Here’s what we’ve been up to lately..
Fiat gateway, where from, where to and more
Dear SunLovers,
The last couple of months since the launch of the SunContract Platform have been extremely busy for all of us. Not only did we have the platform go live in April, we also had many of our customers switch their energy providers to us — thus beginning their journey to self sufficiency by way of peer to peer trading of energy. Over the last couple of weeks, we have received a couple of testimonials regarding electricity cost reduction since adopting the SunContract Platform. We have also received a lot of feedback for the dev team to work with to make the platform even better.
Signing up on the platform
We have continued to onboard new Slovenian customers onto the platform since before the platform went live. Initially, the onboarding process was a bit slow but in recent weeks, the signing up process has become a lot faster, and we aim in coming months to make the entire process 100% digitised / paperless.
We have received numerous questions about switching energy providers and what it entails. Do you require any infrastructure or equipment for you to begin trading energy in a P2P fashion? The answer to this is — no. In Slovenia, the DSO (distribution system operator) will provide us with usage data from your meter. Because of this, there’s no need for any equipment to be installed at your home. The entire set up process is done online - whenever and wherever is convenient for you. Installations will only be involved if you wish to purchase solar panels or other energy products.
When fiat gateway?
At the moment, we are in the process of integrating the fiat gateway onto our platfrom. The fiat gateway will enable users on the platform to purchase electricity and other energy products using fiat — and with automatic SNC conversion of the fiat currency which at this time will only be euros.
The development stage of the gateway has been completed and is ready to go. However, as with anything in this industry, we are now tackling the legalities that come with fiat gateway integration. We want to ensure that everything is done in a way that makes it simpler for our users to purchase energy services on the platform by SNC tokens, while also abiding with the laws of each jurisdiction that we operate in. We plan to integrate the fiat gateway into the platform later this month - after which, we will begin marketing more aggressively to the Slovenian community.
It is important for our investors to understand that at this time, there are less than 1% of the Slovenian population who are invested in cryptocurrencies. We can therefore only cater to these individuals with our product, at this time. Soon, when the SEPA payments will be a part of our platform and each and every Slovenian can have access to the platform, then we will begin to more actively market with the objective of mass adoption.
This being said, we are still increasing brand awareness in Slovenia, and have had CEO — Gregor Novak attend interviews on national TV where he presents SunContract and our platform.
Expansion
Through conferences and networking events, we have been very fortunate to rub shoulders with attendees who have turned out to be very crucial for our expansion goals. We are currently in talks with a few of them, and our roadmap from June going forward is very closely tied to expansion into new countries.
It is important for our community to recognise that with an operational platform like ours, there are a lot of talks that need to be had with legal advisors, gatekeepers and energy partners for mass adoption in new countries to become feasible. We therefore ask for your patience as we tackle this objective — it is one that is very important to us as it is essentially the basis of our business model. As mentioned in the past, we are targeting countries within the European Union, Japan as well as the United States.
Where were we in May?
We have also been very active in the last few weeks when it comes to events. Our CEO — Gregor Novak was an active participant at the following events in May:
📍 Circular Change Conference
📍 Infrachain Summit in Luxembourg
📍 NTK2018 Microsoft Conference
📍 Power Up Competition (We finished 2nd place)
📍 Beyond 4.0 — Crystal Palace
📍 Planet TV interview of SunContract
📍 University of Ljubljana where he spoke with Mechanical Engineering Masters students
Some of the other events we participated in include the Bitcoin Pizza Day Slovenia, INNOtalks where Rok Gornik represented SunContract, among others. In our near future, our CFO Mojca Bajec will be presenting SunContract at the Intersolar Conference. CEO Gregor Novak will be a panelist at the same conference alongside European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union — Maroš Šefčovič and President of SolarPower Europe — Christian Westermeier.
We have more conferences planned for later this year — with more members of the team actively participating. We will update you about them as they approach. Keep an eye out on coinmarketcal as well where we will post them as we receive the confirmations.
What are working on now?
As mentioned above, expansion and adoption are at the core of our agenda. Here are a few things that we are also working on:
- Platform development — always ongoing
- Fiat gateway
- Website development
- Partnerships
- Conferences and networking
- Business development
- Exchanges — always ongoing
We have also partnered with some companies to bring more exposure to the SunContract token among investors. Collaborations with these companies will become much more evident in coming weeks. We are also working on new marketing material such as videos to explain how the platform works, the benefits of joining the platform, and lots more!
Booking to become a business client on the SunContract platform in 2019 has also officially began and we are in talks with some businesses that are interested in becoming clients on the platform. We will in the near future be signing contracts with a few of these businesses, but until then, we are bound by NDAs and can therefore not disclose anything more until the deals are confirmed. Collaboration with said Slovenian companies will begin in 2019 — January 1st.
This is it for now, SunLovers. Until next time! 👋
Not on the platform yet? Register today and join us in the quest for a globally Open Energy Market
SunContract is an energy trading platform that directly connects energy producers and consumers into an energy pool based on smart contracts. Blockchain technology takes over the role of the middle man as a trusted technology infrastructure. The blockchain technologies are implemented into existing energy distribution systems without changing the general energy regulation framework. We have already developed and launched our pilot project which is in use on a national level in Slovenia for a start. We are currently working on expansion, adoption and introducing a fiat gateway on the platform for users to purchase electricity directly on the platform without the need for a cryptocurrency exchange.
Media Enquiries:
Winfred K. Mandela
CMO — SunContract
winnie@suncontract.org
