Argo to do LSE’s frist cryptocurrency listing

Agro, the Canadian firm, won approval to go public from the UK Listing Authority two weeks ago, wants to “ democratise” the crypto-mining process by which new virtual coins are created by renting out its specialist computing capacity for a monthly fee.  The listing could be controversial as crypto-currencies have been linked to organised crime and fraud and the mining process has been accused of damaging the environment. Miners create new virtual coins by solving complex maths problems to validate new transactions, The reliance on raw computer power makes the energy-hungry process closer to industrial manufacturing than to traditional, high-technology business activities.

Jonathan Bixby, the Canadian technology entrepreneur who co-founded Argo said, it had chosen to list in London because of city’s role as a financial technology hub, and for the cachet, the listing would add to Argo’s brand.

More than 90 per cent of crypto mining is done by elites on an industrial scale because it is technically very difficult to do, as the hardware you need at $5000 a machine. We want to be the Amazon Web Service of Crypto” according to Mr Bixby.

Argo plans to charge $25 a month for the computing power to mine any of four cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and Z cash. Employing 20 people, Argo has a data centre in Vancouver and plans to establish others in countries like Iceland and China.  Argo plans to use electricity mainly from renewable sources.