A blockchain match made in Havven: Why intimate’s new partnership just made sense

Partnering with a fellow Melbourne startup is just one way of making the most of Australia’s buzzing blockchain space, according to Reuben Coppa, chief executive and co-founder of intimate, the cryptocurrency platform serving the adult industry.

Coppa tells StartupSmart that adult online entertainment was an industry ripe for the arrival of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, which offers both anonymity and security. Back in February, intimate raised $4.5 million in a token pre-sale, ahead of its full initial coin offering (ICO), which kicked off in March.

So far, the sale has surpassed its minimum target, with 23 days left.

But, as Coppa says, “one of the biggest questions we get around crypto in the adult industry is around volatility”.

The intimate team has been “looking at ways to reduce volatility” and says it has found just the right partner to make that happen: fellow Australian blockchain startup Havven.

Havven, which also raised $38.6 million ($US30 million) in Australia’s largest ever ICO in March, is intended to provide a stable digital currency, using two interlinked tokens — the ‘HAV’ and ‘nomin’ tokens — to establish its ‘stablecoin’ system.

A partnership between the two startups solves the volatility problem for intimate customers, says Coppa, while Havven will gain exposure to a “captive and active” adult market, he says. 

“The partnership is a great way of exposing their audience to a genuine use case that will implement their technology,” says Coppa.

Equally, in such a fast-changing space, it makes sense to partner with a company that already has the technology, rather than building it in-house, Coppa says.

“In terms of where we’re going to be in six or 18 months’ time, it would be irrational for us to be making architecture platforms,” he says. 

This is a collaboration between two of Australia’s most successful blockchain startups, and Coppa says it’s reflective of the quality of blockchain innovation coming out of Australia, calling the country’s presence on the global blockchain scene “pretty significant”.

“There are so many good crypto-based companies out of Australia,” he says.

“It’s a ridiculous and awesome time to be involved in crypto, from an Aussie perspective.”

And, although the industry has grown, Coppa says over the past 10 years or so, there hasn’t necessarily been any huge change in technology.

“What’s changed is public acceptance, and the ability of people to work together,” he says.

“It’s about finding organisations or people that are similarly aligned from a conceptual standpoint.”

That said, there are a lot of Australian companies that would have ticked all the boxes, and that intimate could have partnered with. “There are so many ways of doing things that would technically be successful,” Coppa says.

But he adds: “The biggest thing is finding organisations where you know the people who are running them, how they like to get things done, and the support and the community that is behind them.”

It’s also a benefit to work with “people we’ve known for years, who have the technology out there”, he says. 

Havven and Initmate each have successes that benefit the other, Coppa says. Havven has gone down a “sensible path” in terms of the technology, while intimate is “targeting a real use case”, he adds.

“To partner with someone who has a solution ready to go makes sense,” says Coppa. 

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