Cardano and impact

Impact is a key element of the Cardano philosophy. The first sentence at cardano.org is “making the world better for all” and you can see this line in practically every video of Mr. Charles Hoskinson as well as many of the Cardano ecosystem activities.

Following our successful fund 6 proposal, we have conducted research matching Fund 6 Catalyst proposals with SDGs and the results were very promising. 27.4% of the funded proposals directly intended to impact the SDGs and 68.5% indirectly impacted the SDGs. This is not a surprise as blockchain technology has the potential to have an impact on financial inclusion, governance, education, and other areas which align with SDGs objectives. We have also developed the SDG Proposer Tool which is now embedded in the proposal form processes to further highlight the ongoing alignment between Catalyst and the SDGs.

Here is the closing report for our proposal with more details: docs.google.com/document/d/1uZ0Ci6JWowLVUWijpOTSSf_G5Q-xLIQg4C4_bwaLAoQ/edit#

Reaching out/onboarding Impact businesses to Cardano has already started:

We have already started discussions with impact businesses, and presented them to Cardano and Catalyst. We are guiding and supporting them with not only the onboarding process but also how solutions in the Cardano ecosystem could serve their business. For example using Atala Prism as DIDs for students or collaborating with impactful Cardano projects and companies such as Cardashift.

Here are some examples:

• Seedstars.com
• Goodwall.io
• Ekofolio.com
• Accelerate2030.net
• Digifarm.io
• Positiveblockchain.io
• Cardashift.com

All those companies are in various stages of discussion with the Cardano ecosystem and have already proposed in Catalyst or are planning to propose in this current or next fund.

The solution:

The team is creating an open source, innovative model to collaborate with the community, to generate a range of opportunities for collaboration with impact businesses, and onboard them to Cardano. The goal is to create a new model that generates multiple opportunities as well as support for the onboarding process in collaboration with the community. Ultimately helping meet new businesses needs and increasing their ability to create a larger impact.

To incentivize the activity, community members will be compensated for generating leads that convert to conversations with businesses. For leads that will result in collaboration, the community member generating the lead will receive further compensation. The community member will fill up details of certain characteristics about the lead. Ex. (name, project description, website, socials, project lead contact info, github/gitbook) and will support to initiate and facilitate the conversation and ongoing discussions as needed. All this information will help to build up the model and with the post lead conversation and audit process.

The solution will be a great use case modelling how to include the community in business activities. It will give a space for many to contribute and will also provide funding for time and efforts dedicated to promoting the community. Through the work, we will evaluate multiple business models around lead generation compensation (i.e. by IOG) or success fee based on collaboration which includes financial elements, as well as tokens or other forms of incentives (i.e. receiving CLAP tokens for leads generated to Cardashift). The objective is to find a model that will enable and stimulate activities post funding, and support ecosystem growth with the community serving as remunerated business agents.

Long term vision:

Our long term vision is for in 6-12 months to have a working solution that can be used at a wider scale, by diverse groups within the Cardano community, or when trying to on-board a solution into their cross chain ecosystem. We will be creating a proof of concept tool and model, that can be used within the Cardano community, as this process will be documented, and open source. This tool, and the development of our new model will encourage and improve the entire onboarding process, and will help with data management when community members are trying to work with new projects joining the community from our leads. All of our research and final modelling will be shared, and connect Cardano based solutions to more businesses globally. An open source model will be a creation of a system with different subsystems. Then replicated and shared to help drive more businesses to join our community, and take full advantage of the opportunities Cardano unleashes.

The challenge asks the question: How can Cardano-based solutions help meet real business needs and what would be their impact?

Impact driven businesses or the transformation of business to be more impact driven is a growing trend and major business practice today. It has become a norm for large corporations, multinationals, and many small and medium sized enterprises to have ‘Social and environmental’ focused departments, with such themes growing in importance for all stakeholders. It is enough to look at major corporate financial reports to validate it.

Here is an example of Nestle’ 2020 annual financial report (The summary already includes some key relevant information), which highlights that Nestle’s internal stakeholders see climate and decarbonization, innovative business models, digital and technology having a major impact on Nestle’s success.

https://www.nestle.com/sites/default/files/2021-03/2020-annual-review-en.pdf

www.nestle.com/media/pressreleases/allpressreleases/nestle-annual-report-2020

The proposal suggests a model to contact a large number of impact businesses as well as developing the model for the onboarding process.

Why it is important? Companies are finally discovering the power of blockchain technologies and Cardano is ready to onboard exciting B2B and B2C solutions.

Transparency and traceability are huge opportunities for impact driven businesses to show their value, build trustworthiness and new models. DID, smart contract, open ledgers, credentials and more are all important building blocks that could support impact businesses work.

The proposal will enable further capacity to focus on approaching many relevant businesses and through the collaboration with Cardano’s ecosystem, help businesses increase efficiency, transparency, and stakeholder engagement, as well as expand business to new areas. All key success factors for the challenge.

