YouNow Sees Strong Revenue Growth After SEC Approves Token Distribution

In a disclosure expected to be published Wednesday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, blockchain-based live-streaming company YouNow reported revenues have grown steadily since the release of its props token in July.

The filing follows YouNow receiving approval from the SEC this summer to distribute its props token under a Regulation A+ qualification, one of the new categories of fundraising created by the JOBS Act of 2012.

The filing suggests that regulated token sales can be remunerative in the long term, with YouNow's revenues up 32 percent since the props token was added to the app in July.

Props is an ERC-20 token that lives on the ethereum blockchain.

Since props went live on YouNow, daily purchases of gifts went up from about $20,000 a day to about $30,000 a day, Sideman said.

There's no real market price for props yet because the tokens are not trading on exchanges.

First of all, it is a measure of status in the network, which means that a "Like" or comment from someone with a large number of props influences the application more than those from someone with fewer tokens.

In the future, YouNow expects to give large props holders discounts on bars and a higher revenue share for income earned through digital gifts.

Newly distributed props come from the "Protocol rewards engine," a smart contract on ethereum that allocates a daily emission of props to apps based on the amount of activity they generate.

Half of the total supply of props, 500 million tokens, have been set aside for growing the props ecosystem.