FAQ ARK AMA - SunContract/wiki GitHub Wiki

1. I guess I'll start - how much do you aim to raise? Did you follow Bancor from yesterday, how do you prepare for such flood?

Our minimum goal is to raise 10.000 ETH. We would be happy if we raise 40.000 ETH because then we will have enough to attack global market with marketing. Maximum cap is 100.000 ETH. If we raise so much then we will plan also some mergers and aquistions

2. So As I understood the electrical distribution grid from europe and US is separated, that means on US ground and EU ground there will be separate groups who produce and consume the electrical pool of suncontract?

Exactly. Though bear in mind we want to transform energy production into locally production. Local production would mean decentralization of the system, we wont have single point of failure, less pollution comes with renewables etc.

3. Since you seem to be coming from Slovenia (looking at your team members and doing some research), will you start there?

Yes, we will start in Slovenia, where we know the jurisdiction in detail. later on our focus is EU.

4. I am a consumer, I have joined in your pool and I have bought energy from producers also in your pool. How will the actual physical connection from my traditional electrical grid to the grid of the provider will take place?

Firstly, the pool will need to be present in your jurdistiction. You will then be able to join the pool. The actual physical connection will be the same as it is today. We will utilise the existing grid and with time, aim to improve it.

5. so your system is focussing on regions? not peer to peer transfer of energy from someone living in spain to someone living in russia?

We have to be compliant with local energy legislation, that why P2P energy trading will be within the pool within the region. Region is defined as state or part of the state, where the same legal rules are applied. For example Slovenia, Austria are regions, but in Germany there are 4 regions.

6. Are you also going to go in regions where solar energy is a problem (3rd world countries) and what about the US?

We will have to be sure that legislation is liberal. But yes, why not. There is a lot of energy demand in those countries.

7. What is the difference between suncontract and solarcoin?

Both try to push the solar energy market and use blockchain as a tool to connect generators and consumers through a peer to peer method.

SolarCoin is rewards program for solar electricity generation, but we develop a P2P trading platform for renewables and other energy needed. Just for ease of reference - Suncontract is not the same as Solarcoin. They are two completely separate projects. Suncontract's token is SNC and not SLR (Solarcoin).

8. What problems do you anticipate in practical world? Connecting consumers and satisfying goverments (so proper taxes are paid etc).

For sure established structures will try to obstruct our idea. We have in our team really experienced guys from energy sector that are well prepared for all obstacles that can occur

9. Do you expect private people producing solar energy will massively increase in the future? Because I dont know really much people actually use it in Germany and its hype is like 10 years ago. Will Solarcoin work, if not much people are eager to invest into solar equipment?

We focus a lot of private producers, small power plants, which can be also called prosumers as well.

10. Is it correct to assume that cross border (national) sale of individually generated solar power even in Europe through the UCTE would not be possible/allowed by national grid owner/operators? And so Suncontract energy can only be traded within a national grid?

In Europe we have interconnected transmission grid under ENTSO-e operations. But sending energy cross border is job of TSOs and big retailers, you need special permissions which are traded among TSOs auction trading. We are focused to the local production and consumption within the region, where we can bring added value.

11. How will I be able to buy Energy by Solarcoin, will there be a website? What different offers can I use on that trading platform? Or is it just buying energy and thats it? Will I buy a big energy package that hodls for a month or a year? On what preferences will I chose an energy producer on the platform? Or is it even important who delivers my energy, since it will have all the same price and attitude(solar energy)?

You will buy your energy through SunContract Pool platform. Our first product on the platform is focusing on trading electricity, bur later on we have some other ideas like demand response services.

12. will solarcontract be metering production for purchase with solarcontract?

We have DSO meters to meter everything

13. I'm liking this project even more now, see a big potential

Minimum cap is 10k eth. We believe we will meet or exceed this goal. 40,000ETH is our personal goal that we want to achieve. even if we do not reach 100,000 ETH which is maximum cap we would still be very happy with 40,000 ETH

14. How will I be able to buy Energy by Solarcoin, will there be a website? What different offers can I use on that trading platform? Or is it just buying energy and thats it? Will I buy a big energy package that hodls for a month or a year? On what preferences will I chose an energy producer on the platform? Or is it even important who delivers my energy, since it will have all the same price and attitude(solar energy)?

With SNCs that you have, you can in theory have funds for a lifetime energy supply. the clearing and settlements will be similar as it is today, just the intervals will shorten. so by holding SNCs you could buy energy gradually. The incentive to join the pool is not just financial. Though financial benefit is crucial in energy market.

15. Are you going to have smart contract in place? Will it be audited before deployed?

Yes and yes. Smartcontract is under development and will be ready very soon. Then we will send it to audition before it will be deployed. It will be audited by proffesional. Also all code will be audited, not only smart contracts!

16. Do you have any other funds or backing besides the ICO?

We have other funds, SONCE company already put some into it.

17. How long will it take for suncontract to offer its intentioned value to the people? When will it be of real use?

We plan to launch our platform in Q1 2018

18. Why should I skip to SolarCoin instead of just using renewable energies through my energy provider? Will the energy that I get out of Suncontract be cheaper then what I get of energy companies?

