and develop a truly revolutionary business model.
Overstock already run their own specialist cryptocurrency arm tZero, focusing on bringing blockchain and its superior efficiency to Wall Street and the conventional markets. tZero operate across a range of domains, developing technologies to improve the liquidity, transparency and functionality of market processes. The company also design and build platforms for the trading of security tokens and offer risk management and order management solutions.
Overstock also operate a blockchain investment fund, Medici Ventures. With a staff of 70 specialist blockchain developers, and a portfolio built of around fifteen pioneering blockchain companies, Medici are at the forefront of investment in the field. It’s a broad remit, and one which aims to remove middlemen and provide services as disparate as voting processes, identification mechanisms, a wide range of market processes and stock sales.
President of Medici Jonathan Johnson is bullish, saying that “we think blockchain is the next revolutionary, transformative technology” and that the company aims to ride “a tidal wave of blockchain revolution.”
One thing is clear – Overstock’s fortunes have become inextricably linked with the crypto markets. During 2018 their stock price has at times perfectly mirrored the volatility of crypto. With its multi-billion dollar international operation and a proven track-record of successful innovation, it would be a bearish observer who bets against the retailer being on the right side of history this time too.
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