ZUG, Switzerland and
VANCOUVER, Nov. 20, 2018 /CNW/ - HIVE Blockchain
Technologies Ltd. (TSX.V:HIVE) (OTC:HVBTF) (the "Company" or
"HIVE") today announced that it is ushering in a new chapter for
the Company as HIVE transitions from its initial start-up phase to
HIVE 2.0. HIVE became a publicly listed company in September 2017 and is now a fully operational
blockchain infrastructure company operating significant GPU and
ASIC mining capacity. The Company is pleased to provide an update
on its ASIC mining capacity which began operations on time on
September 30, 2018. The previously
announced cloud-based contract has been amended to reduce operating
costs by ~30%, retroactive to October 1,
2018, and provides the option to extend the contract term to
two years from one year. Management believes this will have an
immediate positive impact on profitability and cash flow generation
for the Company.
![HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (CNW Group/HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.) HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (CNW Group/HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.)](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/787379/HIVE_Blockchain_Technologies_Ltd__HIVE_Announces_Improved_Financ.jpg)
Additionally, HIVE is pleased to announce that it has appointed
Marco Streng, CEO of Genesis Group
("Genesis") and a co-founder of HIVE, as its Vice Chairman and that
it has appointed Darcy Daubaras as
Chief Financial Officer effective immediately. Mr. Daubaras
replaces Jessica Van Den Akker who
has resigned from the Company. Mr. Daubaras will assume
responsibility for signing off on the Company's second quarter
financial statements. Management believes that these are positive
corporate developments for HIVE and mark important milestones for
the Company as it continues to expand its blockchain footprint and
looks towards positive cash flow generation.
Marco Streng is the CEO and
co-founder of Genesis as well as a co-founder of HIVE and brings
significant experience in the blockchain infrastructure ecosystem.
His experience benefits HIVE as the Company expands its footprint
and presence in blockchain, including Bitcoin mining. Since its
inception in 2013 and under the direction of Marco Streng, Genesis has grown to become the
largest hashpower provider in the cloud and a leading services
provider to the blockchain industry.
Mr. Daubaras brings over 20 years of experience in corporate
accounting and public company service. Prior to joining HIVE, Darcy
was a member of the executive team at FinancialCAD Corporation. Mr.
Daubaras has previously served as the Chief Financial Officer for
Canadian listed public companies as well as serving as the Director
of Corporate Accounting with Mercer International. Darcy was
awarded a CPA, CA designation from the Chartered Professional
Accountants of British Columbia as
well as being awarded a CPA designation in Illinois and has experience with
Sarbanes-Oxley. He received a Bachelor of Commerce from the
University of Victoria.
"I am pleased to welcome Darcy to the executive team and believe
his significant experience will serve HIVE extremely well as we
enter the next phase of the Company which we are calling HIVE 2.0."
said Frank Holmes, Interim Executive
Chairman. "I am also pleased that Marco has agreed to join the
Board of Directors given his expertise in blockchain as CEO and
co-founder of Genesis. Further, the amendments made to the
cloud-based services agreement with Genesis mean that HIVE's mining
operations are expected to see improved profitability despite
current market conditions and we remain bullish on the long-term
value of cryptocurrencies in spite of volatility seen throughout
2018."
"I would like to thank Jessica who has served as CFO since our
launch as a publicly listed blockchain infrastructure company and
is an industry pioneer. During her tenure, Jessica developed deep
knowledge of the cryptocurrency industry and she was a key
contributor to HIVE during its critical growth period. I wish her
success in her future endeavours."
About HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.
HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. is a growth oriented,
TSX.V-listed company building a bridge from the blockchain sector
to traditional capital markets. HIVE is strategically partnered
with Genesis Mining Ltd. to build the next generation of blockchain
infrastructure. HIVE owns state-of-the-art GPU-based digital
currency mining facilities in Iceland and Sweden, which produce newly minted digital
currencies like Ethereum continuously as well as cloud-based
ASIC-based capacity which produce newly minted digital currencies
like Bitcoin. Our deployments provide shareholders with exposure to
the operating margins of digital currency mining as well as a
growing portfolio of crypto-coins.
For more information and to register to HIVE's mailing list,
please visit www.HIVEblockchain.com. Follow @HIVEblockchain on
Twitter and subscribe to HIVE's YouTube channel.
On Behalf of HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.
"Frank Holmes"
Interim Executive Chairman
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture
Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this news release.
Forward-Looking Information
Except for the statements of historical fact, this news
release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning
of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on
expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news
release. "Forward-looking information" in this news release
includes information about the Company's amended ASIC mining cloud
based contract with Genesis, including reduced operating costs and
extension of option term; management's belief that the amended ASIC
mining cloud contract will have an immediate positive impact on
profitability and cash flow generation; long term growth of the
Company; the business goals and objectives of the Company, and
other forward-looking information includes but is not limited to
information concerning the intentions, plans and future actions of
the parties to the transactions described herein and the terms
thereon.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those described in such forward-looking information include,
but are not limited to, the ongoing partnership with Genesis; the
digital currency market; the Company's ability to successfully mine
digital currency; the Company may not be able to profitably
liquidate its current digital currency inventory, or at all; a
decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative
impact on the Company's operations; the volatility of digital
currency prices; and other related risks as more fully set out in
the Company's documents disclosed under the Company's filings
at www.sedar.com.
The forward-looking information in this news release reflects
the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of the Company
based on information currently available to the Company. In
connection with the forward-looking information contained in this
news release, the Company has made assumptions about the Company's
ability to profitably liquidate its digital currency inventory as
required; the Company's ongoing partnership with Genesis;
historical prices of digital currencies and the ability of the
Company to mine digital currencies will be consistent with
historical prices; and there will be no regulation or law that will
prevent the Company from operating its business. The Company has
also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the
Company's normal course of business. Although the Company believes
that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information
are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of
future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put
on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein
SOURCE HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.