VeChain Financial Executive Report Vol. 10

Transparency, Fairness, Openness

With the purpose of fostering transparent communication on our accomplishments on creating tangible economic value by blockchain technology, we hereby present the tenth VeChain Foundation Financial Executive Report, covering the period from Nov 2019 through to Jan 2020.

During this quarter, an updated VeChain Foundation Governance Charter was approved by the Steering Committee, which serves as a giant step further towards a decentralized public blockchain with the capacity to scale, and at the same time complying with regulators, governments and to meet the needs of large enterprises. Another milestone release, VeChain Whitepaper 2.0 went live to reveal detailed insights of VeChain’s strategies and benchmarks of our achievements. With the aim of maximizing the efficacy of blockchain technology, VeChain has successfully moved past this crucial first phase of blockchain technology adoption, and is primed for the next phase to achieve Business Consensus.

As always, we sincerely welcome the community to hold us to the commitment of transparency, including but not limited to the rigorous monitoring and usage of our funds, and the development process of all aspects within the VeChain Foundation.

The report structure is as follows:

1. VET Supply Overview

2. VeChain Foundation Expenditure (use of proceeds)

3. Notes

i) Enterprise Investor Pool

ii) Co-Founders, Development Team

iii) The Operation, Technological Research and Development

iv) Business Development

v) Compliance & Legal

vi) Ecosystem Development

1. VET Supply Overview

According to the final result of the all-stakeholders voting which ended successfully on 10AM December 30, 2019, the community made the decision to implement the block list related to the Foundation buyback wallet theft to be permanently introduced in VeChainThor Blockchain, and to permanently take 727,593,289 VET out of the total supply. As communicated recently, the Foundation buyback plan will still continue and more updates will be announced in due course.

As of Jan 31, 2020, the VET total supply on the VeChainThor blockchain decreased to 85,985,041,177, and the circulating amount is 64,423,896,728 which accounts for roughly 74.9% of the total supply. Within the VET circulating supply, 22,181,253,627 VETs were in the soft-lockups, which makes 25.8% of the total supply. By the end of this reporting period, around 49.1% of the VET total supply is free for trading in the open market.

Note:

* The soft-lockup categories are as follows:

• Authority Masternode collateral — each Authority Masternode keeps at least 25 million VETs
• X Nodes staking — each X node keeps a minimum amount of VETs based on four different tiers
• Economic Nodes staking — each economic node keeps a minimum amount of VETs based on three different tiers
• Team Lockup — According to the whitepaper, 5% of the total VET supply is allocated to co-founders and development team, and this pool is released quarterly over a two year period. As of Jan 31, 2020, over 3 billion VETs have been locked up by the team to show the commitment to VeChain’s long term success

2. VeChain Foundation Expenditure (use of proceeds)

We summarized below the USD value of the expenditure in fiat or BTC/ETH for the reporting period. For the spending in BTC or ETH, the USD value was booked based on the rate when the transaction occurred. In many situations our service providers and partners prefer to receive VET as direct payment or investment compared to using fiat or BTC/ETH. Therefore, the total expenditure for operation, technological and business development comprises a combination of direct VET payment and use of proceeds (fiat, BTC/ETH) depending on the associated parties’ preference.

3. Notes

i) Enterprise Investor Pool

In regards to reaching investment from enterprises, we have been keeping evaluating the offerings on hand and selecting institutional partners who could bring fundamental change, or value, to the long term development of the VeChain ecosystem. Around 18 million VETs were purchased from the enterprises, pouring in more resources into our investor pool. As always, the partners invested in this pool are subject to lock-up and looking at holding the VETs for long term purposes.

ii) Co-Founders, Development Team

In order to deliver better service as a cohesive and passionate team, we have been continuously optimizing the performance review management and incentive program to support the long term success of the project, which led to our decision to distribute 73 million VETs as the tenth quarterly rewards to the team as performance appraisal. During this reporting period, 3 full-time employees joined us in our development team.

iii) The Operation, Technological Research and Development

During this period, there have been notable improvements announced to the public, highlighting our great efforts in R&D in exchange for huge technological achievements, which is illustrated as follows:

