Founder's Story - Can Crypto Solve Real World Problems? Ethical Disruption and the Scotcoin Revolution with Temple Melville | S2 Ep. 174

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

In this episode of Founders Story, we welcome Temple Melville, blockchain and crypto lecturer and CEO of the Scotcoin Project CIC. Temple shares his journey into the world of crypto—from his early days studying mathematics and investing in Bitcoin to founding Scotcoin in 2013. Discover how Scotcoin has evolved, the ethical principles driving its mission, and why crypto is unlike any other financial product—emphasizing community, transparency, and positive global impact. Representing Scotland with pride, Temple explains how Scotcoin’s innovative tokenomics and closed-loop economy are setting a new standard for ethical crypto.Opening & Introduction:Daniel kicks off the episode by sharing his recent experiences at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where crypto was the buzz, and introduces Temple Melville, CEO of the Scotcoin Project CIC and blockchain lecturer with deep roots in mathematics and early Bitcoin investments.Early Journey & Scotcoin’s Genesis:Temple recounts his initial foray into blockchain after reading Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper and discusses the early days of Scotcoin—launched in 2013, facing challenges, and pivoting in 2015/2016.Vision, Mission & Impact:An explanation of Scotcoin’s vision to create tangible token value and drive positive change through ethical applications, including building a closed-loop economy from everyday transactions.Crypto’s Inclusive Nature:A discussion on how crypto differs from traditional finance by being community-driven and inclusive, addressing generational concerns with relatable, simple analogies.Ethical Crypto in Action:Temple defines ethical crypto as “doing good” by helping those in need and preserving our planet, exemplified by Scotcoin’s initiative to purchase surplus clothing from manufacturers to prevent waste and redistribute it via charities.Tokenomics & Long-Term Legacy:An overview of Scotcoin’s tokenomics, detailing the transition to an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network for efficiency and sustainability, along with a discussion on its long-term vision and self-funded, community-driven ethos.Resources Mentioned:Scotcoin Project CIC Website: scotcoinproject.comOur Sponsors:* Check out CoinFlip and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://coinflip.tech* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed, and listeners of this show will get a $100 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash P-O-D-K-A-T-Z-C-A. Welcome back everyone to another episode of Founder's Story. Today we have Temple Melville who is a blockchain and crypto lecturer, which I'm very excited because Temple, crypto has been like the buzz. I just came from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland about two weeks ago and I have to say crypto was like all the buzz. I got to meet the CEO of Coinbase and hear what he had to say.

And it was very interesting. So I'm excited because you are the CEO of Scott Coin Project CIC. And I want to I want to dive in first to understand what is this project and why are you involved? Hi Daniel, well it's nice to talk to you today and thank you very much for that. The reason I'm involved is I got involved originally because I knew a bit about the blockchain and that was because I studied mathematics at university a very long time ago as you can tell I'm a very old person. And when the Satoshi Nakamoto came up with the white paper

that he produced, a peer-to-peer cashless system, I actually understood a bit about what it was about. And I realized that blockchain was, and Bitcoin, which was the result of that, was something special and different and new, and potentially world changing. And I always like to tell this story because it shows what a putz I am. I actually bought Bitcoin originally when it was about $50. And it got to $500. And I knew, absolutely knew it would never go any higher. And I sold them. And I've done that a few times since. So there you go. However, anyway, back to Scott coins, Scott coin started officially in 2013. in 2013. It was on its own blockchain, which had a lot of problems, in fact. And the person who started it all decided to get out in 2015, late 2015, early 2016. And myself and my partners

bought it out at that point. And we've been working since then to, A, give it a purpose, obviously, and B, to make the token valuable and worthwhile and everything else you can think of. So that's really it. That's been our journey, if you like, to make it all work. And we are, as you know, just sort of fast approaching our listing. And we're looking forward to that very much. It will help us enormously in our mission. I'd like to understand, but you don't have to answer this question. How many bitcoins do you have when they were $50? What I've noticed with crypto is that it's very, very inclusive,

wanting, and it's very community driven. And I don't think there's any other financial product inclusive, wanting, and it's very community driven. And I don't think there's any other financial product or anything in finance that I've seen in my time that really is geared towards this ethos or having this mentality or mindset. And it's really like become a culture, which I find very fascinating. I think the point about crypto and the community is an interesting one because the whole reason

