Banking The Unbanked

Mission Statement :
At Asdra, our mission is "Banking the Unbanked." We utilize blockchain technology and the Internet to help the less fortunate send their hard-earned money home.
Problem Statement:
The World Bank and United Nations Migration Report estimate that 272 million migrants sent $689 billion through conventional banks and $1.76 trillion through underground remittances in 2020.
Underdeveloped countries often lack access to formal banks, making it difficult for money to flow between countries. Underground remittances offer a convenient alternative, but often involve high fees and are subject to unfair exchange rates.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies appear to be the solution to the remittance problem. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fail because of their non-scalable technology, expensive proof-of-work blockchain fees, currency volatility, and difficulty of use.
What is Asdra?
The Asdra ecosystem consists of several smart contracts that allow users to use the stable tokens and make global transfers in real time. With the Asdra app, users can make a cross-border transaction almost instantly.
Creating the Asdra ecosystem requires rethinking everything from the ground up.
Context
Despite the rise of new wallets or payment services, migrants still face unequal access to banks, high transaction fees, and unfair rates. Digital currencies are not widely used or adopted in everyday payment scenarios for a variety of reasons, summarized below.
The blockchain problem today:
Numerous factors kept migrants from embracing the advent of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, such as:
Volatility
Cryptocurrencies are attractive payment options for businesses, but their volatility poses a challenge. Most cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are currently used as a means of payment, but their values can fluctuate drastically within minutes.
Stable Tokens
Fiat-linked cryptocurrencies like USDT are questioned for their trustworthiness and limited accessibility to exchange platforms, and often come with high transaction fees.
Transaction speed
Ethereum and Bitcoin both struggle with slow transaction times and high network bottlenecks. Bitcoin can currently execute transactions at a rate of 4.6 per second, while Ethereum can only support transactions at a rate of 30 per second.
Fees
Confirmations of transactions, or what we call proof of work, are only accelerated by high fees. For a single transaction, gas fees could cost as much as $8-50 by 2021. It is estimated that upfront costs will rise to $100-200 by 2022.
Complexity
User Onboarding
Many onboarding steps must be followed for a typical person to use a cryptocurrency, including managing a private key, a public key, and an incomprehensible wallet address.
Exchange and payment
Transferring cryptocurrencies is not as easy as exchanging them, as it involves opening an account with various exchanges, verifying your identity, so someone without some crypto knowledge will find it difficult to do so. Not to mention, it is extremely difficult for people who live in economically underdeveloped countries to exchange and use cryptocurrencies.
Asdra Objectives :
By creating technological solutions, we aim to make banking accessible and equal for all.
We are building a protocol to facilitate the use of multiple stable currency payment systems while providing a seamless and automated experience for users on multiple platforms.
Objective 1: One-tap user onboarding
As a famous quote goes, "Design is not just how it looks like or feels like. Design is how it works."
Asdra places the user at the center of our forward-thinking approach. To simplify onboarding, we integrate Apple and Google login features. Both Apple and Google provide us with a unique user identifier based on the user's device and their iCloud and Google account. The identifier is unique to the Asdra application certificates.
This allows us to associate the blockchain wallet address with a temporary username. The user will be able to search for their family through contacts or username. After completing the security and KYC process, the user will be able to update their username and write down the wallet passphrase for security purposes.
Objective 2: Best exchange rate and almost zero transaction fees
Incorporated into the Asdra Token layer and the Asdra Remittance layer, smart contracts are designed to provide users with the benefits of the stable fiat token that ensures its stability and enables the lowest-cost global transfers.
Using multiple sources of exchange rate data from a decentralized oracle network, complex smart contracts can use reliable, tamper-proof inputs and outputs.
The remittance layer of the Asdra platform incorporates the concept of a gas station network to allow Asdra to securely manage and pay users' transaction fees, so users do not need to open an account or purchase ADA to pay their gas fees.
Objective 3: Instant transaction
Asdra was designed with scalability in mind. Asdra Ecosystem is part of Cardano Blockchain. Smart contracts are settled at the computation level, leaving the settlement level free to process transactions, making Asdra run faster and more efficiently.
Objective 4: Receive cash fast
Getting cash out is critical for the family member. Asdra and its potential partners have developed applications that enable daily transactions, currency exchanges or payments, international settlements and support for multiple branches.
Businesses such as convenience stores and currency exchanges with appropriate licenses that allow currency exchanges and money transfers are eligible to participate. This approach makes it easier and simpler and allows family members to collect their payment as soon as it is processed.
Objective 5: Positive economic impact
The Asdra Remittance Layer will solve the problem of the vast global unregulated remittance system, often referred to as hawala (informal value transfer system).
The current underground system has a flaw because when money is transferred through remittances, it appears that cash has been transferred on the other side, but no money has been physically transferred from the country of origin to the country of destination. In addition, this also poses a major challenge to existing legal and regulatory regimes on money laundering and terrorist financing.
Asdra enables fast transactions that are both protected and traceable, as well as compliant with local AML laws and regulations.
Asdra is beneficial to Cardano
We have examined the regulatory system throughout Asia and Africa and found few countries that would be beneficial to Asdra and its users. These countries are mainly in South East Asia such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
A closer look at Thailand and Singapore. Both offer international money transfer services for non-banks and licenses for money exchange trading licenses and electronic payments.
Thailand has more than 2.3 million registered migrants in a variety of industries ranging from housekeeping to hotels to factories, while Singapore has about 350,000 registered migrants.
Risk Factors
We are seeking a temporary license that will allow us to conduct alpha and beta testing in Thailand, one of the first countries where we plan to launch the service. After all the testing and security checks are completed, the jurisdiction will verify our results and determine if the system is safe, and then we will be granted the licenses.
Main risk: The authority could delay the project while it is being processed.
Roadmap
Asdra means 'Star' in Greek. Our roadmaps and milestones are representations of the 'birth and rise of a new star'
Phase 01 - White Dwarf
Q1 2021 Company incorporation and licenses requirements - completed
Application UI/UX design for iOS
Token Economy
iOS front-end and back-end test with wallet functionality

