The Context 164: ❓ Do you remember Woz’s crypto token?

Steve “Woz” Wozniak, the famous founder of Apple and hero of the personal computing revolution, once involved himself with a cryptocurrency token.

Press releases at the time described the firm, Efforce, as one that was going “to transform and disrupt the energy efficiency market.”

It was going to do this by allowing people to register planned energy efficiency projects with Efforce, which would then allow tokenholders to “buy into the project” and receive energy credits representing the increase in efficiency.

The firm made sure to launch a token that cashed in on Woz’s name and used the ticker WOZX.

This token immediately surged in price, ending up with a peak value above $3. Now it trades for a fraction of a penny, approximately $0.0013.

The founder of Apple, a respected entrepreneur and leader, had launched a cryptocurrency project that lost more than 99.9% of its value.

Wozniak even went on Bloomberg to proclaim that “bitcoin is gold” and that he was hoping the token would be “representative of ongoing efficient companies that are profitable now.

He also said he hoped to have “another financing arm for companies.”

This sounds to me like a security, or at least a pseudo-security, which might be why Efforce feels the need to make clear that “Efforce tokens are not available for purchase by individuals or entities located in, incorporated in, or residents of the United States. Any offering, sale, or distribution of Efforce tokens is not intended for and shall not be made to US persons, as defined under applicable laws and regulations.”

It’s challenging to figure out the current status of this ambitious and presumably “profitable” firm.

Efforce’s X account posted its last update on July 28, where it claimed that its Vietnam Energy Efficiency Pool “delivered a 10.75% return over 11 months and 20 days!”

Unfortunately, the “Pools” page on the Efforce website provides effectively zero details on any of the pools.

Even stranger, in an earlier X post, it had linked to an “Energy efficiency: Vietnam” pool that claims its status was “Funding canceled” and it has raised $0 of the targeted $2.7m USDC.

Five other pools are visible on the page to me; all five have $0 raised.

Perhaps this is simply a byproduct of these projects being completed.

The company’s cryptocurrency address last sent a transaction approximately one and a half years ago.

Its escrow wallet last sent a transaction 239 days ago.

The GitHub for this project’s smart contract repository last received an update in June of 2024.

The last post in the announcement channel that isn’t a warning about phishing is from June and relates to that same pool that it posted about on X.

The LinkedIn for the firm doesn’t have any posts.

Woz’s last post about this firm was in 2021 and was celebrating a Huobi listing, not the most glorious honor he has received in his career.

Similarly, the last update on Medium for this project was in 2021.

This project seems to have almost completely failed, with unclear evidence that it ever achieved anything at all, leaving a permanent stain on Wozniak’s reputation.

— Bennett Tomlin