Sustainability for Crypto: funding ESG

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Simon Peter

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

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

6

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

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

We drive positive ecological and social impact by funding ESG-compliant projects. Our token holders can vote about the projects. We seek to bring crypto-enthusiasts and ESG-entrepreneurs together.

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

No

[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.”

No dependencies.

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

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

MIT

[METADATA] SDG rating

Our project has a strong impact on the Sustainable Development Goals as the projects we support will contribute to the various categories of the SDG. By funding different projects that directly contribute to the SDG we aim to bring the world one step closer to the goals.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

Problem 1: The cryptoanarchist view is that the capital should be distributed more equally. To this date, the opposite is the case ("whale effect", [Cryptofinance, Cohan 2021, Chapter 3] [Characterizing Wealth Inequality in Cryptocurrencies, Sai et al. 2021] [How centralized is decentralized? Comparison of wealth distribution in coins and tokens, Kusmierz et al. 2022]

Solution to Problem 1: At Replicant (REPL), we democratize who gets the money: the community collaborates with the ESG-project founders to sharpen the proposals, then the community (i.e. REPL holders) votes which projects receive funding

Problem 2: Until this date, crypto lacks large-scale real-world applications. Therefore, the capital which is tied to crypto and thus is lacking in the "real-world economy", does not help to shape the future (the capital is not "at work" like when I am investing in a company which adds surplus value to the society)

Solution to problem 2: We reincarnate the believe that crypto came to change the world. With sufficiently high market cap, we aim to sensibly release REPL token for the winning projects to fuel their realization over time. With sufficient growth, we can balance capital accumulation ("growth of Replicant community") with financing of real-world ESG projects. After the growth phase, to make the business model sustainable, we aim to incorporate return-of-investment strategies to close the loop of real-world investments interlinked with crypto (e.g. smart contract shareholding).

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

• Positive perception, increased acceptance in society: Cardano as the trailblazer technology for driving social wealth. Cardano as the first Distributed Ledger Technology actively benefitting the environment by funding ESG projects, and not harming it (e.g. as by excessive energy consumption).
• Increased integration of Cardano within the "real" economy. The financial incentive to invest in crypto increases with ROI strategies.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Interdisciplinary team of former ETH students with background in AI, robotics and aerospace. Manifested believe that ecological growth should go hand-in-hand with environmental responsibility. Kick off project with subscale demonstrator, showing that our beliefs are shared within the Cardano community.

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone: Demonstrated the ability to build a community and moderate the dialogue.

Acceptance: Number of community members exceeded threshold 200.

Milestone: Obtained liquidity through token sale to fuel the first project proposals.

Acceptance: Project liquidity after seeding sufficient to kick off first projects.

Milestone: Application window has closed and multiple candidate projects were proposed.

Acceptance: Number of project proposals ≥ 3.

Milestone / Acceptance: Community voting selected the fittest candidates for funding.

Milestone / Acceptance: Funding and execution of the first small-scale projects succeeded.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Simon: Team-Lead & Founder (ETH Zürich)

Pascal: Fullstack Dev & Co-Founder (ETH Zürich)

Clemens: Community Management & Co-Founder (ETH Zürich)

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

MS1, MS2 (2 months): 20k Ada + 3k Ada marketing and other small expences

MS3 (2 months): 20k Ada

MS4 (1 month): 10k Ada

Final MS (1 month): 10k Ada + 7k Ada travel expenses

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

The costs cover the wages for the development of the concept as well as costs for marketing, travel costs and other minor expences.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund 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