FLO is an open source cryptocurrency that was launched with no ICO or premine on June 17th, 2013, and is one of the 10 oldest still existing cryptocurrencies. FLO’s standout feature is the ability to store 1040 bytes of metadata in every transaction, allowing for unique applications to be built with FLO.

After a brief hiatus, I am back, and FLO has had one hell of a Q1. Since the last article, there has been significant progress made all over the FLO ecosystem. From tZERO and Medici Land Governance, to Alexandria, OIP, and more, FLO continues to be a leader in the real world adoption of blockchain technology. With all that said, it’s time to take a look at FLO’s progress in Q1.

Block Halving

FLO started out the year strong with a block halving on January 9th. The block reward dropped from 12.5, to 6.25 FLO per block. The FLO inflation rate has now decreased to 3.19% per year, with only 12,960 new FLO being generated per day. As it stands, 150,533,986 out of 160,000,000, or roughly 94% of all FLO has already been mined. FLO only continues to grow more scarce, with the next block halving scheduled for January 23, 2020.

The Launch of tZERO

On January 24 the tZERO security token exchange went live, and as expected, tZERO has continued to utilize FLO for its state of the art Digital Locate Receipt (DLR) technology. Every business day, hour after hour, tZERO has been publishing DLRs to the FLO blockchain. Even prior to the launch of tZERO, the DLR technology was already seeing commercial use, with revenues increasing 5–6x in 2018. Now that the platform is finally live, DLR utilization is only likely to increase as tZERO continues to grow in prominence. Patrick Byrne predicted the DLR technology alone could warrant a valuation of $1.5B, and time will tell if he was right.

For more information on the DLR technology, check out my article on the specifics of the DLR technology and how it aims to disrupt.

Trezor Support is Imminent

FLO on Twitter

Do you know $FLO #Trezor wallet integration is almost complete? We expect the wallet to be available on @Trezor within the next firmware update

Trezor support is right around the corner, and with it, FLO will have access to its first dedicated hardware wallet. With hardware wallet support comes added peace of mind, and no doubt many are eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Medici Land Governance at The World Bank Land and Poverty Conference

From March 25th–29th, The World Bank’s 2019 Land and Poverty Conference took place, and Chris Chrysostom of Medici Land Governance (MLG) was there to showcase the progress that has been made in land title registry on the FLO blockchain. By utilizing the Open Index Protocol, MLG is building an easy, fast, and secure way to formalize property rights, of particular importance to the developing world. The below video recently published by MLG, provides a clear and concise example of how blockchain property rights can aid the developing world, as well as drastically improve the current system the world over.

With MLG already titling land in Zambia, Rwanda, Mexico, and Wyoming on the FLO blockchain, progress is rapidly being made to develop land administration systems suited for the 21st century.

Chris Chrysostom’s full presentation at the Land and Poverty Conference can be found below. It’s lengthy, but the entire video is well worth watching if you find time.

Ravencoin Implements OIP Support

Of further interest to Medici Land Governance, Ravencoin implemented OIP support in late March, the details of which can be found on Github.

This has huge significance for MLG, and the further revolutionizing of property rights. By integrating OIP support into RVN, the RVN blockchain can now call back to the FLO blockchain and reference the FLO transaction id containing the property rights information of a piece of property. By doing this, a RVN asset can be created representing a piece of property, that references to the FLO transaction id for its property rights. This asset could then even be distributed proportionally in instances where multiple parties contributed.

The digitization of property rights and real world assets onto the blockchain remains once of the most promising applications of blockchain technology, and FLO and RVN are at the forefront of the effort.

Alexandria and PUBLISH, Inc. Partnership

In March, PUBLISH, Inc. formally announced that they are entering into a strategic partnership with Alexandria. Per the press release,

On 11th, PUBLISH, Inc. announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Alexandria.io to develop an extended Open Index Protocol specification catering to blockchain news dissemination.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will collaborate on the development of a new common metadata framework specific to blockchain news dissemination and mapped to existing news standards, such as the IPTC’s (International Press Telecommunications Council) NewsML-G2.

