Launching Atala PRISM: A Billion-User Blueprint -> Land-Backed Credit Communities

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Darius Golkar

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

darius@commonlands.org

Additional applicants

Tim O'Brien, Founder CEO & CTO of FuixLabs

About FuixLabs

FuixLabs is a blockchain builder located in Vietnam that has worked in the Cardano

Ecosystem since 2019 contributing to high value projects, providing community advice and helping Cardano grow in South East Asia. Fuixlabs may be the most successful Cardano builder of DID technology nobody has heard of. Fuixlab's member and ex-googler Tim O'Brien had a 18 year careers in software development.

FuixLabs Community Contributions

FuixLabs is an active contributor to the Cardano Community.

• Tech lead, Tim O'Brien, was a founding member of the Vietnamese Eastern Town Hall.

• FuxLabs' Tim O'Brien helped organize the Cardano Summit in Vietnam, and has been working with trade organizations and governments, such as Singapore, to promote Cardano as a Trade Platform.

• FuixLabs contributes to open-source libraries, frameworks, and documentation on Cardano, including an open-source alternative to blackfrost, a Cardano Wallet, and guidelines on how to install Plutus.

Products Built from Catalyst Grants

• FuixLabs created a No-Code Hackathon, allowing communities to build their own solutions using No-Code Tools.

• Website: https://cardanonocode.com

• FuixLabs has built a full implementation of the DID specification called Dominium. It interoperates with AtalaPrism but also runs standalone. Dominium is the only open-source DID implementation in the ecosystem and is committed to always being free and non-commercial. It has been embedded in TradeTrust

(https://www.tradetrust.io/) and Sprynt.io (http://Sprynt.io) to create a platform for paperless trade and cross-chain payments.

https://youtu.be/g2ojXj8HX3Q

• FuixLabs built a mobile wallet that allowed representatives of the Ghana government to upload documents, soil assays, and pesticide reports to a DID system encrypted with keys owned by farmers. Farmers own all documents related to their crops and land and can use them to bargain for better prices.

• FuixLabs built a metaverse that transcends differences in language, education, and technical proficiency, allowing small farmers, shippers, and markets in Kenya and Ghana to understand supply chain management and food traceability.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5XpnJISQG5bnbowma_8nF5OsiKG0rpS3

• FuixLabs is working to advance the cause of paperless cross-border trade, which will one day allow farmers to ship their products overseas themselves.

Fuixlabs is committed to the cause of Self Sovereign Identity

• DApp: https://github.com/tuvalusoftware/TradeTrust

• Cardano Service: https://github.com/tuvalusoftware/CardanoService

• DID Resolver: https://github.com/tuvalusoftware/DIDResolver

• DID Controller: https://github.com/tuvalusoftware/DIDController

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

11

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

We are conducting our pilot in cooperation with CARE International and our joint implementation partner CEFORD in Uganda that has successfully run large multi-year projects for organizations like World Vision, the UN, Oxfam, etc. giving Commonlands the best possible testing environment with the least possible risk.

The Commonlands platform will be included as part of the “Digital CARE Package" (DCP). The DCP is part of a 5 year initiative ending in 2024 to support viable income generating activities and advocacy for women's rights and decision making, including access and ownership to land. 

We will train 1,375 women in 55 Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in Omugo Sub-County how to use Commonlands to create robust economic identities and secure land certificates. The women in each VSLA will be the nucleus for their community’s land registry, which we call “Claimchains.”

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

No

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

At the foundation of Commonlands is the open source Project Catalyst funded Dominium DID technology.

https://youtu.be/ZqMInFHg-KA?t=269

Because we are testing the technology, model & strategy it is too early to make a decision on what is open sources or not. We fully intend to provide an API for the world to use and implement into their existing workflows.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

RealFi

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG goals:

• End poverty in all its forms everywhere

• End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

• Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

• Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

• Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

• Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

• Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

• Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

SDG subgoals:

• By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance

• Promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and promote appropriate access to such resources, as internationally agreed

• Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms

• Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance

• By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration

• Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

• Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships

• By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries

• Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources

• Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries

• By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment

• By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality

• By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed

• Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries

• Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws

• Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women

• Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

• Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, (a) with legally recognized documentation, and (b) who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and type of tenure

• Total official flows (official development assistance plus other official flows) to the agriculture sector

• (a) Proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land, by sex; and

• (b) share of women among owners or rights-bearers of agricultural land, by type of tenure

• Proportion of countries where the legal framework (including customary law) guarantees women’s equal rights to land ownership and/or control

• Proportion of individuals who own a mobile telephone, by sex

• Proportion of adults (15 years and older) with an account at a bank or other financial institution or with a mobile-money-service provider

#proposertoolsdg

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Commonlands’ solution links a community’s social-fabric & collective land arrangements to simultaneously create foundational economic identities & immutable land records, giving communities & investors ways to create impact together. 

