On Monday, Blockchains, LLC confirmed it is acquiring over 60,000 acres at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. The company’s CEO refuted rumors that the land will be used for a large-scale cryptocurrency mining operation.
A Note From The President of Blockchains, LLC, David Berns:
ETHNews is wholly owned by Blockchains, LLC. As such, I am in a quandary as to how to allow the reporting of news when in fact our company is making that news. As a media outlet, we have always taken great pride on making our coverage of the Ethereum ecosystem and blockchain technology unbiased. ETHNews has always been, and will continued to be, a non-monetizing site that is not beholden to advertising dollars which may cause coverage to be swayed one way or the other. We never run paid content and never report on speculative ICOs.
While apprehensive to give any statement to ETHNews reporter Matthew De Silva, due to the relationship between Blockchains, LLC and ETHNews, I felt the necessity to at least clarify some things which have already been reported by other media sources.
On January 29, 2018, Jeffrey Berns, CEO of Blockchains, LLC, confirmed that his company is acquiring over 60,000 acres at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial (TRI) Center.
So, what is Blockchains, LLC?
Led by brothers Jeffrey and David Berns, Blockchains, LLC has the stated goal of acting as a pioneer for the technological future. Since Ethereum went live in July 2015, the company has quietly been working on decentralized application (Dapp) development.
The company "conceptualizes and incubates blockchain-powered ideas, ventures, and businesses," according to its website. It is "developing means of offering traditional financial services in this new age of digital assets."
Blockchains, LLC is a step into the FinTech world for the attorney brothers, but one for which they are well-prepared. Through class action cases, Berns Weiss, LLP successfully took on banking behemoths like Countrywide, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan Chase.
Today, ETHNews spoke with David Berns, the president of Blockchains, LLC who shared insights into the company's vision.
"We have spent the majority of our legal careers protecting the average person and consumer," he said. "Through Blockchains, LLC, our primary focus is on ensuring that the technology is used in a manner in which the rights of consumers are properly safeguarded."
The company's website further explains, "The decentralized nature of blockchain technology can catalyze tremendous economic and social change; we are advocates for such change."
Asked what projects the company is working on, David Berns declined to give specifics. "I can say they are Ethereum-based," he offered. "We will showcase how blockchain technology can systematically improve business and industry without compromising consumers' rights or ownership of information."
The massive land purchase – estimated at around $175 million – signals management's strong faith in the future of Ethereum and the world's second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ether. The Ethereum platform's Turing-complete ability to facilitate complex code through executable distributed code contracts, or EDCCs (frequently referred to as "smart contracts"), makes it particularly versatile.
David Berns also discussed the plans for Blockchains, LLC's new headquarters.
"When completed, our corporate campus will consist of over 300,000 square feet at the TRI Center and we expect to employ over 1,000 individuals by 2021," he said. "A soon-to-be renovated facility on the outskirts of the TRI Center will act as our temporary headquarters until the campus is completed."
Later this year, Blockchains, LLC will join the ranks of technology titans putting down roots at North America's largest industrial park. In 2014, after considering nearly 100 sites, Tesla decided on the TRI Center as the location for its $5 billion Gigafactory 1. Another colossus of the technology world, Google plans to construct a data center at the business park. Jet.com (acquired by Walmart) and Switch are among the other major players setting up shop. Even Apple has a data center located in Reno. But Blockchains, LLC's stake in the land comprising the TRI Center overwhelmingly dwarfs its neighbors.
After a statement that the company would be in "stealth mode" until later in 2018, theories sprang up online, speculating about the company's plans, with ideas as wild as a theme park to a large-scale solar array. Jeffrey Berns' Twitter, however, has dispelled the theory of mining (no comment on the roller coasters), noting that Ethereum will soon shift to a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm.
According to a Nevada Business Search, Blockchains, LLC was registered by Jeffrey Berns in May 2017. However, the company has been creating blockchain applications for the last three years.
Of course, Nevada is tremendously attractive for enterprise operations because of its tax-friendly and cryptocurrency-friendly policies. In June 2017, Nevada governor Brian Sandoval signed off on Senate Bill 398, which created a tax exemption for blockchain-based transactions.
David Berns also stated, "Blockchains, LLC has announcements planned over the coming months, so stay tuned for more information."