Coin Catcher : tools for data privacy, personal AI, and data monetization, across multiple blockchains

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Chris Williams

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

Entity (Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

191046

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

8

[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)

Coin Catcher will create a "Coin Sharing" feature that will leverage Cardano and smart contracts, and will record user-to-user coin transfers on the blockchain.

[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.”

Legal counsel, for filings and regulatory advice

Florida Office of Financial Regulation, to join the FL Finance Technology Sandbox

https://flofr.gov/sitePages/FinancialTechnologySandbox.htm

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

No

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

We will contribute all code for the Cardano Node deployment, and the "server-less function" that interacts with the Cardano Node as open source.

The majority of Coin Catcher code is closed source, since we are still working on our BETA application. Our intention is to publish our network, message formats, client libraries, and phone apps as open source after we have solidified activity on the Coin Catcher network.

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG Goals

1 - End poverty in all its forms everywhere

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

5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

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

10 - Reduce inequality within and among countries

SDG Subgoals

1.3 - Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable

1.4 - 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

1.5 - By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters

10.2 - By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status

10.4 - Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality

10.6 - Ensure enhanced representation and voice for developing countries in decision-making in global international economic and financial institutions in order to deliver more effective, credible, accountable and legitimate institutions

10.a - Implement the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, in accordance with World Trade Organization agreements

10.b - Encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to States where the need is greatest, in particular least developed countries, African countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in accordance with their national plans and programmes

10.c - By 2030, reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent

4.4 - By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

4.5 - By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations

5.b - Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women

5.c - Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

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

8.3 - Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services

8.4 - Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10‑Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, with developed countries taking the lead

8.6 - By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training

8.9 - By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

8.3.1 - Proportion of informal employment in total employment, by sector and sex

1.3.1 - Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, newborns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable

10.2.1 - Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income, by sex, age and persons with disabilities

10.c.1 - Remittance costs as a proportion of the amount remitted

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Coin Catcher is an application for users to protect and control their data, while businesses and marketers can create promotions ("coins") that they drop to users in exchange for their data.

In this way, we are building a data marketplace with solutions for data monetization.

We are focused on novel uses of AI that will allow people to share their data in a useful way, without actually sharing "raw data" with businesses and marketers.

Currently, a business drops a "coin" to a user, and the user sends it back to redeem it from the business, for whatever it was worth at that business. In this simple flow, we do not need a blockchain, and can rely on simple key signatures.

But in the next phase of Coin Catcher, users need to be able to send the coins to each other, and for this, we will need to record the transfer on a blockchain.

We will plan and build a new "Coin Sharing" feature in Coin Catcher that allows users to send coins to other users. Also, Marketers and Businesses will get access to a new coin-type, called "Share to Get", which allows a Business to drop a coin, that does not become valuable, unless the user that caught it, shares it with someone else. This type of coin will encourage a "viral spread"

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

Eminence : Cardano will be the first blockchain / crypto in the FL FinTech Sandbox

Transaction Volume : Coin Catcher users will increase the use of Cardano

ADA Demand : Coin Catcher Plus users will increase the demand for ADA

Code contributions : Coin Catcher will release all code for the Cardano Node deployment, and the "server-less function" that interacts with the Cardano Node, as open source.

[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?

Chris Williams is an architect, blockchain consultant, and money systems researcher that has worked on multiple large scale enterprise blockchain projects, and banking systems. Coin Catcher is past its ALPHA build and is currently in its BETA build, so this "Coin Sharing" feature is being added to an existing application.

Because we are early in the application's life, we are spending every moment that we are not building, with customers. Asking them about their problems with data privacy, marketing, finding customers, and money troubles. We are recruiting our BETA "customer-partners" that will work with us to improve this product offering, on our path to revenue.

