Recently I have become aware of a relatively new blockchain based digital token that is calling itself the ACC (Asset Collection Coin). The information available on the internet about this new token describes it as "an asset digitization tool and platform to realize global asset digitization." The main web site for the organization behind this new token is ACChain.org. It appears to be based in China, but it is unclear what relationship it may have with any official institutions in China. 

A promotional video for this new product has created quite a bit of discussion and uproar because it seems to suggest the primary token to be used in this new system could be some kind of new digital version of the SDR. The official SDR of course is issued by the IMF and not any organization in China. But here is what ACChain says on this web page that does arouse curiosity:

"ACChain has built a pure decentralized platform for asset digitization, it is the common community of asset tokens, by copying Asset Blockchain general ledgers to implement asset digitization, and using ACC (Asset Collection Coin) as a common exchange medium to realize

assets circulation."

. . . .

"ACChain Community is launching a global ICO for tokens that made on ACChain, structuring international supernode networks, the process of the first supernode network is also the process of the exchange between mainstream tokens in the market with Asset standard token -- ACC, they will jointly form the digital asset interchange object -- SDR digital currency. In the meantime, each global node will establish regional “general ledger token” (GLT) for regional circulation, thus, the digital currency SDR will be the main exchange coin along with tokens  of each international node’s general ledger token in the international exchange. In this ecosystem, each node’s token can use GLT to realize regional circulation, and each GLT and use ACC to realize international circulation. Those control the international supernodes, win the market."

If you have spent any time at all researching these kinds of things (SDR's, global currencies, etc) you know that when you see this kind of language show up all kinds of speculation, questions, and for some people out right fear is going to arise. Here we have something stating that its goal is to essentially try to get the entire world to digitize its real world assets into a globally tradable token (the ACC) that it also happens to suggest will be a "digital currency SDR" (see page 11). If that is not enough to stir up interest, they go on to talk about powerful "supernodes" in this system designed to collect up real world assets and say "those (who) control the international supernodes, win the market."

So, it is certainly reasonable to ask. What is this? Who is behind it? Who controls the "supernodes" in it? Does it have any kind of relationship with the IMF? If not, does it have any kind of relationship with the Chinese government or PBOC? Let's look at the facts that we can find on this.

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My early research on this does not indicate that any relationship exists with the IMF that I can find. If any relationship does exist, it does not appear in the public domain anywhere that I know about. In a video I have seen on an alternative media site, an email from an IMF spokesperson displayed in the video clearly states the IMF has no involvement with ACCoin. I have no doubt the email is legitimate even though I cant show you a hard copy (you can view it on the video here if you like). It shows it to be from Silvia Zucchini who is an IMF spokesperson. The email shown in the video had this statement from her:

"Thank you for your inquiry. Please note that we are not aware of the cryptocurrency called ACCOIN and we can rule out any IMF official approval and authorization of its link to the SDR."

It is harder to know if any ties exist between ACChain. org and the Chinese government and/or PBOC. China is somewhat opaque. I cannot find anything that ties them together, but would not rule out the possibility. I simply don't know. 

The goal of this article will simply be to provide the information I can find in the public domain so that readers can review it and draw their own conclusions about it. I will add a few comments of opinion, but will admit that I have no way to know for sure of any connections one way or the other. At the same time, I prefer not to jump to conclusions or speculate either as I have seen quite a bit of this already. 

I do understand the speculation though, given the information on their web page quoted above and some unusual statements that appear in the promotional video. One example is a statement on the ACChain video that says "Blockchain, the devil uses it to destroy the world" followed immediately by a statement that says "the god uses it to benefit of mankind". Admittedly, a bit strange. But sometimes Chinese translations to english come out a bit odd sounding. That seems to happen some on the ACChain web site as well. With this background, let's look at what we can find.

On this web page towards the bottom, we see the key players involved with ACChain. Most are Chinese, but one is Ben Gibbons (Collins Barrow Partner). Collins Barrow appears to be a Canadian firm. On the Collins Barrow news page, we find this item. It says this:

"Toronto, ON – Collins Barrow Toronto is pleased to announce the firm is advising on the creation of a digital asset fund with China-based Shenzhen Puyin Blockchain Co., Ltd. (PBG) and its affiliate, Guiyang Blockchain Financial Co., Ltd (GBF)."

and refers us to this news article which says:

"Shenzhen Puyin Block Chain Co., Ltd. (PBG) and its affiliate Guiyang Blockchain Financial Co., Ltd  (GBF) has engaged with Collins Barrow Toronto (Collins Barrow) to structure a digital asset fund, focused on the market opportunity and commercial applications of blockchain technology. The fund will delve into the enormous potential of digitized assets that utilize blockchain encryption to distribute the asset’s value through the internet.