Each user on Commonlands is given a unique Cardano wallet which will hold their digital land certificate and can be used to interact with any Cardano based project.

Claimchain is the name of our open land registry where individuals create land claims and verify them with their neighbors. Community members place pins on a map to draw their plots. As claims are added and neighbors confirm them, a web of interconnected claims is established, creating a Claimchain. This process strengthens trust by involving the entire community in the verification process fostering engagement and collaboration. 

https://youtu.be/eyu8h7jS5Ac

The strength of Commonlands’ Claimchain is that it encourages consensus and a willingness to participate because claims are protected and dependent on all the other claims in the community’s registry. The interconnectedness provides both security and credibility.

Our solution enables easy, accurate land mapping without costly surveyors or officials, utilizing community knowledge & social capital to form blockchain-based Claimchains whose plot certificates can serve as collateral, with an immutable ledger recording info about any transaction, repayments, & defaults. 

Individuals build bankability via usage, but default rates also affect the quality of the Claimchain as a whole, incentivizing communities to promote repayment. The solution can be easily adopted for disbursement from MFIs & lenders adopting our solution as part of their credit scoring/portfolio management processes. 

The pilot will be an end-to-end test in 5 Ugandan communities whose Claimchains will include a minimum of 750 plots & 2,500 new economic identities on the Cardano blockchain. 

We plan to refine user experience, calibrate incentive levels, & collaborate with local partner CEFORD building on their local presence & mutual relationship with CARE, whose VSLA program is actively incorporating our solution. 

Once the first Claimchain is complete, we will test it as a mechanism for credit delivery, working with mobile money partners & MFIs, leveraging our platform without the need for costly integrations.

The pilot evaluates solution inclusivity, cooperation, repayment rates & financial education needs, running multiple credit rounds to assess effectiveness. We will also evaluate women’s inclusivity, the ways in which communities work together to uphold the quality of the Claimchain & rate of repayment, the need for financial education & bookkeeping tools. 

Commonlands will actively engage with MFIs to finetune interoperability, map out pains/gains & generate scalable insights web3-based ledger value in credit delivery for underserved populations.

Building Identity and Enabling Financial Inclusion

In parts of the Global South that lack strong private property rights and/or rule of law, bootstrapping individuals into a world of financial inclusion face special challenges caused by a dearth of information about users. The lack of any information about the user makes it nearly impossible for profit seeking organizations to offer them credit based financial services.

Commonland's solution is a protocol, the Commonlands Claim Credentials (CCCs), that creates a records in a DID trusted repository, owned and controlled by the landholder- with a sufficient amount of data to serve as a seed on which financial transactions can be undertaken that will extend communities, businesses, and lenders. The possibilities of using the Commonlands platform are only limited by the imagination of its users. Examples of how CCCs can be used to secure agreements include: 

• MFI loans - MFIs can use CCCs to check creditworthiness or potential borrowers and lock CCCs to secure their loans

• Lending circles Organizations or communities using lending circle models to pool resources and mitigate risk may require participants to have free & clear CCCs to participate (individuals with locked CCCs will not be accepted). At the time of lending, the CCCs of borrowers will be locked, reducing the typical time and paperwork involved. This also provides a secure incentive for repayment. If a member defaults, they can be removed from the circle and their CCC will remain locked until the debt is repaid. 

• Property sales & transfer - CCCs can be used to verify if someone owns a property & determine exactly what they own and who has verified it. Once a sale is agreed upon the CCC can be transferred like a typical title. This simple transfer reduces the time and costs associated with typical real-estate transactions and provides increased security for the buyer because once transferred all the neighbor agreed boundary lines are included so there are no questions & no basis for boundary disputes.

Financial Inclusion and Property Rights

As Hernando de Soto points out in his book "Mystery of Capital," economic growth in the Global South is hindered by poorly functioning financial infrastructure and inadequate laws to protect private property rights. However, a new type of bank called Neobanks has prioritized financial inclusion and is working to address the lack of financial infrastructure.  This new and innovative sector of the financial services industry is aiming to change the way people bank with a special focus on inclusion in the Global South.

Neobanks such as Chime (valued at $35 billion in the US), NuBank (valued at $41.5 billion at the time of their NYSE IPO in Brazil), Revolut (valued at $33 billion worldwide), and Tinkoff (valued at $22.5 billion in Russia) are gaining significant traction and are considered successful by the industry. Payment systems like M-Pesa in Kenya, AliPay, and WeChant Pay are also beginning to offer financial services. 

In the words of Nigel Verdon, CEO of Railsbank “These more agile financial services companies are democratizing financial services by breaking down financial products into core components that can be distributed at micro levels. Financial services can be adapted to a size that is suitable for inclusion.”

More than 400 NeoBanks have been created in the last year alone with several proposals in Cardano working on loan systems.

