Colu Advances Blockchain With New Token Sale

The blockchain is increasingly regarded as one of the biggest advancements in mobile payments, one that could actually have quite a bit of impact outside mobile payments as well. One of the biggest firms advancing the blockchain, meanwhile, is Israeli firm Colu, who recently announced that its Colu Local Network (CLN) token is poised for pre-sale, which will give Colu in turn a leg up in further developments.

The CLN token will have financial backing from several sources, reports from the company note, including not only Spark Capital but also Aleph VC as well as some individual contributors like the former CEO of Thomson Reuters Tom Glocer. One of the contributors, Professor Dan Ariely, will actually join Colu as its new Chief Behavioral Officer.

Ariely noted “Colu is leveling the playing field between local communities and larger institutions, giving them the opportunity to accelerate their growth while generating cooperation built on mutual trust and shared successes.”

With the new token in place, several new options will open up depending on your place in the overall food chain. Local economies, for example, will be able to put the CLN token to work as a means to connect “…them to a global network of value.” It offers a stable index value of the various currencies on the network, which means rapid liquidity and the ability to support a slate of banking tools like lending services and currency exchange options.

Colu’s system has already been tested, at least somewhat, having operated in four local economies in both the United Kingdom and Israel, backing better than 50,000 transactions a month.

Colu’s already got something like a market already, which suggests that it can build on that success by offering up its blockchain advances and its new token in areas that are similar to those already hit. This may not have a lot of impact on the average consumer, which is good, because Colu’s likely not in a position to compete with the more established operations anyway. Its overall impact might be limited, but it could use a more gradual penetration strategy to break into new markets and advance, with previous successes as fuel.

However, it’s clear that Colu is moving forward here. How far it can go remains to be seen.