IGIVIT Phase2: Beyond the Prototype

Note: The IGIVIT project description, as described in Fund5 is available below for you to read. Most of the info is still relevant as our product has not changed since.

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Goal:

With IGIVIT, we aim to create a completely integrated solution for giving better by providing the tools to help better deliver emergency relief and/or financial assistance to people and communities in need.

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Fund6-Specific Rationale:

IGIVIT is now a proud member of Project Catalyst's Fund5 Cohort! We are so grateful to the community and thrilled to be allowed to move forward. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

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As you might imagine, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since the start of this adventure and a lot of new ideas and questions; challenges and also opportunities, emerged along the way. We have learned a lot since the last months and realized we have so much more to learn. But we are more eager than ever to keep pushing the development of this exciting new space.

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And now, great news: the initial phase, Phase 1, whose costs are covered by the reward from Fund5, is almost completed already! You can see the progress right here on Github: https://github.com/lokdao/igivit or https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSDBbRthkcaFy31D7jQCGmtDB1MPClfjx1gETiOu65BAamjWGpjusClXkgenacoxF3twa1NVN55j2TH/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=3000 

Our current state is a Figma prototype with no back-end yet. We are currently finalizing the colour schemes and so on. On Github, at this moment, we present black and white wireframes. New visuals to land soon, keep coming back!

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It is now time to move forward with Phase 2; the object of this Fund6 proposal. In the upcoming phase, we will be aiming at transforming the Figma High-Fidelity Demo into a functioning website, with a standard database, but without the blockchain component integrated yet.

There will also be improvements to functionalities and features from the current demo wireframes.

Then we will be moving to Phase 3: where we will formally integrate within the Cardano blockchain as we have within our team our own Plutus Pioneer!

We also imagine integrating Atala Prism to our solution for everything related to identity validation.

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Roadmap:

Here's an overview of the road ahead. Everyone will be able to follow the progress of the build on both our website (https://igivit.org), Github repository (https://github.com/lokdao/igivit) - right now filled with prototype images - and on our progress page (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wwbmTMB4dD3iUBr_gi_ygnFyannIAtXTJEdufRS0Vyo/edit?usp=sharing)

Phase 1 - Proof of Concept - April to September 2021 (in progress):

- High-Fidelity prototype (Figma) = Almost completed!

With Project Catalyst Fund5, we will be receiving a payment that will be used to reimburse those costs.

Again we want to say thank you to the participating members of the Cardano community for voting for us and, in a more general sense, for taking part in this pioneering governance system! :)

You can find the link to our expenses paid so far.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Tiyfae2rGYZz20KWsiGCmh6zeSEqWE60LO8JtaeR0OU/edit?usp=sharing

As a refresher, you can find our Fund5 Budget here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YEvq2PSJSYc822zXRu67lSVUVbsB2K9M-WkwXBuAWcc/edit?usp=sharing

Finally, you can find info on our progress along with images of our prototype here;

https://igivit.org/progress-page-igivit/

Phase 2 - Adding functionality - Q4 2021 (to start in earnest if we get funded !)

- Convert the Figma prototype into a functioning Proof of Concept (PoC); a web platform where each of the 7 user personas required can interact in a campaign. Limited to core functionalities at first, with the backend database but no blockchain integration yet.

Once completed, Phase 2 will deliver a functional PoC featuring the core pages that can then be used to demonstrate the value proposition and attract investors and potential partners

Phase 3 - The Alonzo Era - Q1 2022

- Complete conversion of the remaining prototype pages for the entire platform

- Integrate the application with the Cardano blockchain, via the development of smart contracts using Plutus

- Demo the PoC to advisors and the community

Phase 4 - Improvements, QA and Atala Prism Integration - Q2 2022

- Make modifications following comments

- Make UX/UI advanced design

- Perform Quality Assurance (QA)

- Integrate with Atala Prism for decentralized identity (to be confirmed)

Phase 5 - Charity Integration - Q3 2022

- Integrate within a charity organisation; create a campaign

Phase 6 - Hello World - Q4 2022

- Go Live: launch the first real-world campaign

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Measures of success:

3 months - December 2021: Complete programming of the core pages for all 7 User Personas on a basic website with backend database but no blockchain connection yet.

6 months - March 2022: Start attaching the platform data to the Cardano blockchain

12 months - September 2022: The IGIVIT platform is on the verge of launching its first Live campaign.