The Cold Start Problem - No Credit Profiles, No Financial Services

The primary challenge for growth in Africa is the lack of even basic profiles. Embedded finance has the potential to offer credit based financial services, but only they have the basic information needed to bootstrap individuals into the credit system. Commonlands is currently working with large populations of unbanked individuals to help them acquire certificates of ownership for the land they live and work on. These certificates of ownership can provide the initial starting-point to serve as seed data that will provide them access to financial services provided by companies that prioritize inclusion and are seeking to expand into African markets.

Making Credit Information Self Sovereign using DID

Users must be given the knowledge they need to make smart financial decisions and complete control over their data. Using AtalaPRISM and DID based technology certificates of land ownership can be issued and controlled by the land owner in a trusted repository. These certificates become the seed of a virtuous cycle where the certificate holder’s credit history is continuously enriched as she completes transactions with the plethora of credit organizations seeking inclusion.

Governance Framework Working Group at ToIP or Other Organization

Commonlands will create a working group at ToIP or W3.org of stakeholders who can help neobank financial innovators fulfill their goals of inclusion. The group will define a standard on how credit data from CCC is managed and accessed and updated using DID to protect the rights of the data holders. We will also define a data dictionary and standard for the data, cryptography etc.

Once this standard has been defined and approved it will remove a large barrier for organization that prioritize financial inclusion to be able to onboard and provide services to a large unserved demographic.

Use Cases

Commonlands Claim Credentials (CCCs) will serve as a secure tool for agreements, loans, escrow, and financing, creating new, secure contracting opportunities for communities, businesses, and lenders. The possibilities of using the Commonlands platform are only limited by the imagination of its users.

Examples of how CCCs can be used to secure agreements include:

MFI loans  

MFIs can use CCCs to check creditworthiness or potential borrowers and lock CCCs to secure their loans

Lending circles

Organizations or communities using lending circle models to pool resources and mitigate risk may require participants to have free & clear CCCs to participate (individuals with locked CCCs will not be accepted). At the time of lending, the CCCs of borrowers will be locked, reducing the typical time and paperwork involved. This also provides a secure incentive for repayment. If a member defaults, they can be removed from the circle and their CCC will remain locked until the debt is repaid.

Property sales & transfer

CCCs can be used to verify if someone owns a property & determine exactly what they own and who has verified it.

Once a sale is agreed upon the CCC can be transferred like a typical title. This simple transfer reduces the time and costs associated with typical real-estate transactions and provides increased security for the buyer because once transferred all the neighbor agreed boundary lines are included so there are no questions & no basis for boundary disputes. 

Escrow

Any two way transaction that may require time to settle can be secured by both parties locking their CCCs. Once both parties meet their transaction obligations the CCCs can be unlocked. 

Group financing of a solar powered crop refrigeration system

A business that sells solar powered refrigeration systems can offer an innovative financing model to increase sales by allowing farmers to pool their CCCs to lock as security to finance the hardware. 

Before deciding who they let participate, the business can require a minimum Claimrank score or require a percentage of participants to be women or from a specific region. 

They can choose to unlock individual CCCs at time of payment or keep them all locked until the full payment is made. 

Supporting equal rights for women

Organizations, banks, lenders or institutions can incentivize or require communities to include women on ownership credentials in order for them to be used to access their services or to obtain a reward. 

Carbon credit advances

Organizations looking to promote sustainability can advance money to farmers and businesses that meet carbon credit payment specifications but don’t have the financial runway to participate. 

They can check Claimrank scores to determine who to let into the program and lock CCCs when they issue the cash advances. 

Promoting sustainable agriculture practices

Organizations looking to promote certain agricultural practices such as non-GMO, drought tolerant seed varieties, organic farming, etc. can pre-pay farmers and get farmer commitment by locking their CCCs. 

Borrow motorcycle between neighbors

Commonlands is not limited to businesses, once Claimchains are complete and CCCs are issued, community members can use the system to secure agreements amongst themselves. 

In this case a neighbor wants to borrow a motorcycle. The parties lock the borrower's CCC until the motorcycle is returned.

Fund community well or other large community development projects

A community would like to dig a well but they don’t have the money to pay the price a local contractor bid for the job. An organization or lender wants to fund the project under the condition that the community pays a token amount and promises to use it as intended. 

The funder can require 60% of the community to lock their CCCs to demonstrate interest in the project. Once the threshold is reached, the funds are issued and the project begins. Once the terms are met, the community’s CCCs are unlocked and they have successfully used their cooperation creating a Claimchain to fund a community development project. 

Targeted micro-business formation grants for slum dwelling populations

An organization is providing business start-up grants to micro-entrepreneurs from a specific slum. They require a CCC with a Claimrank of 85% or higher from the target slum to apply. The deal is the entrepreneur must prove they formed the business as agreed & operated for at least 3mos and employed at least one other person from the slum. Once approved they lock the CCC and unlock it when the terms have been met.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

Commonlands is built to scale. Our goal is to issue 1 billion certificates by 2030.