for the blockchain and Bitcoin and other tokens is there is nobody between you and the person you're dealing with. Everywhere else, everywhere else in the world, there is somebody who's a middleman. You know, if it's Visa, if it's MasterCard, if it's your bank, if it's whatever it might be. The point is there is no community. It's just a straightforward transaction with somebody who is taking some of your money for one reason or another. But Bitcoin and blockchain and other crypto is quite different. It's all kind of, as you say, community driven. And that's a great thing. What do you say to people who are maybe over the age of 40, 50? I think there's a lot of older

people who are very interested in it. I think they might be scared. They might not really understand it. I mean, I think we can be real that it's not like the easiest thing to understand when you try to know everything about blockchain and everything, right? What do you say to those people who are like hesitant, but I'm sure Scott Coin Project and other projects can be really beneficial for them? Yeah. Well, I think the first thing to say is, you know, I have no idea how a phone works. But I can make a phone call, you know, no problem. And the same thing really applies with crypto, you don't necessarily need to know everything about it. It's good to

know a little bit, of course. And once you have that, it's very, very simple. We have our own Scott Scan app, which is, if you like, the best way for many people to get involved because it hasn't got lots of smart, horrible numbers like 0x557774321. It's got your name, so you could be Daniel at Scott. I'm Tumelko at Scott, you know, so it's very easy to actually transfer backwards and forwards. And there's no cost, it's free. And it's instantaneous. So that makes a that makes a big difference. It's

a big draw for quite a lot of people. And I think the other thing too, is that people realize that, you know, if you go back to the Victorian era, lots of people did a great deal of work with charity and helping people, which was very much needed, of course. And we're in the same position today. There's lots of work that needs to be done for lots of people. So what is blockchain? So I'll tell you. So I'm indebted to somebody who is much smarter than me who said this. But basically he said, you know, you're a man and a woman, and you tell the woman you love her, and you know, a couple of weeks later you decide you don't anymore, so you just say, no, I don't love you anymore, and that's it. Then the

next time you meet up somebody you quite like, you've got a friend with you, and you say to the woman, oh, I love you, and he sees that you said, I love you, and so on. So if you want to tell the woman, I don't love you anymore, you've got to persuade the friend, he didn't see that happening. Now, if you're involved in blockchain, you're with a woman again in a room with hundreds and hundreds of people who all see you saying, I love you. And that's blockchain, because it's very difficult to then change the name the minds of all those people That they didn't see you say it and of course, that's what blockchain does. It makes it sure and it's a great thing I've never heard that analogy before but I I really like how you said that and I mean who doesn't like the transparency of blockchain and you know all all the things that we can maybe fix or solve that

have been something issues in the past like sending and receiving money with no middleman. So when it comes to ethics in crypto, I find this a really interesting topic and I was just hearing some people chatting about this at a really high level and I thought it was very fascinating. So I'd love to get your opinion. What is ethical crypto or how do you define it? Well, our view on why we call ourselves an ethical crypto is we what we try to do is try to do good. And I know various companies have said that in the past. But in a sense, we've got a slightly easier job because what we're trying to do is to help people who are in need. So

in the very simplest thing, we work mostly with clothes, food and accommodation. Now I'll give you an example of how we work with clothes. As you know, clothing manufacturers are forever burning clothes and throwing them away and doing all sorts of things with them, which are not good for the planet or for anything else, frankly. We go along and we talk to them and we do this on a regular basis and say, okay, what are you trying to get rid of? What are you going to have to burn next week or whatever it is? And we then buy those clothes from them using Scottcoin.

Now we then deliver those clothes to a charity that works with homeless and they deliver them to people who really need something to wear. And what's in it for the people who make the clothes? Well, the answer is the first point is they don't have to pay for burning the clothes. And that's a big plus point for a start. And it's got all sorts of good things that happen means you're not ruining the planet as well. But the other thing is that they tend, and not all of them, but they tend to then use ScottCoin within a closed community loop as far as they're concerned.

And this comes back to what you were saying about community. So if you think of the 10th cup of coffee that's free, the people with the clothes, what they do is you buy a t-shirt, you get 100 Scott coin, you buy another t-shirt, you get another 100 Scott coin and you build it up. And when you've got whatever it might be, a thousand Scott coin, you get a free t-shirt. And that's a really nice closed loop that works very well. And it's non, what's the word I'm trying to think of? It's a closed loop which works very well for everyone.

