Update June 16, 2022 – a “Make” coin is back, so we updated the post with more information.

Mark Hatch, former CEO of TechShop, 2007 to July 2016 (9 years), was introduced on “Gary’s Book Club” at CES today as “the guy behind the maker movement” and “board member of Maker Media, which publishes MAKE magazine.” This is the first time I’ve heard Mark is considered the guy behind the maker movement. I also did not see the news that Mark is on the board of Maker Media, it’s not publicly listed on MakerMedia or in the magazine that I could find. Maybe today was the board position & guy-behind-maker-movement announcement.

In the video Mark announced he is doing an ICO (an initial coin offering) for a Maker Token Platform and a Maker Blockchain (makerrevolution.com). Mark says specifically:

“we’re missing some key pieces on the education front, we’re missing some pieces on funding makerspaces, both at the local and larger level. So, I’ve decided with some partners of mine and Network Society Ventures and labs, I’m gonna do an ICO this year, an Internet Coin Offering, a tokenization. This area needs a token…”

On the site…

Maker Token Platform Features
…

Why a Maker Blockchain Platform Will Be Revolutionary

…

Certification will be recognized by makerspaces globally, and the public nature of the secure blockchain allows easy confirmation of skills. The currency token also provides an easy way to pay for related goods and services.

It was reported (here!) that TechShop has/had(?) $21 million worth of debt.

Mark’s “Maker Partners” has a few things cookin’ (domains registered).

makerpartners.com
makerpartners.org
makerrevolution.com
makerrevolution.org
makerspaceassoc.com
makerspaceassoc.org
makerspaceassociation.org
hatchventurepartners.com
hatchventurepartners.org
angelsfund.net
usmakerspaceassociation.com

Mark has a couple books The Maker Movement Manifesto & newly published The Maker Revolution, we’ll post up the reviews soon and will see if Mark will do an interview.

Related:
Statement on Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings – sec.gov.

Update 2/8/18

There’s a new-looking site makertoken.com along with a video and sign up.

Hello!
Thank you for giving us your email address to be the first to know about the progress of our development of the revolutionary new platform for the maker movement. We will follow up with new information about the project soon.
Our Sincere Appreciation!
The Maker Revolution Team

Update, looks like http://www.makertoken.com went away some time between May of 2019 and December of 2019.

Update, June 16, 2022 – It’s “back”

Update, June 16, 2022 – Limor and I had talked to the MAKE team back in 2018 and said before doing something like this, it would be a good idea to check with the community (publicly) since MAKE is a community of makers creating and sharing their projects together. This “coin” or any “coin” and the associations with it, or efforts like it, are not what most of us want or expect in the MAKE community and the makers will say it… and now 4 years laters (after the first MAKE coin failed), it looks like MAKE is going for it ” $MAKE Coin is our own branded currency” – make.co PDF of page in case it’s removed…

MAKE is getting “canceled” on Twitter, it’s painful to watch, MAKE will probably back off this effort, and then get smacked (on Twitter, again) for back pedaling. The timing of this coin is on the worst day(s) for crypto, ultimately $MAKE Coin is going to end up just like the previous “Maker Token”.

Ideally, MAKE would use their large platform(s) to do a community chat, live (YouTube/Twitter) and get feedback from the maker community, this may present new information to the MAKE team, or other things the MAKE team did not consider, and they could decide a MAKE coin/token does not make sense, the main problem with trying to solve this – on Twitter specifically, MAKE will be condemned forever, personal attacks on the teams are already part of the “discussion” – if the MAKE team and MAKE community cannot have respectful conversations about tough topics, progress will not happen, everyone will double-down, knives out and fracture the community. A MAKE coin is bad, what’s also bad? The “maker community” on Twitter destroying one another, addicted to the conflict, disputes, and suffering there. What example does MAKE (and the MAKE community) demonstrate right now on Twitter? Is there a way to respectfully convince MAKE to ditch this? On Twitter, it appears the answer is -no-

For the folks who need to hear it: We wrote about the “MAKE” coin back in 2018 as a warning, not an endorsement in any way – Adafruit does not do NFTs or endorse NFTs or participate in NFTs in ANY WAY, we have also declined selling or supporting Helium cryptocurrency mining, hardware, etc. and others – We do not hold or have ETH, we do not accept any forms of crypto currency as payments, we have removed previous informational posts, or builds, that featured bitcoin, or NFTs, etc. We also provide legal text to the community for folks who speak at events / media and want to make sure their likenesses are not used for NFTs as well.

If Adafruit can be helpful with navigating or coordinating a community chat, we’re here for MAKE as a resource / 3rd party, and for the Maker community – we’d like to see this “crisis” not go to waste and use it as an opportunity to demonstrate the maker community can come together, change our minds about things, or help others change their minds (MAKE would abandon this effort for example), and have respectful communities, even when we do not all agree on 100% of everything.

Update, July 6, 2022 – MAKE has posted an article called “We’re Gifting Not Grifting” – link & PDF. So – given that the post reflects a doubling-down of proceeding with this effort, I emailed Dale and some of the MAKE team and encouraged them to abandon this effort. I had previous emailed others on the MAKE team, I’ve included Dale and sent a link to this post.