The significance of this partnership cannot be overstated. The PUBLISH group is currently averaging around 1 billion page views per month, and also recently entered into a partnership with NetEase News Korea. NetEase itself is a massively influential publicly traded company, with a valuation around $10 billion. One thing can be said for certain; Alexandria has found itself in good company.

Continued Progress, Day by Day

With Q1 behind us, we now turn our sights to Q2. If Q1 was any indication, there should be no shortage of significant developments as the year continues to progress. Exciting times are ahead, and the future of FLO has never been brighter.

For additional information, visit the FLO Telegram Channel, and check out my past articles on FLO and the DLR technology utilized by tZERO, as well as the Open Index Protocol and how it operates on FLO.

This is the third article in a series casting a spotlight on the FLO Blockchain ecosystem. In article 1, I highlighted the little-known connection between tZERO and the FLO Blockchain. In article 2, I presented an in-depth overview of how tZERO utilizes FLO for its state of the art DLR technology. If you wish to learn more about FLO, come visit the FLO Telegram Channel.

The internet is becoming an increasingly closed and censored place. Platforms like YouTube and Patreon have been in the news recently for demonetizing and censoring individuals promoting views that they do not agree with. While the internet may seem like free and public space, the reality is that the internet is increasingly defined by massive, closed platform applications, that are entirely under the control of a select few large corporations. While the spaces that these corporations offer, such as Twitter or YouTube, may feel like public spaces, they in actuality represent a return to the walled garden model, where every element of the application is at the complete mercy of their every whim. These closed systems are becoming increasingly problematic and antithetical to the desired open and decentralized internet, and that is where the FLO blockchain and the Open Index Protocol (OIP) step in to address this growing problem.

What is the Open Index Protocol?

Think for a moment about how the internet as we know it works today. We have agreed upon protocols that make up a few layers of the internet, but the vast majority of what we interact with is centralized and proprietary. The Open Index Protocol shifts the majority of the web from the centralized and proprietary application layer, to the decentralized protocol layer. The graphic below contrasts the structure of the current internet, with how it would look in an OIP world.

Understanding how exactly the Open Index Protocol operates can be a little overwhelming at first, but it can be broken down into components to make it more palatable.

Shared Data Layer

At the very bottom of the OIP tech stack, we have the FLO Blockchain. The FLO Blockchain serves as the index of the system, and it accomplishes this thanks to the ability to publish metadata transaction comments to the blockchain. On its own, the ability to store metadata isn’t all that special, but when paired with the Open Index Protocol, an infinite number of doors are opened. The best way to think of the OIP, is as a sort of decentralized analogue to Google search. The Open Index Protocol implements a set of standards with which metadata is stored to the FLO Blockchain. By utilizing a standardized format, metadata on the blockchain can be reliably queried, effectively operating as a blockchain search engine.

Interoperable Transport Layer

On top of the shared data layer, we have the interoperable transport layer. This layer is composed of distribution and payment networks. Currently, OIP utilizes IPFS for peer to peer file sharing. When sharing a file with the world using OIP, the application the user interacts with would seed the file using IPFS, and then the IPFS hash would be included in the metadata transaction. All of this would be done via the application GUI. Applications wishing to display this content would then call back to standardized OIP metadata stored on the FLO Blockchain. Payment for content is handled by the inclusion of cryptocurrency addresses within the OIP metadata. Support for as many cryptocurrencies as possible, such as BTC, FLO, or RVN, is desired in order to best scale the system, and maximize the matches between creators and consumers. Regardless of which payment options the creator decides to accept, the application will call back to the cryptocurrency addresses within the OIP standardized format, and display those payment options to the consumer. The utilization of OIP at the interoperable transport layer shifts data storage and payments away from centralized data networks and credit cards or PayPal, to decentralized protocols for peer to peer file storage and blockchain payments.

Competing Front Ends Layer

This is the layer that the end-user consciously interacts with. In the OIP system, this layer is where your applications live, and this is the only layer which still consists of proprietary content. So what does this look like? The next section will be entirely devoted to some applications already utilizing OIP and the FLO Blockchain, but we can take a look at a specific example.

