BankFi: RWA Revenue Engines for Cardano Businesses

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

BankFi: RWA Revenue Engines for Cardano Businesses

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

68000

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

5

[Proposal Summary] Translation Information

Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated

No

Original Language

en

[Proposal Summary] Problem Statement

What is the problem you want to solve?

Cardano businesses and their investors are exposed to excessive risk and market volatility with idle treasuries not being utilized for revenue generation.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://www.bankerlabs.io
,
• https://blockchain.yepple.io/contributions

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

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

No

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

No dependencies

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

No

Please provide details on the intellectual property (IP) status of your project outputs, including whether they will be released as open source or retained under another licence.

This is a proprietary product designed to stimulate business success and sustainability on Cardano. It utilizes several existing proprietary developments, building on top of them to deliver greater value for Cardano businesses.

[Theme Selection] Theme

Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal

Yield

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Describe what makes your idea innovative compared to what has been previously launched in the market (whether by you or others).

All community-based financial raises on Cardano have fallen into one of the following buckets:

• The ADA raised is transferred to a private exchange and managed opaquely
• The ADA raised sits idle in a business' treasury wallet
• The ADA is locked/vested to provide a sense of security

In the first scenario, the project reduces accountability and investors have no insight into how/where the funds are being used. In the latter 2 scenarios, the funds are not being utilized to anywhere near their full potential since the funds are idle and not being "put to work" to earn more money. This idea of putting money to work is ubiquitous in the traditional finance industry, however Cardano business do not have a pathway in the current ecosystem to generate sustainable, reliable, and competitive revenue from their treasury funds -- especially not in a way that is secure and transparent for their investors.

This proposal utilizes the two flagship products of the BankFi/Yepple team -- the BankFi RWA yield platform and the Yepple launchpad -- and adds a layer of innovation that enables projects to seamlessly obtain RWA-backed revenue engines at the time of their raise in a way that is flexible, secure, transparent, and reliable.

By electing to use this new real-time conversion layer between raised funds and yield-bearing RWAs, Cardano businesses are able to:

• Ensure that a majority of their raised funds (50-100%) are allocated for long-term sustainability rather than ephemeral benefits.
• Maximize the potential long-term success of their business by avoiding leaving money on the table by letting their treasury sit idle.
• Provide the strongest possible demonstration of commitment and transparency by locking the majority of their funds in beneficial RWA verticals that are available for the investors to monitor.

Describe what your prototype or MVP will demonstrate, and where it can be accessed.

The solution will be hosted on BankFi (https://bankerlabs.io).

From a user perspective, they will be able to participate in the battle-tested and intuitive sale experience developed by Yepple; however, they will have the added benefit of visualizing real-time transparent data related to the RWAs that are backing the business for which the sale is being run. This data will include the total amount raised in the sale as well as the exact allocations of funds within each RWA vertical.

From a business administrator perspective, they will be able to view a private dashboard throughout (and after) their sale showing real-time information on the amount of ADA raised as well as the USD-equivalent in each selected RWA vertical. They will also be able to manage the RWA vertical allocations in real-time, enabling dynamic opportunities for projects to ensure their allocation is specifically catered to their business' requirements and risk appetite.

The solution will facilitate the turnkey, functionally-complete process of allocating sales to RWAs in real-time while providing full transparency to both business administrators and investors alike.

Describe realistic measures of success, ideally with on-chain metrics.

There are three primary KPIs for this proposal:

On-chain transaction count

Perhaps the most well-understood and popular on-chain metric, transaction count demonstrates definite usage of an application. We anticipate this solution to encourage business to initiate raises (due to the increased opportunities for successful revenue generation) and to encourage Cardano users to participate in these sales (due to the increased transparency, security of funds, and odds of profit). Transactions are generated as users submit payments, as tokens/NFTs are minted, and as RWA revenue rewards are claimed by a business.

Realistic Target: 30,000 on-chain transactions in the first year, increasing year over year.

Total Value Locked (TVL)

Total value locked is representative of the level of success and adoption of this proposal. It factors in both the number of Cardano businesses that value the solution enough to utilize it as well as the number of Cardano users that support the business' choice and are willing to show their support financially. This is perhaps the most validating metric for this specific proposal, directly quantifying the RWAs that have been obtained on behalf of Cardano businesses for the purpose of long-term revenue generation and project sustainability.

Realistic Target: $1,800,000 USD in the first year, increasing year over year.

