Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak reveals involvement with crypto startup Equi: Report

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has recently revealed that he is going to get involved with a blockchain company for the first time.

In an exclusive interview with Null Transaction, Wozniak said that he is going to get associated with a crypto startup called Equi.

“I’m involved with, very soon, my first time being involved in a blockchain company. [It’s] called Equi… Our approach is not like a new currency, or something phony where an event will make it go up in value. It’s a share of stock, in a company,” he said.

Launched in 2018, Equi is an Ethereum-based investment platform founded by Aston Ventures’ Doug Barrowman and Ultimo founder Baroness Michelle Mone.

“This company is doing investment by investors with huge track records in good investments in things like apartment buildings in Dubai. We have one person in our group who has listed out a whole apartment building for Bitcoin… We might be starting up in Malta around the time of their blockchain conference,” Wozniak added.

While Wozniak’s interest in crypto and blockchain space should signify the emerging sector’s growing mainstream influence, his choice of the first firm to get involved with is raising questions.

According to The Next Web, Equi was originally set to launch an initial coin offering (ICO). In March, the company announced that it has raised $7 million in its pre-sale ICO. However, it failed to meet its targets when the sale was opened to public. The company cancelled the ICO and refunded the investors.

The company then came up with a marketing bounty program in which the public could earn tokens by advertising Equi. However, the program also ran into problems as the marketing firm licensed to run the program severed its ties with Equi soon after it was rolled out.

“The launch of Equi was so heavily botched that the fallout has been felt by the wider bounty community,” TNW said. “When you combine all this with the SEC’s recent judgements that suggest bounty programs like these violate securities law, Wozniak’s choice of cryptocurrency becomes just a little bit unsettling.”