Phishing Alert, Swarm in Asia, AMAs with Leadership
Welcome to your Swarm Newsletter for March 21st, 2019
PHISHING ALERT: Facebook pages lure people into entering their credentials for access to a fake Swarm Invest platform
Swarm has found two Facebook pages offering giveaways to lure people into entering personal information for access to fake Swarm platform. As a reminder to our community: Swarm will never ask you to provide personal information via phone or email. If it happens to you, know it’s a scam and please notify us immediately via swarm@swarm.fund, in Telegram, or via the Intercom Support box on the Invest platform. Securing your Swarm account — and the funds in it — is a top priority for Swarm, and it should be yours as well. Read Security Tips for your Swarm Account to learn what you can do to keep the bad guys at bay.
Swarm announces partnerships to unlock tokenization opportunities across APAC with BlackBox Labs and Standard & Consensus (SNC)
BlackBox Labs is an advisory firm that helps investors, enterprises, and governments in Southeast Asia to compliantly issue and trade tokenized securities. The firm will employ Swarm’s technology and infrastructure to lower barriers, empowering people to capitalize on the multi-billion dollar opportunity that digital securities present in the S.E.A. region.
Read the blog: BlackBox Labs and Swarm Partner to Unlock Multi-Billion Dollar Tokenization Opportunity in Southeast Asia
Standard & Consensus (SNC) is one of the most experienced Security Token Offering (STO) agencies in China, and have partnered with Swarm to expand their full service STO offerings while giving Swarm a formidable partner in Asia. There is a great appetite for digital securities across APAC, and Swarm is excited to see the fruit of these relationship come to bear.
Swarm conducts the next round of Masternode payouts
On March 3rd , Swarm paid out a total of 191,780.8219 SWM in block rewards for the month of February to 237 Swarm Masternode operators, as part of the incentive program it launched in August of last year. These rewards are paid out monthly. Offering full transparency to current and future masternode holders, Swarm has created a website to publish the masternode rewards to date. This website is updated every hour. Interested in running a Swarm Masternode? Check out the Swarm Masternodes website for details on how to register.
SWARM UP CLOSE
New Blog: Reflections, Learning, and the Next Phase: Building the New Digital Economy
In this blog Swarm’s Sam Stone reflects on the evolution Swarm has gone through since the platform went live in January 2018. He describes how, in little over a year, Swarm has transformed from merely an issuance platform to a technology-agnostic infrastructure builder. And how Swarm has transcended its own blockchain, able to support any tech stack and even non-blockchain applications. Sam also touches on the three pillars Swarm’s vision is built on — Tokenization, Compliance and Governance — and the tech Swarm is building to enable people to own and manage assets collectively with others they have never met, in a framework that is legal and regulatory compliant.
Meet Chris Eberle as he talks innovation at That Crypto Hustle
That Crypto Hustle — a Cryptocurrency & Blockchain News Group for beginners, enthusiasts and pro traders– invited Swarm’s Chief Operating Officer Chris Eberle for a podcast discussion on “Pushing for innovation in a highly regulated STO Blockchain environment”. Moderated by Luna Vega, this informative podcast covers a wide range of topics. Chris talks about how he got involved in the blockchain, Swarm’s role in the blockchain, and his advice for those who want to get involved. Chris: “Innovation happens when you find areas to collaborate with other people who are trying to achieve the same goals.” He shares how this applies to Swarm and how in turn Swarm enables others to be innovative.
Philipp Pieper at Crypto Asset Conference 2019 in Frankfurt
Swarm CEO Philipp Pieper was on stage at the Crypto Asset Conference, which was held on February 25 and 26 in Frankfurt, Germany. The second day of the blockchain and finance conference was focused on finance, crypto assets and investing. Philipp gave an update on the latest developments at Swarm and how Digital Securities will impact the financial trading landscape.
Legal Nodes, a decentralized local network of legal experts, hosted an event March 13 in Berlin titled How to Conduct a Securities Token Offering Legally. There, Philipp was joined by fellow expert panelists Lele Canfora of Bitwala, Nele Wollert of Fractal, and Henning Franken of Bitbond to answer questions and demystify STOs for an enthusiastic audience. Check out 10 Key Takeaways from the event and a video recap.
