There’s a new coin on the block.
Come December, startup Bloq’s new cryptocurrency, Metronome (MTN), will compete for trader and investor attention among more than 1,000 other, similar tokens.
However, Metronome promises to be different in that it is a cross-chain cryptocurrency. This means it can be converted to other cryptocurrencies without incurring transaction fees or latency due to overcrowded networks. It is also backed by serious street cred in the person of Jeff Garzik, Bloq’s co-founder and a bitcoin pioneer. (See also: Cryptocurrencies Will Fail Without Cross-Chain Transactions.)
Garzik was part of the core development team responsible for developing the blockchain technology underlying bitcoin. But he has not created a blockchain for Metronome. Instead, the currency accomplishes a switch through the use of digital receipts, which can be used to transfer assets between blockchains. In simple words, this means traders can switch from, say, bitcoin to ethereum and back again using receipts. Such facility could be especially handy in saving money and effort during times of anticipated price volatility, such as forks from the main branch.
According to its founders, Metronome transactions can be completed in an estimated 15 seconds or less. In addition to this, the currency’s “mass-pay” feature allows users to send money to several recipients at the same time.
A December Launch
Metronome will be launched in early December with an auction of 10 million coins. The founders will be issued two million coins from that batch as compensation for their work in developing the software. Subsequently, the cryptocurrency plans to issue 2,880 new coins daily.
Based on calculations by American Banker, this should enable the currency to reach a supply of above 30 million in the next 20 years. The increase in supply should have the effect of tamping down the currency’s inflation. Garzik and his team have calculated an inflation rate of 10% for the first year and 5% in year two. The rate will keep declining until it reaches 2% during its 35th year. That figure will remain constant for the “next thousand years,” said Garzik.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Matthew Roszak, Bloq’s co-founder, said institutional investors should be “very excited” with their tokens. “We’ve built a thousand year currency and it’s built to last,” he said. That self-assessment may be a tad enthusiastic. Michael Goldstein, president of the Satoshi Nakomoto Institute, has used the words “another shitcoin” to describe Metronome. Bloomberg has also listed a couple of challenges for the token, such as an increasingly crowded cryptocurrency ecosystem and zero users at start.
