Token Redeemer - Smart blockchain vouchers for social good in Uganda

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Dr Maciej Zurawski

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

mz@musemantik.com

Additional applicants

Diwakar Thakore, COO

Responsibility in this project: Regulation, market research, project management, project accounting, financial planning, risk management, marketing and strategic partnerships

Adam Greenberg, Product Development

Responsibility in this project: product management, customer development

Nicholas Bukenya, Head of Africa

Responsibility in this project: local customer development and technical support in Uganda, learning about user and customer needs, will teach aid recipients how to use this solution, will help to vet and onboard local e-commerce partners, will collect data about social good and reduce fraud risk.

Tokens of Life, charity in Uganda

Responsibility in this project: Is the local partner in Uganda. Will help to give us advice how to adapt the product to user needs, will teach aid recipients how to use this solution, will help to vet and onboard local e-commerce partners, will collect data about social good and reduce fraud risk.

Main applicant:

Maciej Zurawski, CEO & CTO

Responsibility in this project: Project leader, technical management, technical specification, lead R&D, smart contract coding, data security, software development 

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

12

[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.” .

Tokens of Life in Uganda (https://www.tokensoflifeuganda.org/ ) are the local partner in Uganda

[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.”

Eventually we will plan to make the project open source, since transparency is at the heart, but that might not be feasible yet. Long-term we plan to make core voucher issuance and redemptions open source (and a general standard/protocol), but at this project stage, the various system integrations, e.g. e-commerce integrations and integrations with on- and off-ramps, administrative panels, fraud monitoring and internal analytics might not be open source, so that is why at this stage the answer is no. 

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

DeFi

[METADATA] SDG rating

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

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

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

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

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

SDG subgoals:

Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries

By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round

By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births

By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes

By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all

Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Prevalence of undernourishment

Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)

Maternal mortality ratio

Completion rate (primary education, lower secondary education, upper secondary education)

Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population

Proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national disaster risk reduction strategies

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The solution we propose are permissionless, intelligent, configurable, cryptographically secure on-chain vouchers using blockchain and symbolic AI. This slide explains what makes our vouchers different both from fiat and giving crypto directly: http://bit.ly/40xSaka

These are the benefits of the solution:

1.      Firstly it provides details if, when and how a voucher is redeemed.

2.      Secondly, these vouchers can be programmed to be flexible (“you can spend it on food or extra education”)

3.      Thirdly, If a voucher is lost or unused, unlike fiat the value of it returns automatically to the creator. This helps to reduce waste.

4.      Fourthly, AI gives us “intelligent configuration capabilities”: how, where and by whom the voucher can be redeemed. In this pilot, we will start with some basic granularity, e.g. what category of service it can be used for, e.g. health, education, food, by whom and expiry date.

Tokens Of Life Uganda is the charity in Uganda that will be helping us to make Token Redeemer’s solution for humanitarian aid useful. This charity acts in various fields including education, health and sanitation and elderly support (see their website: https://www.tokensoflifeuganda.org/ ). Their role in the collaboration consists of: 1) Explore which of the areas they operate are most suitable for this innovation. We explore how the principles of “dignity and choice for the beneficiary, and data and transparency for the benefactor” can best be implemented in their charity. We aim to help 500 people on a low income. 2) Advising in the design of some “user experience” for the recipient where they can see “what can I do with this voucher” and for the benefactor where they can see “how have my vouchers been used” 3) Advice on the user experience in the integration of our vouchers with mobile money., 4) Help to compare digital vouchers, with voucher-by-SMS and paper vouchers

Technical points:

·      Contains a digital currency (incl. stablecoins) or NFT of e.g. art. Intelligent and programmable: the creator customizes how, by whom and by when it can be used. Every recipient has or will be given a decentralized ID on the blockchain that contains their main attributes, e.g. “male low-income farmer in Uganda” and properties are logically processed by the system to find out who is eligible for a certain voucher.

