We the members of the Auroracoin Foundation have seen during the past 3-4 years that the crypto community in Iceland has not been ready to group behind Auroracoins flag as everyone in this space has their own ideas of what coin/tech is the best. To get more people involved in crypto in Iceland we thought that a broader community for all cryptocurrencies and blockchains might attract more people to the cause. We started to reach out to the people involved in blockchain/crypto here in Iceland and offered to change the Auroracoin foundation to the Icelandic Blockchain Foundation (IBF).
The challenge of making Auroracoin go mainstream in Iceland is in general the same as for all cryptocurrencies and blockchains. We need to get more people involved and get laws and regulatory issues out of the way before crypto/blockchain/auroracoin goes mainstream.
After the re-branding we have gathered together a very strong group of able people who are working hard to form this foundation in a proper manner. The IBF has 7 elected board members who are voted in annually. The board members meet every month and have hired a CEO of the foundation. The foundation is establishing committees for each field in this space like mining, education, pr/marketing, blockchain, trading etc. and has a separate committee just for Auroracoin.
Since the establishment of IBF the foundation has held bimonthly meetups for anyone interested. The last 2-3 meetups have had speakers talk about various crypto/blockchain topics and the turnout has been great ca. 100 new individuals have shown up to each meetup.
IBF was asked to give testimony before the Icelandic Parliament, Economic Affairs and Trade Committee, this summer and to give feedback on new legislation which adds cryptocurrency exchanges and operators of digital wallets under Icelandic laws on anti-money laundering. Our feedback was welcomed and well received. Note that the Icelandic cryptocurrency exchange
https://isx.is/ is now a regulated entity by the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority.
Our next goal is to influence further legislation and hopefully advice the government on crypto and blockchain technology. Other goals the IBF has set is to focus on educating individuals, companies and government agencies in Iceland on cryptocurrencies / blockchains.
Merchant adoption will follow when more and more people become involved and Im sure the biggest beneficiary of this will be Auroracoin, since it is traded on
https://isx.is/ and people here are familiar with it. Auroracoin will always be mentioned when we talk to people about crypto since it is such a big part of the crypto history in Iceland and hopefully we will get people to use it just as any other crypto or fiat currency.
To finance these operations the Auroracoin Foundation / IBF sold a big part of the M1 fund a few months back. The funds have been used for the re-branding, salaries for the CEO, meetups, office expense and events here in Iceland and will financially secure future operations of the foundation.
It is our hope that the work we are doing and the means we have chosen to use the funds will have the greatest impact for the greater good of crypto/blockchain and Auroracoin in Iceland.