WISeKey plans ICO for its WISeCoin Digital Identity Cryptocurrency

WISeKey Receives Blockchain Award of Excellence by the Global Blockchain Business Council in Davos

WISeKey to Introduce WISeCoin ICO and WISeCoin Hardware Wallet during the Davos Blockchain and Cryptocurrecy Gathering, scheduled for Wednesday, January 24th at the Europa Hotel (Piano Bar – 20:00 local time)

Geneva, Davos, New York, January 24, 2018 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (“WISeKey”, SIX: WIHN), a leading cybersecurity and IoT company announced that it will launch its own blockchain platform and WISeCoin cryptocurrency, using WISeCoin Token and Wallet App.  The launch will be funded with an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) via a Special Purpose Vehicle called WISeCoin SA (a Zoug-based entity), with forthcoming private pre-sales starting in May 2018 and an ICO scheduled for Q3 2018. WISeCoin ICO will be based on a strict due diligence and admissions process, as well as a high-quality digital asset exchange. The ICO is designed to help countries and central bank cryptocurrencies offer financial institutions a secure way to conduct a wide variety of transactions using collateralized assets on a custom-built blockchain.

The WISeCoin ICO and WISeCoin Hardware Wallet will be introduced to delegates attending the Davos Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Gathering, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, January 24^th at Hotel Europe (Piano Bar).  Attendees will receive a WISeCoin Wallet, a contactless hardware enabled wallet designed to offer security and ease of use for cryptocurrency users.  To register please visit: https://davosregistration.wisekey.com/.  For more information visit: The Blockchain at Davos: https://www.icoexaminer.com/ico-news/blockchain-bankers-politicians-davos/. 

WISeKey was amongst several leading companies to receive the Blockchain Award of Excellence by the Global Blockchain Business Council on January 23, 2018, in Davos.  Other leading companies presented with this award were: Abra, Bitpesa, Canaan, Chong Sing Holdings Fintech Group Limited, Coindesk, Digital Asset Holdings, MIT, Necker Blockchain Summit, OKEx, The Bitfury Group, The Museum of Fintech and Xapo.

The Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) (https://www.gbbcouncil.org/) brings together founding members from over 30 countries to advance global understanding of Blockchain technology. The organization is dedicated to furthering adoption of Blockchain technology through engaging and educating business leaders, regulators, and global decision and change makers on how to harness this groundbreaking tool to create more secure, equitable, and functional societies.

Blockchain technology has triggered innovations and introduced a new era in finance. Today, cryptocurrencies have become a global phenomenon, so much so that even central banks are trying to create their own cryptocurrency systems.  To this end, WISeKey is helping cities and nations around the world create their own cryptocurrency with WISeCoin, its cutting edge Blockchain identification platform with its revolutionary design and state-of-the-art cryptographic security system. When fully developed in Q3 2018 the WISeCoin Platform is poised to disrupt legacy systems for transacting value and revamping some of the participant countries economic infrastructures.



WISeCoin uses the latest blockchain technology and is part of a transactional system that uses WISeKey Blockchain-as-a-Service (“BaaS”) technology offerings. To empower a seamless cryptocurrency enabled economy, WISeCoin is supplemented with highly secured solutions such as biometrics-driven hardware wallets, integrated exchange platforms, MicroChips Blockchain enabled semiconductors, and NFC-based contactless payment solutions. WISeKey’s objective with WISeCoin is to become an emerging powerhouse in the global cryptocurrency market by supporting the development of economies built on Blockchain technology. 

The WISeCoin offering will be tested over the next 6 months in selected countries that are currently using the WISeKey Blockchain technology, and will be gradually offered to the market. Providers of Personal Identifiable Information (PII) will be rewarded with WISeCoins for concluded transactions. The WISeCoin cryptocurrency would be very different from Bitcoin, as it would be centralized, trusted with NFC identification, safe and in accordance with countries’ regulatory frameworks.

WISeKey is helping governments and corporations address critical requirements through its Blockchain Digital Identity offerings including: a vehicle lifecycle management system for the government of  Andhra Pradesh in India with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to  improve governance; a cybersecurity ecosystem in India to enable 140 million farmers (“WISeFarmers”) to tune into the digital economy and IoT; an HSM solution for private key protection and management for Blockchain applications; and secured IoT transactions on Blockchain using WISeKey semiconductors solution.  Recently, WISeKey’s  Blockchain Digital Identity technology was selected by BBC as one of the Five African tech trends to look out for in 2018 – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41899173. WISeKey’s cryptographic RoT empowers IoT manufacturers and chipmakers to add digital identities certificates to their chips at the hardware level to encrypt communication and authenticate the devices on Blockchain. 



WISeKey will combine WISeCoin with its CertifyID (https://account.wisekey.com) integrating Digital Identity with Blockchain technology. CertifyID acts as a Digital Identity dual factor authentication based technology that sits on top of a Blockchain. The CertifyID Blockchain is constantly growing as new blocks are added to it with a new set of recordings. Each CertifyID node gets a copy of the CertifyID Blockchain and gets downloaded automatically upon joining the CertifyID network. The system is completely decentralized and can be operated on a national or local level by using a distributed identity ledger run by trusted parties and spread across the Blockchain. 



Several countries are planning to introduce national cryptocurrencies. Estonia is planning to introduce a virtual legal tender called Estcoin, to be launched through an ICO integrated into the Estonia’s e-residency ecosystem.  Estcoin will offers non-Estonians a digital ID which will facilitate payment processing, banking and taxation in the country.

At the heart of the Digital Identity Platform is the OISTE Cryptographic Root of Trust which has been actively used since 1999 by over 2.6 billion desktops, browsers, mobile devices, SSL certificates and Internet of Things’ devices. The OISTE WISeKey Cryptographic Root of Trust is ubiquitous and universal, and a pioneer in the creation of Digital Identities. OISTE started this project back in 1998 with the objective to issue 1 billion identities to poor people (https://www.clintonfoundation.org/clinton-global-initiative/commitments/increasing-digital-connectivity-poor) as one-fifth of the world’s population. Approximately 1.5 billion people have no proper legal identification, and 50 million children are born every year without a birth certificate and legal identity. This means that these people are off the radar for vital economic services, including such as education and healthcare.

See also: WISeKey Unveils its Digital Identity BlockChain Platform CertifyID in NYC; State-of-the-Art Technology is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to Provide Every Person on the Planet with a Legal Digital Identity by 2030 

About OISTE Foundation:

The OISTE Foundation has been working with the UN and other governmental and non-governmental international organizations since 1998. Today, in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, target 16.9 – giving everyone a legal identity by 2030 – OISTE focuses on the challenge of harnessing digital identity for the global community.  OISTE holds special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC) and is an accredited member of the Non-commercial Users Stakeholders Group (NCSG) of ICANN as part of the Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns (NPOC) constituency. The OISTE Foundation endorses the “Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development.” oiste.org 

About WISeKey:

WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems with a patented process. WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

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This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.