INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Write off another piece of crypto craziness: A Kodak-branded Bitcoin-mining rig that was on show at CES in January, where it generated much
headshaking and skepticism that it could ever deliver the claimed returns, has evaporated into the ideas ether from whence it came.
The BBC
reports that the plan to rent access to Kodak-branded KashMiner devices for the chance to earn Bitcoin returns has collapsed.
Spotlite USA,
the company that had shown off the rig at CES, was also never officially licensed to use Kodak brand for the mining rig, according to the
report (although the company does seemingly license Kodak brand for use on LED lighting products which nonetheless have nothing at all to do
with Bitcoin mining so…).
Nor had it installed multiple KashMiner devices at Kodak offices, as it had claimed.
Speaking to the BBC,
Spotlite CEO Halston Mikail said theUS Securities and Exchange Commission prevented the scheme from going ahead.
Instead of renting Bitcoin
mining capacity to consumers the company now plans to run a mining operation privately,with equipment installed in Iceland — apparently
without pausing to examine the logic of joining the existing pool of professional Bitcoin miners all chasing diminishing returns.
Iceland
has been a popular spot for setting up crypto mining ops for a while, owning to low average annual temperatures which help keep cooling
costs down, plus the availability of (relatively) cheap electricity, including generated from clean geothermal energy, which can offset
concerns about the environmental impact of crypto mining
Which is presumably why Spotlite has settled on Iceland for the next stage of its crypto adventure.
Meanwhile, Eastman Kodak, the
130-year-old camera company whose brand was not, as it turns out, licensed bySpotlite USA for Bitcoin mining,did reveal abona fidebrand
licensing plans to get involved with cryptocurrencies and blockchain (also) in January— announcing an imminent ICO for a photo-centric
cryptocurrency (called KodakCoin), via a brand licensee (called Wenn Digital),with the mooted blockchain platform set to focus on image
rights management.
So at least there a less than entirely tenuous connection in that crypto instance.
The ICO news instantly spiked Kodak
stock price 44 per cent in January oh-so-bubbly crypto market
Albeit, weeks later the stock had deflated after delays to the ICO on account of regulatory uncertainty.
Months later Wenn Digital went on
to launch a SAFT offering (aka Simple Agreements for Future Tokens), in May,which it still promoting on itsKodakOne website— with the aim
of raising $50M to build the touted image rights management blockchain platform.
It remains to be seen whether this officially Kodak-branded
offering will be able to turn a crypto idea into a genuinely useful product either.