Above is an example of a blockchain property registry, built by Medici Land Governance. Behind the scenes, the name, description, and documents are all being formatted to OIP metadata standards. How this operates can be seen in this presentation by Medici Land Governance, starting roughly at 14:55. Ultimately, the end user can seamlessly interact with the application without having any idea that they are utilizing an OIP blockchain based system, rather than the traditional centralized model. It’s important to note that OIP is not incompatible with current applications, such as YouTube or iTunes. Current applications could simply implement the OIP standard, and use IPFS for data storage, and almost effortlessly transition to a more decentralized model, while simultaneously cutting costs.

How OIP is already being used:

A number of applications built on the Open Index Protocol are already seeing real-world usage, and utilizing blockchain technology to achieve outcomes previously impossible without it. Below are some of the most promising applications in detail.

Alexandria

Alexandria could perhaps best be described as the window into the Open Index Protocol. Alexandria is a decentralized and peer to peer application built by the developers of the Open Index Protocol, that allows for content creators to directly reach consumers, and get paid directly by those consumers. The efficiency of this system compared to the centralized approach, results in higher earnings for content creators, and increased savings for consumers. In the following video, Alexandria co-founder Amy James goes through the process of publishing content on the Alexandria platform.

For a more detailed explanation on how Alexandria and other content distribution platforms would operate on OIP, I recommend watching 06:32–09:05 of this presentation by Alexandria co-founder, Devon James

Medici Land Governance

Medici Land Governance (MLG) is a subsidiary of Overstock that is building a property rights registry by utilizing OIP. Property rights, or rather, the lack of formal property rights, is a huge problem in the developing world. Roughly 5 billion people have no access to formal property or land rights, with some estimates as high as $170 trillion in unrecognized property value due to the lack of formal land rights. MLG has been working diligently and building key strategic partnerships in order to bring formal property rights onto the FLO Blockchain by utilizing OIP. In August, MLG announced they were partnering with the Zambian government in order to bring land title registries onto the blockchain. On December 28, it was announced that Teton County Wyoming, home of Jackson Hole, would be partnering with MLG in order to put its land registry onto the blockchain. Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne himself, penned a beaming letter of support for OIP to the Wyoming Blockchain Task Force. For more information on how Medici Land Governance is utilizing OIP, I highly recommend watching the video below, which is a presentation by MLG senior software engineer, Chris Chrysostom.

Caltech

The California Institute of Technology is one of the top universities in the world, and it also happens to be one of the pioneers in applying blockchain tech to real-world use cases through OIP and FLO. The Jensen Lab at Caltech has published the Electron Tomography Database (ETDB) using the Open Index Protocol. Per the ETDB website,

The Electron Tomography Database is a public repository featuring 11293 electron tomography datasets of intact bacterial and archaeal cells, representing 85 species.

In choosing to use OIP to publish scientific data on a blockchain based distributed database, numerous advantages are gained over a traditional centralized approach. Some of these advantages include wider dissemination of information, the elimination of centralized points of failure restricting access to data, as well as the ability to save large amounts of storage space thanks to IPFS utilization. For more information on what ETDB is, and how it was built using OIP, I recommend watching the video below, which is a presentation by Caltech post-doc scholar and core FLO team member, Dr. Davi Ortega.

The Future of the Internet

The Open Index Protocol aims to usher in Web 3.0, the next era of the internet. By moving away from proprietary, walled garden models, numerous benefits are bestowed upon both creators and consumers, all while simultaneously creating a truly open space on the internet that is censorship resistant.

With this article intended as a primer, the next article in line will take a targeted look at what OIP can do for a specific and growing movement, a movement known as the Intellectual Dark Web…

FLO and the Open Index Protocol (OIP) was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In the week of Jan 21, tZERO is slated to go live. In August, I published a detailed analysis of the connection between tZERO and an obscure blockchain known as FLO. With the launch of tZERO fast approaching, it should be readily apparent to all that tZERO intends to go live with FLO serving as the back end for the Digital Locate Receipt.

DDI Editor’s Pick — Certified Blockchain Developer™

So why FLO? Two FLO lead devs offered some reasons in the FLO telegram channel:

Bitspill: FLO is out now and works, versus these new chains “developing”

Joseph Fiscella: It’s for a number of reasons:

1. floData is accessible and easy to read. You don’t need to decompile a smart contract or have a special software to read it. It’s in plaintext on the chain. This helps with auditing and explaining how it works to regulators. Any extra steps are a barrier to adoption.