Distributed RWA Rewards

The value of rewards distributed to participating Cardano businesses demonstrates the impact of this proposal on Cardano businesses in the form of sustained revenue generated by their initial treasury funds. This will undeniably generate more on-chain metrics and benefits for Cardano surrounding transactions and user activity in an indirect sense by providing businesses the funds to continue building their own products for users to engage with.

Realistic Target: $225,000 USD in the first year, increasing year over year.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

Our proposal elevates project sustainability and empowers business owners and investors of both Cardano fungible tokens and NFTs. In the current Web3 climate, Cardano businesses lack access to yield-bearing financial resources. Opening a bank account, let alone gaining access to a business savings account with meaningful interest, is near impossible. Backed by the infrastructure and scale of the existing BankFi RWA platform, companies raising funds on Cardano through token/NFT sales will have a seamless integration into BankFi's RWAs for real-time conversion of investors' ADA payments into BankFi units. They will be able to elect a percentage of the net sale revenue (between 50% and 100%, inclusive) that they would like to have placed in BankFi RWA verticals. Further, they may pick the allocation they would like to designate for each of the diversified BankFi RWA verticals (e.g. BTC Mining or World Mobile).

To be clear, this proposal is not for the development of a new launchpad for NFTs or tokens, nor is it the creation of the RWA platform. BankFi and Yepple already have both of these products, which have been widely used and battle-tested to demonstrate the viability and reliability of both. This proposal is for the integration of an additional layer that supports real-time conversion of investor funds into the BankFi platform to allow for projects to access sustainable yield while investors can rest assured that those funds are secured in BankFi and cannot be misappropriated.

As the sale progresses, at the time of each purchase transaction, the selected percentage of the net payment amount will be directed into the BankFi RWA vertical while the remainder is sent directly to the project. This allows the company to retain liquid funds for short-term use (e.g. 6-12 months) while keeping the rest in BankFi as a long-term revenue generation mechanism to support perpetual progress and growth as a project. We have seen countless projects on Cardano fall short of their goals, but it is rarely due to malicious intentions – much more often, it is due to the inability to deliver using their initial runway due to their lack of access to opportunities to capitalize on those funds while building their product.

Project sustainability and investor fund security are at the core of this proposal, but the other facet is transparency. Management of the RWA allocations will be available to the administrator of the business before and during the sale, allowing them to dynamically adapt to any situation and ensure their funds are being directed to the RWAs best suited for their company's goals. The management dashboard will also show real-time data on the amount of ADA raised in the sale in addition to the corresponding USD that has been converted into each RWA vertical on BankFi. This information will also be available to the public, giving active and potential investors full insight into the allocation of the sale funds.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

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

There are 3 core beneficial impacts to Cardano as a result of this proposal’s deployment.

1. Project viability and sustainability, particularly for well-funded projects, is drastically increased due to the ability to passively yield perpetual revenue. The majority of projects launching on Cardano go through a cycle of Raise funds => Deplete funds => Ask the community for more funds. Each time this cycle is repeated, original investors are diluted and the community is less likely to support the continuance of the project. With this new model, after the Raise Funds stage is a new cycle of Generate Passive Revenue => Deliver Value => Increase Project Adoption.
2. Consumer protection for both NFT and fungible token sales. Regardless of whether a company is well-intentioned or not, the fact is that Web3 attracts many startups. According to several studies, including ones conducted by Harvard as well as the consensus of accelerators such as ycombinator, 75-95% of funded startups fail (with failure typically referred to as failing to remain operational for 2-10 years). We have witnessed this first hand with countless companies on Cardano who raised hundreds of thousands, and some in the millions, who ended up losing all of the assets that were entrusted to them. While startup investing will never be a low-risk activity, this proposal opens the door to an unprecedented level of consumer protection through the guarantee of 50-100% of funds being allocated to trusted RWAs that will generate revenue to sustain their investment in the situation where the business requires more funds or time than expected to deliver. This safety will boost investor confidence, which creates an additional positive feedback loop of better funding for projects and more successful long-term operations.
3. Ecosystem effects: TVL, transaction activity, support for Cardano businesses, and long-term demand for ADA itself. BankFi verticals create both short-term and long-term demand for ADA. Some verticals, such as our World Mobile vertical, directly support projects building on Cardano, which ultimately leads to greater adoption and success of Cardano and ADA. Other verticals, such as BTC mining, are a long-term funnel of funds from external cryptocurrencies to ADA. All revenue generated from these BankFi asset verticals are converted from their currency (in this case, BTC) into ADA to be distributed to the businesses and users.

