Steve Wozniak helped build one of the most valuable and recognisable companies on Earth. In 1976, he co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and designed some of the computers that turned the compan
Steve Wozniak helped build one of the most valuable and recognisable companies on Earth.
In 1976, he co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and designed some of the computers that turned the company from a garage project into a technology giant.
But one of Wozniak’s newer ventures has stayed much further from the spotlight.
What is tokenization (8:35)In 2020, he co-founded EFFORCE, a blockchain company built around financing energy-efficiency and sustainability projects.
The idea is fairly simple.
Projects looking for funding can raise money through the platform, while blockchain keeps a digital record of where that money goes and what environmental assets are created.
EFFORCE also uses tokenization, which means turning ownership rights or access to an asset into digital tokens that can be tracked and transferred on a blockchain.
Now that company is preparing for a much bigger stage.
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TROOPS is a Hong Kong-based company listed on Nasdaq under the ticker TROO.
Its businesses are spread across several areas, including lending, property investment, insurance consulting and financial technology. It also runs an online financial marketplace that uses technologies including artificial intelligence, blockchain and cloud computing.
EFFORCE is much more crypto-focused.
It was launched in 2020 with Wozniak as a co-founder and uses blockchain to connect investors with energy-efficiency and sustainability projects.
One part of that model is its WOZX token, which users can hold or stake for discounts on some platform fees.
It also tracks environmental commodities created by projects, including carbon credits, plastic credits and biodiversity credits.
The idea is to make those markets easier to track by recording transactions on blockchain rather than relying only on traditional intermediaries.
Wozniak remains a shareholder of EFFORCE following the proposed transaction, according to TROOPS.
EFFORCE launched to plenty of attention. Its WOZX token debuted in December 2020 and, according to the company at the time, reached an implied $950 million market value within its first 13 minutes of trading.
But that momentum did not last. WOZX eventually fell more than 99% from its $3.66 all-time high and faded from much of the crypto market’s attention.
Its reach was also limited from the beginning. WOZX was not available through U.S. exchanges at launch, while Wozniak was a co-founder rather than the company’s CEO.
The combination of a collapsing token price and limited mainstream visibility led the project to largely disappear from the spotlight.
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TROOPS said on Oct. 12 that it had signed a conditional sales and purchase agreement with EFFORCE.
The proposed deal would give TROOPS access to EFFORCE’s blockchain infrastructure and regulatory framework as it expands further into digital assets.
That includes crypto trading, but TROOPS says it wants to go beyond that.
The combined company plans to explore digital asset infrastructure, financial services and sustainability-linked markets, including carbon credits and green certificates.
EFFORCE’s technology could help TROOPS build new digital-asset products for institutional and commercial clients.
It could also give users access to blockchain-based markets for environmental assets, while helping TROOPS expand its services and create new revenue streams.
WOLX token price according to CoinMarketCap“This merger represents a significant milestone for TROOPS as we continue to expand our digital asset infrastructure and diversified business platform,” TROOPS CEO Damian Thurnheer said.
While the deal is still subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions before it is finalized, the news was enough to send WOZX sharply higher.
The token jumped more than 80% over 24 hours after the merger announcement, trading around $0.0074 at the time of writing. Trading activity also spiked, although the token still remained about 99.8% below its 2020 all-time high.
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