Where will Sweatcoin rollout next? Sweatcoin will be released throughout Europe over the remainder of 2018. Over the next few months we will see the Sweatcoin App in Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Finland, Denmark and the rest of the EU. Transparency is a major theme in successful, young businesses. Particularly when we're talking about companies that plan to employ blockchain technology. Sweatcoin Co-Founder Anton Derlyarka and Oleg Fomenko have embraced transparency as Sweatcoin grows. Below is an interview posted on Medium given by Anton.
Questions for the interview were crowdsourced through postings on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Users and Fans were asked to submit questions and through a series of videos and the article below, those questions have been answered. These include where next and an update on the move to blockchain.
AMA with Anton Derlyatka, Sweatcoin Co-Founder
As the world’s first digital currency backed by physical movement, the Sweatcoin team get a lot of questions — Who’s behind Sweatcoin? What’s your vision? When can I cash out? How did Sweatcoin come about? We recently celebrated our third birthday, and this seemed like as good a time as any to run an AMA with our Co-Founder Anton Derlyatka. We gave our users a chance to #AskAnton on our social channels and here’s what they asked…
#AskAnton How did you start Sweatcoin?
Anton: The starting point was the idea. It felt right — physical movement has economic value. So we just had to fine-tune it with that in mind, because the idea was so attractive that I couldn’t help but think it’d take over the world. Venture capitalists always ask us what our scalability potential is, and with something like this, it’s almost unlimited. So once you put something in place that has a lot of promise, you understand that the only thing standing between you and the final state of things is yourself. I mulled it over for a year, then shared it with Oleg and we decided to start a business together.
#AskAnton What was the biggest factor in you being able to start Sweatcoin?
Anton: I think it’s a combination of an idea, your understanding of the space, your skill set and your Co-Founder. It’s all a balance, you understand that some things are missing and some things you’ve got in abundance. It’s also about the right time in your life to start a business — you can’t start one if you’re perfectly happy with what you’re doing at the moment, there has to be a reason for you to want to change something. For me right now, there’s no way I can start another business! I’m so absorbed with what’s happening here, and I’m not in the frame of mind to do something else. You’ve got to be in a state of mind that’s conducive to starting over.
#AskAnton Tell us about your Co-Founder Oleg?
Anton: Oh man, he’s a pain in the neck. Impossible! :)))) But honestly, he’s an incredible guy — lots of experience. A great person. I know I can rely on him and trust him, and I just want to learn from him. We’ve known each other a long time, and one of the really cool things we did together is we went climbed Kilimanjaro, to the very top, and he led our team. We had a couple of really challenging situations there and it was incredible to see how people react to really tense and difficult situations. He’s great, not just professionally but personally too.
#AskAnton How does Sweatcoin make money?
Anton: Short-term we are making money off our partnerships with our brand partners and we are starting to establish partnerships with healthcare and insurance partners. Longer-term, we are committed to working with national and local governments in helping them achieve their goals of making their citizens/residents more physically active. Our big picture use case for Sweatcoin is paying at least some part of your income tax with Sweatcoins!
#AskAnton When will I be able to cash out Sweatcoin for real money?
Anton: The way to do it properly is to put Sweatcoin on a blockchain so it can be run by the community providing necessary levels of security and transparency. The team is working on this as we speak, I promise to update you guys on how we are going regularly, just continue to keep a lookout for updates across our various channels.
#AskAnton Would you sell Sweatcoin?
Anton: No. I want it to be what we want it to be, and if we sold I’m not sure that’d happen. We want to achieve the vision we’ve had from day one, so that’s the challenge. I don’t mean I want it to be my legacy — it’s not really a vanity thing. I would like to create a thing that has never existed before. I’d like it to be longer lasting because that means people needed it.