I’ve completed a buyback of the asset I issued, W4A-BOOK, on btct.co. I’m posting here for the sake of openness and transparency.<\/p>\n
BACKGROUND:<\/p>\n
The asset W4A-BOOK was a new idea in crowdfunding. Rather than relying on philanthropy or advanced sales of my next book, I wanted to try selling shares of it. This would allow philanthropists to share in my success, should I find it.<\/p>\n
The book is a memoir about getting recalled for a third combat tour (to Afghanistan) while becoming a radical libertarian.<\/p>\n
I already have credentials as a writers: Anyway, after some conversations with btct.co’s Ethan Burnside (a great gentleman), I applied to have securities issued. My application was approved on August 9th. A few days later, I attempted (and succeeded) in selling 100 of the 400 shares I issued for .24 BTC each. The 100 shares represented 10% ownership of the book and a 10% claim on all proceeds I might earn.<\/p>\n The reason I only sold 100 shares was because I was more interested in proving a concept than in raising money.<\/p>\n Step one seemed like a success. With 24 bitcoins in my paper wallet, I’m began writing (and attending bitcoin & libertarian conferences).<\/p>\n Then came the bad news that Btct.co was closing. See their website (https:\/\/btct.co\/<\/a>) for the announcement or bitcointalk.org (https:\/\/bitcointalk.org\/index.php?topic=125629.msg3214807#msg3214807<\/a>) for the discussion.<\/p>\n THREE OPTIONS:<\/p>\n I considered the following:<\/p>\n 1. Transfer of shares to another exchange.<\/p>\n 2. Continued ownership of shares in private.<\/p>\n 3. A buy-back of all shares.<\/p>\n COMMENTARY:<\/p>\n I didn’t like #1 for several reasons: #2 was a possibility, though my main objective was proving a concept and perhaps generating a little publicity. If the stock exchange aspect was all handled privately, my goals wouldn’t really be met. There’d be no market for shares of the book.<\/p>\n My preference was #3, buying back all shares at the original issuing price — 0.24 BTC each. Since trading volume for this asset was extremely low, such a buy-back would cause most parties to break even or come close. #3 had another advantage: simplicity.<\/p>\n ACTION<\/p>\n I communicated with shareholders via email. Those who responded represented over 90% of the outstanding shares. They agreed with #3. One of them, the largest shareholder, initially preferred #2, continuing our agreement in private. I was prepared to do that, but he deferred to my preference (which I described as a “slight preference” in our correspondence).<\/p>\n He gave me lots of encouragement for this project, and is another example of the good faith and integrity that always impresses me in the Bitcoin community.<\/p>\n Today, I completed the buyback. BTCT.CO had a system for actually buying back shares through their website, but they also had a warning that customers should withdraw their funds. I didn’t want to send money to a website which may be in regulatory trouble, so I shut off trading and executed the buyback by simply sending BTC to the public keys of all the shareholders. I emailed each of them a transaction ID.<\/p>\n ============<\/p>\n I invite you all to purchase an advanced copy of the memoir: https:\/\/bitcoinstarter.com\/projects\/182 <\/a> The new working title is “The Way Back”.<\/p>\n Originally posted on bitcointalk.org: https:\/\/bitcointalk.org\/index.php?topic=307484.new#new<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve completed a buyback of the asset I issued, W4A-BOOK, on btct.co. I’m posting here for the sake of openness and transparency. BACKGROUND: The asset W4A-BOOK was a new idea in crowdfunding. Rather than relying on philanthropy or advanced sales of my next book, I wanted to try selling shares of it. This would allow … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[42],"tags":[49],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":961,"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions\/961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/romanskaskiw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– http:\/\/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com\/author\/roman-skaskiw\/<\/a>
\n– http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-Tea-Party-Explained-Ideas\/dp\/0812698312<\/a><\/p>\n
\n– It takes time and effort to issue shares and since we still don’t know the details behind BTCT’s closure, I fear other Bitcoin stock exchanges might meet the same fate.
\n– The fee for issuing a security is usually 2 to 5 BTC. That’s a non-trivial amount when you’re only planning to raise 20-something BTC.<\/p>\n