The contents of this newsletter are point-in-time statements. Please note the date of publication.

Held on 28 June 2023

Director update for the period ending 31 May 2023

Welcome to our voting members, councillors, community leaders and directors  in attendance today.

We share with you an update of the past 12 months since the previous AGM, being the third year of the Qoin project.  We will cover the progress made for the period as well as some plans for the next 6 to 12 months.

As we embark into our fourth year as a trading community, we share with you some of the highlights and achievements notwithstanding the turmoil in the industry and some challenges which have emerged.

The Qoin Wallet App is live in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Singapore, and South Africa. Over 100,000 Apps have been downloaded and over 37,000 businesses have registered over the time of the project.

Over the last 12 months the Qoin community has transacted 40.2 million Qoin in 76,000 transactions between wallets resulting in an average transaction size of 528 Qoin.

Some of the highlights for the past year have been:

• the launch of the Qoin Block Explorer
• the development and testing of the Qoin Wallet App major upgrade
• launch of the Q Hub for merchants
• the GrabbaCoupon website
• publication of the community code of conduct
• publication of the merchant fair trading guidelines
• establishment of face to face networking groups
• wrapping of approximately 2.5m Qoin

We want to especially thank the tech team as well as the community leaders who worked hard to achieve this progress.

The last 12 months has been a volatile year for the crypto industry which has seen the collapse of some of the world’s largest projects, exchanges and banks including FTX, Celsius, Voyager, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature and Silvergate. In Australia banks have debanked various exchanges and projects including Binance and BTX who had to temporarily suspend trading crypto currencies for Australian dollars until new banking arrangements could be found. In addition to this the SEC in the USA has taken aggressive steps and commenced legal proceedings against the world’s largest two exchanges Binance and Coinbase. Numerous class actions have also commenced against various crypto projects.

On a more positive note the European Parliament and Hong Kong government have approved new crypto asset legislation with the UK and UAE in final stages for government approvals. The Australian Treasury announced very recently that they are likely to follow the EU regulatory framework which creates a balance between innovation and consumer protection.

Our 8 community group leaders met 10 times during the past year and achieved good results for the Qoin community, including many of the highlights mentioned earlier. Their number one focus and objective for the year ahead is to work with the association to increase the utility of Qoin.

During the past 12 months the 3 association councillors were active in the oversight of the Qoin Project risk and compliance management, minting processes, blockchain and nodes, incentive and rewards funding and many other duties. We want to express our appreciation to Steve Quinn, Mark Atkinson, and Ras Manickan.

It is very important for us to be able to communicate effectively with the whole community. This year the comms team produced the 93^rd episode of QDN, maintained the Qoin Website, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages and created various campaigns to attract new merchants to the community. Thanks to Mel, Greg and Anna for your efforts.

In the ASIC proceedings against BPS Financial Pty Ltd the matter has proceeded to the stage of the parties producing Evidence in chief to each other. The trial date is set for 16 October this year. BPS and its legal team remain confident that it can successfully defend the case.

In the Representative Proceedings against BPS Financial Pty Ltd, Qoin Association and various other respondents the matter is in early stages of defence to the further amended statement of claim. The next case management hearing is set for 4 September this year where the timetable for the rest of the proceedings to mediation should be agreed. The respondents remain confident that they can successfully defend the case.

Plans for next 12 months

• Further decentralisation of nodes and association
• Including more digital assets in the Qoin Wallet
• Automating wrapping of Qoin
• Upgrading and dividing the Q Shop into a business directory and modern marketplace
• Launching a loyalty and rewards program for merchants to utilise Qoin to attract more customers
• Making the Qoin Wallet App available in the EU countries

Thank you to our Members and the Qoin community for your support over the past year and we look forward to an exciting year of trading.

Directors: Tony Wiese and Raj Pathak