Over the 26-century history of the Georgian numismatics, the shape, style, inscriptions and images have been changing in accordance with political and economic situations in the country, which clearly reflected the history of development of the country. However, Forbes Georgia had a detailed conversation with Vakhtang Gogokhia, the creator of the first Georgian virtual currency to find out what is the story behind the first Georgian decentralized digital currency and how realistic is the success of this kind of investment in Georgia.
When and why did you decide to create Georgian cryptocurrencies?
The idea of creation of cryptocurrency occurred three months ago, in May. Some of my friends were interested in “mining”, they had at home small devices, some of them had special space allocated for that purpose. For them this was was an additional source of income. We also got involved in this field and made a final decision to start up a broader-scale joint project. Our goal was to create the first Georgian cryptocurrency and that is exactly how the idea of “Golden Fleece” was born.
Why “Golden Fleece”?
We had hard time thinking about the name for the currency. Since we were aiming at international market, we wanted the name to have connection with currency, money on the one hand and that is why we decided to make it “golden”, and, on the other hand, we wanted to find a word or a phrase, that would be connected to Georgia, at the same time being known to foreigners at least to some extent. We decided to implement the idea where the major part of power generation is concentrated. We wanted to build the data center in West Georgia and that gave us an idea for the name – “Golden Fleece”, Golden Fleece Token.-
How is the Georgian cryptocurrency created from the technical point of view and how will it be used by consumers?
Our business model is based on a simple principle: we construct server rooms, which will generate various cryptocurrencies, as are ethereum, bitcoin, dash, monero, zcash. So, to attract funds for construction of data centers, we launched our own cryptocurrency “Golden Fleece”. Golden Fleece Token is based on the platform of international firm Waves, which allows various companies to use blockchain technologies and create new cryptocurrencies. There are two leading firms in this field: Ethereum and Waves. We decided to choose Waves, because it is relatively simple for consumers, it has integrated exchange platform, where one can exchange dollars or euros for our cryptocurrency or bitcoins. The Waves platform has a website – www.waveswallet.io. It also has a mobile application, which can be downloaded by a consumer and easily used. So far, Waves works with five currencies: dollar, euro, bitcoin, ethereum and Wave’s own currency. Consumers will be able to buy the Georgian cryptocurrency, issued by us, using any of these five currencies. Since the major part of investors use the platform of ethereum, we decided to sell 50 mln Golden Fleeces on Waves platform and 20 mln – on Ethereum platform. We will keep the remaining 30 mln, to sell them next year.
We don’t want the consumer to buy Golden Fleece currency only because of patriotic feelings. We want the consumers to be aware of what they are investing in, what is the company’s business model and what should be their expectations related to their investment. Accordingly, we want to make sure that we provide maximum of information to our potential investors. Any consumer is a potential investor, with no regard whether they invest 10 or 10 mln dollars. Each and every buyer will be a part of the company.
Has the currency been already launched and if yes, how many consumers does it have?
We don’t have many consumers. On August 15th we are entering the main stage of sales, we are attracting investors now. We perceive currency buyers as investors. At the present stage, the biggest investor is Monkey Capital. We have already completed negotiations with them. The agreement has been achieved and at every stage of of sales, Monkey Capital will buy a 25% share. The purchase will be completed by means of bitcoins and the transfer will be made in tranches every two weeks.
As far as the Golden Fleece price is concerned, as from August 15th, the value of one Golden Fleece will be 80 cents, and from September 15th to the end of the month – fixed 90 cents. Further the price will be increased stage by stage. According to our forecast, as from the end of September, the value of the cryptocurrency will make one dollar and in future, Golden Fleece price will increase by 2,5% every month. Also, instead of paying dividends, we plan to redeem our own cryptocurrency, thus reducing the turnover of cryptocurrency and increasing its price. Price alteration will also be influenced alteration of prices of other cryptocurrencies.
What was the primary expenditure for creation of Golden Fleece Token and how do you see its future?
Technically, no big amount is needed to create currency, however, we invested in construction of our server facility and building the data center. We also purchased real property, which will host our final data center. By now, we have spent 200 thousand US dollars. Part of the money was taken from our own pockets and part was a bank loan. However, income generated at the Pre-ICO stage made almost the same amount. We are planning to use that money to cover marketing and administrative costs, as the most important of this business is confidence building with the consumers.
The prices of cryptocurrencies are characterized with permanent volatility. Critical is still the argument that cryptocurrencies are not secured with anything but demand, which is not stable. What can you oppose to this?
Our business model is different and Golden Fleece is different from other cryptocurrencies. We will build data centers and, accordingly, this will be real property, the material value to secure our currency. Generally speaking, this technology has future and it will necessarily be widely used. New countries and investors are getting involved in this field on a daily basis, and its main technical advantage is simplicity and the speed of transactions.
What are the problems that this field faces and what is needed for its development?
This doesn’t actually concern Georgia, but in general, the impeding factor for this field is the lack of legislation. In all the countries of the world this is an ongoing process. Confidence building is another issue. One of our goals that the first data center, which will be built in the industrial zone of Poti City and will be completed in February, 2018, becomes a success story. After this, we are planning to implement many other projects, which we will start by all means. Presently we are in negotiations with Kutaisi free industrial zone and Tbilisi free industrial zone. We are also considering the option of building several data centers at HPPs. We have already concluded an agreement with Emoney on exclusive tariffs. We are also working in partnership with another project, created by Georgians, which is called Ushba – www.ushba.io. They are going to have a trade platform, on which our cryptocurrency will be placed. Blockchain Georgia Forum is planned for September, where we are planning to make a presentation together with Ushba Company. We are negotiatiing with software producing company Easymine the introduction of a lead software and partnership. We are now planning to import server facilities for minimum price and, apart from building of our data centers, we will be dealing with server equipment distribution in the region, which will help us to reduce costs. Georgia is a small country and its easier here to spread information, which increases the confidence. We wish to become one of the major “mining” companies. This is out plan for 2018.