2. floData is easy to write. It is appended to the blockchain using a simple RPC command. This makes maintaining the software around the solution less costly.

3. FLO is a fairly launched blockchain with no premine or ICO. Again, this helps for practical regulatory reasons, but also is a philosophical choice made by those who maintain the software. It guides the decision making for our software and also allows those implementing it to check off a box they couldn’t check using another chain without those features.

4. FLO is secured by proof of work. This is arguably the best security a network can get, requiring actual buy in of physical devices and constant operational cost in both manpower and electric power.

5. FLO has open source software built on top of it (OIP) that can be used for building more advanced applications (this is how etdb.caltech.edu became a thing).

And here’s a video of tZERO board member Bruce Fenton confirming at 01:30:38 that Overstock donates money to FLO development.

It would make no sense to abruptly switch to another blockchain, as opposed to using the one that they have been building on since January 24, 2018. Some have speculated that FLO is nothing more than a “test network.” FLO has been “tested.” Now it is being “used.” It is the network that tZERO uses to register DLRs. In fact, the FLO based DLR is ALREADY seeing commercial use, which will be further elaborated on in the next section of this piece. tZERO publishes hundreds of DLRs each day the market is open, and has been doing so for many months. This can be verified by examining the floData.

Execution Report: SOI(5049) STI(12504) Broker(817) Account(010508GEBR) Time(12/12/2018 09:47:52.919) Side(Buy) Symbol(MLSS.DLR) Qty(2000) Price(0.01250) OrderType(Limit) TimeInForce(IOC)

That said, it’s time to do a deep dive into the Digital Locate Receipt, examine why it is necessary, how it works, and what implications it has for disrupting the wall-street status-quo.

The Naked Short

In order to fully grasp what the DLR does, it’s necessary to have a rudimentary understanding of Naked Shorting, and Regulation SHO. Simply put, naked shorting is when a short sell occurs without a stock to back up the short. A crude example of this would be a stock that has 100 shares. A big banker doesn’t like the owner of the company, so he sells short 120 shares. This cripples the stock price. How can this happen when there are only 100 shares to short? Well, the current system gives the banker 3 days after the short sale to locate stocks to borrow. He could locate 40 shares on day 1 and borrow them. Then the owner could sell those stocks to someone else. On day 2, the banker locates the new owner and borrows those 40 again. Now he’s located 80 shares, even though he only put his hands on 40. This behavior can produce irregularities in pricing and liquidity, opening the door for manipulation, and making it easy for insiders to play the market unfairly. Patrick Byrne has always been an outspoken critic of this, and his entire reasoning behind creating tZERO was to bring trust and transparency back to the financial markets.

How Does It Work?

In the present system of stock lending and settlement, if you own a share of Apple stock, that stock sits in your brokerage account. When another person wants to short Apple, your brokerage will lend the stock to them, often collecting exorbitant daily interest rates, which are represented in APR. Brokerages currently make roughly $19.2M per day by lending out their client’s stock, while simultaneously providing archaic, 20th-century type service.

The FLO based DLR technology matches lenders with borrowers and allows for shareowners to set the price at which they are willing to lend to short sellers. Conversely, it also allows for short sellers to make bids on the price at which they are willing to pay to borrow those shares. The net result is the creation of a marketplace for the lending of shares under the umbrella of short selling.

Consider for a moment, the opportunity made available to pension funds, retirement accounts, or investment firms. These institutions often hold their shares for decades. They are now able to enter into this newly created marketplace and put their holdings to work. These institutions gain the ability to designate a price to lend out their shares to short sellers and earn extra income, rather than have their broker do it behind their back and keep all the profit. Conversely, think about short sellers. They no longer have to pay the price that is mandated by a brokerage and isn’t transparent. This new marketplace allows for price discovery and a more fair price that short sellers will pay to go short on a stock.

By leveraging the immutable and permissionless nature of the blockchain, the DLRs published leave no room for the possibility of naked short selling. For the first time, there is zero question as to whether a share is in possession or not, and that is thanks to the DLR technology and the FLO blockchain.

OSTK Q4 Earnings Call

In early November, two Overstock events took place. The first is the Nov 8 Overstock earnings call.

