Sweetbridge Network Operators

Sweetbridge
Sweetbridge
Published in
4 min readNov 15, 2018

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The Sweetbridge Network is set up differently than any other blockchain or crypto-economic project today. It is designed to have the structure of a federation, or independently functioning allies, who join together for a common purpose or good. The structure is modeled after the Greek city-states. Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and others were autonomous and competed with one another, yet they coordinated on certain issues when it was in their best interests to do so. In this way, they formed a loose network that was stronger than any one city-state alone.

The Sweetbridge network is like the network formed by these city-states, where governance was concentrated locally for some things and also dispersed widely for others.

Sweetbridge is not a company. It’s a federated network.

Sweetbridge Inc is just one of many companies tasked with the growth and formation of the network and we envision many more joining. The companies that govern the network and determine its course are not just those that use the Sweetbridge protocols or participate in the Sweetbridge network. There is a structure to the Sweetbridge Network, a sort of networked organization, if you will. Sweetbridge Network Operators make up the governing body of the network and function for the good of their members. These Network Operators form the foundation on which the Sweetbridge Network can be built.

Sweetbridge Network Operators serve to bridge the gap between current decentralized systems and the real world. These entities will be fully independent and autonomous from one another but will share common access to the Sweetbridge protocols, branding, and intellectual property. They will also collectively govern the global Sweetbridge network and protocol stack. This, we believe after much research and design, is the most viable path to a decentralized network.

Sweetbridge Network Operators will sign up members under their jurisdiction and provide those members with network services, KYC/AML, and other government-mandated regulatory reporting processes, based on the jurisdictions where the Sweetbridge Network users are located. They also run servers, operate the Sweetbridge Protocols, and collect fees on network transactions.

Through this structure, Sweetbridge will tackle head-on a problem that has proven to be the Achilles’ heel for blockchain projects to date: integrating with existing legal frameworks to offer scalable and decentralized services in the real world.

To accomplish this, each Sweetbridge Network Operator must have or obtain all relevant licenses in the jurisdiction in which it operates. These licenses will allow for the entity to legally engage in the activities enabled by the Sweetbridge protocols including — but not limited to — money transmission, asset control and disposal, holding fiat accounts, and trading across certain types of asset classes.

Sweetbridge Network Operators will often be businesses that are adding their customer base to the Sweetbridge network and want to own (or private label) the customer interface for payments and transactions. It is likely that every large company that uses the Sweetbridge Network will become a Network Operator because they have the incentive to put all of their customers and suppliers on the Sweetbridge Network — sometimes including 4 or more layers with thousands of suppliers. They will want to do this because the act of growing the network increases the SWC that is released to them, their customers, and their suppliers. That being said, any entity (individual or corporate) can be a Sweetbridge Operator if they meet the requirements.

Importantly, becoming a Sweetbridge Operator does not mean an entity must abandon all former business operations and act only as an Operator. In fact, we believe most Network Operators will be existing businesses who see acting in this way as an additional revenue model that will allow them to create new value for themselves and their customers.

All Network Operators must apply for and obtain all relevant money transmission and banking licenses required within their jurisdiction to conduct financial activities. They must also perform sufficient Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer screening on their members with a degree of rigor that meets both local standards and the Sweetbridge collective global standards. They must also hold a stake in SWC, which will be based on its fully diluted NPV value and their revenue.

Several Network Operators already exist and we are working with several additional entities who hold existing governmental licenses. These legal entities work within the rules and regulations of each jurisdiction as ‘nodes’ of the Sweetbridge Network. We are currently seeking additional Network Operators to serve as nodes in this network.

We have set up the Sweetbridge Network this way because we believe decentralised power leads to better outcomes for everyone. This entails more than just allowing people to vote on a given action. Rather, decentralisation means that the choice to act is best made, seen, and felt by local decision-makers and stakeholders. Centralised equity-based structures extract value from their networks and create misalignment between the interest of shareholders and network participants. In addition, we believe a federated model improves over the kind of decentralisation that leaves individual users of a network more or less alone and powerless without any point of responsibility. We don’t believe in a single, centralized point of failure, but we also don’t believe that no one within a network should be able to take a portion of responsibility for essential operations.

This is why the founders of the Sweetbridge Network decided not to adopt a classic hierarchical structure which concentrates decision-making power in the hands of a few. Instead, the Sweetbridge Network is decentralized, but unlike many decentralized cryptoeconomic projects or networks, the founders designed a way to maintain points of responsibility that can meet real-world requirements through the Sweetbridge Network Operators. This structure allows the Sweetbridge network to scale and solve real-world problems in ways no other network can while still enabling power to be dispersed and local.

Entities must abide by the common AML/KYC framework and standards as laid out in the Sweetbridge charter

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Sweetbridge is a new economy powered by blockchain that aligns financial incentives of both companies and individuals to create outcomes and value for all.