[Your Project and Solution] Capabilities & 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?

There are two primary roadblocks to maximizing the adoption and success of this proposal. The first is business management acumen, particularly the skills to manage large amounts of funds, oversee operations, and form valuable partnerships. The second is the technical deliverable, which requires a high level of reliability for the user experience, transaction processing, and revenue distribution mechanisms.

This first roadblock is handled by the competency of the BankerLabs team. The two leaders of the team, Andrew Caldwell and Stephen Caldwell, are both executives at Smart Choice. Smart Choice is an insurance network valued at more than $1 billion USD, with more than 300 employees operating in 44 states across the US. They have utilized $170 million USD for acquisitions of smaller companies in the last 24 months alone. They process more than $300 million USD in insurance commission annually for more than 10,000 insurance agents. Andrew Caldwell is the President/CEO, responsible for effective decisions on company direction, acquisitions, and every other aspect of scaling their business. Stephen Caldwell is the Director of Financial Analysis, ensuring all funds flowing through the company are properly accounted for. He ensures proper oversight for all financial operations at the company, which far exceeds the magnitude of almost every project launched on Cardano. They have the capability to scale the platform, form impactful business relationships that maximize asset revenue generation while furthering the adoption of Cardano, and manage the BankFi asset vertical funds in a way that is transparent, optimized, diversified, and compliant.

The technical roadblock is competently handled by Yepple, a dedicated development team that has been operating exclusively on Cardano for more than 4 years. Of all the solutions Yepple has deployed on Cardano (token generation, airdrops, metadata updates, staking, NFT customizers, storefronts, custom dApps, etc.), sales for NFTs and tokens have always been their flagship solution and represent the highest level of quality and innovation. After facilitating sales for Metera, Angel Finance, Nike, Titans, BankerLabs, Walkers, Inmates, Wise Owls, Perps, Ape Nation, Salty Seagulls, Fren, Neo Vikings, BeezHive, Betski, and of course many more, and processing 10s of millions of ADA in volume without any funds being handled improperly, their track record speaks for itself when it comes to security and reliability.

The capability of this proposal has already been proven through the existing products of BankerLabs and Yepple. Namely, BankFi is an existing platform on the Cardano mainnet that has more than $2 million USD in assets under management and has already distributed more than 650,000 ADA to RWA owners. Additionally, Yepple’s NFT and token sale platform has been utilized consistently for over 4 years for hundreds of projects with great success. This proposal takes these two existing, successful mainnet products and provides an integration that creates a new value proposition for companies, users, and Cardano itself.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Business Dashboard - Investment Selection & Sale Overview

Milestone Outputs

Both a video demonstration and a publicly available demo URL showcasing the dashboard that a company/project utilizes to manage and view their sale. Includes a responsive website design with API & database implementations supporting the demonstrated functionality.

Acceptance Criteria

Both a video demonstration and a publicly available demo URL are provided. The dashboard shows the following live data: ADA raised, ADA invested, ADA distributed to client, tokens/NFTs sold, sale phase timeline (if applicable), client revenue address, total BankFi asset allocation percentage. The dashboard allows management of the percent allocations for each BankFi asset vertical available.

Evidence of Completion

A video demonstration and a publicly available demo URL are provided to Catalyst. The visual interface shows all data detailed in the Acceptance Criteria. The interface allows the user to input the percent allocations for the available BankFi asset verticals.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

15000

Progress

30 %

Milestone Title

Sale Investment Integration

Milestone Outputs

Both a video demonstration and a Pre-Prod Testnet demo URL showcasing an NFT sale through BankFi. Includes a responsive website design with CIP-30 wallet connect and transaction building, as well as integrations for the API, database, and Cardano transaction processor supporting the demonstrated functionality.

Acceptance Criteria

The sale page allows the user to select an NFT quantity and then send in payment for the NFT(s) utilizing CIP-30 wallet connection. The purchasing wallet receives the corresponding NFTs in their wallet. The project dashboard developed in Milestone 2 shows the updated sale data in real-time as each transaction is processed. All ADA is processed and transferred according to the protocol definition in Milestone 1. The project owner is able to view their share of BankFi assets for each BankFi asset Vertical they have selected for their sale.

Evidence of Completion

A video demonstration and a publicly available demo URL are provided to Catalyst. The visual interface shows all data detailed in the Acceptance Criteria. The Pre-Prod Testnet transactions corresponding to the NFT minting are viewable on-chain.