Every journey on Commonlands starts with creating a Decentralized Identity (DID). This DID binds a user's phone number, face, name, gender, government-issued IDs (if available), and address into a secure and foundational identity.

Every individual in Commonlands will create a unique Cardano wallet, enabling them to interact with any Cardano-based project, smart contract, decentralized exchange, or service. This not only expands the user base of Cardano but also opens up new possibilities for these individuals.

Moreover, all certificates generated within Commonlands—be it for land, contracts, loans, or identity—will contribute fees to the Cardano ecosystem, fueling growth. As our project scales, it promises to provide substantial returns to both the Cardano ecosystem and Project Catalyst, conservatively estimated at a 100x value increase.

Furthermore, our project aligns with the emerging focus on financial inclusion in the financial services sector. By enabling ownership registration and submission of loan application data through our app, we facilitate access to financial services for individuals, particularly in developing regions.

To ensure seamless integration, we're designing an interoperability standard for technical systems involved in our project. This encompasses various data types, including land plots, soil assays, and government pesticide testing.

In effect, we're defining a new format for land ownership registries. This registry will be stored in a decentralized ID framework, allowing users to maintain control over their DID.

In conclusion, Commonlands presents a unique opportunity for the Cardano ecosystem. Not only does it address a critical global issue, but it also promises immense benefits in terms of user expansion, fee generation, and increased network activity.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

Onboarding and claimchain completion:

Creation of 5 community Claimchains, with a minimum 750 individual community-verified plots.

2,500 people provided community-verified economic identities and credit ratings tied to their land claims.

Credit delivery and repayment:

Support 100 Commonlands certificate holders to access credit lines through Mobile Money & Micro-Finance partners with the goal of a subset going through 3 loan and repayment cycles successfully with default rate <3% (above industry average)

Help 1 Micro-Finance Institution quantifiably increase service area at or below typical service costs with profit margins at or above regional averages. 

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

We are enthusiastic about sharing the progress and results of our project with the wider community. We understand that the intersection of blockchain technology, land ownership, and economic development offers a multitude of learnings, not only for our team but for others interested in these areas. It's our commitment to transparency that fuels this intention.

To share the learnings from our project, we have identified three key questions that we aim to answer during our pilot. Each question is designed to unravel the potential of blockchain in reshaping traditional systems, especially in areas lacking robust infrastructures. The insights gleaned from these questions will be documented and shared with the public in the form of a comprehensive report to stimulate growth and understanding in our shared ecosystem.

• How can decentralized community-verified credit scores on the blockchain tied to land inform lending models to reduce cost and improve accessibility and productive capital use? This question also explores the willingness of traditional and less tech-savvy banking institutions like MFIs to adopt these blockchain solutions, and identifies the precise value proposition that will encourage adoption and drive innovation and scalability through Web3.0 solutions.

• How can blockchain solutions bring security and transparency to community-based governance systems, compensating for the lack of legal security that often hampers investment in developing countries?

• What are the hurdles for adopting Web 3.0 solutions at the community level, and what kind of delivery methods, onboarding and training support is required for an effective and inclusive roll-out?

These questions will guide our project as we navigate the complexities of integrating blockchain technology into traditional systems. We look forward to sharing our journey, learnings, and results with the broader community, contributing to the collective understanding and application of blockchain technology in diverse contexts.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

Commonlands’ implementation partner, CEFORD, is in the business of implementing complex multi-year multi-million dollar projects with strict reporting requirements for major international organizations.

Commonlands' technology partner, FuixLabs, is a Project Catalyst veteran having successfully delivered the open-source Atala Prism based Dominium DID platform which Commonlands is built on. They have already delivered v1 of the Commonlands app which is currently being rolled out in Uganda. 

Fuix Labs has over 20 years of work delivering mission critical technology including work on cutting-edge projects for major companies such as: Google, Raytheon, Citi Group, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Tokyo, Danske Bank, & Philips Health and has been involved in initiatives to support entrepreneurship and digital platforms in Africa, including Web3 projects in Ghana, Congo and Tanzania.

Commonlands’ leadership has a wealth of experience designing & delivering impactful technology. 

Our senior team has around a century of experience in our respective areas of expertise and will be directly committed to the success of the pilot, actively engaging with local partners and overseeing community engagement with implementation partners.

We will also invest our time in training and capacity building. Our tech team will commit 3 sprints, lasting 5 weeks each, to constantly iterate on the technology, both front-end and back end, including community interfaces, API and integrations with MNOs. We will also commit our own resources to communications, drumming up interest and support globally and locally for the initiative, collecting value feedback and producing knowledge. 

