EF Hutton
Amid hopes that digital currencies will replace fiat currencies one day, the initial coin offering (ICO) market has been snowballing this year. While most ICOs are for equity and security tokens, there are a handful of them for utility tokens as well.
On September 17, EF Hutton, a Springfield-based financial services firm, published a press release announcing the introduction of a private utility coin, dubbed MeggaCoin, that can be mined via MeggaLife’s social apps. Users are rewarded coins for their online social activities and data. MeggaLife’s apps will become the first social network to enable users to mine digital currencies.
How does it work?
Using their EF Hutton accounts, users “Bank their Coin” and, after accumulating 20 million, can redeem MeggaCoin for cash that is in custody of MeggaTrust (managed by independent third party trustees). Revenue is generated from advertising generated by MeggaLifeApps, less operating costs and a small redemption fee.
MeggaCoin is low-priced and easy to setup, making it user friendly for beginners new to mining. Potential users do not require a digital wallet to mine MeggaCoin, as EF Hutton enables users to store their coins in their EF Hutton account which takes only a few minutes to set up. This alleviates securities issues as coins are monitored by EF Hutton, a regulated firm, instead of personal wallets that are not regulated.
That is not the only advantage of having coins held by EF Hutton. Unlike digital wallets, EF Hutton does not charge transaction fees. Instead, it requires a one-time fee. The firm offers four mining plans that have a tradeoff of redemption fee and upfront setup fee.
Commenting on the value of user data and social activities, EF Hutton notes, “The lifetime value of your data and social activity can be as much $100,000, in some cases even more. Users of other social networks have no opportunity to mine coin and gain value for their data. MeggaLife’s social apps were built to enable users to gain the full value of their data and online social activity.”
To relieve privacy concerns, EF Hutton said that MeggaLife.com does not sell “personally identifiable data” of users, pointing towards a privacy policy that prevents sale of data to advertisers and prospective partners.
Chris Daniel, chief executive at EF Hutton, says, “MeggaCoin has the potential to transform lives. Everyone now has a choice. Either: give your data to the giant social media companies for free or use MeggaLife to mine MeggaCoin and Bank the full value of your social data and online social activity.”
Utility tokens
Unlike most coins we are familiar with, MeggaCoin is a private utility token that is expanding the crypto market by allowing anyone to mine valuable assets for the future.
Utility tokens are also known as user tokens and app coins. Last year, Filecoin raised a $257 million through a record-ICO with plans to offer decentralized cloud storage services, taking advance of unused computer storage space. In return, ICO contributors received tokens that will allow them to buy hard drive space from Filecoin, after the service goes online.
Let’s hope that EF Hutton’s plan to allow users to earn coins by using its services helps to increase usage of utility tokens, given that this kind of crypto is less susceptible to SEC interference.
