Blog February 17, 2021

The Podcast with Sam Conner and more Q&A

We would like to follow-up on the live chat with Sam and give our audience more answers to the questions that were submitted but not featured in the broadcast due to time constraints.

#ICYMI rewatch my LIVE with @Smartlands and the @SmartlandsNet discussing their new project using @StellarOrg in #Ukraine plus much more #invest #realestate #blockchain #Smartlands #slt #XLM https://t.co/mJy23fhJ6o

— Sam Conner (@samconnerone) February 14, 2021

@Coppateez

Q: Can you please discuss the indecisiveness to stay/leave the stellar blockchain? How will you utilize the recent news of the Bank of Ukraine to build cbdc on stellar?

A: The decision to reprioritize development for the stellar-based platform and push-back the launch of cosmos-based Smartlands Chain was well thought with multiple parties involved. Among all the reasons, we can mention the three main ones:

Stellar protocol development evolved during the last year, and we see that in few years, we can achieve ultimate interoperability of digital securities on the Stellar Ledger, involving multiple securities exchanges, wallets, and de-fi vehicles;

Liquidity is coming to Stellar Network, USDC, EURB, and multiple CBDC projects. Liquidity is the key component required to unlock the value proposition of digital securities (asset-backed tokens);

The overall level of technology readiness of Smartlands battle-proven solution for Stellar Network.

We answered this question in detail during the AMA as well.

@Fergal

Q: Have you plans to expand to other European countries?

A: Yes absolutely. We will create a working operation in Ukraine first that brings direct benefit to both the asset owners and investors. Once this is up and running, it should be relatively easy to transfer the methodology to many different countries.

@mike1965

Q: Will the liquidity be affected when Agroxy is integrated to the smartlands platform? Will Farmers be informed about their option to buy goods with SLT? Will there be a benefit for them to buy with SLT?

A: While it will, of course, be possible for farmers to use SLT to settle transactions on Agroxy, the primary purpose of SLT is to pay fees to Smartlands for the use of the Smartlands ecosystem.

Q: Once Agroxy goes live do you hope this will lead to other similar partnerships/joint ventures?

A: Yes indeed. In fact, we are working with several promising candidates right now, and there is every chance that one or more of these could go live before Agroxy. We will announce details about such projects once they reach an MOU status. An MOU is, of course, non-binding by nature, but when a potential partner signs one, it means that they are starting to spend time and money clarifying how the Smartlands blockchain solution can add value to their business.

Q: Can you give any more information about the staking/holding of SLT?

A: Already announced separately. Please see the article.

Q: Where do you see smartlands at the end of 2021? A few more partnerships/ joint ventures maybe?

A: Yes. Many more partnerships and JVs.

Q: At the moment liquidity is poor for SLT. How can you make this better?

A: By bringing more projects on-line that create real world demand for the SLT token to pay operational fees to Smartlands. We are hard at work on this right now.

@Kramclo

Q: Can you expand on the development of your security token issuance project for the Eastern European market?

A: Please see our latest article on Ukraine and the fee pool.

Q: Discuss your new regional director’s role a bit more (Inna Storozhenko) – is she focusing efforts in Kyiv or the entire region?

A: Inna is very well connected in the Ukrainian business community and is focusing efforts on the whole country. Of course, Kyiv, being the capital city, is where the decision-makers are mainly to be found, so Kyiv will be Inna’s primary target area. I might add that Inna is working closely with Martin Birch and Alex Bart (partner of Empire State Capital Partners) both Alex and Martin have worked in investment banking in Ukraine for more than 12 years. Between the three of us, we have extensive contacts in Kyiv, L’viv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Dnipro being the main business centres of Ukraine.

Q: What other eastern European countries are crypto/blockchain friendly and will potentially take a step towards adoption and be featured in your STO build-out?

A: Ukraine is the most crypto-friendly right now, but we see substantial opportunities in Georgia and Kazakhstan.

@terioisv

Q: Do you have any plans to adopt Stellar-based stablecoins to secure liquidity? In particular, are you promoting cooperation with usdc/circle to utilize usdc?

A: USDC will be the key component of the refined Smartlands Platform on Stellar. Smartlands Platform will provide a convenient interface to purchase security tokens with USDC, trade against USDC on the secondary market, and automate the SLT/USDC market to secure liquidity for fees. Potentially we will provide a convenient interface to deposit USDC to the Smartlands Wallet if major exchanges won’t support direct withdrawal to the Stellar addresses to the time the Platform is up and running.