• Several updates on VeChainThor mainnet code were released to improve the performance and compatibility of the blockchain platform, further enhancing our advantages on business applications.
• The new VeChain Sync enables Ledger users to use their Ledger in Sync to access their VETs and VIP180 tokens, and also interact with dApps and sign transactions.
• The VeChainThor Wallet v1.4.3 was released during this period. This updated version enables users to input custom URLs in the Discover tab, switch between mainnet and testnet, and reorder the asset list based on your preference.
• VeChain Official Explorer went live on December 19 at: https://explore.vechain.org. As the beta version of official explorer, it aims to provide stable and accurate information about blocks and accounts.

iv) Business Development

During this quarter, VeChain has made considerable progress in terms of partnership accumulation and industry experience. VeChain partnered with DNV GL and ASI Group to initiate Foodgates, the first blockchain-enabled cross-continental logistics and trades solution in the industry. Foodgates aims to provide a world premium, trusted blockchain-powered platform for international buyers and consumers of high-end food & beverage products, safeguarding product quality and safety.

Announced partnerships and collaborations (November, 2019 — January, 2019)

• ASI Group (November 7)
• Mengku Rongshi Tea (November 17)
• Anhui Tea Association (December 17)
• Cointelegraph Consulting (December 4)

Highlights from the business development and marketing events (November, 2019 -January, 2020)