Commonlands Team

Darius Golkar, Founder & CEO of Commonlands and Founding Member of the Cardano Real-fi Consortium: Darius is a serial social entrepreneur with experience in Kenya, South Sudan, Guatemala, and Honduras. He exited his first company at 23 and has worked directly with the populations targeted by Commonlands. Darius is a seasoned operator and strategist with a proven ability to unite stakeholders around shared interests. 

An interview with Darius Golkar can be viewed here to learn more about his background and why he started Commonlands ->

https://youtu.be/Plvf7HokdUg

Darius presenting Commonlands at the Cardano RealFi Consortium Twitter Space: https://twitter.com/RealfiCardano/status/1643696705664163841?s=20

In addition to his role as a Founding Member of the Cardano RealFi Consortium, Darius has also been an active member in the Cardano Community.

Boundless Pay talk: Revolutionizing Economic Growth Through Verifiable Credentials: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1zqKVPaeWeAJB?s=20

Darius is also a regular host / moderator on the Cardano RealFi Consortium Twitter Spaces:

Crypto On/Off Ramps: https://twitter.com/RealfiCardano/status/1637923300973199361?s=20

Identity & Trust: https://twitter.com/RealfiCardano/status/1663984128956481569?s=20

Future of Payments & Banking: https://twitter.com/RealfiCardano/status/1651552850705612802?s=20

Rebecca Mason, Strategy, Impact & Partnerships: Rebecca is an experienced social entrepreneur and development professional committed to creating impact. She has a background in environmental sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and strategy, and co-founded KadAfrica, an agribusiness empowering out-of-school girls in East Africa. She has been recognized for her innovative solutions from the Gene Roddenberry Prize, Nestle's Creating Shared Value, the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, SPRING Accelerator, and the Unreasonable Institute.

Dr. Monique Vanni, Advisor – Grants & Financial Inclusion: Dr. Vanni is a seasoned professional in financial inclusion and international development. As a Senior Engagement Manager for the Strive Community, a project supported by the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, she focuses on increasing access to financial services and products for underserved communities in LATAM and agriculture. With a global outlook and entrepreneurial attitude, Dr. Vanni excels in developing and implementing innovative strategies to drive financial inclusion.

Dr. Silvia Console Battilana, Advisor - Game Theory & Market Design: Dr. Console Battilana is the co-founder and CEO of Auctionomics, a consulting agency focused on high-stakes multibillion dollar auctions. She started the company alongside Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Milgrom. With a deep expertise in auction design and market mechanisms, Silvia leads Auctionomics in advising clients on improving the efficiency and outcomes of complex auction processes. Silvia is a leading figure in the World Economic Forums’ Young Global Leader. 

Will Fitzpatrick, General Council: Will is an attorney and advisor to entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals, specializing in aligning financial and mission-driven initiatives to drive social and environmental impact. He was instrumental in creating Omidyar Network's unique legal structure and has served as early stage counsel to tech startups like Google and Electronic Arts. Will is licensed to practice law in California and New York and serves as a lecturer at Berkeley School of Law.

Eric Kaduru, Advisor & Pilot Partner CARE – Digital & Financial Inclusion & Women Empowerment: Eric is a seasoned entrepreneur and marketeer with over a decade of experience in market-based empowerment programs. He has extensive experience in relationship building, fundraising, and public speaking and has worked in both Africa and the United States. Eric has a background in co-designing and building entrepreneurial opportunities for vulnerable populations and has worked with organizations such as CARE to drive positive change. 

Kayhan Golkar, Brand & Media: Kayhan specializes in brand identity and media production with experience in the music industry. He has run successful sound branding campaigns for major financial and automotive brands and is the creator of "Common Hour," our in-depth media series exploring ideas and connecting dots between fintech, DeFi, impact investing, and beyond. Kayhan brings a unique perspective to brand development and content creation to help Commonlands spread our message.

Shanley Knox, Advisor – Brand & Messaging: Shanley is a seasoned social entrepreneur and strategist with over 12 years of experience building brand and messaging for emerging and established products and platforms. She has expertise in diverse industries including insurtech, healthtech, climatetech and venture capital. Shanley holds an MS in Impact Focused Business and Investing and has trained in systems change strategy. She is currently serving as the Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Glasgow Caledonian College in New York.

FuixLabs Team

Timothy O’Brien, Founder, CEO & CTO: Tim is a seasoned software developer and engineer with over 20 years of experience, including work on cutting-edge mission critical technologies for major companies such as: Google, Raytheon, Citi Group, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Tokyo, Danske Bank, & Philips Health. Tim is an advocate of open source and has been involved in initiatives to support entrepreneurship and digital platforms in Africa, including projects in Ghana, Congo and Tanzania.