The security token and tZERO roadmap (pictured above) were important in giving an idea of just how close tZERO is to launching, but by far the biggest highlight was the specific attention given to the DLR. The DLR section of the quarterly earnings call video runs from 11:17 to 12:07. The speaker, a senior executive at Overstock, states:

Our blockchain based DLR technology matches securities lenders with securities borrowers, as it allows inventory providers to set offer prices for their long inventory, and borrowers to bid for this inventory. This product is still in beta testing. We have a stock loan commission sharing agreement between stock-cross and our broker dealer, Speedroute, and as such, Speedroute revenues from stock loans have grown 5–6x since the beginning of the year. So nice progress on revenue growth with this platform. We’re also currently ramping up the resources to scale this business and move it out of beta for wider adoption.

Simply put, that is pretty significant. This not only confirms that the DLR is already seeing commercial use on the FLO blockchain, but also that it is generating significant revenue, before tZERO even launches and the DLR is scaled to market. The potential profitability of the DLR was further hammered home during the Overstock Investor Day event.

2018 Investor Day Event

I’d like to preface the next part, by stating that, unfortunately, I am unable to provide a hard source on what was stated at the Investor Day event, as Overstock has yet to upload a recording or a transcript. This event was not private and was in fact open to all on their investor relations website. I have emailed Overstock investor relations, but I have not yet heard anything back. As soon as Overstock provides a recording or transcript of the event, this article will be updated to reflect it. Until then, I can’t blame you for being somewhat skeptical of this portion. I was one of the fortunate individuals to listen to it live. (If anyone happens to have a recording, feel free to contact me!)

During the Investor Day Conference Call that took place on Nov 13, CEO Patrick Byrne noted a view things. First, is that there are multiple pension funds lined up to lend their stocks using tZERO and the DLR (FLO) technology. He proceeded to state that they will be fully on-boarded and operational by March of 2019. Byrne also indicated that he has overheard from some of these pension funds, that they are effectively being threatened by big banks, stating “if you use tZERO, we aren’t going to let you bank with us anymore.” This is not the first time that Patrick Byrne has spoken publicly on the disruption potential in securities lending that tZERO seeks to capitalize on.

Also of major relevance to the DLR/FLO, was when Patrick Byrne went into the 5 major contributing factors to the $1.5B tZERO valuation. For reference, the valuation of $1.5B stems from the announcement back in August that the private-equity firm GSR Capital is investing $404M into tZERO, at a $1.5B valuation. Patrick Byrne stated these 5 factors as:

1. Issuance
2. Exchange (ATS and Security Tokens)
3. Trading Platform (retail broker dealer)
4. DLR
5. Crypto Exchange

Byrne went on to state, “If any one of these 5 ends up working, it alone will justify the valuation of $1.5 billion.” In essence, based on Overstock’s internal projections, the DLR technology alone justifies a $1.5B valuation if successful. How could GSR and OSTK come to an agreement which values tZERO at $1.5B before the platform is even launched? Well, let’s dive deeper.

I also strongly urge you to read the first two sections of this 2015 WIRED interview with Patrick Byrne before continuing forward. It will help you understand the full concept of DLRs, tZERO, and FLO’s role.

The Disruptive Potential

Take a look at these four quotes from the WIRED interview:

We’re taking a market that’s in the dark,” Byrne says, “and we’re putting it on an exchange.

It’s a market controlled by a relatively small group of players, most notably the prime brokers.

The agent lenders alone make about $19.2 million a day

[Patrick] wants to break the hold of the agent lenders and prime brokers, arguing that, as it stands, they make untold amounts of money from the loan market without giving stock holders their proper share.

By leveraging the immutable and transparent nature of the FLO blockchain, tZERO aims to illuminate a market that has historically been “in the dark”, and controlled by a relatively small group of players that are very rarely held accountable. tZERO intends to provide market participants with a much fairer deal, while simultaneously providing settlement services built for the 21st century. These rogue lenders profit to the tune of over $19M per day, or just over $7B per year. If tZERO DLRs on the FLO blockchain are able to capture even 10% of that market, they reap a profit of over $700M per year exclusively from the DLR. Referencing the $1.5B valuation above, a company that generates $700M in profit per year has absolutely no issue justifying a $1.5B valuation.

