Continuing in Georgia (country)

I will use my position of authority and expertise in the country of Georgia to pilot at least two full Cardano blockchain projects in Georgia.  These projects will be routinely updated to the Cardano / Catalyst community.

Essentially I am working on these pilot/type blockchain products in the country of Georgia:

- tokenizing capital debt marketplaces: this project is with the National Bank of Georgia and it is in its infancy. The project will create a capital marketplace for Georgian companies that are looking to raise capital through bond issuance. Capital markets are poor in Georgia and underperforming while the local economy is not awful. Tokenizing the corporate debt will enable more capital to flow, better tracking, lower the threshold of entry, speed up the entire process (from submitting, to underwriting to listing to trading) and enable a 24/7 market.  A business plan has been drawn up for this process and is attached to this proposal.

- tokenizing plastic reclamation: Georgia is now party to EU accords that place the responsibility of plastic production on the manufacturer for reclaiming / recycling. Plastic waste management is chaotic, rife with corruption, difficult to manage and a bane to the global eco-system. Tokenizing plastic waste allows for better tracking of waste products, better tracking of production (and consumption) and the possibility of recycling rewards to be distributed to the responsible waste collector. I have been working with the UN mission to Georgia (UNDP) and the Georgian Plastic Manufacturers Council to kick off this initiative.  The UNDP assessment document for this project is attached to this proposal.  My intention is to fully convert all tokenization to Cardano.

- tokenizing / QR codes for an entire appellation of wine in Georgia: The Cardano Foundation project with ScanTrust and Baia's Wine was a big success and the Georgian Ministry of Agriculture noticed this. Under their authority is the Georgian Wine Agency and I am in talks with the Minister of Agriculture (Levan Davitashvili) who is interested to pilot that technology towards monitoring and maintaining a unique wine appellation. Georgia does not have enough funds to police wine appellations globally but they do have interest in protecting unique grape species and blends. Tokenizing / QR codes on bottles would essentially eliminate fraudulent / fake wines that are being sold outside of the appellation license.  More information about the kind of project this can be can be found here:  https://www.scantrust.com/case-study-baias-wine-anti-counterfeiting-and-supply-chain-awareness-on-the-cardano-blockchain/ (I managed this project fully)

I do these projects in my spare time because I love Georgia, I love blockchain and I love Cardano. The proposed funds would be used specifically and transparently to push each or as many of the above projects forward. All of the above products touch the Cardano system.

How will this work?

The above projects have been pushed by my team and I in Georgia and just need a little 'push' to get them implemented.  The 'push' is an initial budget for a pilot project.  I believe that the money requested is enough to fund 2 of the 3 projects listed above as a pilot.  The first two projects that can go into pilot will be funded and heavily documented.

Accountability
Any funds that are used will be tagged with on-chain metadata that links to articles, pictures, video etc of work being done.  Trackable information about these projects will be shared back to Catalyst but I fully expect the story of each of these projects to be written about by local journalists and widely shared.  All of the above: the pictures, the video, written information and public articles will be linked to meta data on an ADA transaction and reported back to Catalyst.

What is success here?

Success is measured by documenting a pilot project in using Cardano blockchain to enable these projects and to have this done publicly.   My goal is to have 2 of the 3 projects above achieve pilot status - which here is defined as publicly documented, Cardano blockchain usage in demonstrating a solution for the selected problem.

3 months: first project selected and solution defined and implemented

6 months: second project selected and solution defined and implemented

12 months: all documentation for the above two projects are published on chain

First public launch date for the first pilot project is 3-6 months

How will the money be spent?

Example use of money would be: code needed to integrate into existing enterprise systems (such as National Bank of Georgia or public waste facilities).   Or it could be for a set of Cardano linked QR codes from Scantrust for a wine appellation.  Money could be spent on 

Because the projects are relatively open, it might be better to state how the funds will NOT be used.  They will not be used in bribes or gifts, in salary to key individuals, or in non-essential items or goods. 

ALL money spent will be tied to an invoice that will be published in meta-data on an ADA transaction.

An example of the kind of project I can manage is here: https://cardanofoundation.org/en/news/cardano-reveals-its-first-supply-chain-solution-in-association-with-scantrust/ - and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf983oKi87U&ab_channel=AndrewThornhill

also, I have my own media/marketing team, and will push public updates and success about Cardano and these projects:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKpNeZouh12SSHs8Td8h6lg

https://www.facebook.com/thornhillpublic

I managed the Georgia (country) meetup for the Cardano Summit 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUE0XZ4GbD8&ab_channel=AndrewThornhill