What’s Next for Civil
A setback, and the path forward.
Key takeaways:
- The CVL token sale didn’t succeed. We’re disappointed, but we’re as committed as ever to seeing Civil out in the world.
- Nearly 3,000 people were willing to jump through the hoops required to buy CVL tokens.
- A new, much simpler token sale is in the works. We’ll be sharing details on that soon.
- Buyers in the initial CVL token sale will be able to opt into this new sale, request an immediate refund, or be automatically refunded by October 29.
- This new sale will precede the official launch of Civil which will happen soon. This is happening in weeks, not months.
- ConsenSys has committed $3.5 million to the Civil Foundation, which will be used to fund existing grants to the 14 initial newsrooms as well as overhead. Future proceeds from the new CVL token sale will exclusively fund the foundation’s work, including its grantmaking.
- Most importantly, Civil newsrooms are up and running and doing extraordinary reporting. They are the heart and soul of Civil.
It’s a brisk afternoon here in New York City, and most of Civil’s team is coming off a largely sleepless night. Our token sale closed last night, and we didn’t hit the $8 million minimum that we set out to raise.
It’s a setback for us, though not a shock. We watched the CVL token sale’s progress with the rest of you. We expected a different outcome when we launched the sale, but circumstances changed. We learned a lot of lessons which we will reflect on in the coming weeks and share with our community and the public.
All that said, we are moving forward. Here’s what to know about that in short order:
Civil is not going anywhere. The Civil Media Company is here to stay. The Civil Foundation now has $3.5 million in funding, and this doesn’t include the funding it will receive from the new sale of CVL tokens. We’re here to build, and we’re excited for this new beginning.
For those who purchased tokens, first of all, thank you. We’ll offer full refunds. But we’re also working on a new token sale process, very different from the last one and, we hope, much easier. We’ll be sharing an update soon on how you can continue to support and participate in Civil. If you have any questions about refunds or about our plans for the new token sale, contact support@civil.co.
Once the tokens from the new sale are distributed, Civil will be ready to launch. This will include:
- a blockchain-publishing plugin for Wordpress (aka, how to launch a newsroom on Civil)
- a community governance application (aka, The Civil Registry)
- a developer tool for building with Civil data without blockchain expertise (aka, how non-blockchain developers can build apps on Civil)
We also know there are folks out there who did not purchase tokens but would like to. We are working on a new method that will make this a lot easier.
The Civil Foundation, which was supposed to be funded by proceeds from the token sale, is up and running, demonstrating the continued commitment of ConsenSys — which is funding $3.5 million to support its initial operations, including overseeing grants for Civil’s existing “First Fleet” newsrooms. The Civil Foundation will also still receive 100 percent of proceeds, net of taxes, from the sale of the 34 million CVL tokens once those go back on sale.
We’ve built a community of newsrooms and engaged members of the public, highlighted by the 125+ journalists across 18 newsrooms (14 from Civil’s “First Fleet,” and four more that joined the Civil network earlier this month) that already form the backbone of the Civil community, and publish daily. They’re exposing political corruption. They’re calling out governmental hypocrisy on immigration policy. They’re uncovering massive, unreported environmental issues. The list (and the impact) goes on.
We’re continuing discussions with other news organizations and partners around the world, so look for more announcements soon.
Nearly 3,000 people have already expressed their intent to support and join these journalists, many of whom had little or no knowledge of blockchain technology before they came across Civil. They’re not buying CVL tokens because they want the latest, greatest cryptocurrency. They’re doing it because they believe it’s a new and worthwhile way to create, distribute and support journalism, at a time when alternatives are desperately needed.
We’ll leave you with just a few messages we received in recent days, from people like you who made their way to the top of this challenging mountain and want Civil to succeed:
- “I’m 60 years old and I just bought my first token,” one of you told us, “I feel like I should get a cool mom award!”
- “I am sad that if we don’t reach the soft target we will be refunded,” another one of you wrote, “I was really looking forward to having a part in responsible journalism that the readership can help also hold accountable.”
- Yet another supporter said, “I wanted to say thank-you for creating Civil. As we say in the UK, you have taken the issue of funding journalism by the balls, and while these early days might be painful, you have produced a model that I think will do for the industry, what Apple did for computing. The mechanism by which we have all been producing journalism needs a massive disruption and you’ve started that.”
Some of you even asked us to keep your money, saying you want the project to go on even though we didn’t hit the soft cap:
- “I write to ask if you can ensure I do not get a refunded after Monday’s ICO closing date irrespective of the outcome. I wish my funds / pledge to be redirected into any future CIVIL plans once announced. I would like to be a part of the global success possible for all & to use my CIVIL Tokens to support Manoush & Jen in their brilliant success,” one supporter wrote, in praise of ZigZag’s Manoush Zomorodi and Jen Poyant.
- Another of you asked how “to find out how to give my authorization to redirect my funds / pledge to CIVIL.co after the ICO closing date no matter the outcome.”
- “Sending a big thank you to the entire Civil Team for your tireless efforts, for your commitment, determination and vision despite all the challenges (circumstantial and human) and for your blood, sweat and tears,” one of you added, “I for one appreciate your honesty, your openness to feedback and your criticism in this channel and your willingness to make changes along the way as you learn how to improve the project. I am also still here and waiting patiently for the next phase.”
Now it’s our turn to give gratitude. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to all of you for your support. Keep following us and we’ll keep you up to date on how you can continue to support our mission.