Future Growth

As exciting as the numbers and projections around the DLR and FLO may be, it’s important to have at least a basic understanding of how the technology actually works, and the current problems it is built to address. In a space recently defined by overvalued blockchains lacking functional products, it only seems right to dive into the tech behind one of the few with real substance, and revenue-generating applications.

From August 1 to December 1, tZERO registered roughly 400M stocks per week using DLRs on the FLO blockchain. These are real, actual stock receipts changing hands. Remember, that each DLR can register any quantity of a stock, and that this chart is strictly quantity of stocks. The price of each stock is not considered. Additionally, four types of DLRs are posted to the chain. The four types are: inventoryPosted (Security Lender Offering their Security), ClientInterest (Borrowers making bids), ExecutionReport (Completed trade), and Cancel (Cancel of an offer or a bid).

In the week of Jan 21, less than one week from now, tZERO is set to go live. The DLR technology built on top of the FLO blockchain, is theoretically worth $1.5B alone, without factoring in any of the other elements of tZERO. A blockchain with a $1.5B application actively running on it, has a current market capitalization of $3.8M. This is a blockchain that had the investment firm GSR commit to invest $404M in Overstock for part ownership of tZERO, the project that builds on top of FLO. That $3.8M valuation seems incredibly low for a project with a real use case, and a functional application built on it that is actively generating revenue, but that’s just my two cents…

• The information presented here does not constitute financial advice and is merely my personal opinion. In the spirit of full disclosure, I do currently have FLO in my portfolio, which was a decision made after doing ample research.

FLO, tZERO, and how the DLR aims to disrupt. was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is article 1 in a series casting a spotlight on the FLO Blockchain ecosystem. In this article, I highlight the little-known connection between tZERO and the FLO Blockchain. In article 2, I present an in-depth overview of how tZERO utilizes FLO for its state of the art DLR technology. Article 3 features a comprehensive analysis of the Open Index Protocol, which aims to shift the structure of the internet to a more decentralized model, while utilizing the FLO blockchain as the base of the system. If you wish to learn more about FLO, come visit the FLO Telegram Channel.

You likely haven’t heard of FLO, but there is a good chance you have heard of tZERO, which has been generating massive interest from institutional investors. tZERO is the blockchain focused subsidiary of Overstock.com, launched by its CEO and early cryptocurrency adopter, Patrick Byrne. Overstock originally became involved in cryptocurrency when it became the first major retailer to accept Bitcoin back in 2014. Overstock’s involvement in the blockchain space only continued to grow after that, leading to the formation of tZERO as a distinct subsidiary of the company. In this article, I will present a brief background of tZERO and FLO, explain the critical role FLO will play in the tZERO platform, and why I believe it may be massively undervalued.

TL;DR, tZERO is using FLO, a very low marketcap blockchain, for a critical aspect of its infrastructure, and tZERO is a big deal. I highly suggest reading the article though, as I source everything.

The tZERO Objective

tZERO aims to provide the first platform in the world which allows for the trading of blockchain backed securities. Issuing traditional securities on the blockchain is one of the most promising new applications of blockchain technology, and Wall Street is positioned to be heavily disrupted by it. To put things into perspective, the U.S. stock market alone is worth over $30 trillion, and tZERO aims to capture as much of that value as it can. Institutional and accredited investors recognize the massive potential that tZERO has, as evidenced by the fact that it is now worth more than its parent company. Unfortunately, the average crypto enthusiast did not have an opportunity to partake in the tZERO token sale, which raised $134M, as it was limited to accredited and institutional investors, but all is not lost. This is where FLO comes into the picture, and how it enables you to gain exposure to tZERO.

What is FLO?

