Learning from Failure: CryptoVest
As we move closer to launching Causevest, I believe it’s important to speak one of our earliest ventures CVFS.
Back in 2014, I attempted to found CryptoVest Financial Services, an ambitious project.
The vision was to create a liquidity provisioning fund for cryptocurrency markets. Today, many people would recognise the concept through decentralised finance (DeFi), liquidity pools and automated market makers. In 2014, however, these ideas were virtually unheard of.
Our goal was to provide liquidity to cryptocurrency brokers and exchanges while also creating an investment fund focused on digital assets. Looking back, the concept itself was sound. Unfortunately, timing, regulation and limited resources all worked against us.
Building Before the Industry Was Ready
Launching a cryptocurrency business in 2014 was very different from today.
Most people believed cryptocurrency was either a fad or an outright scam. Raising capital was incredibly difficult, financial infrastructure barely existed and there was almost no regulatory guidance for businesses operating in the space.
I invested my own savings into developing the project, only to eventually exhaust my available capital. To make matters worse, I also suffered losses through the exchange platform that hosted much of the project’s activity.
Like many early crypto entrepreneurs, I was building in an environment where the rules simply hadn’t been written yet.
Navigating Legal Uncertainty
Our original intention was to issue equity in CryptoVest Financial Services.
As we sought legal advice and reviewed the available regulations, it quickly became apparent that there was no clear framework governing what we were attempting to do.
To avoid creating confusion, we changed the terminology surrounding the investment. Rather than describing the offering as shares, we explored alternative structures such as royalty-based participation and investment notes.
Unfortunately, CryptoVest Financial Services failed to hit its funding target and was not operationally viable the project ultimately failed.
The Hard Lessons
Failure is never enjoyable, but it is often the best teacher.
The first lesson was that our next venture should never depend on external investment simply to survive.
Instead of relying on fundraising, it should be around building a functioning ecosystem that grows through its own adoption and participation.
The second lesson was the importance of legal clarity.
Operating in an emerging industry without established regulations creates uncertainty for founders and supporters alike. That experience reinforced the importance of ensuring every aspect of a future project is carefully structured, properly documented and transparent about its risks.
The third lesson was around privacy.
Being a founder with your personal information publicly available can be incredibly stressful, particularly when projects encounter difficulties. It also highlighted the importance of protecting the privacy and security of everyone involved in building a venture. I’m already Doxxed so i don’t matter as much.
Finally, I learned the importance of setting realistic expectations.
Early-stage ventures are inherently risky. Anyone participating should understand that they could lose everything. Causevest is a high risk venture your likely to loose it all 
but don’t let that stop you!
What we gained
Although CryptoVest Financial Services failed, three incredibly positive things came from the experience.
1. The model was validated
The underlying concept worked.
The challenge was never the idea itself. The challenge was having sufficient capital, infrastructure and regulatory certainty to bring it to life at that stage in the industry’s development.
2. I found an incredible team
Some of the people who supported CryptoVest remained alongside me long after the project ended.
Those relationships became the foundation for future ventures, collaborations and friendships that continue today. Even though they all lost their funds alongside me.
3. It changed my purpose
Perhaps the biggest outcome wasn’t financial at all.
Originally, my focus had been creating innovative financial products. After experiencing failure, I realised what mattered most to me was impact.
Looking Forward
To the special few people who supported CryptoVest Financial Services, thank you.
As a personal gesture of appreciation, and entirely at my discretion, I intend to offer eligible former participants an allocation of XCV coins from my own personal holdings within the separate Causevest ecosystem, where sufficient evidence of their historical participation can be provided.
Disclaimer-
This is entirely voluntary. It does not constitute compensation, repayment or recognition of any legal entitlement, and any allocation will be assessed based on the records and evidence available.
Causevest is a completely separate project and legal entity from CryptoVest Financial Services, but I believe it is important to recognise those who believed in an ambitious idea that helped shape me going forward.
MO
-please note we do not control the domain anymore