Because we will use blockchain technology that will significally lower fees through optimization. Right now we are using Ethereum blockchain for that purposes. Throughout the development of the platform we will try to find most optimal solution because we do not want to overtransfer Ethereum blocks because there will be a lot of transactions when platform becomes mainstream

19. Are you in the talks with any of the exchanges to be listed on when you deploy your tokens? What will price incrase of your tokens mean to smart contract in place?

we are in talks with certain renowned exchanges. we have reajusted the cap fro 200.000 ETH to 100.000 ETH due to the rapid increase of the ETH value. Just to add to the above - we are one of the few, if not the only, ICO to reduce the maximum cap in the ICO sale to reflect the increased price of the crypto being accepted for contribution doing the ICO, and this was done purely in the name of fairness and transparency during the ICO*. We are developing a mechanism to cope with this issue. We are aware of this problem and are tackling it. We have several ideas on how to eliminate the effect of price fluctuation regarding SNC token and market price of electricity. this is what we can share with you at the moment due to the competitors that are copying our ideas and models.

20. Who is your biggest competitor right now (or upcoming)?

We know some are prepairing to launch an ICO (we do not know when) but that is what we know so far.

21. Are you going to be opening a non-profit in Swiss like most of recent blockchain projects or are going to be opening something in Slovenia?

Our legal team is looking in several European jurisdictions that would be suitable. For now the main company being used in the project is established and registered in Slovenia, with other potential jurisdictions such as Estonia being researched and worked upon.

22. Can producing electricity be compared to 'mining', where you give electricity & receive tokens? I know this is not P'n'D token, since if price gets pumped, electricity consumers would need to pay big money for some electricity, which means they will disconnect from service and find cheaper provider. How can holders gain from this token?

In order to reach out to the average, non-crypto Joe, we must separate the volatile crypto market and the energy market. We have several ideas on how to do that, one of them being similar to the 'mining' "marketplace". Just to be clear, number of SNC will be finite and probably will be deflationary.

23. If someone runs out of tokens for electricity, does the relay shut downs? How do you kick non-payers from network? Or would that be job of electricity pool/grid provider?

There won't be any non-payers as the ability to participate in the pool will be prepaid.

24. How much is one SNC as in WattHours or other Work unit?

The value of the SNC token is not based on units of energy

25. What are the references of you and your team members? On what projects did you work before?

My experiences are coming from IT and Energy sector. I was in the team who established Market Operator Borzen in 2001 and worked there also as CIO for several years. Borzen was that time also Regional Power Exchange, now BSP South Pool. I worked also in TSO, Slovenian Transmission System Operator for 3 years as ICT director. After that I established SONCE Group, EPC and IPP companies for solar power plants and energy efficiency projects. Our team is coming from energy and IT sector as well, from energy analytics expert from London Business School, legal and ex CEO of BSP South Pool power exchange. We have in our advisory boar Jonathan, BitMalta and legal expert on concurrency.

26. how will tokens be distributed I hope not crazy like some latest ICO like 90% for team ? Is the ICO open to everyone? Or are there requirements and minimum buy in

officially it is 80% for participants and 20% for the team. We allocated 4% of team tokens for everyone that would participate with more than 500 ETH. so efectivelly if first 40,000ETH that we receive are transactions with more than 500 ETH, then we will allocate to those additional 0.05% of all distribution. effectivelly team will have only 16% of supply or you will become part of the team. To add to this - the 20% distribution for the team will be staggered i.e. it won't happen all at once. Yes ICO is opened for everybody. the 10.000 SNC per 1 ETH is just an exchange rate if you will. there is no minimum buy in. Except US Citizens*

27. You lack the infrastructure to deliver what you want to deliver, there's no chance in hell you'd be allowed to do anything like that, e.g. in Italy, the government owns all the infrastructure you need to rent it, and I doubt you could for p2p energy on a blockchain. how do they actually deliver the energy to your home? wifi?

If they offer cheaper and competitive price, why not? We are using local infrastructure like everybody else. In liberalised energy markets I don't see why Suncontract would be impeded from operating. It's been stated before. It will be just another "provider"; rather, it will be a pool of providers so more powerful if anything

28. Are you aware of legislation? Because there's no chance in hell you can do that neither in Poland or Italy, you can sell energy to the local energy providers but you can't p2p energy lol

This is a good question and it will be the most tough think to do. We have a big amount of funds reserved for this questions. But we see the bright light also in this issue. That's why we have two stage service provided. Our solution of P2P trading is going to be within the SunContract pool participants, so that's why it is possible. For Italian legislation I personally do not now details now, but it will be done during the project for sure. Because we know that Italian markets is also liberalized and there is more retailers present, we see also possibility for the SunContract. Details will be studied.

29. So investor have a profit only if market say that price will be higher than it was at ICO, or are there some more positive things about investing?

More customers on the platform will mean more trading volume, therefore more preasure on SNC price. Also we will introduce mechanism that will put deflationary forces on token. like as the usage and supply of energy increases on the suncontract network, and SNC is the only way to pay for it, the value of the SNC will continue to increase as long as its usage expands faster than the increase in SNC supply.

30. deflationairy energy tokens? Isnt that dangerous for a coin circulation? Because everybody is only holding xD Thats my first thought now...

This is a general argument brought against deflationary currencies. The fact remains that the need for expenditure will at some point outweigh the need to "hold" the currency. If for example I need a carton of milk today, I won't wait a week to buy it - I'll go and buy it there and then regardless of the fact that it will cost less in a week's time.

31. My final question: How would you - shortly & in easy words - sum-up the advantages of Suncontract to magazines and non-crypto people?

SunContract is a new business model, supported by blockchain technology, which takes over the role of the "middleman". The current retailer's margin will be significantly lowered which is beneficial both to producers and consumers. When the Bitcoin and blockchain were invented, they were directly "attacking" the middleman in finance. We are doing exactly that, "attacking" the middleman in the multi-trillion-dollar energy sector.