Digital currency was supposed to bepeer to peer.

Bitcoin introduced a powerful idea: electronic cash that could move directly from one person to another without requiring a bank, payment company or other financial institution to approve the transaction. Sumcoin begins from that same peer-to-peer premise, but asks what happens when a cryptocurrency becomes dependent on centralized exchanges for custody, access and price discovery.

Sumcoin was built around the belief that cryptocurrency drifted away from that original purpose as centralized exchanges became the primary place where coins were bought, sold, stored and valued. When an exchange becomes the center of the ecosystem, users once again depend on an intermediary. Sumcoin was designed so that the currency can continue to exist, move and have a reference value without requiring that intermediary.

Sumcoin takes a different approach. The Sumcoin Index supplies an independent reference rate, while the blockchain handles settlement and self-custody wallets allow users to control and transfer SUM themselves. The objective is straightforward: one person should be able to hold SUM, determine its reference value and send it directly to another person without first depositing it with a centralized exchange.