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DeFi Brewer’s Alliance members outside of Black Hog Brewing Co in Oxford.
Reflections IPA is the brewery alliance’s first beer.
Before the ongoing crypto slump, it was great to invest in the digital currency.
Last year, the cryptocurrency market experienced a renaissance as interest in digital currency soared high. Bitcoin hit $1 trillion in market value last year while Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk pumped up the popularity of “meme coins” such as Dogecoin. Adding dimension to the crypto market, NFT’s (non fungible tokens) became a popular medium for customers to invest in digital pieces of art or data using cryptocurrency.
Amid the spike, a group of Connecticut crypto investors and beer enthusiasts came up with an idea to merge the local beer community with cryptocurrency. That idea became the DeFi Brewer’s Alliance, a new group of local brewers that aim to revolutionize the cryptocurrency market with their own crypto token: the DBAT token.
“We came up with the idea last October when of few of us who home brew and also invest in digital currencies wanted to do something different and create our own token tied to a physical product,” said Alex Zamachaj, one of the co-founders of the DeFi Brewer’s Alliance. “We saw that a majority of the digital coins and tokens didn’t have something tangible and concrete for people to see where their money was going and we wanted to change that.”
To understand how the brewer’s alliance works, it is important to understand what a DeFi is. According to the New York Times, DeFi is a short term for decentralized finance. It is a “internet-native financial system” that acts like a sort of bank or stock exchange for cryptocurrency. It also operates in other ways such as being a lending platform for cryptocurrency and offering options and derivatives.
Zamachaj likens the DBAT token to a “stock.” Breweries and their customers will invest through purchasing a DBAT token, and in turn, grow their crypto wallet. The token will be tied to “DeFi project-oriented brews” that are brewed by local breweries in the alliance. Currently, there is one beer being brewed specifically for DeFi: the reflections IPA. Additionally, on a monthly basis, the alliance plans to have partners exchange unique recipes with one another.
Oxford’s Black Hog Brewing Company is currently partnered with DeFi but the alliance said it is looking at expanding to one or two more Connecticut breweries as well as “small to mid-size breweries across the country.”
According to the company, 45 percent of sales from the beers go back into buying back and “burn” the DBAT token, in turn increasing its value. An additional 5 percent from sales will go to charity. There are 6,153,420,000,000 tokens available in total, which symbolizes the amount of beer brewed globally, in ounces, in 2020.
Pre-sales will be limited for DBAT tokens, and will be released at a future date.
In recent months, the cryptocurrency has faced significant setbacks at the market has begun to take a tumble. Bitcoin, which hit an all-time high of $68,789.63 in November, has fallen roughly 70 percent. Other cryptocurrencies have also suffered a similar fate.
Despite this, the team at DeFi is confident that their model is still lucrative while providing minimal risk for investors.
“We believe that with our model of taking 45 percent of our profit from beer sales and putting it into the token, we can create a stronger base for investors to rely on and minimize risk. Our beer has been really well received thus far and with increased volume we will see increased profits and be able to put more money back into the token,” said Zamachaj. “We don’t think the market will stay down forever, but we do think its near its bottom, and now is the time to build our base for our token and beer and when the market recovers, we will be ready for it.”
As for the future of the alliance, the goal is to have 24 breweries in 24 states taking part in the alliance by the end of its first year. At the end of their third year, the alliance hopes to have a brick-and-mortar taproom open for solely Alliance beers.
“They complement each other because both digital currencies and beer know no boundaries, they are truly global products that have the capability of reaching and attracting people world wide,” said Zamachaj.
A QR code for more information on the DeFi Brewer’s Alliance.
Andrew DaRosa works for the digital team at Hearst Connecticut Media, both producing online content as well as maintaining homepages.
Andrew is an award-winning journalist and holds a degree in digital journalism from Fairfield University.
When he’s not writing, he is spending time with his dogs or going to see live music.
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