SCIC is the French acronym for “General Interest Co-operatives”. It is a new private, common interest co-operative which allows anyone — employees, users, volunteers, public bodies, companies, associations —to act together in a legal framework to govern an entity.
All SCIC members are shareholders and will belong to of one of the statutory categories : Founders, Advisers, or Employees.
The vote principle is : 1 shareholder = 1 vote.
The ARK crew, being initial share holders, will choose the Executive Board of the legal entity, which permits ARK to continue the current board structure.
A long process
ARK decided on the SCIC after working with their legal team and evaluating different options for creating a legal entity. After deciding that incorporating through the Swiss Foundation — a popular option for blockchain projects — was not the best choice for ARK, the team turned to France.
There, they found the SCIC incorporation process. According to the team, that option had almost everything they had been looking for in terms of incorporation.
As a SCIC, ARK will be able to structure corporate governance based on a board of directors and input from the ARK community. Additionally, SCIC incorporation allows ARK to establish a well-defined structure without legal ambiguities related to capital gains and taxation.
Through its SCIC status, the ARK board of directors — except for founders and employees — can name additional shareholders. These new shareholders can also be appointed to the supervisory board, as provided for in the charter. The charter may be amended as often as necessary.
In French Law, the SCIC format also allows public institutions to become shareholders if seen fit by the board.
As a common interest benefit company, an SCIC must keep at least 52.5% of the company’s profits as legal reserves. In the case of Ark, there is no plan to do any distribution of profits to shareholders. Therefore, it will hold 100% of any profits for use in development, marketing, and operations.
An exciting road ahead
This establishment of ARK’s SCIC in France is not only the first of its kind, but it will also bolster the credibility of cryptocurrency in France, the European Union, and the rest of the world.
The prospect of ARK and its SCIC formation has attracted the interest and enthusiasm of some regulatory institutions. During this process, ARK was invited by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) —the French regulatory body for financial markets — and the Banque de France (National Bank of France) to present the ARK Project and explain the conditions of the ARK TEC. The discussion was in-depth and encouraging. Conversing with the AMF on how to best comply with French laws resulted in a positive two way conversation with the French government.
The team at ARK is proud to play a part in France becoming a crypto-friendly environment, and proud to be the leaders in this huge step forward in cryptocurrency adoption. And now that the SCIC is finalized, the team will be able to expand and advanced the ARK blockchain technology, which will provide more opportunities for all.
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