Smartlands Platform Brings Host of Tangible Benefits to Tokenized Securities Market

Security tokens are the motherload of opportunity. We at Smartlands believe very strongly that every asset of value (real estate, private equity, debt, stocks, bonds, etc.) can be, and will be converted to digital ownership in the coming years. There are roughly $700 trillion of global assets that have the potential to be tokenized overtime to generate strong returns for investors on the Smartlands Platform.

Smartlands Platform is a brand new crowdfunding model for transforming multiple asset classes into a digital token. The token would represent a share of the value of an asset on the Stellar blockchain and become a tradable instrument on the secondary market.

In broad strokes, the model we’ve created comes with the number of benefits that boil down to reducing costs of raising capital, both institutional and individual access to high-yield investment projects, and global financial inclusion. Again, broad strokes, but we do want to bring your attention to the upcoming first Smarlands Platform STO and invite you to create an account to find out for yourselves how we can help you create a diverse high-yield investment portfolio for yourself.

Before delving deep into the pull of benefits Smartlands brings to the digitized securities table, let’s recap what we know about this brand new asset class today (chances are, it’s not a lot).

Over the past few months, the term “Security Token Offering” (STO) has been dominating the headlines pushing aside initial coin offerings. However, over the course of preparation for the first security offering on Smartlands, we’ve encountered several problems that stand in the way of widespread adoption of trading securities on the blockchain.

• Cryptocurrencies and ICOs have given the space a bad name. Anyone who trades securities online is required to put themselves and their customers through the so-called “know-your-customer” and “anti-money laundering” procedures. However, KYC/AML is by far not the only requirement for full regulatory compliance. Getting in the green with governments is a lengthy and expensive process, not many can afford it, and even fewer know what exactly is involved.

• Immutability is another issue that we had to take a closer look at. If a private key to a public blockchain is hacked or lost ‒ it’s all over. But larger investors will not want their shares controlled by a private key. They would much rather prefer some solid reissue features before the security token market can gain adoption.

Smartlands Platform is working tirelessly on managing these concerns for both issuers and investors by designing multi-layer mechanisms for all major asset classes to be represented as equity tokens issued and stored with Smartlands and then traded on secondary markets via the Stellar distributed ledger technology.

1. Smartlands is focusing on High-Yield investments only

Smartlands-preferred asset mix suited for tokenization on the Platform includes primarily private equity, commercial and residential real estate, agricultural assets, and logistics ‒ all high-yield assets and asset classes, provided the right approach to investment strategies.

Commercial Real Estate. In the first half of 2018, global CRE transaction volume increased 13 percent year over year (YOY) to $341 billion, so, it’s no wonder that the Smartlands research team finds a large proportion of global asset managers planning to increase their capital commitment to CRE in the coming years, with the United States, Germany, Canada, and especially the UK leading the way.

Industrial and Manufacturing Properties. Even though the global growth cycle is expected to remain moderate, the manufacturing sector of the global economy remains at an above-trend pace. The value of assets involved is being sustained by strong capex investment in developed markets whereas the majority of the emerging markets, excluding China, is still in the early- or mid-cycle stages of the business cycle, which presents a great “early bird” opportunity for purposeful investors.

Residential Real Estate. Global residential real estate markets have exceeded expectations as we enter 2019, with investment and corporate occupier activity set to surpass 2018 and finish the year at their highest levels since 2007. The demand remains robust; for the first time since the 2007 housing crash, both owner-occupied household formation and new renter households experience significant upturn. The global housing market is happy to oblige with renewed vigor and an increase in both new developments and secondary offerings.

Agriculture and “Green Growth” Agricultural assets have been in our sites from the very beginning of the Smartlands journey and we are going to continue to focus on tokenizing agricultural and agriculture-related assets in areas of the world that meet our requirements for sustainable growth (Central and South-East Asia, South-East Europe, Amazonia and Argentina, Western Canada, coastal regions of Australia).

Logistics. The continued strength of logistics real estate across the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe has been and remains one of the key focuses at Smartlands. With the increased need for last-mile delivery and e-commerce facilities, warehousing continues to be a major opportunity for creating value as tenants look for increasingly larger spaces, vacancy rates are tightening and rents are rising.