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

Milestone 1 : Architecture + Design + Planning

A: Milestone outputs

• Application Architecture, process flows, and infra deployment specs
• UI / UX for "Coin Sharing" features in the Customer App + the Marketer App
• Project Plan, development schedule, release plan, marketing plan, and resources

B: Acceptance criteria

• Drafted Application Architecture, with: tech stack, security controls, data model, interface spec
• Drafted Process Architecture, with: User Journey List, process flows for each tier 1 user journey
• Drafted Deployment Architecture, with: DEV vs PROD infra, DevOps pipelines, maximum load, failover
• Created wireframes for all screens in the Customer App, that are part of the User Journey List
• Created wireframes for all screens in the Marketer App, that are part of the User Journey List
• Created a clickable demo of all Wireframes that are part of the User Journey List
• PM tools are in place (Kanban / Scrum) and Milestone 2 + 3 tasks are created
• Dev Schedule + Release Plan for Milestone 2 + 3 are created
• Marketing Plan + Required Resources for Milestone 4 + 5 are created

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Architecture signoff. Outputs available for review
• Design signoff. Clickable demo available for review
• Project signoff. Outputs available for review

Milestone 2 : Blockchain Infra + Smart Contract Dev / Deployment

A: Milestone outputs

• Blockchain Node Infra, key management, failover automation, and environment tests
• Cardano smart contract development, unit tests, and security review
• Cardano smart contract DevOps pipelines, integration tests, and contract owner tests

B: Acceptance criteria

• Deployed Cardano nodes across (at least) 2 locations, and load balancing between them
• Implemented a key management strategy to protect wallet ADA balances, and allow nodes to pay TX fees
• Executed a list of tests against the Cardano Infra, to prove the environment satisfies requirements
• Developed Cardano smart contracts to satisfy all "Coin Sharing" requirements
• Executed a list of unit tests against the Cardano smart contracts to prove all "Coin Sharing" requirements
• Cardano smart contract reviewed by a security expert, and any critical / high issues have been remediated
• Assembled and executed DevOps pipelines for deploying Cardano smart contracts to testnet + mainnet
• Executed a list of integration tests against our Cardano nodes to prove all smart contract functions succeed
• Executed a list of integration tests that specifically prove functions accessible to contract owner are protected

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Cardano Node environment tests all succeed
• Cardano smart contract unit tests all succeed
• Smart contract security review, found issues, and evidence of remediation
• Cardano smart contract integration tests in testnet all succeed

Milestone 3 : App Dev + Integration / Deployment

A: Milestone outputs

• Add "Coin Sharing" UI / UX to Customer App, integrate Cardano components, and unit tests
• Add "Coin Sharing" UI / UX to Marketer App, integrate Cardano components, and unit tests
• App DevOps pipelines, integration tests, and end-to-end tests

B: Acceptance criteria

• Developed frontend components of the Customer App to support the "Coin Sharing" UX
• Integrated frontend components with the backend Cardano components + smart contract calls
• Executed a list of unit tests against the frontend components to prove all "Coin Sharing" UX succeeds
• Developed frontend components of the Marketer App to support the "Coin Sharing" UX
• Integrated frontend components with the backend Cardano components + smart contract calls
• Executed a list of unit tests against the frontend components to prove all "Coin Sharing" UX succeeds
• Assembled and executed DevOps pipelines for deploying Customer / Marketer Apps to DEV / PROD
• Executed a list of integration tests against message relay servers to prove all "Coin Sharing" functions succeed
• Executed a list of end-to-end tests using the Apps to prove that all UI / UX functions succeed

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Customer App unit tests all succeed
• Marketer App unit tests all succeed
• Integration tests in the DEV environment all succeed
• End-to-end tests in the DEV environment all succeed

Milestone 4 : Infra + KPI Monitoring

A: Milestone outputs

• Consolidating logging, system alerts, and custom event alerts
• KPI metric collection and Grafana dashboard for system and KPIs
• KPI metric testing, load testing, failover testing, and penetration testing

B: Acceptance criteria

• All logs for Cardano Nodes, Relay Servers, Server-less functions, and Ingresses are viewable in one tool
• Alerts for System Events are sent to a team group chat and all team members verified they received them
• Alerts for Custom Events (User Journey finished, etc) are sent to a team group chat
• Identified all metrics required for measuring KPI's and verified they are being collected by Prometheus / etc.
• Assembled a Grafana dashboard to observe and report on the system, especially the Cardano components
• Assembled a Grafana dashboard to observe, track, and report on KPI's
• Executed tests, individually and as a load test, to verify the system and KPI metrics are being recorded
• Executed a node failure test to prove that the load balancer will failover between the Cardano nodes
• Deployed environment reviewed by a security expert, and any critical / high issues have been remediated

