CryptoVest launched its first edition coins in September 2013, after a design contest was
run on the Bitcointalk.org forum. The winning design was submitted by user ‘Zinodaur’,
which became the namesake of the edition. CryptoVest itself is not solely a ‘crypto-mint’,
but instead a sort of ‘investment club’ run from the UK. These coins were not created as a
profit seeking venture, but as a form of advertising for the investment club and for cryptocurrencies
in general.
The coins received a very positive reception, and were distributed widely. Like Casascius,
SerpCoin, and Microsoul, it is clear that CryptoVest were created out of enthusiasm and with
a hobbyist approach, though the number of minted coins being 4,000, it was no small hobby.
As an added promotion, CryptoVest also had chocolate versions of the coins made, which
were given out. Upon production of the chocolate coins, the owner of CryptoVest commented:
“I live in a college town, so I was thinking of going to a computer science building on campus
and handing them out to a bunch of students. Meanwhile, introducing them to Litecoins and
Bitcoins. Maybe this will introduce a couple new developers (or users) into the community,
that wouldn’t have otherwise learned about Bitcoin/Litecoin.”1
A higher quality version of the coins with precision minting and high-security holograms
was promised, but that expansion has been abandoned.