Timo Lehes answers community questions in a Telegram AMA
On February 7 Swarm’s Chief Investment Officer Timo Lehes hosted an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session in Telegram. He fielded a wide range of questions. Someone asked Timo to elaborate on Swarm’s growth strategies to get to/past this critical mass for network effects. He responded in detail. “Great question with many aspects. Removing barriers to entry — economically, legally, regulatory and technically — are key aspects.
1. On the economics, free security token issuance is our approach to remove barriers.
2. Providing services to select issuers that have a viable asset, thereby supporting the creation of quality supply in the security token market as “proof”, is the second.
3. Not trying to do everything ourselves, but beyond core service, work with partners as much as possible.
4. Team up with the most important ST marketplaces/exchanges in key jurisdictions.
5. Make all software open source so that there is no fear of vendor lock-in. And so on, this is a never-ending question, right?
Read the full Telegram AMA exchange with CIO Timo Lehes
Philipp Pieper at the Ashurst Security Token event in Frankfurt
On February 15, Swarm CEO Philipp Pieper presented to an audience of bankers, institutional investors, lawyers and companies at the Ashurst Security Token event in Frankfurt, Germany. Amongst the speakers were representatives of the BaFin (the German financial regulator), and Prof. Philipp Sandner for the Frankfurt School of Finance. Philipp spoke about the journey of building Swarm and how the financial markets can benefit from platforms such as the Market Access Protocol.
More information on Market Access Protocol
Meet the Swarm Product Team as they answer community questions in a Telegram AMA
Swarm’s product experts — Alex Lieders, Sam Stone and Chris Eberle — engaged in an open conversation with Swarm community members in a Telegram AMA (Ask Me Anything) on February 19. The team answered questions that ranged from “What will be the process to make it easier for an issuer to complete an STO by themselves?” to “What is the biggest challenge the team faces at the moment?”
There was some confusion regarding Swarm’s now outdated whitepaper. In states that Swarm planned to raise an additional $24M by the Summer of 2018. Because this did not happen, someone asked how the project was impacted. Chris was able to clarify “…we’ve found a way to make this work without a large raise. A bunch of us come from small startups so managing a tight burn is what we do. We’ve prioritized product and legal. Being hamstrung on marketing has been tough. Not being able to throw money at exchange listings certainly bums people out. But honestly, it’s all made for a better path in the end. We’ve focused on building and now find ourselves getting traction. The rest will follow.”
Read the full Telegram AMA exchange with the Product Team
Meet Swarm CEO Philipp Pieper as he answers community questions in a Telegram AMA
Another Telegram AMA (Ask me Anything) took place on March 4, when Swarm’s CEO Philipp Pieper invited the Swarm community to share their comments and questions directly with him. The community — veterans and newcomers alike — responded with great enthusiasm and asked a ton of questions. Among other things people were wondering about Swarm’s biggest milestones for 2019 and if they can expect to see SWM listed on bigger exchanges. Philipp replied “The biggest milestone is probably the release of the open platform and Market Access Protocol. Especially as it solves some of the existing deficiencies in the market both for primary issuance and secondary trading”. He also talked about the impact of Swarm being blockchain agnostic, and the plans to bring the SRC20 issuance tools and token standard to other large blockchains.
Read the full Telegram AMA exchange with CEO Philipp Pieper
STAFF PICKS
Spotted by Philipp Pieper: Regulation: A View from Inside the Machine
Swarm CEO Philipp Pieper was awe-struck when he read a speech of U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Hester Peirce, which she held on February 8 at University of Missouri School of Law. In her speech Hester claims that “when the tokens are not being sold as investment contracts, however, they are not securities at all. Tokens sold for use in a functioning network, rather than as investment contracts, fall outside the definition of securities.” Philipp responds “That’s huge!”. While this is nothing more than an indication, it’s another manifestation that the SEC is evolving their sophistication in understanding the nuances of the blockchain application and developing a differentiated view on tokens, their function and their utility.
Questions? Contact us at swarm@swarm.fund, in Telegram 24/7, or via the Intercom Support box on the Invest platform.
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