RadioShack put millions of PCs into millions of homes back when the digital world was a confusing scrawl of green text, and helped bring computing to the mainstream. Now the defunct electronics retailer wants to do the same for cryptocurrencies.
Last month, the company announced it would launch RadioShack DeFi, a "decentralized finance" platform where users will be able to buy and sell the company's newly minted RADIO tokens.
Furthermore, the company claims that "RadioShack, and RadioShack alone, can bridge the gap and 'cross the chasm' of mainstream usage for cryptocurrency" by being the first "100-year-old brand" to launch its very own crypto exchange.
RadioShack is old, and so are the CEOs of bluechip companies, so they'll trust RadioShack and partner with the brand to launch their own cryptocurrency projects, goes the company's logic.
"The older generation simply doesn't trust the new-fangled ideas of the Bitcoin youth," especially not the "authoritarian, well-read, intelligent" chief executives the company seeks to woo.
RadioShack DeFi "will be the bridge between the CEO's who control the world's corporations and the new world of cryptocurrencies," said the company, asking us to "imagine if brands like Louis Vuitton, Starbucks, and Mercedes-Benz utilized the RadioShack protocol for their DeFi projects."
Last year, RadioShack merged with Retail Ecommerce Ventures, a would-be conglomerate owned by Messers Alex Mehr and controversial self-help guru Tai Lopez of "look at this Lamborghini in my garage" fame.
The firm owns many storied, albeit defunct, brands like
Pier1 Imports, Linens' N Things, and DressBarn. Said brands are mentioned as potential first partners in RadioShack's new protocol, who could act as early case studies to get other less defunct brands on board.
Mehr and Lopez also own Atlas USV, whose technology will undergird RadioShack's forthcoming decentralized exchange (DEX).
Further bolstering the project's decentralized credentials is that it will run under a liquidity pool model, in a similar vein to UniSwap. Under said model, a consistent ratio of tokens is kept in a "liquidity pool," which limits the influence of large buyers and sellers.
RadioShack will incentivize users to add other cryptocurrencies to the pool through discounts on USV (Universal Store of Value) tokens, allowing "USV's treasury to accumulate any crypto asset of its choice," according to the company.
Despite RadioShack's strategy being more thought-out, comparisons have been drawn to Kodak's (NYSE: KODK) ill-fated attempt to restore its relevance by way of cryptocurrencies back in 2018. Back then, the faltering photography supplier launched KodakCoin, a currency to power a rights management exchange for photographers.
KodakCoin has since been wound down.