BIT - Basic Income Token

Atala PRISM is an important step towards mass adoption of Cardano. With an accessible DID, many new users will have a chance to discover other services in the Cardano ecosystem. But not everyone will have access to spare Ada to use to pay for transactions or other services.

I've been interested in decentralised identity for almost a decade, though only privately. With Atala and Plutus, Cardano seems to be ready to make this happen. 

While blockchains are usually associated with privacy, there are many applications where having a public identity is beneficial, even crucial (academia, reputation..).

There already are already projects trying to reach mass audiences with this approach, but I think Cardano is uniquely positioned to make it work. 

My solutions is to create a simple token, BIT, that is tied to every verified unique Identity on Cardano. Every user can mint this token at the same rate. And once possible, can use this token to pay for supported smart transactions without needing to spend any Ada. This incentivises new users to regularly interact with the platform, and look for new applications that support this token.

This also serves as an incentive for Identity providers to establish a common standard for physical ID, as users will be motivated to register for other services if they simultaneously get registered to receive this virtual income for free.   

Should the token gain any external value from these interactions, it could be a great motivator for unbanked people from low income areas to join the Cardano ecosystem. Accumulating even a few Ada per week can be significant income for many.

This is an experiment in market based basic income - the token has no intrinsic value, except the guarantee that it can be minted only by real people at equal rate for everyone. 

Success Metrics

3 Months: While Atala's solution is not public yet, I think I can manage to have a working prototype in this timeframe. The full solution will require Babel fees and support from SPOs, but it will be usable by users who don't have issues spending Ada.

We will publish a list of verified people and projects interested in building support for this token.

Also taking part in the ADA MakerSpace hackathon - https://adamaker.space/hackathon2021/basic-income-token/

You can support the creators of the hackathon in Fund6:
https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/ADA-MakerSpace-Bounty-Hunters-DEVX/369522-48088

6 Months: We will be reaching out to DID providers in and outside of Cardano with this value proposition. Other projects should start adopting this token.
I've already reached out to Adriano Fiorenza from GameChanger Wallet (https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/GameChanger-The-onboarding-wallet/367709-48088), who would help to integrate these projects.  

I plan to also build a prototype for a ideation platform based around the BIT token, detailed in my other proposal:

https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/SOIL-Scalable-Open-Innovation/367740-48088

12 Months: Hopefully by now, public blockchain addresses will be widely recognized and used not just to accelerate onboarding of new users.

Budget: $6000

I hope to start developing full time for the Cardano ecosystem, on this and related projects. 

This would cover the costs of living for my family for up to 3 months here in Berlin.

I plan to develop this further in following funds, looking for more interested co-creators to bring real people on the Cardano chain!

Launch date:

Blog, detailing progress and challenges: by 1.10.2021

Public presentation with space for each verified person / project: by 11.11.2021

Stake pool / Alliance enabling verified users to participate: hopefully by Christmas :) 

I have also attached an earlier draft of this idea and a quick pitch for the ideation platform. 

Similar projects:

https://www.proofofhumanity.id/

https://www.gooddollar.org/