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The team:

David Poulin or @mrvaralta (https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-poulin/) used to be a Creative Director for Cirque du Soleil and other entertainment companies. Being a crypto enthusiast and a Cardano fan, the pandemic pushed him to write down the initial idea for IGIVIT in a white paper and to design paper-prototypes (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13bD-l9eQOUmiRrg_eE2SFA4Rk9OCh2Gc?usp=sharing). Even though he's not from the dev world, he has a very good understanding of this emerging technology and the new possibilities it can offer to the world.

Ludovic Grandclement or @gildor (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ludovicgrandclement/) is an experienced Project Manager and Data Engineer. What's more: he was part of the Plutus Pioneer Program's first cohort and completed it (you can check out his NFT certification - https://pool.pm/d068fe47123ec4c86460eeb74c7d7765c67d2df295a3ac86d664ed45.PlutusFirstClassPhoto50).

The two joined forces during the Fund3 proposal process.

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Budget:

Now, in order to accomplish this, we will need funds. This is why we are asking for 57,440.00$ USD.

How are we going to spend this money? You can find our detailed budget right here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aGPOVyPBh-RtTWHD5gKJ8EjWOmUV6s2NWJqOiKwemZ0/edit?usp=sharing

We calculated this amount based on fair estimations of the time needed to program this, of course, but also with a portion looking towards the future; to allow for the development of the core functionalities; the core concept and its business development.

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So that's it, this is us; this is the idea behind IGIVIT. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. If you believe that we can achieve our goal, we would be humbled and honoured to be the recipient of your vote during this funding round.

In any case, please leave us a comment or a question down below in the Comments section so we can hear from you and grow the solution with your added insights.

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IGIVIT Original Proposal Text:

Overview:

We are looking to build the donation platform of tomorrow. In essence, we seek to finance the creation of a new way of giving to charities by building an app that will ease the donation process, help manage campaigns and transparently display all data on the blockchain: it's called IGIVIT.

With IGIVIT, we aim to create a completely integrated solution for giving better by providing the tools to deliver financial assistance and/or emergency relief to the people and communities in need. We aim to restore trust in charities and bring philanthropy to the 21st century by building a decentralized app allowing donors to follow funds' usage and for charities to create and manage their campaigns with more transparency and accountability.

Currently, when giving to a charity, it is very hard to know how the funds are really being used. This opacity in the donation process prevents a lot of people from making contributions. Now, imagine being able to know exactly, and with absolute certainty, how your donation is making a difference in the real world.

With IGIVIT, we aim to create a completely integrated solution for giving better by providing financial assistance and/or emergency relief to the people and communities in need. We aim to restore trust in charities and bring philanthropy to the 21st century by building a decentralized application allowing donors to follow funds' usage and for charities to create and manage their campaigns with more transparency and accountability.

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End-user value:

Once fully deployed, IGIVIT will help in more than one way:

- Bring back integrity, transparency and accountability into the donation process and;

- Become a leading donation platform in the philanthropic space; where charities and other organizations will be running all their campaigns on our solution.

We strongly believe that IGIVIT is a great use-case for the adoption of blockchain and its underlying Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). By being very easy to use and by giving the ability to witness, in real-time and with 100% certainty, how the donations are used, IGIVIT will be a great tool to demonstrate the true wonders of the technology.

In time, the general public will realize that blockchain-based organizations offer so much more than regular charities that the balance of donated wealth will start to shift.

What's more, IGIVIT will provide a thorough search engine that will allow you to find new charities to give to, even if they're not blockchain-based. For those latter ones, IGIVIT will automatically forward the donation to the charity's account (minus minuscule processing fees). If the organization is not showing in the search results, it can be added very easily by the user itself.

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Usage:

Here are two examples of the main features the platform can be used for in order to improve the donation process:

Financial aid

- This is the most simple example. If the end-goal is to give money then the funds get transferred to the wallet of the person in need, for them to spend as they please. Every transaction is displayed transparently on the blockchain. There is no need for an auditor.

Emergency relief

- If the goal is, for example, to feed villagers, then every step of the process will be displayed on the blockchain. For this to be validated with great certainty and to avoid fraudulent claims, a 3rd party Auditor will need to assess and approve the various steps involved.

