Medici Ventures – Financial Treason & Crime

Frank Cardona, 28 March 2020

Medici Ventures, a blockchain accelerator owned by internet retail company Overstock.com, announced a global expansion of agritech blockchain company GrainChain through a partnership with Symbiont’s enterprise blockchain network. Earlier this month, Medici Ventures announced it had purchased over $5 million in equity from GrainChain as part of an <$8.2 funding round for the project. Continue reading “Article: Overstock accelerator plots expansion of farming blockchain”

03/06/202003/09/2021

Article: Medici Ventures Purchases Additional Equity in GrainChain

Article - Media, Publications

Medici Ventures Purchases Additional Equity in GrainChain

GLOBE NEWSWIRE, 06 March 2020

Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) has announced that the company’s blockchain accelerator, Medici Ventures, has exercised a warrant to purchase an additional $5 million of equity in keiretsu company GrainChain to further grow its revolutionary agricultural blockchain platform. Medici Ventures is joining Eden Block and other investors in this latest round of funding for GrainChain, which resulted in $8.2 million in capital for the company. This follows Medici Ventures’ initial investment of $2.5 million in GrainChain, announced in December 2018.

GrainChain’s innovative platform enables faster payment and allows for the immediate availability of tradable commodities between buyers and farmers. Its blockchain-based infrastructure also reduces fraud and corruption through tracking and certification, and generally streamlines transactional procedures throughout the commodities supply chain. Continue reading “Article: Medici Ventures Purchases Additional Equity in GrainChain”

09/20/201903/09/2021

Article: Ex-Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne sells stock, doubles down on crypto

Article - Media, Publications

Ex-Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne sells stock, doubles down on crypto

Leo Jakobson, 20 September 2019

Overstock.com’s founder Patrick Byrne ended his connection with the online retailer he built into a giant in much the same way as he ended his tenure as its CEO a month ago: bizarrely.

Since 2014, Byrne poured more than $200 million of Overstock.com’s resources into a venture capital arm, Medici Ventures, with the goal of turning the online retailer into a blockchain powerhouse, Forbes estimates.

Ten days before he stepped down on August 22, Byrne had forced his PR team to post a release on the company’s investor relations page reading, “Overstock.com CEO Comments on Deep State, Withholds Further Comment.” It delved vaguely into the Hillary Clinton/Russia investigation, President Donald Trump, and Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as well as a “senior military officer,” and “the Men in Black.” Lurking unmentioned in the background was his affair with a jailed Russian agent. Continue reading “Article: Ex-Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne sells stock, doubles down on crypto”

12/13/201703/09/2021

Article: Hernando de Soto and Patrick Byrne Unite to Challenge Global Poverty & Inequality

Article - Media, Publications

Hernando de Soto and Patrick Byrne Unite to Challenge Global Poverty & Inequality

GLOBE NEWSWIRE, 13 December 2017

World-renowned economist Hernando de Soto and blockchain technology leader Patrick Byrne (founder Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) and blockchain subsidiary Medici Ventures) have formed a joint venture to develop a global property registry system to surface the property rights of billions of people in the developing world. The new company – De Soto, Inc. – brings together de Soto’s decades worth of reforms (especially regarding property rights) at the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) and Medici Ventures’ blockchain expertise to build solutions to empower individuals through recognized property ownership.

De Soto, Inc. is developing a blockchain-based system using mobile applications and social media integration that will bring to light the thousands of “disconnected ledgers” (i.e., informal ownership records) that exist at local levels in communities around the world. In doing so, it will create a global repository on which ownership and transfer can be based. The system aims to promote the interests of people who are currently operating extra-legally, as well as multinational corporations who are trying to cooperate with local owners. The company expects to launch its first pilot program in early 2018. Continue reading “Article: Hernando de Soto and Patrick Byrne Unite to Challenge Global Poverty & Inequality”