We were delighted that Scott Nelson, our CEO and founder, was available to talk to our community this past weekend as part of our continuous efforts to feed news and developments.Scott unveiled more of the Sweetbridge strategy and roadmap, revealing some changes to crowdsale strategy, and how the project is going to positively change the economy and community’s lives.Scott Nelson during the AMA in our London office.For those that missed it, here is a summary of the questions and answers.Question and Answer:Q: When can we expect the next whitepapers and the roadmap to be released?A: The next whitepaper will be the second white paper on BRC. It is going through final edits and revisions for graphics. It will be released in the next few weeks. This white paper describes the BRC protocol for transparency and compliance while maintaining privacy.A public-facing roadmap (which will be kept updated) is being released within the next week or so. There will be a lot of surprising things on that roadmap, including exchange services, the ability to hold fiat accounts, access via ATM machines and credit card networks and real-world assets such as receivables, as well as cryptocurrencies.Q: Does the concept of bypassing a member of the supply chain in the event of a non-payment or slow payment risk mess up the cap structure in the event of a default? P. 14 of the white paper seems likely simplified on purpose and I’m not an accounting expert, but don’t secured debt holders have a claim on that $100 over trade finance partners in the event of a default? If the grocery store defaults, does the protocol claw that payment back through the blockchain in order to settle whatever claims should be on the grocery store’s balance sheet?A: No, because it doesn’t actually bypass the defaulting party. It actually adjusts the accounting of the defaulting party as if they received the money and then forwarded it to their counterparty.The legal structure that enables elimination of counterparty risk does use the legal framework for clawbacks that was put in place in almost every country to support credit card networks.Q: The whitepaper outlines the use of a voting protocol: “When a change to a critical protocol is proposed, the community may veto the change by a vote that represents a majority of both accounts and Sweetcoin in circulation.” Could this voting protocol be made open for use in other applications like gauging community sentiment on proposed changes or curating community questions?A: I suppose so. We have a full whitepaper on governance that is under development. This whitepaper is actually very difficult to complete because we have to make sure the governance structure works within the legal frameworks of at least the G20 countries. Because we are dealing with real-world assets and regulated entities such as banks and mortgage, financial entities, brokers, it is critical that laws are obeyed.Q: I have a question about lending with my Sweetcoin as a collateral. Do I need to have employment for that loan to be accepted? Or is my overall economy enough to go through with it?A: There is no application process or approval process for loans. The only thing that has to be true is there has to be enough value in the asset. The asset has to be able to be locked in legal contracts on the blockchain to prevent double spending. Since this is true of Sweetcoin, a loan against Sweetcoin can be taken without employment or any other credit issue a party may have such as bankruptcies, bad credit rating, etc.Q: In a previous presentation you mentioned that you have already announced two of multiple tokens. Could you elaborate on these other tokens and their functions?A: Originally, I had thought we might need as many as 11 tokens in the system to address all of the needs in a full economic structure. We have been able to steadily reduce the number of tokens by using the Sweetbridge accounting protocol which eliminates the need for the tokenization of many things such as assets or liabilities. We currently have reduced the number to potentially four: BRC, Sweetcoin, a token to deal with the long-tail problem when the economic value of contributing something to an economy has a substantially diminishing return for the majority of the instances, for example legal contracts for assets by jurisdiction and asset class where real estate in London is super valuable, but cotton in Sudan isn’t, yet you are trying to get economic coverage for every asset class in every jurisdiction. The fourth token is a token for access or license. This is valuable for things such as intellectual property where you have access rights to intellectual property in exchange for some fee or royalty for its use.Q: Some members on here lately have been asking about Sweetbridge’s approach to listing SWC on other exchanges. Are there any updates on this?A: Yes, we are working with exchanges to not only list Sweetcoin, but also to be on ramps and off ramps for Bridgecoin. The use case for Sweetcoin is very different than any other tokens in the market today. It has real intrinsic value and it is unlikely to trade very much because its value to a user is in locking it in a wallet and not selling it to get access to the discounts it provides. This means to support an exchange without crazy volatility in prices, we either need to be at a point where the mining of Sweetcoin has begun or we have to have market making functions. This makes listing of Sweetcoin more challenging with high-end exchanges because they make money by volume. Bridgecoin produces the volume, so we are working