UPDATED 23:11 EDT / FEBRUARY 03 2015

Bitcoin News For 2015 With SiliconANGLE NEWS

Cryptocurrency startup NeuCoin raises $2.25 million seed round

Bitcoin News For 2015 With SiliconANGLECryptocurrency startup NeuCoin has raised a $2.25 million seed round from 20 individual investors including King Digital Entertainment plc co-founder Patrik Stymne, Uber Inc. SVP Emil Michael and Hotwire Inc. president Henrik Kjellberg.

Set to launch in March, NeuCoin is offering an micropayment focused altcoin that that will be “easy to use and well marketed,” which the company claims is the opposite of Bitcoin.

NeuCoin claims that one of its key strategic advantages is that it was created “by an experienced team of entrepreneurs and technologists that previously founded multiple companies with millions of users in the music, gaming and shopping sectors” and boasts that its “strategic advisors include the Head of Growth at Spotify, the creator of Dogecoin, and the Vice Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation.”

Co-founder Dan Kaufman explained in a statement the reasoning behind the company:

“Basically we think that digital currencies have not been adopted widely by consumers because they’re not easy to use… And they’re not providing a benefit or a use case that consumers care about… Many believe that new business models and behaviors based on micropayments (transactions from $.01 to $1.00) where traditional payment methods just aren’t viable might be digital currency’s killer app.  Armed with freemium distribution, this is Neucoin’s focus.”

Like Bitcoin, NeuCoin will be mined, although the company says it will offer a consumer-friendly cloud mining service “that lets users effortlessly earn PoS awards through growth accounts.” The currency comes backed by heavy security and robust Blockchain.info style handling of private keys on the backend.

Three billion NeuCoins will be pre-mined and distributed to three non-profit organizations, The Code, Utility and Growth foundations, with those orgs seeking to expand and promote the cryptocurrency.

Upon launch, NeuCoin will offer a tipping micropayment platform with three major content partners: YouTube animation channel Mondo Media Inc., music service Jango Inc., and artist promotion company Radio Airplay Inc. In all three cases users will be able to tip content creators anything from 1 cent through to significantly more.

What do you say about yet another altcoin/ cryptocurrency? NeuCoin has some impressive backers, and founders Kaufman,  Johan Sandstrom, Ophelie Pubellier and Scott Walker all have strong consumer startup backgrounds but…it’s still yet another altcoin/ cryptocurrency, a space that is multiplying quicker than rabbits in the Australian outback.

The company to its credit recognizes that it’s one of many, and actually pitches itself against existing currencies such as Ripple and Stellar, as well as Bitcoin and even Dogecoin, but does marketplace self awareness translate into a recipe for a successful startup in this space? Only time will tell.


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