• Sarah Nabaa, General Manager at VeChain SEA, attended the Street Superior 2019 to join the release of a limited edition of Copper Dog whisky designed by local artist Russel Ong, and all 100 bottles were made in total, each featuring a VeChain NFC chip. (November 2–3)
• Kevin Feng, COO at VeChain, was invited as keynote speaker to attend “Explore Blockchain + The Application 2019” held by Guosheng Research. He shared use cases of VeChain ToolChainTM in the themed speech “How to power real business with blockchain technology”. (November 5)
• Jason Rockwood, General Manager at VeChain Americas, attended the Gartner Supply Chain Summit to share insights on blockchain adoption in supply chain management. (November 5)
• VeChain attended The China International Import Expo 2019 (CIIE). Together with DNV GL, VeChain announced a tripartite collaboration with ASI Group to initiate the first cross-continental logistics and trades solution powered by VeChainThor public blockchain for the food & beverage industry named Foodgates. (November 7–8)
• VeChain won the Most Valuable Blockchain Application Award 2019 issued by CAICT to Food Traceability Platform done by Walmart China, PwC and VeChain. (November 8)
• VeChain attended The Capital 2019 held by CoinMarketCap from November 12 to 13 in Singapore. All 100 pieces of limited edition series of The Capital Artworks, powered by VeChain ToolChain™, were showcased and gifted to VIP speakers. (November 11)
• VeChain attended one of the largest FinTech exhibitions in the world, the Singapore FinTech Festival. Throughout the week, VeChain’s team had the opportunity to show enterprise-level use cases based on VeChainThor Blockchain with corporate and organizational delegates, other exhibitors, and around 45,000 other visitors. (November 11–15)
• Jason Rockwood, general manager at VeChain Americas, represented VeChain at the Sustainability and Digitalization Leaders conference in Miami, and attended the SDL Panel: Blockchain and Agribusiness. (November 13)
• Microsoft Azure-VeChain Enterprise Blockchain Showcase Event was held on 14 November in Singapore, carrying out presentations on blockchain applications in multiple sectors such as supply chain, logistics, automobile and sustainability. Sunny Lu, CEO at VeChain and Kevin Feng, COO at VeChain were invited to share use cases of VeChain ToolChainTM and experience in blockchain adoption. (November 14)
• Sunny Lu, CEO at VeChain, attended The Blockshow 2019 held in Singapore and stated that, in terms of monetization of blockchain technology, more valuable transactions and business applications on the blockchain will drive more value for tokens. (November 14)
• As part of the Innovation Safari Greater China initiated by AccentureDigital, Accenture and their key enterprise clients visited the VeChain office. A workshop for experience-sharing on blockchain adoption was held and the participants were engaged in discussion around possible collaboration opportunities in the future. (November 20)
• Sunny Lu, CEO at VeChain, attended The Next-Generation Entrepreneurs of Asia-Pacific Conference held by PwC China. He shared experience of blockchain adoption and several application cases built on VeChainThor Blockchain. (November 27)
• Sunny Lu, CEO at VeChain, together with Renato Grottola, VP of DNV GL , attended Distributed Minds in Milan and delivered a speech on blockchain as a digital enabler for sustainable infrastructure. (November 28 )
• VeChain announced partnership with Cointelegraph Consulting, a venture of the top cryptocurrency and blockchain news website Cointelegraph, to promote enterprise-level blockchain applications. (December 3)
• In CHAINSIGHTS Awards, Sunny Lu, CEO at VeChain, was honored as the Most Innovative Blockchain Industry Leader of 2019, and Vechain ToolChain™ was awarded The Most Innovative Blockchain Solution of 2019. (December 8)
• Kevin Feng, COO at VeChain, attended the workshop held by Accenture, together with Accenture’s Chairman in the DACH & Russia region, Frank Riemensperger and his leadership team. (December 10)
• Qian Chengcheng, CBO at VeChain, attended the 2nd LOCC Cross-border Transportation Safety and Risk Control Summit held by Lujiazui Institute of Marine Insurance. (December 11)
• Mr.Yu Jie, Regional Director of Digital Transformation at DNV GL, attended The LinkedIn Leaders Summit-Explore Smart Manufacturing held in Suzhou. (December 18)
• During the 3rd Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Forum of Tsinghua University, VeChain, together with DNV GL, The Belt and Road Initiative Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Industry Internet Research Institute, Tus Data Asset, and China Silk Road Group Limited, convened the The Belt and Road Initiative Blockchain Alliance, to connect resources for spurring the development of the BRI by leveraging the blockchain technology. (December 19)
• In the Industrial Blockchain Summit held by ZiNet and DW Park, VeChain was awarded The Exemplary Project for Industrial Blockchain Adoption. (December 20)
• Kevin Feng, COO at VeChain, attended the workshop held by European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, which took place in the chamber’s office in Shanghai. The workshop intends to explore the topic: Blockchain As “A Crucial Breakthrough” What Does That Mean And How Does It Work For Your Business In Practice? (January 7)
• In the 2019 FAT Blockchain Award, convened by the premium media Odaily, Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform was awarded The Best Use Case In Blockchain Industry. “QingTanHui”, the digital low carbon ecosystem initiated by VeChain and DNV GL, was awarded The Spotlight Charity Event In Blockchain Industry. (January 9)
• Kevin Feng, COO at VeChain, attended the inaugural Jiemian Thought-sharing Workshop, a monthly industry event co-convened by Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance and Jimian News. The event is supported by prominent media, including Cailianshe, Jiemian and ChainNews. (January 12)
• Sunny Lu, CEO at VeChain, attended the Deloitte Digital & Blockchain Labs held by Deloitte Ireland LLP, in Dublin, having discussions around how blockchain technology is evolving to create innovative business models. During the “Speed-Dating” Session, Sunny sat down with Antonio Senatore, CTO at Deloitte EMEA Blockchain Lab, to share insights with other exclusive guests. (January 16)
• Sunny Lu, CEO at VeChain, attended the 2020 European Blockchain Convention held on January 20 and January 21 in Barcelona, Spain. Starting with high-level insights on the blockchain industry, Sunny made a successful keynote speech to stress the vision of ‘blockchain for business’. The value of data decides the value of the blockchain and enables the stakeholders to establish a scalable ecosystem for seamless cooperation. (January 20–21)

v) Compliance & Legal

VeChain hires professional service providers in cybersecurity and legal to ensure products and solutions we offer are secure and compliant with regulations, which we believe is the prerequisite of mass adoption by global enterprises.

vi) Ecosystem Development

In order to provide better support for community developers and improve the quality of contributions incorporated participation, the Foundation team has adhered to the Foundation Grant Program and bounty program, which was being implemented with increasing closer communication with our community. The team continues to evaluate applications and keeps productive discussions with several applicants.