The CVL Token Sale is LIVE!

After more than a year building a working product, recruiting more than 100 journalists across 14 independent newsrooms and, most importantly, rallying the global community that will form the foundation of the Civil economy, the moment is here.

The CVL token sale is live.

CVL is a uniquely designed cryptocurrency that will drive the governance of a community-controlled platform for ethical journalism. It will also serve as a peer-to-peer payments system that will allow readers to directly support journalists publishing on the Civil platform.

Key details:

• The CVL sale is now live on Token Foundry
• CVL is a consumer token that should not be purchased as a financial investment
• 34 million CVL tokens (34% of the network) will be made available via the public sale
• The CVL sale has a hard cap (maximum amount that will be accepted in the public sale) of U.S. $24 million, and a soft cap (minimum amount required for the sale to go through, otherwise all participants will be refunded) of U.S. $8 million
• The sale will close on October 15, or as soon as the hard cap target is reached
• 100% of net proceeds from the CVL sale will go to the Civil Foundation
• The Civil platform will launch on Ethereum mainnet within one weekof the sale’s completion
• Beginning in two weeks, many of you be able to complete the entire registration process on civil.co in a more streamlined manner; the sale is already open on Token Foundry
• It’s due to this added feature that the Civil sale will now end October 15, not October 2 as originally planned
• Civil is accepting direct wire transfers for CVL beginning today; email cvl@civil.co to determine whether you’re eligible to participate in this manner

Overview

You can register and purchase CVL tokens on Token Foundry as of today. Additionally, we’re excited to announce that we’re introducing a new way for interested parties to acquire CVL, which can be completed entirely on civil.co. That process will open on October 2, though individuals who already have their desired amount of ETH and have registered on Token Foundry can complete their purchase immediately.

We are conducting a token sale to responsibly and effectively decentralize the network, not to capitalize a private company. In this spirit that we were pleased to announce the 100 Percent Pledge: 100 percent of net proceeds from the CVL token sale will go to the Civil Foundation, the non-profit entity that will write grants to Newsrooms on the Civil platform.

The Civil Registry, the core part of the CVL token holder experience, will launch on the Ethereum mainnet (aka, Civil’s general launch) within one week of the sale’s completion. This will mark the point at which control of Civil is formally handed over to the community (via ownership of CVL tokens), readers can support journalists via CVL and when any interested party can apply to launch a Newsroom on Civil.

CVL is a Consumer Token: What This Means for Purchasers

CVL was designed as a consumer token, per the Brooklyn Project framework. This means that CVL is meant to be a consumer good that serves a specific utility in the Civil marketplace, not a speculative instrument. We’re distributing CVL tokens to ensure that the network is populated by people who care about journalism, understand its essential role in the world and, most importantly, who want to play a more direct role in the process of creating, discovering, distributing and supporting ethical journalism.

To purchase CVL, you must do three things:

• Verify your identity — this process is in place to ensure that all users who want to purchase CVL are who they say they are.
• Demonstrate an understanding of how to responsibly acquire cryptocurrency — we recognize that CVL will be the first time many people purchase cryptocurrency. We’re committed to empowering CVL sale participants with the necessary information to navigate the process. There’s much more information at civil.co (especially our FAQ page); we’re also hosting daily webinars to review the process in real-time.
• Prove you understand the basics of how CVL works — and that you intend to use it for its stated purpose — Civil’s success will be predicated on its ability to attract an impassioned, active community committed to upholding ethical journalism principles. Since CVL is a consumer token, acquiring it for purely speculative purposes is expressly forbidden. All participants must confirm their intent to use CVL as consumers; the Civil Media Company reserves the right to screen proven speculators out of the purchasing process.

In addition to the above, and in accordance with CVL’s consumer token designation, all participants in the CVL sale will also be required to “prove use” before selling CVL on the secondary market through at least October 2019. Additionally, only individuals who have verified their identity on either Token Foundry or civil.co can acquire CVL tokens for the next year, even if they acquire them on secondary markets. More on those requirements can be found here.

A More Direct Path to Purchasing CVL Will be Available on October 2

Since we formally announced the token sale on August 3, many people have reached out expressing support for this project — and candid feedback that they want to participate, but prefer a more straightforward process to do so. Our primary goal in distributing CVL is to ensure we do so securely and in accordance with all relevant regulations. We’re also committed to being responsive to user feedback, and improving the process wherever possible.

We’re pleased to announce that, as of October 2, many participants will be able to complete the entire CVL purchase process on civil.co. This includes verifying your identity — aka, meeting necessary “Know Your Customer” (KYC) requirements — and acquiring ETH (in a much quicker timeframe than is currently possible for first time purchasers on platforms like Coinbase and Gemini). We’re doing this via Wyre, a secure payments processor that will be accessed via Civil’s website. This will be available to residents in the U.S., UK, EU and Australia. Note that U.S. participants from Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming will not be eligible for this service.

Additionally, we’ll be accepting direct wire transfers for CVL tokens in certain cases (and only if you’ve already verified your identity on Token Foundry); email cvl@civil.co to confirm whether you’re eligible for that option.

To reiterate: if you’ve already registered for the process and possess ETH, you can purchase CVL today. If you haven’t done either, many of you will have access to a more streamlined process at civil.co on October 2.

This process will be open until October 15, when the sale closes. If the hard cap target of U.S. $24 million is reached sooner than that, the sale will cease.