Announcing the Trustchain, the world’s first DAG-based blockchain platform optimized for use by payment networks, merchants and stable coin issuers

Introducing COTI Pay, COTI’s own decentralized payment network

Updated roadmap and token generation event

When we founded COTI back in early 2017, we set out to build a decentralized payment app. We wanted to solve the downfalls of traditional payment systems, namely, high fees and low approval rates. We invested our own funds and launched ourselves headfirst into building the next generation digital payment system.

After a few months of research, we realized that blockchain in its current form was an inadequate tool. Like many others in the industry, we took note of unsolved challenges of scalability, high fees and the lack of buyer-seller protections.

In a bold move, we decided to build our own version of the blockchain by implementing DAG as the base layer, as well as a novel Trustchain consensus protocol based on trust instead of costly proof of work (PoW). We understood this was a moon shot and set about recruiting a dream team to optimize our solution to support a global payment network.

We are happy to announce that we received great demand for COTI and have succeeded at raising our first round of $15M from our strongest supporters to launch this ambitious project. We have used the funds and our relentless belief to hire the very best talents around working towards our vision.

We are also thrilled to announce that we achieved our most significant technological breakthrough to date. Next Monday, on CNBC, we’ll be unveiling the Trustchain, the world’s first blockchain protocol and app development platform optimized for creating decentralized payment systems and price-stable coins.

We believe the Trustchain stands to revolutionize crypto adoption by becoming the base layer upon which future decentralized payment solutions are built. Even more so, we have created the world’s first dispute resolution system for cryptocurrency payments,on-chain KYC and a price-stability framework.

Potential use cases of the Trustchain include:

Multinational companies looking to benefit from decentralized technology (e.g. banks and insurance companies)

Merchants who would like to create their own payment networks and price-stable coins

Governments wishing to digitize fiat money

Developers who require payment apps and price-stable coins

Organizations wishing to build decentralized payment networks to compete with credit card issuers and PayPal

We have already secured partnerships with a number of leading companies that will be implementing the Trustchain protocol into their systems. Details of these partnerships will be disclosed shortly following our Trustchain AlphaNet launch next Monday.

COTI Pay and COTI Dime

Following the Trustchain launch, we’ll be deploying our decentralized payment network COTI Pay in October as a prime use case built on our own Trustchain infrastructure. To accompany COTI Pay, we’ll also be debuting COTI Dime, a generic price-stable coin pegged to USD 10 cents.

COTI Pay has received over 5000 merchants applications, and 80,000 users have already requested to download our wallet. Consumers who have opted to download our pre-charged COTI Pay wallet will receive a notification to access the wallet during the COTI Pay launch in October with 100 COTI Dime tokens loaded onto it. These tokens bear the value of $0.1 each and can be used with merchants accepting COTI Pay. COTI Dime coins can be converted to COTI coins once the main net has been launched. By design, COTI Dime tokens are not tradable. The purpose of this distribution is to allow actual testing of our network and to grant consumers and merchants with early access.

We’ll formally be announcing COTI Pay and COTI Dime in October, so stay tuned.

Updated roadmap

We have set ourselves apart from the get-go by being diligent with our fundraising efforts and strictly abiding by regulations. Upon successfully raising $15M in Q2 2018, we decided to postpone all token sales of COTI pending the launch of the Trustchain platform in September. This decision was made as we wanted to deliver products before raising the remainder of funds. We greatly thank those of you who already own COTI and believed in us from the beginning.

During Q4 2018, we expect to launch three major ecosystem components: the Trustchain, our platform; COTI Pay, our decentralized payment network; and COTI-X, our internal exchange. In early Q1 2019, we’ll be announcing a more advanced version of the Trustchain and expect more adoption and more partnership rollouts. By the end of Q1 2019, as we get closer to our main net release, we will likely be hosting a final sale for all of our supporters. We stand firm in the confidence of our ability to deliver a great product and be valued as such.

Following in the steps of companies like Dfinity, Stellar, and more, we have decided to skip ERC20 tokens and to only issue COTI coins once our main net has been launched. The main considerations for first launching the main net include retaining management focus on the product, achieving partner onboarding onto the protocol and ensuring regulatory compliance, as regulators prefer to have a view into true coin utility before it is released.

We will be rolling out wallets with COTI coins to our backers this October. These coins will serve as a proof of ownership and are not tradable. They will be converted to our native main net coins once the main net has been launched by the end of Q1 2019 and will then have full utility and tradability.

Schedule:

September 2018 - Trustchain AlphaNet launch

Q4 2018 - COTI-X launch

Q4 2018 - COTI Pay and COTI Dime launch

Early Q1 2019 – Testnet launch

End of Q1 2019 - Main net launch and conversion to the COTI coin

Q2 2019 - First partner solutions launching on COTI's main net

We all believe that decentralization is the future and that the Trustchain is the next generation blockchain 3.0 solution, which will bring the world one step closer to achieving mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

On behalf of myself and the entire team at COTI, we’d like to thank you for your continued support!