Civil Launching Despite Token Sale Failure

Civil, the Blockchain based journalism startup, announced that it would be launching in February 2019, despite the fact that the project’s CVL token sale failure earlier in the year.

Civil is a Blockchain powered platform that is focused on creating a new ecosystem for journalists and the media using its native cryptocurrency CVL, which is supposed to improve trust in journalism and also aid participants in attaining financial stability.

Failed ICO

Civil had launched a token sale earlier in 2018 with the aim of raising $8 million through it. Unfortunately, the project only managed to raise $1,435,491 from 1,012 investors. Another 1,738 prospective buyers registered for the token sale, but never completed the transaction.

Due to the failure of the ICO, Civil had to refund the contributions made by those who had supported their fund raiser. This led to the journalists in newsrooms affiliated with Civil to complain that the failure of the token sale had hurt the compensation that they had negotiated. The journalists had been promised that part of their payments would be made in CVL.

Second Attempt at Token Sales

This time around, Civil is using a new model for its tokens, called consumer token, which has been developed by the Brooklyn Project. Civil’s co-founder and spokesperson Matthew Coolidge stated in an email that the new fund raising was going to be conducted after a great deal of user research after the previous token sale had been carried out.

Coolidge also stated that the company had focused on ensuring that they heard, and transparently responded, to major user feedback wherever it had been possible.

Another thing that the company would be doing differently in this round is that there would be no hard or soft cap on the amount to be raised. Neither will there be any time limit to the token sale. This time round, the tokens will be put up for sale on a recurring basis until all the 34 million tokens that have been allocated for the public are sold.

Civil is also introducing two new tools apart from the token sale. The first app, the Civil Registry, will let any newsroom apply to become a Civil newsroom. The second app, the Civil Publisher, lets Civil newsrooms index verifiable information about their publications on the Civil Blockchain.

Newsrooms Joining Civil

Civil stated that 18 newsrooms have already joined their network and another 50 are expected to join by the time the new round of funding in February 2019 takes place. The company further stated that by 2020, 1,000 small- to mid-sized newsrooms across the world would join their platform.