P2P:Trade Cardano tokens with Cash

Resubmission from fund6 - see https://cardanocataly.st/voter-tool/#/fund/f6/challenge/26108/proposals/367014

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**(customer-to-customer)**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)

How does the fiat transaction work?

P2P transactions are trades that are carried out directly between two users. This means that fiat currency can only be transferred between the two users if the buyer's and seller's payment methods match. For example, User A has a debit card from ING Bank and is going to use euros deposited onto the platform to buy crypto. At this time, User B must also have an ING Bank debit card to be able to receive euros transferred from the other user in order to complete the transaction.

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 , Africans operating in the cash economy would not be left behind.

The opportunity to trade tokens with cash will have a big impact 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 platform in the grassroots to support rural dwellers to adoption ADA

Secondly , Our team qualify for the rationale for this challenge BUDGET DISTRIBUTION as describe in the campaign brief- "This challenge intends to sow new teams, who have never received funding from Catalyst so they can have a chance to show their value to the community"

I believe this resubmission will give our team the opportunity to show our value to the community.

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.

Lead Developer: Jude Ben - 9 years+ Software Development , Plutus Smart Contract Development , Blockchain and payment System, Cloud and Infrastructure Engineer https://www.linkedin.com/in/judeebene/

Smart Contract Audit:

Jonathan Fischoff is the founder of CanonicalLlc (https://twitter.com/CanonicalLlc), A Plutus Smart Contract consultancy company, working on new Innovation cardano's project like @GenesisHouseIO, @jpgstoreNFT etc

https://www.canonicalllc.com/

Senior full-stack software engineer: Isaac Onuwa is a full-stack software engineer valued for driving high-performance in designing and implementing architectures. An open source contributor to early projects on ethereum. 7+ Years of Experience, Web, Mobile , API

https://github.com/iamonuwa

Product Designer/Manager : Mfonobong is an experienced digital Product (both web and mobile) Designers and a Figma community Advocate.expertise in user interface design, user experience design, wireframing, prototyping, user interviews, usability tests, user research, design systems, Information Architecture, technical writing, project management,

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellamfonobong/

Senior software engineer: Godfred is a results-driven software engineer with over 8 years of experience in programming, strategic problem-solving and digital automation. Experienced in building large products to achieve human needs and streamline business management. 

https://github.com/godfredakpan

Roadmap

February:

• Prototyping Smart Contract 
• PAB prototype and Integration

March:

• Backend API prototype
• Frontend implementation Started

April:

• Backend API Version 1.0 Completed
• Frontend implementation completed
• Private Testnet 

Q2 2022:

• MVP Testnet launch (Beginning of Q1)
• MVP Mainnet launch

Q3 & Q3 2022:

• Expand to more countries
• Add More local payment options

KPIs

• Number of  p2p transactions in volibra 
• Number of new users onboarding 

how will Success look like?

1. After 3 month:

• Production ready smart contract is built
• User interface is implemented
• Private testnet is launch.

2. After 6 month:

• Mainnet is launch
• More local payment method is added.

3. After 12 month:

• 10k unique wallet P2P transaction is done.
• 10  more Developing countries is supported in volibra P2P

Success metrics

Userbase:

• How many users are using the platform?
• How many transactions are being made?

Functionality:

• The P2P application is complete and functional
• The escrow order rule is applied to all P2P transaction

Usability:

• The application shall be easy to use and intuitive
• Users can trade without any third party

Transparency:

Smart contract backend makes the system transparent.

Budget Breakdown:

•  145 hours of Smart contract Development and testing : $10150
• 305 hours of Backend implementation and testing : $21350
• 145 hours of front-end design and Implementation and testing $10150
• Contract Audit: $6000
• Tech services : Servers , SMS gateway, Hosting , Hubspot etc , 1 year: $2350

   Total : $50000

Launch Date: Q2 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/