Traceable Reward currency (FLORAS)

Build a reward platform under a shared wallet & currency (FLORAS) where companies reward members, trace funds spent, and get carbon credits.

We developed a white-label mobile wallet complemented by a marketplace web for products, all connected under unique currency. We are experienced in building reward programs and currencies. Part of University California Berkeley accelerator. Team: Ph.D., economist & 3 engineers.

[IMPACT]

Description

We are a start-up in UC Berkeley accelerator Skydeck. I hold a Masters in Economics and I am focused on developing Monetary systems and Reward programs. We worked with Airlines for many years and learned a lot from them, they have the biggest currency in the world, Airmiles. There are 10 Trillion outstanding miles in the economy and 500 billion miles issued every year. Airlines are the best at developing and executing Loyalty programs. (As a quick note, United generated more than US$ 3B in revenues last year by selling their currency to partners that use the miles to incentivize customer behavior, think co-branded credit cards)

We treat Reward currencies like any other currency, they have a supply, a demand, and a value.

Our project involves a group of European companies (we called CoalitionGreen), that will share the same reward currency: "Floras" under the same monetary program. 

Like Airmiles, our solution involves two key actions: Earn currency and Redeem currency.

Earn:

Floras will be issued as rewards when customers buy products from the Coalition Green companies (electronics, food, travel, etc.). They are given to end customers under a ratio decided by the companies ( X Floras per dollar spent). The cost to purchase 1 Flora has been established to be 2 cents.

Example: Customer buys a $1000 fridge and earns 5% cashback in Floras ($50) deposited in his Floras' wallet.

Note that in this stage, the fridge manufacturer purchase $50 of Floras to be given to the end-user, in this case, $50@0.02 per Flora issued = 2500 Floras to be deposited in his wallet.

With the wallet, the customers is able to manage the Floras balances and transactions.

Redeem:

Floras can be redeemed (spent) only at our certified sustainable projects that provide carbon credits. Customers will be able to choose from several projects (see www.Pachama.com) where to send their Floras to support the selected project and also get the Carbon Credits. 

(A carbon credit is a kind of permit that represents 1 ton of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. They can be purchased by an individual or, more commonly, a company to make up for carbon dioxide emissions that come from industrial production, delivery vehicles, or travel.)

Example: Customer sends $50 in Floras to a certified "Reforestation project in Amazonas, Brazil", so then we transfer the funds to the project and receive the carbon credits that are automatically allocated to the company that issued the Floras originally.

Win-Win-Win

Note that the end-user buys a product and receives a reward to then decide where to send the funds to support a sustainable project but the company that issued the reward receives the benefit of offsetting the carbon credit from their carbon footprint.

According to Reuters, the value of traded global markets for carbon dioxide (CO2) permits grew by 164% to a record 760 billion euros ($851 billion) last year, analysts at Refinitiv stated.

We can achieve a massive amount of transactions since European Climate Law is pushing to turn the political commitment into a legal obligation and more and more companies will need to offset carbon footprint.

Since the currency will be fueled by ADA, there is a great component that will increase the value of the Cardano network as transactions increase.

All this reward system is based on three tools we have already developed and provided to the companies but will need customizations:

A) Currency Wallet. This is a native mobile app and is already prepared to send or receive currency funds to other wallets or retailers. Can read QR codes and has a payment module. Also, it is open to communicate with users to share the different places where to Earn and/or Redeem Floras.

This wallet will be adapted to the Cardano technology.

B) MarketPlace (web). This is where companies can upload their products to sell and where members can Earn or redeem the currency. It has its own admin with different levels of access (manage products, images, prices, content, amount of Floras per product, etc)

C) A unique currency "FLORAS". This is based on a monetary system that allows companies to use the currency to reward members or collect currency as a payment. It is the most important piece since it connects all the different parts and the network.

The first phase of the program will be to allow those companies to reward their buyers with FLORAS, fund projects, and receive carbon credits by doing it.

In a second phase, we will allow converting frequent flier miles/points to Floras to then get carbon credits. This opportunity is unprecedented since these loyalty programs have millions of members with money (miles/points) to be spent on sustainable projects. We know most of the airline frequent flier programs in the world, and in the past, we have integrated our system to redeem their miles for other things.

Loyalty industry approach to companies we know

Marriotts has US$ 4B in liability in their books for points issued, we can allow their members to redeem Marriott’s points for FLORAS, to be used only on sustainable projects, and get the carbon credits. Even if you get a 5% conversion rate, this represents US$ 20M to be spent on sustainable projects. Marriott removes liability and at the same time offset carbon footprint, end-user decides what project are funded and sustainable project owners receive funds.

In conclusion, the user flow is simple, a B2B and B2C combined: 

1) Customers buy products from companies inside the Coalition Green program.

2) Companies give FLORAS as rewards (rebate on purchase) that can only be spent on the sustainable projects we are connected to (Gold standard/Pachama)

3) Customers send their FLORAS to those projects and the companies receive the carbon credits

Traceability - Why Blockchain?

In the past, we have developed other loyalty currencies but we have never involved blockchain technology. In this specific case, we will need to make sure we can track who issues the currency and where is spent it, to correctly allocate the carbon credits. This can only be achieved by a blockchain system under a Cardano native token that can track and flag the company that issues the Flora and when redeemed, connect those credits accordingly.