@Mike1965

Q: What are the incentives to buy and hold SLT?

A: It is the Smartlands ecosystem’s currency and is the only way that operational fees can be paid. All transactions over Smartlands will incur fees in SLT. Consequently, as our various JVs and businesses go live, there will be a massive increase in demand for the token. As the circulation is a little over five mln, this will result in the potential for substantial growth of the token price.

@Jason_Bern

Q: Whats the 2021 Goals for the Smartlands platform

A: To bring on-line multiple JVs and start operations of the on-line Smartlands secondary market for asset-backed ICOs. This will result in many ICOs on the Platform and will generate fees in SLT.

Q: What happened to Smartie the Dog after canceling the Smartie-Card?

A: Smartie the Dog happily lives with one of Smartlands team members.

Q: Is the Ukraine government-coin a business opportunity for Smartlands too?

A: Indirectly yes. The main benefit to Smartlands is that there will be legislation in place pertaining to digital assets in Ukraine. This will bring Smartlands into the mainstream as an investment opportunity. Please see our latest article on Ukraine and the fee pool for more background.

Q: Will the liquidity be affected when agroxy is integrated to the smartlands Platform?

A: Yes, as it will create a source of real native demand for the token.

Q: Will Farmers be informed about their option to buy goods with SLT?

A: Yes, of course, but the farmers will be able to use whatever currency suits them best, with the USD stablecoin on Stellar probably being the most obvious. At Smartlands, we don’t really care what currency is used as we’ll pick up fees for every transaction.

Q: Will there be a benefit for them to buy with SLT?

A: On the face of it – no. However, if a farmer has some SLT and wishes to purchase seeds or fertilizer, or other products, then, of course, they can use the SLT.

Q: Smartlands mentioned that the integration of the USDC and EURC on stellar will attract institutional money. Will the Smartlands platform profit from this?

A: We plan to profit from this, yes, as we will be able to issue ICOs in USDC and EURC if the demand is there. The whole infrastructure becomes more attractive to investors when the currency risk vis-a-vis an accepted currency such as the Euro or USD is removed for the investors.

Q: Was Jed McCaleb involved in the decision to stay on stellar? What made them stay?

A: The Smartlands Team was always looking only at the Protocol capabilities and roadmap to fulfill the long-term Smartlands vision. Over 2020, Stellar evolved to be able to support this vision fully, and the Stellar team assured the commitment to develop Stellar as a settlement layer for regulated assets, besides payment/remittance instruments.

Q: Will Smartlands keep working on adding exchanges?

A: Yes absolutely. We are in negotiations with several exchanges right now and will keep you informed as and when new exchanges come on-line.

Q: Can you give some details on the inflation/stake system?

A: Already done. Please see our latest article on Ukraine and the fee pool.

Q: When 320$?

A: That would give SLT a market cap of approximately $2.3bn. This is quite low compared to other coin issues that have real world utility.

@Actuarybong

[Alternative investment project]

Q: How far are you on the project? Can you share this project future schedule? As far as I know, This project finish and system launch in Q1. Is this true?

A: Alternative investment projects in Ukraine are a very ambitious bet to disrupt and redefine the investment landscape in Eastern Europe. To meet this vision and gain the first-mover advantage that the Smartlands team has already secured, it is working hard to ensure partnerships with multiple large financial institutions in Ukraine, including investment banks, brokerage firms, banks, payment providers, and exchanges.

The big picture and the details of the project roadmap were outlined in the latest article, and over time we will release more partnership announcements and development updates.

Q: When Smartlands team can start the future project that is mentioned in smartlands news in july 2020 like below In other word, when Integration bank system project is going to start? “Additionally, the future project involves the design of a decentralised solution from Smartlands Network, which would be integrated into the existing Financial Broker system as well as the entire network of partner banks and other financial companies.”

A: Over time, the Ukrainian project’s priorities evolved to where the real demand is, and the loan solution mentioned in July 2020 was postponed. We may revisit the loan solution later once the Alternative Investment Platform gains traction.

The loan solution is undoubtedly a part of Smartlands’ long-term vision, together with other, potentially even more interesting concepts, like AI-based portfolio management, De-Fi-like loans with collateralized invested assets, asset-backed cryptocurrencies/utility-tokens, etc.

[New exchange]

Q: Please, Give us some hint about Tier1 new exchange coming!