Founder’s Message: Why we built AmmoCrypt

“Now I have seen everything”, we would tell ourselves this with increasing frequency. Having founded our ammunition manufacturing company over a decade earlier and having weathered a several business cycles in that timeframe.

Then one day in late 2021, we received a call that even we were not prepared for. A man on the other end of the phone was offering us a “great deal” on a highly sought after type of ammunition that he had in stock and could ship immediately…he even sent a photo as proof.

However, there was a problem……the ammunition he was offering was not in his possession. How did we know? Because the ammunition on that exact photo was stacked on a pallet in our warehouse. We had taken that very photo days prior except now it had been photoshopped to add the seller’s logo. The photo found its way to several middlemen, each of whom added their fee. By the time it was offered back to us, the price had increased by over 50%.

This was the birth of AmmoCrypt. At the time, crypto was booming and there were many projects of questionable quality….it was hard to separate the marketing gimmicks from concepts that represented a true use case. We knew the central theme of AmmoCrypt would be supply chain integrity; meaning that anyone using basic publicly available tools could see the origin of the tokens (and therefore the physical assets they represent). We studied a lot of very dry, theoretical papers, researched the pros and cons of various public blockchains, and shortly thereafter developed the first beta token within AmmoCrypt.

This beta served as proof of concept and validated the overall viability of the project from a technical standpoint, there were some holes. First, to scale the ecosystem, we would need to bring in additional manufacturers and, more importantly, we needed to create a model that was flexible enough to comply with extensive regulatory compliance; not only in the arms control area but also in the rapidly evolving crypto space.

After a LOT, of additional work, and almost giving up a few times, we had an inspirational breakthrough that led to our current dual consumptive token model consisting of the “YEET” and “Kaliber” tokens. This approach allowed us a way to allow decentralized token creation and issuance; where manufacturers are free to monetize nearly any type of sporting ammunition inside our ecosystem, they simply have to deliver the underlying physical product and have enough YEET tokens to complete the process.

This left us with our most important challenge of all, regulatory compliance. Far from an afterthought, we had to plan compliance into the ecosystem from the very foundation. At the time we were finalizing development of the underlying AmmoCrypt ecosystem, there were several important crypto related legal cases ongoing with the potential to set precedent. The landmark SEC v. Ripple ruling was largely favorable for AmmoCrypt.

In addition to financial compliance, AmmoCrypt must consider laws and regulations associated with sale and transfer of arms and ammunition. In so doing, we developed a unique user verification technology that leverages financial industry “know your customer” and identity verification, with firearms licensing and permitting to offer a comprehensive solution that never existed until now. Within AmmoCrypt, only verified users can take physical delivery of ammunition in the Physical Reserves. Initially, consumer-level redemptions are available in most US States. Due to export licensing and shipping restrictions, redemptions to non-US destinations are available only for wholesale-level quantities. As we grow, we will work hard to expand our overseas distribution network through partnerships and enhanced distribution infrastructure.

The AmmoCrypt you see today is the result of nearly 2 years of work on our part to bring meaningful, positive, and needed change to an industry that we love. We are committed fully to developing AmmoCrypt into the leading global ammunition marketplace.

By reading this, we already consider you part of our community and look forward to growing together.

Sincerely,