with exchanges to make it a package deal.Q: I then have a follow up question on the actual value of my Sweetcoin when I use the as a collateral. Because if the crowdsale hasn’t reached its last step (3.99$ if I remember correct) then what is the value of my Sweetcoin as the lending service starts and the crowdsale goes on in parallel? Does my Sweetcoin evaluation go up in correlation with the stages in the crowdsale, so that my collateral gets more worth during my loaning period? I don’t really get this considering the lending and crowdsale will be active simultaneously.The collateral value of Sweetcoin, as with all other assets, is based on its market value. If market value goes up, its collateral value goes up. If market value goes down, its collateral value goes down.Q: When will Sweetbridge’s own exchanges start and when will Sweetcoin be listed?Sweetbridge has put in place all of the legal structures needed to launch our ability to do exchanges in all of the EEA this fall. This will be integrated into our wallet where you will be able to move money into and out of cryptocurrencies, including Sweetcoin, with a click of a button. That will be exciting.Yes, we are working with exchanges to not only list Sweetcoin, but also to be on ramps and off ramps for Bridgecoin.Sweetbridge will be supporting the ability for users to have almost every service they can receive from a bank today with the exception of investment advice and mortgage lending in the UK first. We hope to have this up and running before the end of the year, but it will be released incrementally and then expanded out through the rest of Europe.Q: Would you mind explaining what you mean by mining as that has various meanings … does this relate to being a financial entity?A: Sweetcoin is being released in a way similar to Ether. 20% of the coin is being sold in the initial crowdsale. The rest of the coin is released over time. This release is economically similar to how ETH and BTC are released through mining today. The difference is that the release algorithm is based on a proof of economic growth, not proof of work. This means that any entity that grows the revenue of the Sweetbridge economic system is rewarded by mining new Sweetcoin. Since Sweetcoin reduces the actual cost of future expenses for its owners, and the amount of cost reduction (discount) increases as the network grows, its value predictably increases based on this growth. This means entities can predict what their return on investment is likely to be when growing the network. This is substantially more powerful than ETH or BTC today where the value is based on sentiment, not core economics. This means ownership doesn’t have a predictable outcome, but Sweetcoin does. We believe this will drive initially millions of dollars in investment in growing the network from autonomous parties which should accelerate adoption and growth of the Sweetcoin network.Q: Why is the crowdsale moving so slowly do you think? Is this intentional or a problem for SweetbridgeThe crowdsale is moving slowly because we aren’t trying to hype it. We originally only took money from future customers. This was intentional as we were concerned that regulatory bodies would see money raised from investors or funds as an indication that we were selling a security. Our decision to launch outside the U.S. reduced this concern and we received feedback that validated this only recently. Therefore, Sweetbridge has not taken any funds from an investor or fund of any kind up to this point. Typically, a project will sell 80–90% of its tokens to investors or funds. We can now change our approach. We started meeting with funds three weeks ago and have substantial interest. In fact, the most common issue is that we are raising too little money which is a misunderstanding of our project which will raise billions if successful over time. The ability to acquire Sweetcoin by retail party will likely end in the next week or two. For legal reasons, we need our crowdsale to stay open until we ship our first product release. This has meant that we have not wanted to hype our crowdsale prematurely.Q: if I were to put my house as collateral in the value, but I have a mortgage on it, how would that work?The mortgage would have to be less than the collateral value of the house. In that case, it would work like a second mortgage or line of credit.Q: If the price on the Sweetbridge’s own exchange and the price currently going on in the crowdsale is different which price is my Sweetcoin assets valuation based upon?Sweetcoin won’t be sold on its own exchanges until the preset prices in the initial tranches have completed. The collateral value is the Sweetcoin tranche price during the crowdsale and the market price after the crowdsale. Since the intrinsic value of Sweetcoin is $.07 of discount per month, once the ability to use Sweetcoin in the network occurs, it is reasonable to assume that its price will go up.Take a look at the Medium article, “What is Sweetcoin Really Worth.”Q: As a result of bridgecoin being a virtual currency that can be used with today’s current systems, when it comes to implementing Sweetbridge tech through a supply chain, do all participants have to utilize at least one of the SB protocols in order for it to function or will SB members and non-members be able to conduct business regardless?In commercial and supply chain transactions, the use of Bridgecoin can be invisible. We are going to great lengths to make sure that today’s systems can invariably integrate with Sweetbridge’s network and protocols. We believe this