Eric Piscini, the man responsible for helping transform Deloitte’s Blockchain initiative into a $50 million enterprise, has announced that he will be leaving the company to build up another blockchain empire.
This time, Piscini is pouring his efforts into Citizens Reserve, an early-stage startup that is aiming to raise $150 million to hitch the world’s disjointed supply chains into a blockchain system that will reportedly use both the Ethereum chain and JPMorgan’s ‘Quorum’ blockchain.
“We are building the Ethereum of supply chain,” said Piscini.
Citizens Reserve has announced on Monday that it hired some former Deloitte blockchain team members, including global blockchain leader Eric Piscini, for the development of a tokenized blockchain protocol. https://t.co/0pwJU8H2a6
— CoinWire (@CoinWireHQ) May 15, 2018
According to a report from Forbes, the connection of these two blockchain networks is the key to success. The reliability of the Ethereum network combined with the privacy features of Quorum will allow users to comply with the “regulatory restrictions” that have been holding the blockchain industry at bay up to this point.
‘Zerv’ Tokens Will Be Asset-Backed
Citizens Reserve’s network, called ‘Zerv’, describes itself as “[allowing] frictionless transactions between all key participants within the supply chain, including manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, and consumers.” Ethereum-based ‘Zerv’ tokens will be used to access and use the blockchain network.
Zerv tokens will also reportedly be asset-backed. According to an early draft of the Zerv whitepaper, each Zerv token will be pegged with a ‘guaranteed’ value of $0.01. At present, 50 billion Zerv tokens are expected to be issued, setting the network’s total value at $500 million.
To avoid regulatory troubles, Citizens Reserve has divided its $150 million fundraising initiative into three phases: an IPO, a traditional fundraising round, and an ICO. Citizens Reserve is selling Zerv coins as utility tokens to avoid being accused of selling unregistered securities.
The first fundraising round, which was for ‘friends and family’ only, raised $2.3 million; in exchange for their contributions, participants were given "convertible notes." According to Forbes, "these notes, and all the money raised, can be converted to tokens when they are issued later this year."
