Blockchain firm Bloq has announced the creation of Metronome, a cross-blockchain cryptocurrency that will be issued through an initial coin offering (ICO).
As reported by Bloomberg, Bloq intends to unveil Metronome today at the Las Vegas Money 20/20 conference. The project is being developed by Bloq chief executive Jeff Garzik, a former Bitcoin Core developer who is also the lead developer for the contentious SegWit2x hard fork that is scheduled to activatate on the Bitcoin network next month.
Metronome’s key feature is the ability to operate on top of multiple blockchains, which developers say will ensure its survival if the underlying blockchain — such as Bitcoin or Ethereum — becomes compromised or simply becomes supplanted by another cryptocurrency in the future. Additionally, users will be able to transfer metronomes across the various blockchains.
Bloq co-founder Matthew Roszak claims that Metronome will prove to be a “thousand-year cryptocurrency” and will provide institutional investors with the stability they need to justify entering the crypto economy.
“Institutional investors should be very excited to see something like this,” Roszak said in a phone interview with Bloomberg. “We’ve built a thousand-year cryptocurrency, something that’s built to last.”
In an interview with Fortune, Garzik — one of the earliest bitcoin developers — stated that Metronome is the digital currency he would design if given a blank slate.
“Today, bitcoin faces existential threats from forks, developer drama and so on. Knowing what we know and having a clean sheet of paper, we asked what would we build and the answer is this,” Garzik said.
Garzik’s comment about “existential threats from forks” is certain to raise some eyebrows. As the lead developer of SegWit2x, many community members — rightly or wrongly — view his involvement in SegWit2x as one of those threats.
The timing of the announcement is also curious, as it comes less than one month before SegWit2x is scheduled to active on the Bitcoin network, potentially leading to both a blockchain and community split.
“With Metronome, we sought to design an autonomous cryptocurrency system that is highly resistant to governance failure and is intended to last for generations,” Garzik stated in a media release. “To accomplish this, we recognized early on that allowing users the freedom to select which blockchain most closely aligns with what they value was not only an important feature, but a vital one if we were to realize the Metronome vision.”
According to the official announcement, metronome tokens (MTN) will be issued through an initial coin offering (ICO) held in December. The initial supply of MTN is 10 million tokens, of which 8 million will be distributed through the ICO. The remaining 2 million MTN will be retained by Bloq. Thereafter, MTN will continuously be issued through daily auctions at an approximate annual rate of 2%. Bloq says that all ICO proceeds will remain within the Metronome smart contract system to help provide liquidity for the currency.
Metronome is expected to launch in December, with MTN tokens first being issued on the Ethereum network. Support for Ethereum Classic, Rootstock on Bitcoin, and Qtum is also planned but does not yet have a scheduled release date.