By
Mayowa Adebajo
March 12th, 2024
The ex-frontman of an English rock band closed the list of celebrities who recently have tipped into the world of blockchain.
The whole world is going crazy about cryptocurrencies and celebrities are not an exception. As the digital rush gains further momentum embracing minds of wannabe investors, superstars also do not miss a chance to put their prominent names behind digital currency-related startups.
Last year Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho expressed his deep interest in cryptocurrency announcing the launch of his own digital coin dubbed Ronaldinho Soccer Coin (RSC). As was reported by Coinspeaker, the football player teamed up with the World Soccer Coin to establish a project conceived to raise funds for the developing of a blockchain-based football academy, which will utilize digital VR stadiums to establish new teams.
Yet Ronaldinho was not alone in his purpose to use blockchain for the sake of football development. Another famous Uruguayan footballer, Luis Suarez has supported a forecasting platform STOX for turkey financial solutions. Notably the same platform was actively promoted by the Instagram account of boxing champion Floyd Mayweather.
However, following the scandalous ICO of a startup Centra Tech that turned out to be a $32-milliom worth fraud, Mayweather got under public scrutiny, while according to the SEC order, the compensation received by boxer for the abetted STOX ICO was disclosed. Ever since celebrities have become more cautious on their ICO endorsements.
Nevertheless, world’s pop icon Peter Gabriel does not seem to be frightened by past failures, instead he aims using them to forge success. The former frontman of progressive rock band Genesis has invested into the blockchain startup for food transport.
The London-based startup Provenance builds a traceability system for materials and products by the means of distributed ledger technology in order to make supply chains more transparent. The social enterprise project leverages the Ethereum blockchain to track where food sold at retails is from.
Gabriel supported the startup, saying he believes the project is going to bring long-waited transparency to food industry:
“We need to be able to trust the source and distribution chain, particularly when it comes to guaranteeing that things are produced ethically and in an ecologically sound way. I am convinced that the service Provenance provides, using their blockchain data system, is going to find a big role going forward and will be of great use to the consumer and provide a level playing field for smaller, independent producers on which to compete with the big players.”
Gabriel joins a group of contributors led by Working Group Capital Fund, Digital Currency Group, Merian Ventures, and Plug and Play in a new round of Provenance investment followed by a $800,000 seed funding round announced last year. The startup will use raised funds to support its digital platform as well as enable brands and retailers to bring integrity to their supply chains.
Provenance also is adding two members to its board of directors, the founder and managing partner of Merian Ventures, Alexsis de Raadt-St. James, will join as Chairperson of the Board of Directors, and Chemain Sanan, a Partner at Working Capital, will join as a Director.