·      Main use cases: incentives, rewards, gifts, reimbursement, porting digital currency outside chains, airdrops

·      Modes of transport: API call from dApp, sending digital code or sharing paper code voucher

·      Visible or invisible to others – unlike direct transfers

·      If the voucher isn’t consumed – it auto-returns to creator at expiry. No wastage.

·      Can operate universally and unconstrained and not dependent on CeFi (centralized finance)

·      Can support ESG concepts and UN sustainable goals

A demo of the solution is running on another chain and we are aiming for a cross-chain solution (see video: https://bit.ly/3AFsqHi ) . 

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

This is a pilot deployment that leads closer to the goal of making general-purpose voucher platform – it will be able to be used by any Cardano project, NGO or charity in two ways: either by using our web front-end or by calling our API back-end. We imagine 50-100 Cardano projects will use this in a year after it is ready. Instead of spending years and a fortune building their own technology, but they can as this backend-as-a-service.

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

• One year after completion, how many other projects use it?
• One year after completion what is the TVL of the vouchers?

(and then yearly)

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

• We will share the outputs in the UK’s largest blockchain meetup that Maciej is leading
• We will share it on social media
• We will share it with NGO and charities (e.g. Mercy Corps)

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

This can be inferred from the previous experience of the contributors:

Diwakar Thakore, COO

Selected previous achievemenets:

* Led product strategy, business development, commercialization, business operations, and fundraising for an AI and Process Automation start up to deliver projects with local government, charity, and Media Company among others.

* Headed operations and finance for web and mobile app companies to deliver a number of consumer applications with over 10,000 downloads each. These consumer-facing apps were designed to deliver social impact.

* Mentored several start-ups from idea to seed financing stage as part of leading mentorship programs, including the award winning Anti-Money-Laundering trailblazer Tookitaki (Singapore) and health supplement startup Szio+, continues to advise them from time to time.

* Authored number of blog articles including on Blockchain and DeFi for online publications like Blockchain Biz.

* Certification's in Digital Currency and Decentralized Finance introductory courses from The Institute of Future, University of Nicosia.

* Social Sector Leadership certificate from University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business and Philanthropy University

*Trained Social Return on Investment practitioner from NEF Consulting and Social Value, UK

* Has an MBA from the University of Edinburgh Business School.

Adam Greenberg, Product Development

Selected previous achievements:

* Crypto investor and startup builder since 2014.

* Most recently was the co-founder of Nova Finance, an automated asset management protocol built on Solana which raised $3m in seed funding.

* Specializes in product development and design and has designed over 20 blockchain based solutions for a range of sectors and business sizes.

Maciej Zurawski, CEO

Selected previous achievements:

* Completed a Ph.D. in AI at School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, about a consensus algorithm for decentralized semantic systems

* Expert on the intersection of AI and blockchain

* Built and launched two consumer applications with 10,000+ downloads each

* Led a £200k ($260k) project that developed a social impact, focused on wellbeing, that later was validated by university research 

* Has been leading technical development teams for web platforms, mobile apps and now web3 apps

* Lead the technical work of building the current beta version of Token Redeemer

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

Goal 1: To establish technical feasibility of the solution

Measurement: We will demonstrate that system works on the blockchain and save a trace of the end-to-end solution, from a voucher buyer purchasing and configuring the voucher, to it being given to a recipient in Uganda, and them redeeming it for a good or service in Uganda.

We will also measure performance metrics like processing time

Goal 2: User acceptance

Measurement: We will use user-acceptance measures to evaluate different stakeholders: A) voucher-buyers, B) local distribution partners, C) voucher recipients, D) redemption partners in Uganda

Goal 3: Establish impact on governance

Measurement: We will ask our community to validate if the product offers sufficient flexibility and reliability that automates and improves governance (eliminating leakage and fraud), or if they identify any attack points or vulnerabilities that prevents it from improving governance

[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.

The tasks are sequential.

