We can’t ignore the buzz going around about Atlantis Blue Digital Tokens [ABDT]. It seems that their bounty campaign is working well for them. We found the project to be quite impressive. It is a mining operation of rare gems called Larimar.

AMBCrypto’s reporting team conducted a phone interview with Gladys Henriquez, the Business Strategy Manager for Atlantis Blue. Below is the Q&A session.

Q. Tell us as briefly as possible, what is the Atlantis Blue Digital Token?

It is an asset-based token that will be exchangeable for one of the rarest gems in our planet, Larimar.

Q. We saw a retweet that led us to one of your subreddit posts. Amazingly it states that your ICO soft cap is zero. Could you explain that for our readers?

Yes, of course. As you know over 90% of the ICOs are a concept and nothing else. People must trust that these concepts will materialize in given time after the ICO is finished. It is, for this reason, these concept ICOs look for known faces to serve as advisors or another capacity, they must sell the trust, without it they will just fail to meet their soft cap.

We say that our soft cap is zero because we are not a concept. Our mine has been producing Larimar for decades. The purpose of our ICO is to implement some changes to optimize our operations, bring forth and adopt the Fair Trade Larimar campaign starting this coming August and to digitize the business. Let’s say we have raised nothing and collected zero funds, those changes would take longer to implement. Building the Atlantis Blue Exchange, the receivership warehouse, the artisan camp and further increasing production at the mine would not be completed this year, which is our goal.

Thankfully, we are doing very well, and since we began the ICO presale, Larimar has only gotten more popular around the world. We have clients from different regions that we did not have before. They discovered us because of the marketing efforts we put behind the ICO. Just today our administrative staff was in the process of closing a deal with a Jeweler in Indonesia, that was a market we did not have before, but now we will.

So you see, we are not a concept, we are a fully operational business that aims to get better.

Q. I don’t presume you were involved in the decision to choose Stellar, but do you know why it was chosen over Ethereum or NEO?

Yes. That was one of the first questions I asked myself when I landed this job. The group researched all options and were sold by the ideals of Stellar. “Finance with a mission, low-cost financial services to fight poverty…” and more. That message resonated with the mining community. These people are poor, underbanked and pay high fees to receive and make international payments.

Some of it had to do with the public information that exists about Stellar not having scalability issues in the future like other networks seem to be dealing with now. The experience, however, has left something to be desired.

Q. What do you mean? Is the technology not up to part? Do you wish you would have launched on another platform?

The Stellar technology is excellent for us. We are taking payments in cryptocurrency now. We know within two minutes of speaking to a potential client if he is serious about a purchase because he sends payment right away and we get it right away. That is great for us. The fees on the Stellar network are also very cheap, less than one cent. You can’t beat that anywhere.

To answer your last question, not long ago we had an internal discussion about whether we should stay on Stellar or become an ERC20 or NEP5 Token. Let me elaborate on this. As I mentioned to you earlier, when I first got here one of my questions was “why did the group choose Stellar?” We now know the answer to that. The other question I had was if anyone from Stellar had contacted the group to offer guidance, advice, help, etc. The answer to that was no. Till this date, no one has reached out to us in that capacity.

This project embodies most of the Stellar ideals.  That was the main reason for adopting their network, so one must wonder wouldn’t they want us to succeed and show the world that their ideals are more than just that, ideals, that they can become possible?

Also, there seems to be a group of insiders that want us to fail. Some Stellar wallets list us as an unverified asset, others don’t, but a few do. One of them has a sort of a popularity contest before they can list you as verified. You must be popular on Reddit and jump through some other social media hoops. Mind you these are not Stellar’s rule, just these people adding their personal checklist on their wallets.

But if Stellar is about inclusivity, why not have other options for projects that come from underdeveloped areas where internet is limited, and nobody knows what Twitter and Reddit are?

How inclusive is that to a poor community of miners, farmers, fishermen that want to adopt Stellar to join the world economy but now find out that they will be marginalized for being poor? Strange that Stellar says it wants to fight poverty but this is a poor way of doing it -pun intended- when they tolerate these projects adding these stupid rules on top of what they already have as a benchmark to become verified.

Maybe we are just an insignificant project for them. Perhaps they have gone the route of Ripple. They started as a network for everyone then it turned out to be a place for the connected and big companies and banks.

Q. That is a lot to take in. Why not just go over to another platform if you feel that you are not well received at Stellar?

Consistency and Open source. We need to remain consistent for the customers that have already invested in us. Can you imagine if you had to switch school or work every time someone did not like you or support you? It is unthinkable.

Life has challenges, and we must overcome them, it makes us stronger. We started out as this group of miners that didn’t know anything about Twitter, and Reddit and now within two weeks you will see a Stellar wallet and anchor created by us. That’s what life is about, when people shut a door, you get in through the window or the chimney but don’t give up.

Now we have a new focus. We would like, one day, to have a service that helps projects like ours, we want to reach out to them and encourage them and let them know that it is possible that is not just an idea, that it can be achieved.

I also mentioned open source because Stellar is an open source project and it is decentralized. Therefore, even though we feel certain Stellar insiders are trying to block us, they don’t control the technology, it is available to anyone. Andrei, our Director of Technical Infrastructure and Development and his team, are giving us all the support we need in that area.

To finish answering the question, we have been looking for a chance to say thank you to the Ethereum and NEO communities. Since day one our project has received much encouraging support from them, even with help offers to switch over.  Thank you both. Perhaps in the future, we launch the remaining tokens in one or both platforms.

Q. I know you are not supposed to tell, but is being listed in Binance in the near future for you guys?

No, at this point it makes no sense for us even to apply there. I don’t think we ever will.

Q. Why is that?

I have read what the CEO of Binance says they look for to accept a coin. They look for coins with a large user base, proven product and a well-known team. We can achieve creating a large user base, and our product is already established. However, most of our team members come from humble backgrounds, an impoverished community as we have mentioned, we will never win that popularity contest of having a famous team. Linkedin, Twitter, Reddit, up until a few weeks ago, was foreign to them.

It saddens me that it is this way.  Social validation is not a replacement for trust and verification. We are an open book. We invite you to come meet us, see our project, look at the documents. We will drive you to each ministry for you to verify them in person if you would like.

Most of the crypto community has forgotten how they got here in the first place, the mission, the aspirations and the belief that so many that were left behind could now be easily integrated into the new world where cryptocurrency rules finance.

Unfortunately, it has not happened this way. It is Wall Street all over again. A place for the few, the connected with deeper pockets or a large Twitter following.

Every time I see these crypto conferences I feel like going there, running on stage and screaming WAKE UP AND REMEMBER! Therefore, I am happy to be part of this project, because perhaps I would have stayed asleep myself. Now, however, it is personal for me.

Gladys, thank you for being an open book with us. You had some great insights and gave us a heartfelt perspective on your team’s trials and tribulations. I believe everyone will take a minute to reflect on your words and perhaps we will all be better for it.

To find out more about the Atlantis Blue Digital Tokens, click here!

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