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Challenges and Roadblocks:

Many challenges and roadblocks exist on our path to successfully reach our goal. Here's a brief description of some of them, in no particular order.

Challenge 1 - Fraudulent/Untruthful ledger entries or claims

To deliver funds to a person in need is relatively straightforward as we can easily verify the transfer of values on the blockchain as long as we have proof of their true identities (we are looking at implementing Atala Prism for this portion of the challenge).

However, when trying to deliver physical help in the field (building shelters, serving food, etc) it is much more difficult to prove that non-digital actions really took place. To overcome this challenge, we are implementing a multi-signature process where both the Organization's campaign manager and an independent Auditor need to confirm the truthfulness of the action item being forever written on the blockchain.

Challenge 2 - Partial Centralization

Some level of centralization will unfortunately need to be present in order for a charity to manage their own campaigns. But we believe that the transparency of the blockchain coupled with the aforementioned Auditor process, will bring enough accountability into the system for the general public to get a heightened sense of trust towards the whole process.

Challenge 3 - Large endeavour

Our project is not small. There is a lot that needs to be accomplished and it has lots of potential ramifications that we are not aware of. We are then taking it one baby step at a time. Building the house brick by brick instead of throwing a tarp over some branches. That's why we are splitting the work in distinct phases.

Challenge 4 - Reliance on sub-contracted dev teams

We want to be 100% transparent regarding our capabilities. Our core team is not made of pure coders. In order for us to succeed in creating this ambitious project, we sub-contracted a dedicated dev team that will enable us to demonstrate to the world the possibilities offered by IGIVIT.

Challenge 5 - Legal monetary issues (doing philanthropy in all regions of the world)

Right now, questions arise about the legality of using cryptocurrency to deliver humanitarian aid to any parts of the world. This challenge is currently being addressed within our team as an on-going research. The solution will emerge in a later phase of the project.

One thing is for sure, in order to secure the value of the donated money, the use of a stable coin is inevitable.

Challenge 6 - Identity proof

One major challenge is to get absolute proof of the identities of the people and organizations taking part in our ecosystem. As we mentioned before, in order to be able to trust that help is really being carried out to the right people, a decentralized identity system needs to be used. All parties involved are then becoming owners of their own information; their own identities. Again, Atala Prism is so far the best example of such a system that could potentially be integrated into IGIVIT once we deploy on the Cardano blockchain.

One added benefit is that, while providing humanitarian help, it also provides greater freedom and possibilities to the affected people and their local communities through identity ownership.

Challenge 7 - Adoption by organizations

Of course, some organizations might not want to open their books so wide and so transparently to the world. They might prefer to remain opaque in order to keep more money for other things than helping the needy. Our vision is that, over time, the donors to these charities will switch to IGIVIT for a better way of giving. The opaque organizations might find themselves forced to adopt blockchain in order to remain relevant.

Challenge 8 - Blockchain choice

Even though we will be building the PoC with backend logic only first in order to get a working prototype faster, meaning without any blockchain, inevitably we are going to migrate to the only blockchain worth building on: Cardano. Our legendary 3rd generation protocol is the perfect backbone for our entire system because it is built the right way; because it is built for centuries. But we are preaching to the choir…

Building our solution in two separate steps will create a layer of complexity to the process as we will need to find time and resources to do the switch. But we believe the advantages outweigh the drawbacks so that's why we are moving forward with this plan.

Challenge 9 - Competition

Right now, there are very few places to donate where blockchain is used to guarantee and show the usage of said funds. The biggest one being Binance Charity (https://www.binance.charity/) . Even though it is one of the biggest crypto exchange in the world, the reach of its campaigns and the thoroughness of what is available to monitor seems pretty limited and we believe this is where our solution will shine.

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Conclusion:

With IGIVIT, members of the general public will finally be able to see with their own eyes how their money is really being used, what actions have been taken, who received the intended help, all in fine detail. This emerging blockchain technology will then be used to create real improvements for real people; real changes in the real world.

By tackling challenges of the 3rd sector (philanthropy) head-on, we believe that one day, IGIVIT will become the reference in money donations.

Thanks:

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our proposal. If you like it, if you have a comment, if you have a question or if you are interested in joining us, we would be happy to hear from you. Send us a message!

Finally, you can help make a difference by voting for us on the Catalyst App or directly within the Yoroi Extension.

The IGIVIT Team

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