CEFORD Team

Okaya Bosco

Alioni Gilbert

As Co-Leads for CEFORD, Okaya and Alioni have the critical responsibility of implementing our project in Uganda. They will be in charge of the on-the-ground operations, which include training and onboarding users into the Commonlands system. Their deep understanding of the local context and extensive experience in community work equip them with the necessary skills to effectively communicate the benefits of our project and drive user adoption. They will work closely with local communities to address any concerns and foster a strong relationship between Commonlands and the people we aim to serve.

More About FuixLabs

FuixLabs is a blockchain builder located in Vietnam that has worked in the Cardano

Ecosystem since 2019 contributing to high value projects, providing community advice and helping Cardano grow in South East Asia. Fuixlabs is the most successful Cardano builder nobody has heard of. Founding member and ex-googler Tim O'Brien had a 18 year careers in software and has 18 years experience building complex software.

FuixLabs is an active contributor to the Cardano Community.

• Tech lead, Tim O'Brien, was a founding member of the Vietnamese Eastern Town Hall.

• FuxLabs' Tim O'Brien helped organize the Cardano Summit in Vietnam, and has been working with trade organizations and governments, such as Singapore, to promote Cardano as a Trade Platform.

• FuixLabs is active on Twitter, answering questions and defending Cardano from attacks: @fuixlabs, @qmodeling, and @ada_ minnow.

• FuixLabs contributes to open-source libraries, frameworks, and documentation on Cardano, including an open-source alternative to blackfrost, a Cardano Wallet, and guidelines on how to install Plutus.

FuixLabs travels around the world to listen to Cardano customers in Africa and build innovative products on Cardano that fit with the Global South.

• FuixLabs created a No-Code Hackathon, allowing communities to build their own solutions using No-Code Tools.

• Website: https://cardanonocode.com

• FuixLabs has built a full implementation of the DID specification called Dominium. It interoperates with AtalaPrism but also runs standalone. Dominium is the only open-source DID implementation in the ecosystem and is committed to always being free and non-commercial. It has been embedded in TradeTrust

(https://www.tradetrust.io/) and Sprynt.io (http://Sprynt.io) to create a platform for paperless trade and cross-chain payments.

• Visit https://fuixlabs.com/dominium/ for more information.

• Watch a video introduction:

https://youtu.be/g2ojXj8HX3Q

• FuixLabs built a mobile wallet that allows representatives of the Ghana government to upload documents, soil assays, and pesticides and encrypt them with their public key. Farmers own all documents related to their crops and land and can use them to bargain for better prices.

• FuixLabs built a metaverse that transcends differences in language, education, and technical proficiency, allowing small farmers, shippers, and markets in Kenya and Ghana to understand supply chain management and food traceability.

Videos:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5XpnJISQG5bnbowma_8nF5OsiKG0rpS3

• FuixLabs is working with the government of Singapore to advance the cause of paperless cross-border trade, which will one day allow farmers to ship their products overseas themselves.

Fuixlabs is committed to Self Sovereign Identity with Atala Prism

• DApp: https://github.com/tuvalusoftware/TradeTrust

• Cardano Service: https://github.com/tuvalusoftware/CardanoService

• DID Resolver: https://github.com/tuvalusoftware/DIDResolver

• DID Controller: https://github.com/tuvalusoftware/DIDController

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

We are developing a framework and a standard for a DID based land certificate system & then implementing it in the field.

Our implementation partner CEFORD and CARE have both validated our idea by signing on to pilot Commonlands with their 1,375 women in 55 Village Savings & Loan Associations. 

Validation is also built into Claimchain and is what makes Commonlands trustworthy, because to unlock value on Commonlands, communities must first complete their Claimchains by successfully linking 150 plots (without ownership disputes). 

Once a Claimchain is unlocked, our credit-delivery partners will leverage the technology to source, onboard and secure loans against Commonlands Certificates. Each lending partner will report on lending success and the usefulness of Commonlands as a credit-delivery mechanism.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Outreach

• Hold an inception meeting at the Sub-County level in Omugo, Uganda to get a buy-in of the Sub-County authority and the local leaders from the five parishes where the intervention will be implemented. The participants in this meeting will include the Sub-County local government staff both technical political, Sub-County land board, Parish chiefs, Local councils and group chair persons.

Community mobilization and awareness campaign 

• Hold a meeting for each of the 55 existing Village Saving and Loan Association groups with approximately 1,375 women members 

Training

• Onboarding and training of key CEFORD staff, Community Based Trainers and project staff on how to use the app & technology. 

• 55 Training and Capacity Building Sessions: CEFORD will create and provide comprehensive training to VSLA members; Community Based Trainers CBTs and project staff on how to use the application and to circumvent unforeseen problems. Training sessions will include but are not limited to:

• the importance the system and the benefits it provides

• how the Commonlands system requires 150 undisputed claims (Claimchain) for their claim to be valid and how to track Claimchain progress.

