Meet twins Steve and Sam Williams whose cryptocurrency Populous (PPT) turned them into multi-millionaires. How did the brothers beat the odds and swap poverty for wealth?
Against All Odds
Their story begins in a small three-bedroom apartment in South London. Living with a sister and parents, the flat was so cramped Sam often slept on the sofa.
They grew up in Brockley, a neighbourhood that regularly makes headlines due to its high crime rate, and exam passes at their school were below national standards.
Still, the twins had higher aspirations and studied advanced business and computer programming.
But to make it in this violent and poor area, that wasn’t enough.
Steve Williams recently spoke with the British daily Evening Standard and the Metro newspaper, describing obstacles him and Sam faced growing up.
“It was very difficult in terms of gang violence,” Steve explained. “You had no choice: you either got bullied or you pretended to be part of one of the gangs to safeguard yourself.”
In this environment, their path was not paved for success.
Steve reportedly served 18 months of a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence in 2008 after he was convicted of obtaining money by deception. He was guilty of fraud – dishonestly receiving funds.
“It was a major wake-up call and I had plenty of time to think about what I was going to do with my life.”
“I made a big mistake and I paid for it. I knew I had to turn my life around and work hard to achieve a good life for me and my family.”
I also want to give back by helping youths on the streets and those involved in street crime and I hope to inspire and create positive opportunities for them.”
Steve was not going to let a second chance to make something out of his life pass. Together with his brother, he cooked up Populous (PPT) in their mother’s kitchen. It took them four years to develop the blockchain code their cryptocurrency is based on.
PPT: Leading Cryptocurrency and Invoice Trading Platform
Populous (PPT) is currently the 58th most valuable cryptocurrency in the world.
At the time of writing, it has a market cap of approximately $62 million and a current price of $1.17 USD. If this sparked your interest, you can trade it on exchanges such as Binance and Yobit.
PPT focuses on the niche market of invoice financing – popular among small-to medium-sized companies to generate short-term capital.
Steve and Sam created a global P2P (peer-to-peer) invoice trading platform. It stands out from competitors as it eliminates the need to employ an external credit reference agency (these agencies report credit-related information about individuals).
Populous combines smart contracts with the Altman Z-score formula, a tool to determine the bankruptcy risk of a business. They also use XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) to communicate about financial data.
This mix provides three predictive measures: the probability that a business will go into bankruptcy within two years, whether or not a business will default and a control measure for financial distress.
Crypto Rags to Riches
The success of Populous took the twins by surprise: 24 hours after they put it on the market back in June 2017, they gained assets worth £1.85 million in Ethereum.
“We have gone through a lot together as brothers and it is great that all our hard work has paid off,” Steve said.
Sam now lives in Knightsbridge, an affluent area in London, while Steve can send his six-year-old to a private school. They rubbed shoulders with celebrities, like 50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather.
Their story shows once again how your life can be turned around by the democratising power of cryptocurrency.
For more crypto success tales, check out our interview with Rupert Hackett, a business school drop-out turned crypto millionaire. Equally inspiring is Marlene Liontis’s story – she lost her house but is now a Australian property market revolutionary with her real estate cryptocurrency.
