Tierion SEC Settlement & Waiver

December 23, 2020

Today Tierion announced a settlement and waiver with the SEC in connection with the Company’s sale of an ERC-20 token between July 22, 2017 and July 28, 2017. This SEC settlement and waiver allows Tierion to complete the retirement of the TNT token and to move forward without a heavy regulatory burden. This announcement does not impact the availability of Tierion’s current products or open-source software.

Summary of the Settlement Terms

  • Tierion will pay a $250,000 civil fine

  • The TNT token will not be registered as a security

  • The TNT smart contract has been permanently paused

  • Tierion will administer a claims process to those who participated in the TNT token sale or currently hold TNT, as further specified in the SEC Settlement.

First Network Iteration

The original software that utilized the TNT token was first used in July 2017 and version 1.0 was released on September 15, 2017. This software went through several iterations over an 18 month period and was ultimately deprecated. This software is archived on Github at https://github.com/tnt-legacy

Second Network Iteration

On January 8, 2019, we began a new project to achieve the goals outlined in our 2019 Roadmap:

  1. Make Chainpoint Core simple to administer and affordable to run for multiple third-party operators

  2. Enable an efficient token economy that is maximally independent of a central authority

  3. Improve the reliability and performance of Chainpoint Nodes while maintaining low operating costs

In March 2019 we announced the launch of a new testnet. In July 2019, we tested the new software with a network size of approximately 6,000 nodes and 300 Cores, and it met or exceeded our engineering requirements. The launch of this project would have involved a token migration, which we would learn was frowned upon by US regulators. Due to regulatory uncertainty and concerns, the launch of the new software was delayed. Work on this project stalled as it became clearer that regulators would strongly object to a token migration. This software is archived on Github at https://github.com/chp-project.

Third Network Iteration

In February 2020, we launched a new network based entirely on Bitcoin. This new Chainpoint Network uses Lightning for micropayments and authentication. The creation of this new Chainpoint Network involved the development and launch of several new open source technologies.

  • LSATs — Lightning Service Authentication Tokens

  • Drand — a Distributed Randomness Beacon

  • BHN — Bitcoin Header Node

Developers can learn more about Chainpoint by visiting the Chainpoint GitHub.

What’s Next

Developers can continue to use Chainpoint in their applications. Once the process outlined in the settlement is complete, we’ll move forward with the next stage of deploying the Chainpoint Network. We’d like to thank everyone that has used Chainpoint and contributed to its development since it launched in 2015. Our team looks forward to completing the settlement so we can continue to develop innovative technologies on top of Bitcoin.

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