See here for detailed calculations and descriptions of every task:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/m7qug9bck7d40u4yukm2h/Project-Plan-and-Budget.xlsx?rlkey=dcj4c4ao5ic2iraeojaf9sbuh&dl=0

Milestone 1. Complete system specification + evaluate wallets and decentralized ID

Duration in weeks: 8

Success criteria: All stakeholders (voucher-buyers, local distribution partners, voucher recipients and redemption partners) agree that the system specification has the minimum functionality to it make useful. A digital wallet decision has been made and decision if any of the decentralized ID solutions for Cardano are ready for prime use. Also, decide how much data should be collected during redemption.

Cost: 69818 ADA

Milestone 2. Create logical model + Build MVP for Cardano

Duration in weeks: 16

Success criteria: The whole system can be demonstrated with both front-end and back-end: a user buys and configures a voucher, a local distribution partner in Uganda can see it, a person in Uganda can see it on their smartphone, the recipient in Uganda can redeem with one redemption partner.

Cost: 122622 ADA

Milestone 3. Integration with 10 redemption partners

Duration in weeks: 8

Success criteria: We can name and demonstrate that voucher redemption works for 10 partners

Cost: 42693 ADA

Milestone 4. Deployment of MVP for Cardano

Duration in weeks: 10

Success criteria: We can show 500 voucher redemptions in Uganda (that is the target)

Cost: 77843 ADA

Milestone 5. Cross-chain vouchers

Duration in weeks: 4

Success criteria: We can demonstrate it is possible to e.g. buy vouchers on Polygon in the UK but users can redeem them on Cardano in Uganda

Cost: 29372 ADA            

Milestone 6. Evaluation and distribution

Duration in weeks: 6

Success criteria: We produce a report about the whole project

Cost: 36755 ADA          

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

Milestone 1. Complete system specification + evaluate wallets and decentralized ID

Outputs:

·      A formal specification about the UI, backend of the system + how system integration with any integration partners in Uganda would look like

·      Decisions about which crypto wallet to use + which decentralized ID solution

Milestone 2. Create logical model + Build MVP for Cardano

Outputs:

·      The symbolic logical model needed by the voucher system to work for our use case in Uganda

·      An MVP of the front-end and back-end working on Cardano. It will be public, so others can also create and redeem vouchers (on the blockchain – without integration)

Milestone 3. Integration with 10 redemption partners

Outputs:

·      A list of the ten partners

·      An updated system that allows voucher buys to control more where the vouchers can be redeemed

·      An updated web UI for voucher redeemers that conveys where the vouchers can be redeemed

Milestone 4. Deployment of MVP for Cardano

Outputs:

·      A deployed system with at least 500 voucher redemptions in Uganda

Milestone 5. Cross-chain vouchers

Outputs:

·      An updated system where we demonstrated at least one voucher purchase on Polygon that then was redeemed on Cardano

Milestone 6. Evaluation and distribution

Outputs:

·      A report that formally evaluates the whole project from a technical, social and financial point of view

·      Several social media posts about the project

·      Seeing other users, not related to us, use this platform to issue vouchers for their own projects 

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

This is the detailed plan:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/m7qug9bck7d40u4yukm2h/Project-Plan-and-Budget.xlsx?rlkey=dcj4c4ao5ic2iraeojaf9sbuh&dl=0

It is task 6, evaluation and distribution that is the time and effort we will spend on "publicity / marketing / promotion / community engagement; project management; documentation; and reporting back to the community". However, community engagement also happens in other tasks and Adam is one of the core people responsible for it.

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

This projects presents extraordinary value for the Cardano ecosystem:

·      The output is a platform that not only is for our project, but other social impact Cardano projects will be able to use. It can be their back-end. We update the logical model so that it can be used for other similar projects.

·      The budget is modest for a system that integrates so many parties, and is used across UK and Uganda

·      The reimbursement rates for Maciej, Diwakar and Adam are roughly 50% of market rates in their countries

·      Because of the integration with Polygon, this will stimulate money, from the larger Polygon Blockchain, to move to the Cardano chain, thereby increasing its TVL

·      Even though travel will be needed (estimated £10k+), we have waived all travel costs in the budget as to offer even better value for money

[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