Porcupine Properties, LLC
- a New Hampshire limited-liability company;
- owned and controlled by its members;
- invests in real estate in New Hampshire.
PINE Token
- a Liquid Network crypto-asset;
- embodies ownership of Porcupine Properties;
- enables voting and income distribution.
Porcupine Properties is a New Hampshire limited-liability company owned by its members for the purposes of investing in real estate in New Hampshire and distributing rental income. Its members hold units of a crypto-asset called PINE, which serves as a digital proxy for their ownership interests in the company. Members convey interests in the company by transferring units of PINE between their respective crypto wallets. PINE is issued as a transfer-restricted asset on the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin sidechain.
Who is eligible?
Anyone with a United States taxpayer identification number (TIN/SSN/EIN) may own PINE tokens and associated limited-liability company interests. Porcupine Properties must collect this personally identifying information because legal ownership of a limited-liability company cannot be anonymous or pseudonymous. Members receive a Form 1065 Schedule K-1 annually, reporting their share of partnership income.
Because PINE is a security that is not presently registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Porcupine Properties is restricted to selling PINE tokens and associated interests to New Hampshire residents only. However, holders of PINE tokens may transfer them subsequently to anyone eligible, regardless of residency, after a period of six months has elapsed from the date of the initial sale by Porcupine Properties. This restriction is enforced automatically by the system, so members cannot run afoul of it.
Is this really Bitcoin?
PINE is issued as an asset on Blockstream's Asset Management Platform (AMP), which runs on the Liquid Network, the longest-running and most well-established Bitcoin sidechain. Bitcoins on the Liquid Network are backed one-to-one by bitcoins on the main chain using a cryptographically verifiable two-way peg. In contrast to so many altcoins, Liquid does not detract and distract from Bitcoin's mission but rather enhances and strengthens it. The Liquid Network supports the creation and issuance of new asset types like PINE to expand Bitcoin's use cases, while all transaction fees are still paid in bitcoin. Because Liquid is a sidechain, it avoids the congestion and high mining fees of the main chain.
How are dividends paid?
Dividends are paid to members monthly in proportion to how many PINE tokens they held throughout the month and how long they held those tokens. Members can specify what fractions of their dividends they wish to receive in BTC, USDt, and PINE. To provide for portfolio expansion and the capital expenses that accompany owning real estate, at least 10% of dividends must be reinvested in PINE. Porcupine Properties, LLC, holds all member funds in interest-bearing savings accounts at FDIC- or NCUA-insured institutions, or invests them in securities of the United States Treasury, until such time as the LLC has amassed enough funds to purchase real property and its members vote affirmatively to commit to such purchase.
How does voting work?
Per the LLC operating agreement, all capital expenditures (aside from routine operating expenses) must be approved by affirmative vote of no less than three-quarters of the membership interests. Votes are conducted on this website using the range voting method. Each question that is subjected to a vote is deemed decided once a sufficient fraction of the company's outstanding shares have indicated their approval of a requisite winning subset of the question's candidate answers and all of the remaining answers have garnered sufficient disapproval to exclude the possibility of their surpassing any of the winning answers.
Is this a Ponzi scheme?
Absolutely not. Funds to pay dividends come strictly from two sources: real-estate rental income and interest earned on cash reserves. Dividends are never paid out of the proceeds of token sales. Issuance of PINE is publicly auditable in the Blockstream Liquid Network ExplorerBlockstream Liquid Testnet Explorer, and current financial statements of Porcupine Properties are available to all members.
What wallets are supported?
Some options are Blockstream Green (recommended), Blockstream Jade (hardware wallet), and SideSwap. AMP exposes a public API, and Blockstream offers the Green Development Kit, so any wallet can freely add support.