The founder and owner of retail giant Overstock, Patrick Byrne, has revealed plans of soon selling the retail arm of the company to focus on the blockchain, by early next year, according to a November 23 issue of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Byrne, who is known for his interest and commitment to technology, did not reveal any details of the sale or whether there were any potential buyers in the picture, but did state that he expected the deal to be done in about 3 months’ time.
According to the wall street journal, the Overstock founder had been planning to sell the retail business since last year in order to fully concentrate on Blockchain projects.
The journal also has it that blockchain projects had cost Overstock quite a bit of money, with the company’s subsidiary, Medici, losing $22 million in 2017 and $39 million in the first nine months of 2018. Despite the losses, Byrne has remained defiant with his blockchain ventures and went on to say in an interview; “I don’t care whether tZero [one of the projects backed by Medici] is losing $2 million a month. We think we’ve got cold fusion on the blockchain side,”
Overstock is a pioneer in the crypto-space since it was among the first major companies to accept Bitcoin, back in 2014. Overstock’s blockchain division has been quite busy this year with, Overstock’s Medici project being used to power a remote blockchain driven platform in this year’s US mid-term elections.
Overstock’s blockchain division was also behind the development of a land registry reform platform in Zambia. The project, which received overwhelming support from the Zambian government, was used to develop a system of decentralized land ownership which allowed rural landowners to legitimize their land and gain access to the financial world.
