P2P:Trade Cardano tokens with Cash

More than 90% of all transactions in Africa are still in Cash and Regulators are imposing strict laws on banking services for Crypto Transactions.

Blockchain adoption has grown in Africa and the conditions for Cardano adoption are ripe as the African continent embraces the freedom of Blockchain. Recently, there has been a sharp increase in peer-to-peer crypto trading across Africa.

According to Dion Guillaume[1]. Trading volume in Nigeria surpassed $99.1 million between January and March 2021, followed by Kenya with $38.4 million, Ghana with $27.4 million and South Africa with $25.8 million. Cryptocurrency trade in these countries has been driven by the continued weakening of local currencies which has especially been adversely weakened due to resurgence of the deadly Coronavirus that has impacted the African economy adversely .

Most people in these countries still rely on cash transactions through the bank to trade cryptocurrencies. However, this has been faced by major challenges as some local governments have come up with strict measures and laws to regulate banking services for crypto which has made it costlier and less profitable to trade. Countries like Nigeria have seen crackdowns on some crypto  being instituted and banning financial institutions from processing transactions related to crypto.

However, peer-to-peer trading seems to be the only option left for crypto traders in the continent, for traders to continue enjoying crypto benefits. Kenya has been ranked the top country in P2P trading with most people trading with each other locally which helps avoid currency differences and charges in banking transactions (Onyango, 2021). We are proposing a cardano Peer to peer exchange where people within a country and region  can trade and transactions can be done easily through cash or through mobile money which attracts less charges compared to banking transactions. This will increase Cardano adoption and allow people to buy and sell Tokens in Cardano Blockchain easily.

How The eUXTO P2P ESCROW Protocol Works

• There are three participants in a token trade on the P2P protocol , the Buyer, the Seller, and the Arbitrator (ie: the platform)
• The token to be sold in the P2P Market is sent to EscrowOrder script with Escrow Datum. The Datum contains four ​​datum hash secrets, SellerHashSecret , BuyerHashSecret, DisputeReleaseSecret, DisputeRevertSecret
• The two dispute secrets are owned by the Arbitrator while the buyer and the seller own their respective hash secret.
• The Cardano Token is Locked and only spendable by someone who possesses the datum hash secrets of two of the three participants in the trade.

The Escrow Order Script has the following conditions:

• Once funds are placed in escrow, Bob (the seller) can release them to Alice (the buyer) at any time, but not take the funds for himself.
• Likewise, Alice can allow Bob to have the funds back at any time (cancel the trade), but cannot take the funds for herself.
• If Alice and Bob disagree about where the Token should go, they can ask Volibra to decide who is the rightful owner. Volibra (Arbitrator )can then release the funds to Alice, or return the funds to Bob. However, Volibra cannot take the funds for themselves.

For More Information , see our Escrow Order Transaction Flow Diagram attached.

Our goal is to use a hybrid decentralised model, where funds and decisions are always in the hands of the user, and where transactions are governed through smart contracts, registered on the Cardano blockchain.

All transactions on the P2P exchange will be executed with the help of a browser wallet extension like yoroi , that's why we are following the conversation on CIP-0030 | Dapp-Connector proposal (https://github.com/cardano-foundation/CIPs/pull/88)

Project Challenge:

To provide a safe and secure customer experience in our platform , we are face with the challenge of verifying our users identity. In Africa , just like in most places ,Identity exists in scattered Silos and There is no Discovery Mechanism.

In the short term , We are going to build a Reputation Smart contract to reduce the reputation of bad actors in our system and follow the regulatory compliance of KYC and AML.

In the future , We will incorporate Cardano's Atala PRISM DIDs to enable the issuance of digital identities to our users and  so we can instantly verify them without Government IDs.

Impact

I believe the implementation of this project, will reduce the barrier to entry for a typical African with cash to adopt Cardona Blockchain as end users.  secondly as new innovation project launches in Cardano Blockchain , The Africans operating in cash economy would not be left behind.

The opportunity to trade tokens  with cash will have a big impart not just to the growth of Cardano Ecosystem but humanity. Because when everyone, no matter who they are , where they live have access to Cardano Blockchain and financial services, We all thrive .

How does this proposal fit into this challenge?

Cardano holders win when there is an encouraging environment and platform for mass adoption anywhere

Roadmap

1.  1-3 months post funding

October:

• User Research
• UI/UX prototype
• System Design and Architecture 
•  Smart Contract Development Begin

 November:

•  smart contract prototype
• PAB prototype
•  Smart Contract Auditing
•   Smart Contract testing and More testing

December:

•     Backend API prototype
•     Frontend  MVP implementation
•     Yoroi Browser Wallet Connector Integration

 2.    4-6 months post funding

Q1 2022:

• MVP Testnet launch (Beginning of Q1)
• MVP Mainnet launch in one west Africa Country ( end of Q1)
• Join Accelerator Program

3.    6 months to one year

Q2 & Q3 2022:

•  Raise seed funding
• Expand to more African countries
• More local payment options
• Expand merchant Store Program

Q4

• Launch Reward Token for Users
• Release SDK

Metrics/KPIs

• Lines of on-chain Plutus code developed per week.

• Lines of front end and backend code developed per week

• Number of Github repo pull requests per week.
• Total lines of code developed (on-chain and off-chain)
• Number of issues resolved during the security audit.  

Budget

We'll used the fund to hire more Shadowy Super-Coders:

• 2 Backend Developer: ($2000/mo x3 months: $12000)
• 2 Frontend Developer: ($2000/mo x3 months: $12000)
• 1 Plutus Developer: ($3000/mo X2: $6000)
• 1 Designer: ($2000/mo x2 month: $4000)
• Servers Subscription for MVP: $2000

TEAM

Who is Volibra?

Volibra is a small team of developers building merchant payment Infrastructure on Blockchain. The first product we plan to build on the Cardano blockchain is P2P Trading Protocol for the African Market. This P2P protocol is the first step of bringing our Merchant payment API from Diem blockchain to Cardano and a key to unlocking millions of Africans with cash and limited Strict access to banking services to adopt Cardano. (https://volibra.com/)

Our team consists of a Plutus developers, a front-end developer, and Infrastructure/DevOps Engineer. With these resources we believe we can develop a Workable MVP that can be used by hundreds, if not thousands, of Users. Our team is also part of the Alonzo-purple testing cohort .

metalamp.io : Smart Contract Audit and Formal Verification

https://en.metalamp.io/cardano

Launch Date: Q1 2022

References:

**1  .**Dion Guillaume (2021 , April)  Peer-To-Peer Bitcoin Trading Rising Across Africa

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/peer-to-peer-bitcoin-trading-rising-across-africa-2021-04-29

2.  Conrad Onyango( 2021 , August )  Kenyans lead the world in peer to peer crypto trade

https://qz.com/africa/2050735/kenyans-lead-the-world-in-peer-to-peer-crypto-trade/