By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bloq, a U.S. blockchain technology company, said on Tuesday it will launch the sale of its own crypto-currency called Metronome (MTN), which will have a predictable and autonomously managed token supply.
Blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that has underpinned bitcoin, the original digital currency.
Metronome is a bitcoin-like token that upon its launch in early December can be used immediately for a slew of applications such as payments and transfers. It can also run on different blockchains, unlike other tokens, the company said.
"This is a foundational crypto-currency, a foundational payment layer," Matthew Roszak, co-founder and chairman of Bloq, said in an interview with Reuters.
"How is it different from bitcoin or ethereum? It is this cross-chain, or multi-chain, ability, to move from one railroad to another. That's a really big innovation and invention of Metronome.
Upon the launch in December, an initial supply of 10 million MTN tokens will be issued, with 8 million MTN tokens sold to the public in a descending price auction for Ethereum's ether currency. The idea for the auction is to manage supply, Roszak said.
Ethereum is another blockchain similar to that of bitcoin,
Bloq will keep 2 million of the tokens. Roszak said the company will not receive the proceeds of the MTN sale. They will remain within the Metronome smart contract system to provide liquidity to the token's marketplace.
"When you buy a Metronome token, you are funding a savings contract that will provide liquidity and price support for the Metronome token economy. That's a big difference," Roszak said.
The Bloq executive also pointed out that unlike other token offerings, there would be no pre-sale of the tokens to institutional investors prior to the December offering.
"It's going to be a fair auction. Nobody has an advantage before the launch," Roszak said.
According to financial data and research firm Pitchbook, Bloq raised an undisclosed amount of money from SixThirty, a business development accelerator and venture fund, in September 2016.
The company raised $250,000 of venture funding from Digital Currency Group and Tally Capital in February 2016, Pitchbook said.