FLO is a relatively unknown cryptocurrency that was launched on June 17th, 2013. FLO was previously known as FLO, and it completed its rebrand on August 13, 2018. FLO had no premine, or ICO, and at the time of writing, has a marketcap of only $5,062,035. It features a 40 second block time, and roughly 145,647,505 FLO of the 160,000,000 max supply is currently in circulation. FLO’s standout feature is its ability to store meta-data, allowing it to serve as a worldwide public record for storing information. In order for a user to store information on the FLO blockchain, FLO coins are used to pay a storage capacity fee, after which a transaction comment is published to a subsequent block. This meta-data storage feature is also integrated with what is known as the Open Index Protocol, or OIP, a protocol designed for decentralized publishing, distribution and payments of any digital media, and also supports IPFS for file storage/distribution. By utilizing the meta-data storage feature of the FLO blockchain, dApps can be built with the OIP. It is the meta-data storage feature and the OIP which connect FLO to tZERO, and what may give it the potential for a valuation that is far, far higher than where it currently stands.

In the next section I will cover just how FLO integrates into the tZERO platform.

Security Transaction Records in a Blockchain World

tZERO uses software known as Digital Locate Receipts, or DLR, in order to store a record of every single transaction that occurs on the platform. This transaction history is stored on the FLO blockchain, and it is able to do this through the OIP integration with the DLR software. For every single transaction on tZERO, FLO is spent in order to store a transaction comment on the blockchain. It is in this way that FLO plays an integral role within the tZERO platform.

Given the important function of FLO in the tZERO platform, and the incredibly high profile nature of tZERO itself, you would think more people would be aware of this, but that could not be further from the truth. A Google search of “tZERO Florincoin” really only turns up two results that are specifically on the connection between the two, and even then, you wouldn’t find these results unless you already knew what you were looking for.

So how is it possible that this knowledge is so hidden from public view? Well, there are a few factors producing the obscurity. FLO is quite old in the grand scheme of blockchain. It also only has a marketcap of $5,062,035, and a rank of 514 on Coinmarketcap. To the vast majority of people in the blockchain space, if it isn’t in the top 100, maybe top 200 at most, then it effectively doesn’t exist. Couple that with its age, and you’re really only going to remember this thing if you were around in 2013–2014 or so.

The second reason for the obscurity is the fact that tZERO itself makes no direct mention to FLO anywhere that you would readily find it. As a matter of fact, finding out about the role of FLO in tZERO effectively boils down to luck, and having sharp eyes. In the next section I will take you down the same path I did in discovering this partnership, and provide all of the sources used to confirm it.

A Trail of Breadcrumbs

My journey began with the simple question, “What blockchain platform does tZERO run on?” It’s important to first note that there are effectively two components at work here; the native tZERO token for which an ICO was done, and the blockchain on which security trade history is stored upon (FLO). The tZERO token itself is a simple ERC-20 token, that has nothing to do with the process of transaction record storage. The tZERO token is of no concern to us right now. That said, the first place I looked to try and discover the platform was the tZERO website.

If you scroll down on the tZERO website you will see a Demo Videos section. The video of interest to us is the one on DLR. This video can only be directly found on the tZERO website, as it is unlisted on YouTube. At exactly 01:28 into the video, the speaker begins going into detail on how trade history and details are stored on the blockchain, and you will soon see this:

If you look at the top left of the image, you will see none other than FLO. The speaker of the video then pulls up the FLO block explorer and directly shows the transaction. If you did not catch the FLO detail in this video with your own eyes, then you would have completely missed it, as FLO is not directly mentioned by name anywhere in the video, or in text anywhere on the website.

Upon discovering FLO, more research was required, and I made my way to the FLO website. Once there, if you go to the dApps page and scroll down, you will be presented with none other than this:

That’s confirmation number two on the FLO and tZERO connection, but that’s not the only relevant piece of information on this page. If you look at the dApp directly to the right of tZERO, you will see this:

That name sounded familiar, and I quickly remembered why. If you go to the tZERO telegram page and scroll up to the announcement made on August 1 of this year, you will see an announcement specifically about Medici Ventures. Turns out that Medici Ventures is yet another blockchain related subsidiary of Overstock. Medici Ventures aims to build a property rights registry on the blockchain, and what blockchain are they using? None other than FLO. Additionally, remember that announcement that was on the telegram page? It turns out that Medici Ventures just signed a partnership agreement with World Bank.

Lastly, there are two sources from the Overstock CEO, Patrick Byrne himself. The first comes from an interview that Patrick Byrne had with BlockchainNewsKorea on 04/23/18, in which he explicitly states that tZERO is using FLO.