Phase 02 - Novae
Q2 2021
App development for iOS/Android - Internal alpha testingCardano proposal
Phase 03 - Supernovae
Q2 2021Smart Contract on Plutus Platform exploration
Stable Tokens Layer
Remittance Layer, Vault Layer with Chainlink API
Private Seed Round

Phase 04 - Neutron Stars
Q3 2021Private Series A Round
Smart Contract development

Phase 05 - New Stars Arise
Q3 July 2021Magic Layer, Governance Layer, Public ICO

Phase 06 - New StarsQ4 September 2021Launch Asdra Protocol & Apps on Testnet
Cardano F5 Funding
The budget required is US$70,000 to cover the development costs for recruiting developers for smart contracts as well as the marketing budget to build Asdra community.
The amount allocated towards the development of the entire Asdra Ecosystem is estimated at approximately US$350,000..
Team experience:
Our team consists of Blockchain and Smart Contract development enthusiast.
BSc in Computer Record Management
MBA in Economic and Business Accountant
MIT Blockchain and Money
Harvard CS50 Introduction to Computer Science
Apple iOS front-end development
Engaged in the Thailand and Myanmar governments' MOU to regulate the employment between the two countries through technology
Francesco Cardullo
Co-Founder & Business Lead

He is an expert in business management and programming, with experience in finance, blockchain, and token economics.
Prior to that, he co-founded Dalton Technologies, a fintech development agency, AI dreamer, passionate by technology, entrepreneurship, and marketing, with 15 years of entrepreneurial experience.

ICDL in Information and Communication Technology
MD in Accounting and DevelopmentFMT in Professional Trading

Pitt Sinchawla
Co-Founder Technology Lead
He has extensive software engineering experience across a variety of industries, and is a leader in token economy, blockchains, distributed systems and cryptography.
He is also a co-founder and the CEO of multiple technology companies. His passion for technologies, coupled with an extensive knowledge of entrepreneurship, has given him an edge in the industry.
BSc in Computer Record Management
MBA in Business Administration
Harward CS50 Introduction to Computer Science
MIT Blockchain and Money
Apple iOS Swift front-end development