is the killer adoption requirement. People are unlikely to stop using the existing mechanisms of today if all of the benefits and features are not available in the Sweetbridge network. And any change in behavior required by them is an impediment to adoption. We are trying to remove all of the barriers to adoption.Q: Scott, what do you mean by … “The ability to acquire Sweetcoin by retail party will likely end in the next week or two”?Once we start negotiating with funds for the purchase of Sweetcoin, they will want us to pull it from the market so that other people don’t get in front of them in the pricing. They will be concerned that while they are going through their due diligence and legal processes, the market will hear of their interest and traders will jump in front of them with a plan to acquire and simply turn Sweetcoin once listed on exchanges. To prevent this from happening, we will have to pause the ability for people to use our website to buy Sweetcoin while we negotiate with these funds. We believe it is likely that the funds will buy 100% of all of the remaining Sweetcoin. This means future customers will have to wait until it is traded on exchanges to acquire it.Q: Based on your roadmap outline now, will I be able to actively start using my Sweetcoin by Autumn/ Fall?It will depend on where you live and what you want to use your Sweetcoin for. If you live in the EEA, you will be able to use your Sweetcoin for personal activities. If you live outside the EEA, it depends on the country you live in, but you may be only able to use it inside a business and only if a business is above a jurisdiction’s required size. This is only a temporary issue as we are continuing to work on regulatory structures in North America and Asia. The place in North America that will likely to have an ability to use Sweetcoin first will be people who live in the state of Arizona.Sweetcoin is a loyalty program and we are accelerating the ability to use Sweetcoin for discounting the purchase of goods and services because that can be done in most of the world without requiring licensing. Because our initial examples in the whitepapers were restricted to liquidity of cryptocurrency (which was our proof of concept), many people have failed to realize that Sweetcoin is a general purpose loyalty token for discounting future expense on anything. We are beginning the work to recruit merchants, networks, and service providers to enable Sweetcoin to be used for everything from retailers to restaurants. This will be rolled out geographically. As to be valuable, you have to have a concentration of participants within a single location to reach critical mass and to provide benefit. The locations we are focusing on first are the City of London and the State of Arizona. These discounts will be accessible by using the Sweetbridge credit card or payment function within our wallet.Q: But does they mean that the crowdsale will end for good?A: So what people think of the crowdsale will end, but remember our proof of economic growth means new coins will be minted as economic growth in the network occurs. Sweetbridge is already in negotiations with organizations to adopt either our loyalty program or lending that could cause billions of dollars of activity to flow through our network. We do not talk about this publically (unlike other projects) because we do not want to mislead our audience until things are signed. Unlike the projects in the space which mostly talk to themselves or make announcements that are months or years away from happening, we are holding announcements until things have actually occurred. The scales at which we are trying to work are scales of magnitude in the space. Commerce dwarfs the financial markets. And here I will give you a hint: The bank vaults of the future will be logistics service providers — they lock up the commodities and inventory of the world. Think about it.Q: When you say new coins ‘minted’ you mean that some of the 100m of the already minted SWC will be strategically released?When we say “new coins minted,” we mean you mint BRC, you mine SWC. When we say mine, you don’t literally mine the way you do on the ETH and BTC networks. There are only 100M SWC that can be created and all of these SWC already exist. They exist because of tax problems with rewarding people in SWC by minting them because they would be valued at market value at the time the minting occurred. The network has already minted all of the coins, but they are released to the market through Sweetbridge LOUs (local operating units) which can be any entity that provides goods and services to the Sweetbridge network. This release, which is called a “drip release” in our whitepapers, is how we incentivize independent and autonomous enterprises to invest in growing the Sweetbridge revenue and network.Q; How do you see Sweetbridge evolving for the rest of 2018?Sweetbridge will be making a series of announcements through the balance of 2018 that, when taken together, will be substantial. These will correspond with the delivery of actual functioning products and services. In the balance of the year, depending on where you live, some people will be able to receive a Sweetbridge card, open a Sweetbridge bank account, pay monthly bills as simply as you can with your bank, use assets you already own to borrow money, open high-interest current accounts, finance invoices, finance commodities, use smart contracts to actually do your invoicing and finance inventory. You will be able to shop at in-network merchants or in-network services and use your Sweetcoin