Delivery Month

4

Cost

20000

Progress

90 %

Milestone Title

Close-Out Report & Video

Milestone Outputs

Comprehensive Project Close-Out Report and Close-Out Video as defined by Project Catalyst. This will include a comprehensive demonstration of all aspecs of the development outputs as well as a high-level plan outlining our approach to introducing this new feature to the Cardano ecosystem to maximize the value produced. Comprehensive business-facing documentation is also available for any businesses who would like to learn more about how this solution works.

Acceptance Criteria

The project close-out report and close-out video demonstrate all key aspects of this proposal as fully functional and producion-ready. Business-facing documentation clearly outlines the process of allocating their funds to RWAs along with the potential risks and benefits.

Evidence of Completion

The availability and clarity of the close-out report, close-out video, and business-facing documentation will serve as evidence of completion.

Delivery Month

5

Cost

33000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Server hosting, webserver hosting, database hosting, legal/compliance, marketing, accounting, crypto price APIs, IPFS storage, internal software for processes and project management (e.g. Jira, Google Workspace), and many other overhead factors, with a budget of $3,000 - $5,000 per month, are covered by existing business operations and can be shared by the features in this proposal with no funding allocated to them.

Development (4 months) - $28,000

• $16,000 for senior software engineer development (critical components such as blockchain/monetary interactions)
• $10,000 for non-senior software engineer development (non-critical components such as UI/UX implementation)
• $1,000 for development documentation to ensure scalability and robustness
• $1,000 for DevOps to ensure optimal server operation and product availability

Project Management (8 months) - $6,000

• $6,000 for internal project management of the proposal to ensure timelines, functionality, and quality are upheld

Total: $34,000 USD

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?

The value being produced by this proposal is both tangible and intangible. The intangible portions are projects on Cardano having a higher potential for success and an increased confidence in NFT and token investors. The tangible portions are the funds raised by projects through our sales platform and allocated to RWA verticals, the total revenue generated as a result of the RWAs acquired as a result, and the total on-chain transaction count.

While the intangible benefits are great for the Cardano ecosystem, they are harder to quantify and thus we won’t even consider them for this section. The tangible value, however, is much easier to measure.

Historically, Yepple has averaged $5-10 million USD per year in value raised for projects launching on Cardano. With this new opportunity for raising funds directly into RWAs, we expect an increased demand from founders and investers, leading to more and larger raises. However, we understand that as a new concept it may take longer to gain traction. With that in mind, we can use a conservative figure of of $2.4 million USD raised in the first year for projects utilizing this new mechanism. Assuming they decide to commit 75% of their raise to RWAs (the median of the allowed 50-100% range), that would generate $1.8 million USD in TVL in the first year. With an average of $900k USD held in RWAs throughout the first year, and using a conservative return of 25% from the RWAs (historically has averaged 35%), this would generate $225,000 USD for projects in the first year alone.

Not only will this proposal increase Cardano's TVL and transaction volume, but it is expected to directly inject more than 6 times the cost of this proposal back into native Cardano businesses in the first year alone, increasing significantly year over year. This is also additional buying pressure for ADA coming from RWAs like BTC miners.

As an established platform, we are not asking for any complementary fees for server/website hosting, database maintenance, legal or financial council, marketing, or any other overhead costs associated with building the project. We are only asking for the bare minimum costs, which include the development and project management focused directly on this product.

[Self-Assessment] Self-Assessment Checklist

I confirm that evidence of prior research, whitepaper, design, or proof-of-concept is provided.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal includes ecosystem research and uses the findings to either (a) justify its uniqueness over existing solutions or (b) demonstrate the value of its novel approach.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal demonstrates technical capability via verifiable in-house talent or a confirmed development partner (GitHub, LinkedIn, portfolio, etc.)

Yes

I confirm that the proposer and all team members are in good standing with prior Catalyst projects.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal clearly defines the problem and the value of the on-chain utility.

Yes

I confirm that the primary goal of the proposal is a working prototype deployed on at least a Cardano testnet.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal outlines a credible and clear technical plan and architecture.

Yes

I confirm that the budget and timeline (≤ 12 months) are realistic for the proposed work.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal includes a community engagement and feedback plan to amplify prototype adoption with the Cardano ecosystem.

Yes

I confirm that the budget is for future development only; excludes retroactive funding, incentives, giveaways, re-granting, or sub-treasuries.

Yes

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

I Agree

Yes