In May 2017, a digital token with an underlying real estate asset, an RET, was launched through GBF’s technology platform, ACCHAIN, and has since piqued the curiosity of the markets across the globe. The current RET offering, Sendera Ranch, is a $655-million residential development project of Serene Country Homes in one of the hottest housing markets in the U.S., Dallas-Fort Worth. Once formed, the digital asset fund will invest and trade in assets such as the RET to provide qualified investors with enhanced diversification and greater security. Investors of the fund will also have access to relevant and transactional data as all information is recorded through blockchain. 

Collins Barrow, on behalf of PBG and GBF, is exploring this opportunity with various fund managers, institutional capital managers and investment firms. The creation of such fund further underscores the growing impact of blockchain technology in the financial services industry.

. . . .

About PBG and GBF

PBG represents one of the first China-based blockchain promoting agencies combining standard economic systems with the blockchain technology, and also establishing standards to create, market and trade digitally-backed assets, also known as Tokens and other digital cryptocurrencies currencies.

Assets Collection Chain (ACCHAIN) is an open global community and a decentralized asset digitization platform and tool created by GBF, an affiliate of PBG, in order to further develop their blockchain technology and ecosystem development."

editors note: I will have a followup article with more information on the real estate project in Texas

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In case you missed it, this web page on ACChain lists Jia Wan as CEO of Guiyang Blockchain and also the "Originator of ACChain". So it is clear that Jia Wan is working with Ben Gibbons at Collins Barrow in some kind of partnership. It appears they want to promote the concept of ACChain as a new platform to try and utilize blockchain technology to "digitize" real assets into tradable tokens (ACC's). The news article above says:

"Collins Barrow, on behalf of PBG and GBF, is exploring this opportunity with various fund managers, institutional capital managers and investment firms."

ACChain does have a Twitter account you can view here. There is a link on this twitter page that says "Peoples Republic of China" which takes you to a Twitter feed using that same name. I do not know if that is an official Twitter page for the government in China or not. The ACChain Twitter page is mostly links to PR notices regarding various activities of their token like this one announcing that the ACC would begin trading on a Canadian exchange known as AllCoin. At the end of this PR notice is this information about ACChain:

About Us 

Asset Collection Chain, or ACChain, is a global, open source blockchain and decentralized-asset-digitization platform based in Guiyang City, China. ACChain is operated by Guiyang Blockchain Financial Co., a provider of management and operational services. ACChain’s mission is to develop the potential of blockchain technology and asset digitization. ACC is the standard-and-common ledger token of ACChain, allowing exchange and circulation of tokens on the platform.

All this gives us a fair amount of information on ACChain. Readers can look at this information and decide for themselves if ACChain is purely a private venture operating from China or if they think it may have some kind of connection to the Chinese government. I can find no connection of any kind to the IMF. These are facts I could find. Now for a few added comments.

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My added comments: At this time based on the evidence above and a bit more I will publish in a followup article on the real estate project in Texas, it seems likely to me that ACChain is not tied in any official way to a government agency in China or the PBOC. It looks a private venture that is marketing what they feel could be a new concept for the use of blockchain technology and is using Collins Barrow in Canada to help promote the idea to fund managers and investment firms. All of this suggests to me that this is private sector activity while admitting that in China it would be hard to know what kind of ties a company like this might have (formal or informal) with the Chinese government.

The fact that they describe their ACC coin as part of a process that will "form the digital asset interchange object -- SDR digital currency" is very interesting to me though. I know for sure that they cannot possibly be talking about an official SDR digital blockchain based currency issued by the IMF because no such thing currently exists. Right now, the IMF issues official SDR's by allocating them ONLY to member nations, and certainly not to a private company based in China.  Also, as noted above, an IMF media spokesperson has denied that the IMF is involved with the Asset Collection Coin. 