discounts to buy the goods and services you need every month (think Groupon meets mileage programs meets cash back). Projects in the space will be able to use Sweetcoin to fund their projects. Major corporations will be able to become miners of Sweetcoin. All of these things will begin somewhere in the world over the next few quarters. It is important to realize that not everyone will be able to use these services at the same time. And some of these servicers will be limited to proof of concept of customers vs. being available in general markets. The point is, things are about to get very real very quickly and the scale of Sweetbridge will be surprising.Q: How is the work with Mattereum going? Are we close to having real working digitisation of real life assets yet?Things are working great with Mattereum and another project which I can announce that we signed yesterday. It will be officially announced in a press release shortly. Combined, Mattereum and this TBA project will create a powerful incentive for the largest law firms on earth to create all of the legal frameworks needed to lock up real-world assets in the Sweetbridge network. This will be a double whammy. This should enable us to get the contracts written by the most respected law firms on earth and the dispute resolution mechanism to be handled by the most respected arbitrators on earth. This is no small thing. Watch for the announcement in the near future.Q: If I would like to buy more sweetcoin in the crowdsale and have already bought at earlier stages, where do I go? Members page?Yes. The process is much easier now. Go to http://www.sweetbridge.com/crowdsale. If you are already a member, you can purchase more (depending on your jurisdiction).Q: I remember you said Sweetbridge will likely launch the lending platform before BRC because the exchange will come later. How will the lending work then as in once you locked in your asset what will you receive?A: Mechanically, whenever you borrow, you receive BRC. But for BRC to be valuable, there has to be people who are willing to exchange BRC for the fiat currency that someone needs to pay bills, buy services, etc. The way this works is Sweetbridge is lining up parties to buy BRC, and in exchange, receive the interest received by the parties taking out the loan. This does not work like peer to peer lending or counterparty loans today. It works by creating a new asset class, BRC, which we hope to get rated by rating organizations such as Moody’s. This BRC enables insurance companies, pension funds, banks, and private individuals to buy BRC and place it in an interest bearing account. Think of a savings account. But instead of making less than 50 BPS on the deposit, you get something between 300–500 BPS. AND depending on the account type, you can withdraw the money and convert it to fiat whenever you want. This is how banks originally worked. The difference is the Sweetbridge network doesn’t need to use a dozen financial intermediaries, hundreds of lawyers, thousands of employees, in big expensive office towers to make this work. We can give the interest to the people who actually have excess money laying around.What we meant by launching the lending platform before BRC, is that the lending platform can be launched before BRC is available on exchanges, not before BRC is used within our network. The BRC protocol is a virtual protocol. It is a true protocol meaning it does not imply a specific technical stack. Its most important characteristic is that it sits on top of a full accounting system and is the transactional unit of value for every transaction in that system. This means that fiat values must be converted to BRC values and BRC values must be converted back to fiat values in every single transaction. The effect of this is like what happens with the U.S. dollar in global trade. It makes BRC extremely stable because it is both the unit of measure used in valuation and it has buyers and sellers buying it and selling it all the time every day. And this can reach levels of liquidity that are orders of magnitude larger than anything in the crypto markets today. Currency is a single-entry accounting system. By using BRC as the unit of value and the currency of contract, there is no pressure for it to be above or below its pegged price.Thank you, everyone, for your great questions. We have run a little over, but this was a great opportunity to connect with the community. Keep your questions coming and we will do our best to get them answered quickly.Scott: In closing, there is one last thing I would like to say. Sweetbridge is not interested in manipulating the market or people as a way of raising interest in the project. We want to deal with facts, real agreements, and functioning products and services that operate under government regulations because we are trying to do commerce. The largest corporations on earth are never going to start using crypto economic systems unless the governance, risk and compliance subcommittees of their boards of directors are comfortable with the market. To do this, we must work in partnership with government. We must address real legal concerns and we must avoid looking like the hucksters that are so pervasive in this space. Sweetbridge is interested in building real economic platforms at scales in the billions . . . and hopefully trillions. This can’t happen by being irresponsible. Thanks again.Sweetbridge AMA with Scott Nelson, CEO, Founder, Sweetbridge Inc. — July 28, 2018 was originally published in Sweetbridge on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.