What’s the Difference Between “Long Island Iced Tea” and “Long Blockchain”?

December 27, 2017         By: Steven Anderson

What’s in a name? While Shakespeare, via classic play “Romeo and Juliet,” would claim that a rose would still smell as sweet even if we called it “skunkweed”, comic strip “Bloom County” once wondered if John Kennedy would still be JOHN KENNEDY if he were born “Mortimer Dipthong.” Turns out there’s more to a name than you might think, as the Long Island Iced Tea Corp. recently changed its name to Long Blockchain Corp, and saw its stock price soar.

In a move that calls back to the dot-com frenzy that defined large portions of the 1990s, Long Island Iced Tea Corp. made the name change, and saw its stock price surge 300 percent in just one day. It wasn’t just an idle name change, either; the company actually plans to put more focus into blockchain technology, essentially the underpinnings of many common cryptocurrencies.

Given that Long Island Iced Tea Corp. wasn’t just an odd name for a financial technology (fintech) firm, but rather the clearly appropriate name for the beverage company it was, it’s clear that Long Blockchain Corp. is looking to ride the bandwagon to success. Since Long Blockchain is now worth around $92 million instead of the $23.8 million it was before, the bandwagon may well have gotten them somewhere.

Early adopter Overstock.com has put plenty of focus into its blockchain operations, and been rewarded with hefty stock boosts. Overstock.com has also seen new product launches in the blockchain arena, like its launch of tZERO, a trading system geared toward exchanging cryptocurrency units.

With recent reversals seen in the cryptocurrency markets, it might get some wondering if these Johnny-come-latelies have any hope of survival here. Of course, that also depends on whether or not we’ll be calling blockchain and cryptocurrency “an unfortunate fad” or “the start of something big” in about 10 years.

Naturally, only time will tell going forward, but one point is worth remembering. Yes, the dot-com boom brought plenty of strangeness and excess with it, but in the end, it gave us the internet. Cryptocurrency likely won’t go up forever, but it could ultimately be at least the start of something useful for humanity…once the initial frenzy dies down.