November 2013 – Company Updates

Dear Investor,

Let’s wind the clock back exactly one year to November 2012.  The price of one Bitcoin was approximately USD 11 at that time, and almost completely overlooked by mainstream media.

The infrastructure surrounding Bitcoin was, and still is, crude.  I liken it to the Internet in the early nineties… before Google (Search, Gmail, Chrome, Maps, YouTube), before Internet Explorer and Firefox, before Outlook, before Skype… it’s interesting to recall how rudimentary the Internet was in the early nineties.

Like those early Internet days, there is opportunity on every corner.  We started floating some ideas about the best products and services we could provide around Bitcoin and unanimously decided that before future services could be delivered with any confidence, people need to be able to trade Bitcoins securely and reliably on an exchange.

Three months later in January 2013, something began to happen.  The price of Bitcoin began to rise from its humble USD 11 price, all the way up to USD 250 by May!  Over 2,200 % price rise in the span of three months.  Millionaires were made almost overnight, and the mainstream media came alive – everyone knew what Bitcoin was now!

We quickly gathered momentum, and in June, we officially registered our company asIndependent Reserve.  This is about the time I met many of you receiving this newsletter.

With Bitcoin now in the media almost daily, it received quite a lot of publicity both good and bad (see the most recent news on our web site).  The founders of Facebook had notably invested eleven million dollars into Bitcoin and investment was being poured into Bitcoin all over Silicon Valley and the rest of the world.  There were some notable cases of Bitcoins being traded in pubs and clubs and most recently Bitcoin ATMs opening up in Canada.

One of the more notable criticisms of Bitcoin over the past twelve months is that Bitcoin was predominantly used for trading illegal goods and services on the Internet using the infamousSilk Road web site.  They say any publicity is good publicity, but after much controversy the founder of Silk Road was finally caught by the FBI last month and Silk Road was shut down.  After a brief dip in the price of Bitcoin, the price has now risen to an all-time high of over USD 300, and just this morning peaked at a remarkable USD 391.  This follows the news of Silk Road’s closure, as well as a surge of market activity in China, as it became clear that Bitcoin was not only traded on the black market as many had claimed, but as a currency of legitimate purpose.

During this flurry of activity worldwide, Independent Reserve has not been idle, thoroughly occupying ourselves preparing for our 2014 product launch.  They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, so for the technical amongst you, let me share this screen shot of our system dashboard that reveals a fully operational integrated development environment covering 17 core subsystems, another dozen auxillary services and a 109 point health check…

(a full screenshot is available here for those interested)

Since June, we have scaled up our Independent Reserve team to eight. Two full-time executives, two of the world’s leading specialist Bitcoin developers, and four other full-time Software Engineers.  We have reached out to all partners we require to launch, including two-factor security partners, identity verification partners, banking partners, legal counsel, software vendors and data centres.  In all cases we have begun integrating with the necessary third party systems, with some integration already complete.  We have commenced development on every system component required for launch, including a secure customer support system.  Critically, one of the more complex tasks of Bitcoin network integration is largely complete and currently in functional testing phase.

Many of the key questions asked in June such as, How will Independent Reserve verify customers?  How will Independent Reserve accept customer payments?  How will Independent Reserve fit into the Australian regulatory landscape? …we now have firm and precise answers and are well underway of turning it into a reality.  Bitcoin itself has never been stronger, with the entire Bitcoin economy flourishing, leaving behind the uncertainty earlier in the year.

Opportunities are still open for investment, at the same price offered in our June prospectus, but now with so much more momentum behind both Bitcoin and Independent Reserve.  If you missed out at buying Bitcoin when it was 10c or $10, consider becoming a founding investor in the Bitcoin exchange that will bring Bitcoin to even greater heights.

Investment packages are very affordable catering to many different types of investors.  If you’re just idly curious or unsure about Bitcoin, drop me an email and I’ll be happy to share with you some more details of what we’re doing.

Our Information Memorandum available for download on our website.

Adam Tepper (LinkedIn)
Chief Executive Officer
Independent Reserve
adam.tepper@independentreserve.com
+66 809 092 206
Skype: atepper