So that's really what being ethical means. It means doing something good for other people. Thank you, Temple, for sharing that. And I think we're gonna start to see a lot more people with this. I love the ethical crypto, how you can use it to help the planet, help people solve problems among humanity is incredible. I'm

wondering if back Satoshi, did he or he, she, they, did they know that this would be how it would be used someday. When you're lecturing about crypto, what is the sentiment among multiple different generations or even just Scottcoin in general? What's the sentiment that you're seeing so far among different generations? Well, it's very interesting you saying that. I mean, I've been doing this for quite a few years now

and I used to start my lectures by saying, everybody put their hand up who's heard of Bitcoin, and most people did. And then I would say, how many people have heard of blockchain? And only about half that number of people did they had no idea where it came from. And that was quite good, because it gave me a good opening to start and talk about blockchain. But the point is now I say I don't start with that because everybody knows what it's about. I say who here owns crypto? And generally about half the half the people who are at the lectures put their hands up and say yes they do. And the other interesting thing about that is they own them for such diverse reasons. And, you know, it's not all about just making money. It's about other things. And of course, the great thing about crypto is or two of the great things about crypto is one is it's, you know, once you send it, it's that's it. You can't get it back or you can only get it back if the other person sends it back. But also you can target it. So for example, and we've done this quite recently, actually, we were doing a well in Nigeria. And we didn't want anybody to take some money out of it or anything like that.

And we used crypto to send it direct to the people who were digging the well or drilling the well. And that's a huge step forward. It really is. And the other thing too is it gets there instantly. And if you're trying to send money to Nigeria, it can take weeks. But if we do it with a crypto, it's there, bang, no problem at all. So that's how we go along with things. And people do appreciate that. They appreciate the difference between what's called TradFi, in other words, fiat currencies, and crypto. And that's something that a lot of people appreciate.

It's super fascinating. I mean, the ability to like you said, cross border sending payments is something I've used. And, you know, it doesn't have to be like, oh, it's a Saturday, it won't send or Sunday, these are wait till Monday, you know, all the all the rules that I find to be a little bit ridiculous in 2020. I don't have to do any of that. Exactly. Can you speak on the tokenomics of Scott coin? Exactly. Can you speak on the tokenomics of Scottcoin? Yeah, sure. Well, we started out, we've been on a particular journey which has ERC-20 token, which is much better than being

on the Bitcoin blockchain, which is very expensive in terms of energy and all the rest of it. We're on the Ethereum network, and that's great. Our current token that we're just about to launch onto the exchange is very tightly controlled. The object of the exercise is not to have people trying to sell it, you know, willy-nilly and crashing the price. We have a business plan which is in place that needs funded and we need to have our tokens available to us for a long period of time. And we estimate that we'll have them available for more than 100 years. So that means we'll, I mean, I'll be dead long before that, obviously. But it does mean that there will be people still handling and helping people long after we're all gone. And I really like that. In terms of vesting, we're going

to be vesting over a period of... You realize you needed to hire someone yesterday. How do you find quality candidates fast? Use Indeed because when it comes to hiring Indeed is all you need. Sponsored jobs stand out and bring you 45% more applicants according to Indeed data. One thing I love about Indeed is how it frees up my time. No subscriptions or contracts, only pay for results. In the last minute, 23 hires were made on Indeed.

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than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Two years in total, and we think that's fair and about right. BEDMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Two years in total and we think that's fair and about right. Hey, you never know. I mean, you know, people are living longer, maybe you lived up to 200 years old and then you can see the Scottcoin Project CIC flourish into something even more. This has been great and I really enjoy how this is like a legacy. I can tell the mission is bigger than just yourself. It's not just about making money and the ability to help people. I'm just so fascinated with how blockchain, crypto, all

these things can better our lives and the lives of the people around us. And everything you're doing is Scott Coin Project CIC. Sounds amazing. If you want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more information. They want to be a part of this so they can carry it on for the next 80 years. How can they do so? I always like to get out there. We as the people who operate Scott Coin and so on and the Scott Coin project. We've never taken any pay, we've

never taken directors fees, we've never taken expenses. It's entirely self funded. And from that point of view, you know, we, we were very much pleased with how it's worked and how it's gone. And we just, you know, we appreciate very much that we can make things work. Amazing Temple. Thank you so much for the want and desire to make a better place even when you're gone. And thank you for joining us today on Founder's Story.

It's been a pleasure, Daniel. Thank you. I knew I needed to take better care of myself and my family. I just didn't think that I could afford it. Then the why came in and gave us the chance to shine. So what happened? I lost my sales job and I had to juggle part-time jobs. And as a single mother of two amazing boys, I needed to be home.

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