The Sweetbridge team is taking its message of frictionless commerce and low-cost liquidity to Washington this week as it embarks on its first-ever official visit to the nation’s capital, headlined by meetings with the White House, Congress, the World Bank and others.

The visit will focus on building local awareness of our project through our inaugural Washington SweetMeet, while recruiting allies and partners from the ranks of Washington legislators, regulators and thought leaders.

A core mantra of the Sweetbridge economy is that the blockchain and cryptocurrencies — in order to fulfill their vast potential — must be deployed in a manner that is compatible with existing institutions and, therefore, must be presented in ways that are palatable to authorities.

What’s undeniable is that many of the items from the recent crypto news agenda, from bitcoin’s volatility to the Securities and Exchange Commission probing of initial coin offerings to Venezuela’s launch of a national digital currency expressly for sanctions avoidance purposes, haven’t exactly portrayed the industry in a positive light.

For these reasons and others, cryptocurrency advocates are still largely stuck in the same place as 2013, when early advocates began working the halls of Congress and agencies with the goal of educating authorities about just what the heck a bitcoin was.

In that spirit, our team will be meeting with officials from the White House and aides from key congressional committees on both the House and Senate sides to discuss our unique value proposition and the manner in which we are seeking to harness the benefits of these technologies through an AML/KYC compliant ecosystem and responsible token economics.

We’ll also be meeting with representatives from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Inter-American Development Bank and an array of high-level Washington think tanks and advocacy organizations to discuss how our protocols can be used to facilitate financial inclusion in the developing world, economic growth through frictionless commerce and ethical supply chain across the globe.

The Washington also push coincides with the third annual DC Blockchain Summit, hosted by the Chamber of Digital Commerce. Founded in 2014, the nascent group has emerged as a leading voice of the collective blockchain industry and one of the fastest growing trade associations in D.C.