• how to create an account and start the process of documenting their land claim

• how to invite neighbors and agree on shared boundaries and teach others in their community to do the same

• teach the proper boundary marker documentation techniques and how to find markers documented by other community members on the system

• what to do in case of disputes, how to negotiate a dispute resolution and how disputes impact claims on the system

• what to do once their land certificates are issued, how to use their new credential and how to increase their creditworthiness / ranking

• make clear that Commonlands Certificates are not the same thing as a legal title, but they can act like titles and replace the need for official titles, which is one of the key benefits of using the system

• how to use land credentials to secure agreements & loans and what happens in case of a default

• how to update or transfer land claims after they have been created

• ensure that all group members, especially women, can understand and use the app effectively

• ensure that all group members, especially women, understand the consequences of defaults and low trust scores (their land is secure but they lose access to the system and all the benefits that come with it)

• Organize financial literacy and responsible borrowing training (refresher training for groups that have already had training) for the VSLA members in readiness to be linked to the accredited Commonlands Micro finance Institutions to access credit for business and development. Make clear how the locking on Commonlands Certificates impact the users ranking and status on the system and that they will be unable to access their claim until debts are repaid.

Technology

• Interoperability standard that creates a protocol for easy integration 

• Incld. types of data - plots, but also soil assays, government pesticide testing, etc. 

• We will define a format of land ownership registries. 

• Decentralized ID framework will store the registries in repositories and the user will maintain control of the DID. 

• Create & Publish Standard for Cardano DID based Land Certificates 

• Mobilization of group members who do not have SIM cards and liaise with the Telecom companies to register their own cards. This will be done by arranging days for the telecom companies to visit the specific location in order to register the interested members

• Technical Infrastructure: Assess internet connectivity and mobile network coverage in the project area. If needed, provide a mobile hotspot to CBTs so connectivity is not an issue while onboarding community members into the Commonlands system. 

• UI/UX Iteration Cycles - regular app feedback and tracking of areas that can be improved to help community members use the app more effectively and easily.

• Dispute resolution system

• Identify disputes

• Submit suggested changes

• Review suggested changes & agree or decline or provide counter suggestion 

• Delivery of verifiable credentials / Cardano wallets

• Recreate profile with mnemonic code 

• Key management solution 

• Creating of claim chain certification 

• Creating and issuing of land claim “titles” as verifiable PDFs

• Delivery of contract creation, credential collections, contract signing & credential locking / unlocking

• UX design and flows 

• Co-Signing contract / Collect multiple signatures on contract 

• Originate contract with text 

• Locking of credentials 

• Unlocking of credentials 

• Integration with payment platforms

• Mobile Money

• DeFi

Claimchain

• Actual registration of interested members and establishment of a claimchain(s). This will also be led by the CBTs and project officers by visiting and verifying the plots to ensure there are no unnecessary land disputes – where disputes are valid they shall remain, where disputes can be resolved they should be resolved. 

• Completion of 1st Claimchain so lending can begin

• 5 Claimchains completed or 750 verified plots created

Credit Delivery

• Onboard first Micro-Finance Partner

• Lending contracts delivered

• Issue first loans

• 100 loans go through full loan cycle

Evaluation & Learning

• Monitor, evaluate & share the impact of Commonlands technology on VSLA groups in terms of land security, economic empowerment & women being recognized as owners. 

• Project Report

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

1) Community outreach & training:  

• 55 meetings reaching total of 1,375

2) 1st Claimchain completion:  

• delivering the first open land registry consisting of at least 100 connected and undisputed plots on the Cardano blockchain using AtalaPrism for identification. 

3) DID creation & tied to Cardano Wallet:  

• Identity onboarding process to capture the identity of someone without a government ID

• Recreate profile with mnemonic code 

• Key management solution designed for base of the pyramid

4) Dispute resolution system

5) Land Certificates issued as verifiable credentials on Cardano:  

• Creating of Claimchain certification

• Creating and issuing of land claim “titles” as verifiable PDFs tied to DIDs

• Create and publish a standard for Claimchain land credentials

6) Contract Creation & Certificate Locking

• Delivery of contract creation, credential collections, contract signing & credential locking / unlocking system utilizing Commonlands land certificates

• Co-Signing contract / Collect multiple signatures on contract 

• Originate contract with text 

• Locking of credentials 

• Unlocking of credentials

7) UI/UX improvement cycle based on real world use & feedback from rural Ugandan communities

• Delivery of public key learning report for lessons learned & best practices

8) Payment platform integrations

• Integration with at least one mobile money provider or crypto payment solution

9) 5 Claimchains or 750 plots created

10) 2,500 people on boarded into Commonlands with Cardano wallets

11) Lending partner & loan pool

• Agreement with at least one lending partner to pilot Commonlands using our verifiable credentials to secure loans

• Minimum committed loan pool of 10,000USD

• Minimum 10,000USD delivered as loans using Commonlands Certificates as collateral

12) Delivery of final public project report to Cardano community answering the following questions:   

• How can decentralized community-verified credit scores on the blockchain tied to land inform lending models to reduce cost and improve accessibility and productive capital use? What is the willingness of more traditional and low tech banking institutions such as microfinance institutions to adopt these solutions? What is the precise value proposition that will encourage adoption, and enable Web3.0 solutions to drive innovation and scale? 