Example: If I earned 50 Floras from Disney and 30 Floras from Nestle in different transactions and my total balance in my wallet is 80, when I spend 40, where are those credits transferred to?

With traceability, we can connect both ends.

Transparency

Blockchain also will give a lot of transparency to where the funds are flowing to and what are the companies behind each of the transactions. Also for customers, it is important to see that the projects selected are receiving the funds as planned.

This is not just another typical token with the goal of raising funds. This will be the first loyalty currency run under Cardano to support sustainable projects that can connect issued with redeemed.

It will give a lot of exposure to the Cardano network and position the technology like the first one to build a program with these characteristics.

Most sustainable supporters will adopt Cardano to collect Floras to help projects.

New Revenues will be generated from ADA transactions fees.

The main challenge we foresee is the integration of our wallet to the Cardano system, but we have already discussed the solution with some full-stack developers in the Cardano community and they have expressed it will not be an obstacle to executing the project, on the contrary, they said it is a straight forward case to implement Cardano technology.

Cardano Native tokens technology also has been released and will facilitate the issue of our Floras currency.

[FEASIBILITY]

We usually work with our technology team in Sprints, each of them is defined first and is adjusted on a weekly basis by grooming. We estimate we will need at least 20 developing sprints, or 5 months total to launch a customized fully functioning MVP.

Sprints are detailed with use cases and each of them corresponds to different features of the solution.

All sprints are reflected in a live document with a Dashboard, execution Plan by dates, a backlog, and a Grooming list.

Month 1:

Planning and Initiation

Floras definition of currency system (values, exchanges)

Floras APP Wallet set up and customization

Earn and Spend Floras Web set up

Graphic design, logo, brand, and colors definition of the program

Month 2:

Set up Back end admin for the currency system

Web design Floras Earn and Spend options

Web integration with Floras currency admin

Finalize graphic design deliverables

Month 3:

Integration of mobile APP with web solution under the same currency

Cardano Blockchain integration to the Wallet

Native token set up plan and tokenomics definition

Month 4:

Integration with Carbon credits providers (Pachama/gold standard)

Testing of Floras exchange to carbon credits (transfer of funds)

Month 5:

Set up all systems into Amazon web services

Features adjustments

Testing and launch of MVP

We estimate most of the cost will be in developing and integrations.

App development and customizations

1 mobile developer full time, 5 months @ 3000/ month = 15k

Web site development and customizations

1 web developer full time, 5 months @ 3000/ month = 15k

Blockchain integration and tokenization

1 full stack developer full time, 4 months @ 3000/ month = 12k

Backlog and direction of developers

1 CTO and scrum master 5 months @ 3000/month = 15k

Marketing and design of the brand, website and app

1 graphic designer, 2 months @3500: = 7k

Overall direction of the project

1 project director 5 months @ 3000 = 15k

Amazon web services set up =1k

TOTAL US$ 70000

Gonzalo de los Rios - Project director

My background is in Economics and Loyalty.

Entrepreneur and part of UC Berkeley Skydeck program with Aeros Wallet. Also part of British Airways incubator program.

Worked within redemption of miles for partners like United Airlines, Avianca Airlines, and British Airways among others.

Developed a Loyalty currency system with a total valuation of US$22M in currency.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gonzalo-de-los-rios-a8a9/

Rafael del Corro - CTO and Scrum master

Founder of many (tech and non-tech) startups, experienced in technology and strategy. 

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

Franco Fadini - Lead / Prod. Developer

Vast experience in building multiple MVP projects from scratch (mobile, web, backend) and leading teams.

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

Agustin Campos - UI/UX Spec developer

UX Designer for digital products with experience in Agile methodologies. Worked for 500 fortune companies and small agencies.

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

Gustavo Lombardi - PM Communication & Marketing

Marketing and Brand Communications Strategist with experience in VISA and Fintech companies.

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

Juan Herrera - Graphic design

Marketing and Communication Strategist and Co-Founder en LOCO Digital Agency

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

Lucas Sasso - PM Web developer

Woocomerce specialist and Ecommerce integration tool expertise

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-daniel-sasso/

Javier Santiago Ortiz Correa

Ph.D. in Economics - University of California specialized in data, market analysis, and project evaluation.

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

[AUDITABILITY]

As mentioned, all sprints are reflected in a live document:

Dashboard

Where all the sprints are accounted for and the number of hours spent

Product snapshot divided in Core app, wallet, exchange, Earn, Spend, Pay module, movements, notifications.

Also the minimum requirements

Sprints Plan

Divided into 5 sprints with dates and status

Backlog

Each use case has its own ID with its correspondent extension (Core app, wallet. etc)

Minimum requirement, status, and sprint allocation is reflected here

The release date is also reflected in this backlog list

Grooming

Here the use cases are prioritized by low, medium, or high, and status is also reflected

The development and launching of the three key elements of the currency system will be a success.

1) MVP customized FLORAS mobile wallet, with balances, QR code transactions plus Earn and spend currency capabilities functioning.

2) MVP customized FLORAS web where members can Earn and Spend currency.

3) Floras as a Cardano native token with tracking of issue and redemption of Floras currency

It is not.