Smart Contract-Based Paper Wallets

Currently, paper wallets can be completely unprotected, or protected by a password. In scenarios where the paper wallet is being used as a form of exchange (merchant selling paper wallets in exchange for local fiat currency), the mechanics of securely sharing a password to the buyer along with their paper wallet can quickly become complex or expensive. Having no security is a recipe for financial disaster.

I am proposing a smart contract based system that will allow the merchant to validate / approve the transaction associated with the paper wallet through a simple mobile interface. In this way, if a thief were to steal any number of paper wallets from the merchant, he would have no way of completing the transaction and transferring the funds to his own wallet.

Project Scope

I intend to take this from proof of concept to a working application with manual interaction by the merchant in 6 months. I will then begin a pilot project with a few local small businesses interested in selling ADA paper wallets.

Success Measures

After 3 months: Back-end development complete, code will be available on github

After 6 months: Webapp interface complete, begin pilot project with a few small businesses

After 12 months: Pilot complete; collect feedback from vendors; use feedback to develop plan for the following 12 months (redesign, improvements, increase scale, etc).

If successful, I will seek further funding or partners to scale up and put this system into thousands of shops worldwide.

Long term, I could see this concept being integrated into point-of-sale (POS) systems, so a Cardano "gift card" could be sold by a merchant, and at the time of sale the POS system automatically approves the transaction via the smart contract, thus enabling the paper wallet / gift card. Similar to the blank gift cards that are sold in shops in the U.S. and elsewhere where the card holds no value until it is scanned and the purchase completed.

Public Launch Date: January 30, 2022 (when the pilot project would begin; after 6 months of development)

Budget

• Part-time Salary: $900 / month * 6 months = $5,400
• QR Code Label Printer: $300
• Supplies and Incidentals: $300