2. Unlike many of its peers, Smartlands utilizes the crowdfunding model that allows us to use both cryptocurrencies and fiat money for all operations on the Platform

To accommodate investors from all walks of life, we have long decided to create a mechanism for accepting different payment methods on the Smartlands Platform to crowdfund as many types of assets as possible for subsequent trading on secondary markets.

So far, we have managed to integrate XLM, BTC, ETH, and fiat-based payment gateways to attract new members to our community and instill confidence in investors. Adding BNB – one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world – to the Platform is in the works, which is a measure to entice those who are interested in certain STOs and would find it convenient to participate through the use of their chosen payment method. Find out more by creating an account on Smartlands and getting verified to stand fast for the upcoming first STO on the Platform.

NOTE: all fees on the Smartlands Platform are paid only with its native token – SLT. An investor operating on the Platform is obligated to have an SLT wallet and the required amount of SLTs to cover his or her operational costs. Please, refer to the Smartlands website for further details.

3. Smartlands utilizes one of the easiest and most efficient models of moving your assets onto secondary markets

By creating a secondary marketplace and using blockchain technology, Smartlands will make previously illiquid investments tradable, enabling you to offer your properties to investors on more favorable terms.

Knowing the current price for your investment at any point in time, once security token hits the secondary market, makes a notable difference compared to direct investments in real estate properties and private equity: being able to quickly exit your investment fully or partially without incurring significant losses is one one the most important benefits for investors in security tokens on the Smartlands Platform. Also, you may quickly and easily re-enter the market (re-invest in favorable assets) at any point if you observe positive price movement or in general feel like going long. Please, feel free to create an account in the system to get accredited for operating on the Smartlands Platform and get a closer look at the investment opportunities available to you.

4. Safety and security of investors and their funds is an absolute top priority for the Smartlands Platform

In 2019, it’s safe to assume that an issuer of digitized securities who is ambiguous about their regulatory framework is going to stick out like a sore thumb. Smartlands Platform is proud to declare that its regulatory framework comes from FCA – one of the most formidable regulatory bodies in the world governing over 56,000 financial services firms.

For over a year together with our compliance partners, we’ve been working on building an all-encompassing legal environment that would allow both issuers of securities and investors on the Smartlands Platform to feel safe to potentially hold billions worth of assets in the alternatives market (e.g. hedge funds, private equity, limited partnerships, non-listed REITs, business development companies (BDCs), and other crowdfunded assets).

5. Smartlands Platform is not just blockchain-based; our business model is tightly intertwined with the Stellar network, which in itself is a tremendous benefit for all involved

When fully integrated with Stellar’s distributed exchange, users of the Smartlands Platform are capable of trading securities peer-to-peer with settlement times between two to five seconds making it 100,000 times faster than a traditional stock exchange. Compared to Ethereum-based tokens, Stellar is cheap, simple, and instantly scalable, meaning, of the two projects simultaneously developed on Ethereum and Stellar, the latter would cost much less yielding better profits. The Stellar network is a highly beneficial and widely adopted financial services technology that brings tangible benefits to platform-specific blockchains.

6. Smartlands Platform is a team of seasoned professionals and reputable partners with over two hundred years of combined experience in real estate, financial markets, business management, international compliance mechanisms, fintech, and the blockchain technology

Smartlands is an exceedingly versatile international group of top-tier professionals led by CEO Arnoldas Nauseda. Working in concert, each individual take on things spliced together with the rest of the team’s vision creates a unique concept that our partners and investors are looking for. We have a proven track record in real estate, investment banking, venture capital, private equity, and fintech, which allows us to create further partnerships and alliances with firms and individuals who maintain a decisive lead in their fields.

We’re proud to collaborate on a huge range of vital for the Platform issues with companies like Colliers International, a global real estate management organization; the Blockchain Centre Vilnius, one а the greatest Northern-European blockchain think tanks; Thistle, our great compliance partner, is another name we are excited to call out when regulatory hurdles occur; the international giant CMS is out to keep things legal and lawful for Smartlands, our investors, and our issuers.

To keep your assets safe, we employ FCA-licensed custodian, top-tier audit and tax services providers. Our custodian is a towering structure in our organization tasked with controlling the movements of all assets and funds involved in various operations on the Smartlands Platform.