eBusiness Weekly
By Jeffrey Gogo
William Chui has left his position as vice president of miscellaneous stuff at digital currency exchange Golix, after only eight months with the firm.
Chui joined Golix in January to spearhead the Harare-based trading platform’s maiden token sale of $32 million, with the option of renewal.
He opted not to extend the contract.
It is not clear who has replaced him.
Golix have effected any questions to do with their operations claiming the issues were under litigation.
Chui, a longtime cyptocurrency enthusiast, is credited with helping the exchange raise about $20 million from the sale at a time it looked a lot easier to fail than succeed.
Chui denied that his departure was prompted by uncertainty created by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) ban on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in May. The ban cast a long shadow on the future of Golix here.
“. . . t was two members of the token sale team (Golix has 22 employees) that were hired for the token sale exclusively and did not renew their contracts,” Chui told the Business Weekly, when asked about his decision to leave.
“I joined Golix for the token sale. I left once the token sale was successfully completed,” he said, via text message.
The Golix initial coin offering — a way used by budding companies to raise funds through creating their own digital coins, which are then sold to the public — coincided with the central bank’s ban on virtual money.
The exchange had tentatively looked to cash-in on its rising popularity – at the time — within Zimbabwe, its primary market.
But the RBZ ban upset the plans. And after the set-back, Golix on June 1 pressed ahead with floating about 637 million tokens to new investors in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and elsewhere, where it had just opened up new offices.
This was the original idea behind the ICO, raising money to help fund expansion elsewhere in Africa outside Zimbabwe. William Chui oversaw the transition of Golix from a Zimbabwe-centric business operation to one that is Africa-focussed.
He managed to do so at a time the odds where heavily staked against the token sale succeeding. By the time the ICO closed on July 25, more than 65 percent of the offered tokens had been sold across the continent, helping to raise about $20 million, by our own calculations.
Few had given the token sale a chance at success with the RBZ ban looming dreadfully above Golix’s business. So, it wasn’t a surprise that the ICO’s over two thirds subscription rate out-performed analysts predictions.
Teething problems
Chui, co – founder of Controvert Media, the owners of thriving online news and information platforms Techzim and Pindula, last week withdrew from some social media platforms to cincentrate on his new interests around travel and tourism, involving cryptocurrencies.
“I have decided to exit out of *all groups* in order to be more effective on the new project that I’m working on,” Chui posted on the Techzim WhatsApp group.
“Reading 1,324 messages at the end of the day is not proving to be productive for me, as those messages are currently not related to the project that I’m working on. I will be found on www.ComingToZimbabwe.com,” he said.
Golix became the first company to allow Zimbabweans to to buy and sell bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on a centralised platform since it started operations in September 2015.
By the time of the ban in May, the exchange had traded about $20 million worth of bitcoins, from over 50 000 clients. It said revenue had soared several fold to $158 000 at the end of last year.
However, the token that Chui helped develop seems to be encountering some teething problems. The Golix account on Telegram is often fraught with angry posts from investors that feel Golix had sold them a dummy.
Many are desperate to offload their Golix tokens, either because they did not receive the tokens they paid for, or that noone is simply has any interest buying them, or that the exchange has failed to process transactions.
Someone using the handle “Alexandr Chubarov” offered to sale the GLX token at almost half the price he/she bought them for, just so they get rid of the coin.
Another, whose handle is “360green” said: “One gets the feeling that golix does not believe that their platform is broken. Please consider suspending operations until the problem is fixed.”