• How can blockchain solutions bring security and transparency to community-based governance systems, in ways that make up for the lack of legal security that can hamper investment in developing countries?

• What are the hurdles for adoption of WEB 3.0 solutions at community level, and what kind of delivery methods, onboarding and training support is required for effective and inclusive roll-out?

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Milestone 0 (Needed at Start)

• Project staff Uganda -- 2 project leads, 1 full time officer, 5 full-time community based trainers (78,571 ADA)

• Data & hardware Uganda (17,857 ADA)

• Travel & Lodging (35,714 ADA)

Milestone 1

• Community outreach & trainings -- 55 community groups, 1,375 women (53,571 ADA)

• Training the trainers (17,857 ADA)

Milestone 2

• 1st Claimchain completed -- 150 cross-referenced undisputed plots (35,714 ADA)

Milestone 3

• Technology Delivery: functional DID & Cardano Wallet creation for users (53,571 ADA)

Milestone 4

• Technology Delivery: Dispute Resolution System, a functional system that allows disputing parties to propose and agree on resolutions and update verifiable credentials (53,571 ADA)

Milestone 5

• Technology Delivery: Land certificates delivered as PDF verifiable credentials & publish Commonlands Land Certificate Standard (53,571 ADA)

• Standards Publication (53,571 ADA)
• Interoperability standard, format of land ownership registries,
• decentralized ID framework will store the registries in repositories and the user will maintain control of the DID

Milestone 6

• Technology Delivery: Contract creation & certificate locking/unlocking protocol -- allows certificates to be added to contracts and locked by one or more users as "signers" of the contract (53,571 ADA)

Milestone 7

• Technology Delivery & Report: UI/UX improvement cycle based on real world use & feedback and a report outlining the findings and reasons for the changes (26,786 ADA)

Milestone 8

• Technology Delivery: Cardano or mobile money payment platform integration with Commonlands user Cardano wallets (53,571 ADA)

Milestone 9

• 5 Claimchains or minimum of 750 plots created if 2 or more initial Claimchains connect (53,571 ADA)

Milestone 10

• 2,500 people onboarded with Cardano wallets (35,714 ADA)

Milestone 11

• Onboarding and official partnership with Lending Partner (17,857 ADA)
• Agreement with at least one lending partner to pilot Commonlands using our verifiable land credential standard to secure loans
• Minimum committed loan pool of 10,000USD

Milestone 12

• Final report (53,571 ADA)
• delivery of final project report answering the questions outlined in the last question to the Cardano community

Total: 748,214 ADA

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The investment in this project holds tremendous value for the Cardano ecosystem. This assertion is rooted in a number of strategic advantages that our project will confer upon the Cardano community:

• Broad User Onboarding: The World Bank has linked land ownership and related challenges to the heart of numerous global development issues. By addressing these challenges through our platform that integrates with Cardano, we can onboard billions of unbanked and underbanked people into the Cardano ecosystem. Our platform will empower them with verifiable identities, digital land certificates, and Cardano wallets, thereby creating a significant number of new Cardano users.

• Lifetime Value of Each User: The lifetime value of each user acquired through this project is significant. Each user represents not just a single transaction, but a multitude of potential transactions and interactions within the Cardano ecosystem throughout their lifetime. With each user possessing a Cardano wallet, a verifiable identity, and a digital land certificate, the number of potential transactions and interactions increases exponentially.

• Addressing Global Problems: This project is not just about the numerical increase in users and their claims. It is about introducing a novel solution to a pressing global issue. This aligns with Cardano's mission to create a financial operating system for the world and highlights Cardano's relevance and adaptability in solving real-world problems.

• Intrinsic Value: While it may be tempting to assess the project's value solely in terms of user growth or potential financial returns, the true value is in its potential to fundamentally transform the lives of the users and communities we serve. This is a testament to Cardano's commitment to creating a more equitable and sustainable world, which in turn strengthens the Cardano brand and community's trust.

• Scalability: Our project serves as a blueprint for scalable solutions that can be replicated in diverse contexts worldwide. Thus, the cost of the project should be viewed not as an isolated investment, but as a foundational expense with far-reaching implications for Cardano's global expansion and influence.

In conclusion, the costs associated with our project represent a strategic and impactful investment for the Cardano ecosystem. This project offers the opportunity to leverage Cardano's innovative blockchain technology to address urgent global development challenges, onboard a significant number of new users, and create a substantial long-term value that far exceeds the initial investment.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept