Efficient Markets for Public Goods

Abstract

The Samurai protocol enables markets to be built around goods where success is not determined by profit but other factors such as HDI, Pollution, Social Endorsement etc... The system tethers economic value to customised key performance indicators, specific to each market. In other words, normal people can fund projects where the success criteria are determined by the market they are investing within. If the project completes the success criteria within the given market, the investor will extract a profit upon his investment.

Markets are applications that are built on top of the Samurai Network, which anyone can build. Each Market creates an ecosystem for projects and investors to collaborate on. Each market designs its own success criteria and system of verifying progress. People who Invest inside a project (within a Market) receive a tokenized asset whose value is correlated to the performance of the project. As the project completes its success criteria, the dividend that the asset produces will increase and be of greater value. The dividend holds intrinsic value due to the economic design and engineering of the protocol.

This dynamic is enabled by the Samurai Network's native crypto assets: Blue Coin, Power tokens and Centia Coin. Blue Coin is a price stable asset which serves as the vehicle which capital flows in and out from different markets. Power tokens are unique assets produced by projects completing Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) within their respective markets. Power tokens can be thought of as digital mining equipment within the Samurai Network. The power rating of these tokens is directly proportional to the KPI's achieved by an individual project; projects that complete more KPI's will produce more powerful Power tokens and hence more valuable dividends for their investors. Centia Coin is the Network's naturally scarce crypto asset which is intrinsically valuable. It functions as the networks central store of value and profit token. To be entitled to the revenue from network, Centia holders stake their holdings together with Power tokens; Power tokens multiply the staking power of their holdings. Thus, an organic demand is created for stakers to purchase more powerful Power tokens and increase the yield on their staking power.

Thus, the Samurai Protocol offers an alternative solution to funding public goods other than governments, potentially solving the free-rider problem.

Full Concept deck: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zX77roVhGhdYQv3skacCYB5N9_-MguuP/view?usp=sharing

Crisis Recovery:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lH2c2BoDUSWCt_OJc2ynE-iFokpI56Ad/view?usp=sharing 

Whitepaper:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xv3xm_nXx-equRQFAnAyohytTGp7T-X1/view?usp=sharing

 
P.S. (Please Note that Power Tokens (in Concept deck) and Trust Tokens (in Whitepaper) are the same asset)

How Cardano could use Samurai for Catalyst:

Cardano will give away $4M in Fund 6. It will see a return on this investment indirectly through the growth of the network. Utilising Samurai a custom market could be built specifically for the Catalyst program with a specific set of milestones and success criteria that the progress of Catalyst projects is judged by. On this market the community could fund projects, independently and make a profit if they complete their objectives. The $4M fund could be utilised as a fiscal stimulus pool supporting the market and will function much the same way as it used now. I.E. Cardano stakers vote for which projects they want to fund. However, this pool will function more like an Investment Fund and organically grow in size over time generating an economic flywheel effect which will enable Catalyst to be a more sustainable and independent program in the long term, funding and incubating a much larger number of projects over time.

Customer Adoption Strategy:

Early Adopters:

The Early market for this technology will be Blockchain/Crypto Platforms which utilize grant programs to stimulate growth of their platform. Similar to the use case for Cardano Catalyst this technology could be used to stimulate growth on other crypto platforms. At this point the product will be more customised to specifications of each platform. There is a dual purpose for this initial approach one being the early revenue stream providing a safety net for Samurai and the second being the endorsement within the crypto community which will help as acquire the crypto trader/speculator group of users needed to capitalise on arbitrage and liquidity mining opportunities making the mechanics of Samurai work as designed and intended. This will be a great foothold for when our strategy becomes more focused on customers outside of crypto.

Crossing The Chasm:

To reach a larger audience outside of crypto we will launch a standalone dapp built on the Samurai Protocol. This dapp will be a Roblox but for the funding of public goods and social initiatives, where anyone can create markets around specific goods and each market will have investors and projects using it. This app will have a strict privacy policy and Quality Control to deliver a high quality and easy experience for the end users. The purpose of this Dapp is not to take over and centralise the funding of all public goods, but rather serve as a marketing strategy displaying the power of the base layer protocol. A Jack of all trades is a master of none, but in this case this is purposeful. The Dapp will be used a spearhead to generate word of mouth marketing across different social circles i.e. philanthropy, research, climate change. This will then encourage an opportunistic visionaries to build custom solutions, on the layer 1, around specific markets.

The Tornado:

Once enough useful and meaningful applications have been built for Samurai, validating its value we hope to shift our strategy towards supporting institutions and governments. Governments & institutions are usually extremely pragmatic customers which will only buy in when they see their friends and other institutions doing the same. Once they decide to make the shift, they are usually very loyal customers which will stay on for a long time. There are two limiting factors which would need to be addressed at this point for them to be customers:

1. Security: By this point the layer 1 protocol must be fully decentralised, so that when a gov or institution builds its custom solution they will have the full assurance that they are in control not some technology company looking for power (security of the protocol goes without saying)

2. Full Product Experience: Pragmatic customers usually invest only when there net of service providers built around a specific technology. Likewise we expect that institutions and governments will wait until companies like R3 begin offering support for Samurai.

Project Plan & Progress Milestones

Stage 0: (Sep/Oct Target)

-Raise pre-seed round $250,000

-incorporate foundation company in Zug Switzerland (Nikita has Swiss Residency)

-Move headquarters to Zug at CV labs co-working space

-Begin research collaboration with Block.Science to validate and improve economic theory and token architecture 

-Patent Idea

-Hire full time CTO & CMO

Stage 1: (Dec 21)

-Smart Contract development for Layer 1 (Samurai is still built on Cardano, Layer 2 represents apps built on top of Samurai)

-MVP Web App development

-Legal Costs

-Aquire and sign agreements with Early Adopter customer base - crypto platforms who grow their ecosystems through grants: Cardano Project Catalyst, Gitcoin Grants, Tezos Grants etc.

• Product customised to customers needs
• Traditional B2B business model
• early revenue
• Layer 2 apps

-Protocol Layer 1 Launch (Q1-2 2022)

Stage 2: (Q3 2022)

-Begin R&D into an App built on top of Samurai Protocol facilitating a full product experience

• Roblox for Finance, but the games are markets
• A sandbox for entrepreneurs, an easy environment to create apps and milestones targeting specific public goods
• Investors invest into individual projects within each app
• Fully Curated Platform like Apple App Store (Full Quality Control and Ethical Guidelines)

- Begin Crowdfunding campaign for the App

• Continuous crowdfunding campaign utilising fairmint.co (CAFE offering for Centia tokens)
• Target - Raise $1 Million over 12 months 

Stage 3: (Q2 2023)

-Launch Layer 2 Standalone Full Product App 

-Centia ICO

-PR & Marketing campaign to inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs and investors delivering real value to society

Stage 4: (2024)

-Improve developer tools for Layer 1

-Improve security to government and institutions standards

• In order for Government and Institutions to launch their own layer 2 protocols.

-Fully Decentralise layer 1 protocol

-Complete Interoperability with other blockchains

Project Team Main Challenges:

• Lack of Capital
• Weak Connections in Crypto space i.e. developers, investors, collaborators
• Research and Whitepaper needs work from Mathematical and game theory standpoint

Project Team Improvement Strategy

• Raise pre-seed capital through Cardano catalyst (simultaneously acquire a potential future customer and collaborator)
• Move core team to Zug the Crypto Valley to strengthen connections and build partnerships with crypto platforms and make core team hires (CTO,CMO) (potential early adopter customer base)
• Partner with Block.Science, to strengthen theory and build a solid blueprint.

Project Budget Stage 0 & 1:****$250,000

• $50,000 Research collaboration
• $100,000 Smart Contract Development (inc. wages for CTO)
• $30,000 Legal Costs
• $30,000 Targeted Marketing
• $40,000 Contingency