Corporate update

RNS Number : 8514L

Online Blockchain PLC

24 April 2018

 

For immediate release

24 April 2018

 

 

Online Blockchain PLC

("Online" or the "Company")

Corporate Update

The Board of Online is pleased to provide the following general update on ongoing project development in response to recent investor questions. There is a glossary in Appendix 1 of the announcement and which explains the technical terms or abbreviations used below.

Our first blockchain project that we announced in December last year was the first phase of our PlusOne Coin cryptocurrency project and which we had developed in conjunction with ADVFN PLC ("ADVFN"). PlusOne Coin was our initial project announcement and is a social validation blockchain, where content platforms, content providers, users and other stakeholders can use the blockchain as a means of interacting with each other. Online's development of Plus 1 Coin has continued following this initial launch, with functionality added (and further developments are planned later this year). As of today, PlusOne Coin has been implemented on ADVFN's UK, US and Brazil internet platforms and approximately 85,000 PlusOne Coin receipt transactions (see Glossary below) have been validated through mining on the PlusOne Coin blockchain. As previously announced, Online and ADVFN are each bearing their own costs in respect of the PlusOne Coin cryptocurrency cooperation project at this stage, and while there are currently no financial arrangements between the two companies in respect of this project, we anticipate that Online will in due course charge publishers like ADVFN a license fee for its software which supports the wallet, on terms to be agreed. 

We have also begun to work with teams of independent blockchain developers on new project initiatives, and which opens new and potentially interesting possibilities for Online, particularly in "mining" activities. Mining is a key activity that underpins blockchain transaction validation by third parties, and Online has started to develop its own capabilities in this area in cryptocurrencies (but is not focusing on bitcoin at this time).  As well as augmenting our general technical knowhow, mining activities have the potential to create revenue streams and become the basis for additional products.

Our first new activity in this area is our recent development of Happypool.co., a mining pool that enables miners to pool their computing power together to mine blockchains. For individual miners acting alone, it can be extremely difficult to mine cryptocurrencies successfully as an individual typically has limited available (and therefore insufficient) computing processing capacity to use. A mining pool enables online communities of individual miners to collaborate and combine their computing processing resources to earn collectively crypto-currency and to then each share fairly in the rewards.  Happypool's platform can now be accessed at www.happypool.co and provides a cloud-based software environment that enables a pooled mining service for individual miners, for which Happypool charges a small commission which is paid in the respective cryptocurrency generated from successful mining by the mining pool.

Happypool is currently at an initial stage enabling mining in a small number of cryptocurrencies, including PlusOne Coin, and has begun to generate some commissions paid in successfully mined cryptocurrency. These sums are not yet material but we foresee growth potential. We believe that blockchain mining activity is more than the simple generation of cryptocurrency for profit, and while we are now generating some revenue from mining, we are looking beyond this to other potential opportunities and we intend that Happypool will be an initial foundation on which we can develop additional blockchain support services to miners and blockchain creators alike.  For example, a blockchain creator can need mining support for a new coin or a new fork of an existing coin as in initial development stages, community support may be sporadic or non-existent. Additionally, there are other potential opportunities enabled by creating pools of computing power.

We are also planning to mine more generally as part of both our research and development activities and to generate revenues. Our initial focus is on crypto-currencies other than bitcoin. We have purchased ASIC, GPU and hybrid mining processors, and are in the process of expanding our facilities to support this planned activity with additional office premises. We anticipate that we will commence this activity during this second quarter of the year.

We are enthusiastic about the potential opportunities for blockchain technology. Shareholders should note that the Company's own development of blockchain products are still at an early stage and we look forward to reporting further progress this year.

A copy of this announcement is available on the Company's website, at www.onlineblockchain.io

Enquiries:

For further information please contact: 

Online Blockchain PLC Clement Chambers	[phone]
Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nominated Adviser) www.beaumontcornish.com
Roland Cornish/Michael Cornish	[phone]
Smaller Company Capital Limited (Broker)	[phone]
Jeremy Woodgate
Cassiopeia Ltd (Investor Relations) Stefania Barbaglio	[e-mail]

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. The person who arranged for the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company was Clement Chambers, Director.

Forward looking statements

Certain statements in this announcement are or may be deemed to be forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''believe'' ''could'' "should" ''envisage'' ''estimate'' ''intend'' ''may'' ''plan'' ''will'' or the negative of those variations or comparable expressions including references to assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth results of operations performance future capital and other expenditures (including the amount. nature and sources of funding thereof) competitive advantages business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements reflect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.  Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements including risks associated with vulnerability to general economic and business conditions competition environmental and other regulatory changes actions by governmental authorities the availability of capital markets reliance on key personnel uninsured and underinsured losses and other factors many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Although any forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are based upon what the Directors believe to be reasonable assumptions. The Company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with such forward looking statements.

Appendix 1

Glossary of terms

ASIC	ASIC is short for "application specific integrated circuit". An ASIC miner is a specialised blockchain mining device using chips specifically designed and made to mine specific cryptocurrencies. They have no general purpose computing application.
Blockchain	A distributed digital ledger in which data (and therefore transactions) is recorded sequentially and permanently in blocks. Each new block is linked to the immediately previous block with a cryptographic signature, forming a chain so that peer-to-peer transactions can be facilitated, validated and recorded without the need for a central third party. The distributed digital ledger is not hosted in one location, nor managed by a central party, but is shared and accessed by anyone with the appropriate permissions.
Crypto-currency or token	A cryptocurrency is a unit of accounting kept on a cryptocurrency blockchain which is a core part of the operating structure of that blockchain. A token is a unit of account kept via a blockchain but not necessarily intrinsic to the blockchain's operation such as the Etherium blockchain, which has a cryptocurrency called 'etherium' but can keep track of tokens which can be recorded on the Ethereum blockchain that anyone can create, name and record a ledger of.
GPU	A graphics processor unit is a specialised general purpose computing device used to process fast graphics for graphic intensive computing, such as games or animation. A GPU is a plug-in device used mainly with Windows PCs and can be used to mine blockchains as the devices contain general purpose mathematics engines which apply well to blockchain mining tasks.
Mining	The process of using computer processing hardware to solve a cryptographic mathematical problem to verify and add newly processed blocks to a public blockchain. Miners collect transaction fees for the transactions they confirm and are awarded respective tokens for each block they verify.
Mining Pools	Mining "pools" are a network of miners that work together to mine a block, then split the block reward among the pool miners. Mining pools enable miners to combine their resources to increase the probability of mining a block.
Transaction	A transaction is when data is received by a PlusOne Coin address and validated on the blockchain. A blockchain transaction can have multiple receivers and transactions logged are for all receipt transactions.

ENDS

 

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