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Team verification that they see system alerts in the team group chat
• KPI metrics list
• Grafana dashboards for system + KPI's
• Load testing results succeeded at the maximum expected load
• Cardano Node failover test succeeded
• Deployed environment security review, found issues, and evidence of remediation

Milestone 5 : Targeted Campaign "Share Coins with Friends"

A: Milestone outputs

• Promotional content for the new "Coin Sharing" feature, and the "Share to Get" marketing scheme
• Marketers run campaigns using the new "Share to Get" scheme using Coin Catcher
• Customers catch coins, that they share with friends, using the new "Coin Sharing" feature

B: Acceptance criteria

• Posted 2 Blog articles describing the new "Coin Sharing" feature, and the "Share to Get" marketing scheme
• Created 2 Videos (and Shorts) based on the Blog articles, and posted these to video sharing sites
• Posted to Social medias about the blog / video, and to promote the "Coin Sharing" and "Share to Get" features
• Outreach to all Marketer clients of Coin Catcher, and tell them about the new "Share to Get" feature
• Identified, onboarded, and assisted 5 Marketer to launch campaigns using the new "Share to Get" feature
• Collected KPI's daily over the course of the campaigns, and reported on them to Marketers weekly
• Created the Project Closeout Report and Video, and reviewed with Catalyst
• Collected KPI's daily over the course of the campaigns, and reported on them to Marketers weekly

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• 2 Blog posts + 2 Videos (based on the Blog posts), available publicly
• Multiple social media posts over the course of 8 weeks promoting these features
• 5 Marketers have executed campaigns using the "Share to Get" feature
• KPI progress reports updated continuously, available on request
• KPI progress reports, updated continuously, available on request

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

Chris Williams

Founder, Tech

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-williams-fintech/

Kyle Vena

Creative Director

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylevena/

Barbara Widholm

Biz Dev / Project Management

https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-widholm/

Jeremy Beal

Marketing / Community Growth

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-beal-b031251b/

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

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

Labor : $50,000

We will contribute all code for the Cardano Node deployment, and the "server-less function" that interacts with the Cardano Node, as open source.

Any existing libraries and best practices will be incorporated, with documentation

Our biggest expense is to pay team members and contractors to plan and build various parts of this solutions.

This "Coin Sharing" feature is a way to have Coin Catcher users, use a blockchain and ADA crypto, without every having to know about them.

Materials : $12,000

These are security audits and infrastructure costs for the next 12 months.

For both expenses, we will leverage people in the Cardano community first, and pay them for their services.

Legal : $10,000

We want to join the FL "FinTech Sandbox". This will also give Cardano the distinguished headline of being the first blockchain / crypto to enter the FL FinTech Sandbox.

https://flofr.gov/sitePages/FinancialTechnologySandbox.htm

Coin Catcher is a FL corporation and is basically a tool for Marketers to distribute promotions to Customers.

This is a low risk model, with minimal regulation (FTC) as long as the promotions are only moving between the Customer and the Business.

In this proposal, we are going to add the ability for Customers to send a promotion they caught, to another Customer.

Initially, this should not increase our regulatory burden, but we need to protect ourselves in case this is eventually considered "money transmitting".

FL has a "financial technology sandbox" that will allow us to operate in FL, and avoid most of the regulatory burden of being a money transmitter.

This money will go to retain a Lawyer, produce all filings required to join the FL FinTech Sandbox, and acquire surety bonds, per requirements.

Marketing : $10,150

This new "Coin Sharing" feature will create Cardano transactions and demand for ADA, coming from Coin Catcher users.

We want to promote this feature, but we want to provide it to Coin Catcher users as a free service initially.

To offer this service for "free", we will need to pay the TX fees for the Coin Catcher users.

In this initial launch period, we want to plan to cover TX fees for 10,000 Cardano transactions, which costs approximately 5,000 ADA

We also need to do a "blog + video + social" marketing campaign over the course of 8 weeks to make these features known

We will create a "Coin Catcher Plus" subscription for our users, and it will include a certain amount of ADA every month, to pay for "Coin Sharing"