New whitepaper explains how the BRC protocol strikes a balance between protecting user privacy and satisfying governmental requirements for transparencyDespite the cryptocurrency hype of the past 18 months, actual usage of these technologies outside of the realms of peer-to-peer transfers and crypto markets remains quite low.One of the key reasons behind this is the emphasis that early-stage cryptocurrencies have placed on anonymity. While this is desirable when one’s objective is wealth preservation, anonymity simply isn’t compatible with real-world commerce.For risk mitigation purposes, commercial entities require varying degrees of transparency into the counterparties with whom they interact. To have access to legal recourse, for example, there must be a way to verify and confirm the identity of a party.Forth Rail Bridge in South Queensbury (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)Governments and law enforcement authorities must also have confidence that the actors employing these payment networks are doing so for legitimate purposes. This demand necessitates the implementation of Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering rules and other licensing requirements, regimes that many in the crypto community have explicitly sought to circumvent.Sweetbridge’s new Transparent Yet Private Digital Currency whitepaper describes how our BRC Protocol sets out to address these problems.The paper describes a model for implementing, governing, regulating, and accounting for hybrid crypto-virtual currencies that are asset- backed and designed for use in global commercial activity. The protocol specifies technical, organizational, and economic mechanisms used to issue such electronic currencies for a multitude of use cases and jurisdictions.A unique combination of technology and cryptoeconomics make the currencies issued under the BRC protocol an improvement over both the traditional fiat currencies and the recently popularized cryptocurrencies. The BRC protocol extends the thinking in other stable currency designs to include regulatory reporting, AML, accounting and legal enforcement.The BRC protocol is designed to serve the needs of regulators and those entities for which regulatory compliance is essential. It does this using advanced cryptography that protects the privacy of entities from anyone who does not have a right to access the information. At the same time, it provides means of storing and transferring economic value that is compliant with contemporary governmental requirements. These concern the performance of underlying technology, economic behavior, data privacy and transparency, reliability, recourse, and regulatory concerns.The hybrid on-chain/off-chain technology that implements the BRC protocol provides an unprecedented ‘best-of-both-worlds’ capability for any currency based on the BRC protocol, striking a balance between important features that often stand in opposition to one another. While adopting the useful aspects of cryptocurrencies, BRC prioritizes important aspects of traditional money and payment systems, which are critical for broad adoption in commerce and acceptance by governments.Read the full whitepaper here.About SweetbridgeSweetbridge is a new economy built for commerce that enhances the world’s current economies. Sweetbridge and its alliance partners offer a unique set of blockchain protocols, applications and crypto-economics to create an economy of opportunity for all participants. The goal of Sweetbridge is to transform brittle, industrial-era commerce through decentralized industry ecosystems that create a faster, fairer value exchange, unleash working capital, better utilize resources, and optimize talent for the benefit of all participants. For more information, follow Sweetbridge on Twitter at @sweetbridgeinc or visit https://sweetbridge.com.BRC Whitepaper: Transparent Yet Private Digital Currency was originally published in Sweetbridge on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.