So what is the "SDR digital currency" they talk about? My guess is that they are talking about denominating the ACC in SDR's in the same way as bonds denominated in SDR's were issued last year in China. Being denominated in SDR's does not mean they are official SDR's issued at the IMF. Instead, it means that the face value of the asset or debt instrument is stated in SDR's as the unit of account (instead of say Yuan). The SDR has an exchange rate with all the major currencies published on the IMF web site. If you want, you can state anything you like based in SDR's. 

For example, let's say I have $10,000 US dollars in the bank, but I wanted to know how many SDR's that would equal. Using the exchange rate for the US dollar and the SDR of .709 (as of this writing), I could say I have .709* 10,000 = 7,090 SDR's in my account, but I wouldn't own any official SDR's issued by the IMF. I would just have stated my account value based on SDR's instead of US dollars. The IMF does describe what they call M-SDR's, but those also are not official SDR's (O-SDR's) issued by the IMF. (see this page for info on M-SDR's ). 

I realize all this gets confusing very quickly for most people. I also fully acknowledge that since this organization is based in China, it is hard to know for sure what kind of ties they may have to official institutions. I do not think this firm has ties to the IMF nor do I think they are working on some new IMF sanctioned "digital SDR currency". The political blow back to the IMF for doing something like that in secret would probably be enormous. Member nations have to vote on things like that (creating a new kind of SDR). I cannot see the US going along with anything like that at the IMF, especially under the current Trump Administration. Keep in mind the US has veto power at the IMF under the current voting rules. And again, the IMF spokesperson clearly denied involvement by email.

I do think it is kind of surreal that this outfit in China has developed the concept for a "digital SDR currency" to be used as a global currency by anyone around the world on a mobile phone. I have written about a similar concept a few times here on the blog and this product (as described) is very close to what I was trying to visualize, except I was visualizing it coming from the IMF and not a private venture (?) based in China. Backing this currency with all kinds of real tangible assets is also interesting and not the first time I have seen this idea mentioned. At this time though, there is no evidence to suggest that the ACCoin is actually a "Digital SDR Currency" sanctioned by the IMF or the BIS. 

Bottomline best guess for now: ACChain is either a stand alone private venture or possibly some kind of market experiment with unknown ties to official entities in China like the PBOC or Chinese government (see more on the latter below).

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Added note (after writing the article above): Alternative theory for ACChain --- I noted above that I have no way to know if ACChain has some kind of relationship with either the PBOC or the Chinese government. There is a theory I did find (in a Google search) in the first 35 minutes of this video that attempts to make the case that ACChain must have some kind of tie to these official entities. It's a deeper dive than I presented here into some more detailed information on ACChain (like this white paper) that could be used to support that point of view. I don't make any such claim here as I simply don't know.  

But I wanted to give readers this link so if you are interested you can see the information presented and decide for yourself. I do not know the presenter (David DuByne) in this video. I just listened to the information presented in Parts I and III in an effort to hear an alternative point of view. Some evidence he presented was that apparently there are some substantial amounts invested in ACChain already in the various tokens involved. David DuByne says large investments like that (200 million in the example he showed) are not possible without approval from the Chinese government. David DuByne appears to have experience doing business in China. 

He also suggests that ACChain might be something like an experimental trial balloon by the Chinese government using a private venture to see what kind of market reception this whole concept gets. I won't rule that out even as I again admit that I would have no way to prove it one way or the other. 

I will try to continue to monitor ACChain to see if it gains broad institutional support and promotion globally. If we see some big international banks get involved with it, that would get my attention and add some weight to this theory in my mind. Any official endorsement by China or the PBOC would of course be significant news.

In this video, David DuByne also suggests that this venture is going to eventually lead to a new global digital/blockchain currency issued by either the IMF or the BIS to replace the US dollar when the present monetary system collapses. As I stated above, I find no evidence at this time to support that, but I have no way to know what might happen if the present monetary system did collapse and various competing alternatives for a new system did arise. 

I watch for that all the time (signs pointing towards major monetary system change), but we won't know what would happen in that scenario until and unless it actually happens. I continue to believe that who the public blamed for any collapse of the present system would greatly impact who they trusted to administer a new one. I don't think any one could predict that for sure. I know I can't. Janet Yelllen first said she sees no prospect for such a crisis any time soon, and then she later walked that statement back a bit. So apparently, she can't predict what will happen either.