There it is, the first official confirmation from an Overstock/tZERO employee, and from none other than the CEO himself. Funny enough, in the video format of the interview, the entire question involving FLO has been edited out. Hmm, I wonder why that could be? It’s almost as if FLO is deliberately being kept obscure…

Finally, we have the public audio recording from the Overstock Q2 Earnings Call, which took place on August 9, 2018. Remember that OIP thing that was discussed earlier? Listen closely to what Patrick Byrne states, beginning at 59:10. Here is a transcription of the recording:

So, a real business model has emerged, including — I’m very excited about a revenue model that’s buried in here, but for competitive reasons [chuckling] I don’t want want to mention it, but it’s very — this whole new approach is — actually, why not give them some credit. There’s uh, there— I don’t know why we aren’t giving them credit. We’re building a bunch of the technology in OIP, and OIP, uh, is a open source technology that lets sort of an alternative to patents. It lets you create technology, and as people use it, it generates revenue for the person who created it.

There you have it. By this point it should be readily apparent that tZERO will be utilizing FLO to enable a critical function of its infrastructure. In the final section of this article, I will elaborate on how tZERO successfully disrupting Wall Street will affect FLO, as well as my personal opinion on what kind of valuation FLO can achieve.

The Bottom Line

tZERO will be using FLO to store the record of every single trade that occurs on its platform. In order to store information on the FLO blockchain, FLO must be spent, and that is for each and every transaction. tZERO aims to disrupt Wall Street by offering a trading platform for blockchain backed securities. Institutional and accredited investors recognize the immense upside potential that tZERO has if it achieves its objective, as evidenced by Overstock shares jumping over 20 percent in a matter of hours, shortly after their Q2 earnings call. During that same earnings call, it was announced that the private-equity firm GSR Capital will invest up to $270M into tZERO, at a valuation of $1.5B. This was the same earnings call mentioned previously, where CEO Patrick Byrne describes FLO while carefully avoiding use of its name.

To put the disruption potential into perspective, roughly 2–6 billion shares are traded on the NYSE each day. Using August 10, 2018 as an example, approximately 3,185,152,141 trades occurred. Can you imagine how much FLO it would take per day to store the trade history on the blockchain, if tZERO were to capture even 5% of that daily trade volume? That is exclusively using the NYSE as an example. If we combine the number of shares traded per day on both the NYSE and Nasdaq, the number of FLO needed is even higher, and that’s still not taking into account other global markets. Unlike traditional securities markets, trading on tZERO may potentially be 24/7 365, and will feature the ability to buy partial shares. Those two factors alone are revolutionary, and have the potential to massively increase the trade volume. Furthermore, it’s important to remember that tZERO is not the only dApp running on the FLO blockchain, which only increases the daily number of FLO spent on storage space.

All that said, here’s a reminder that FLO currently has a marketcap of only $5,062,035 and 514 on Coinmarketcap. When you consider the valuation of tZERO, as well as the integral role that FLO functions in the tZERO system, I can’t help but feel that FLO may be massively undervalued.

Conclusion

The conclusion I came to after doing all of the research I have shown here, is that FLO may have massive untapped potential, and is the equivalent of a diamond among coal. The best comparison in blockchain that I can think of, in terms of situation, not function, is AntShares (now NEO). After AntShares launched in late 2016, it quickly fell off the map, and effectively became a hidden gem, just like FLO. For most of 2017, AntShares had a marketcap between 5 to 6 million dollars, until it came to exist in the public eye once more. Once AntShares was discovered, and then shortly after it rebranded to NEO, it rose ~170,000% in one year from its low to the ATH. This is just my personal opinion, but based on all the information provided, I believe FLO may be positioned for exponential growth, especially considering that it is currently the only way for the average crypto speculator to gain exposure to tZERO, besides buying shares in Overstock itself.

I’ve provided the facts, I’ve stated my opinion, and now it’s time for you to form your own. FLO can be purchased on Bittrex, and for more information I advise visiting the FLO website and its page on Coinmarketcap.

*The information presented here does not constitute financial advice and is merely my personal opinion. In the spirit of full disclosure, I do currently have FLO in my portfolio, which was a decision made after doing the research described here.

*This article was amended after the completion of the Florincoin rebrand to FLO