Key Metrics to measure for the challenge:

• # of Cardano dApps supporting business solutions
• # of existing companies proposing Cardano-based solutions
• # of partnerships / joint ventures created between companies
• $ additional funding from other sources for the funded proposals
• $ projected cost savings
• $ projected revenue increase
• % growth in mainnet / testnet activity due to business solutions

Those KPIs will be part of the guidelines provided to the community for the lead generation activities, and each lead will be tagged with the potential impact on the relevant KPIs

• As we approach the community to generate leads, one risk could be to generate too many leads - need to ensure we are providing the appropriate guidelines to generate relevant and impactful leads.

• Companies might be suspicious. As we are focusing on impact related collaboration, it might be easier and faster to build trust and collaboration.

• As it is a multi lead opportunity, for each initiative we need to find the most sustainable contact and company within the Cardano ecosystem. Maybe it will be IOG, Cardano foundation, Emurgo, Catalyst initiatives, or Cardano based companies. Our team has already strong contacts with the community which will facilitate overcoming this challenge.

• Defining clear criteria of what is established as collaboration, in order to compensate community members, will be important to prevent conflicts. To mitigate this issue, we will define it in the guidelines provided and we will also allocate a budget for external auditing of the process.

• Incentive exchange rate risk. As significant funds will be dedicated for incentives there is a risk of ADA & USD fluctuation. To reduce the risk we will keep a record of the ADA & USD rate at the day of receiving the funds from Catalyst and all payments will be thereafter in ADA.

Roadmap:

Phase 1, 4 weeks: Promotion to the Catalyst & Cardano community.

This phase includes:

Preparation of guidelines for approaching businesses

Info sharing of the initiative across the C4C and Sustainable ADA channels, including in weekly meetups and social channels

Preparing a list of potential ideas and Cardano projects that could be relevant for businesses - this list will be updated ongoing by the proposal team and the community

Host a monthly dedicated meetup to promote the initiative and co-build the model

Phase 2, week 5 to week 16: Lead generation by community members, initial discussion with businesses and match making for collaboration with the Cardano ecosystem

This phase includes:

• Continue promotion and info sharing from phase one
• A list of community generated leads
• An intro call with leads to match needs and opportunities
• Discussion and coordination for collaboration
• With Catalyst & Cardano projects
• With Cardano Foundation and IOG
• With Catalyst and Cardano services

The deliverable and KPIs will be:

• Guideline docs and PPT
• Provide materials to reach out to businesses
• Promotion to the community about the initiative
• Database of ideas and leads for collaboration
• Over 10 community members offering leads
• 50 estimated leads
• 25 coordinated calls
• 10 businesses to continue discussion for collaborations and form the joint next step action
• 10 companies partnering with the Cardano ecosystem within 6 months

Incentive budget 8,000 USD

The proposal includes incentivizing the community members for generating leads that translate to intro conversations for collaborations. For leads that will result in collaboration, further compensation will be granted. If a lead is currently an active project, they will also be onboarded into the Positive Blockchain open source database..

Compensation for lead generation that led to phone/video conversation = 3000 USD. An estimated 30 call meetings, the community member will receive 100 USD per lead.

Compensation for established collaboration 5000 USD. Based on 10 estimated collaborations this budget could provide additional incentive for community members of 500USD per collaboration.

Process lead budget 21,000 USD

This budget will be allocated for the work needed to coordinate and support the process. It will include documentation preparation, numerous internal and collaborations meetings, and coordination with relevant Cardano ecosystem players. Additional budget will be dedicated for an independent external auditing as an important element in the design oft the overall model.

(Each Lead is to be documented: needs to add all details onto our ‘Lead database, and will need to do an external audit using the DYOR tool by SCAT DAO (or other auditing process). Carrying out a transparent audit of all the leads allows the project and the process to be as transparent as possible.)

DYOR Tool -

https://www.scatdao.com/dyor-tool

https://dyortool.io

• Weekly coordination meeting 200 USD per meeting (divided between the meeting team, 40-50 USD per member per meeting) X 16 weekly meetings over 4 months = 3200 USD
• Intro call with companies, estimated 30 calls = 5000 USD
• Collaboration discussion with selected companies (estimated 10 meetings per month for 3 months = 5000 USD
• Monthly meetup 1000 x 3 meetups = 3000
• General admin, including the audit process 3500 USD
• Miscellaneous costs (eg. Travel costs for in person meetings) 1300 USD

Total budget for the proposal 29,000USD

Total pot is 1,000,000 USD so we are asking for less than 3% of the pot, with a ROI that can have a far larger positive multiplier effect. An approximate spend of 3000 USD per company onboarded if we succeed to onboard 10 companies working in the Cardano ecosystem within 6 months.

The team has collaborated together on various projects and community activities for the past 6 months and more intensively in the past 3 months. This gives strong assurances and high confidence in the collaboration of the team for this proposal.

Team members include:

Nori Nishigaya, Tech lead https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishigaya

Founder of the Salmon Nation Decentralized Alliance (SANADA), Bridge Builders, and SAMON pool. Member of the Catalyst Circle Admin Team, Cardano4Climate, and Rapid Funding Challenge Team. Cardano Ambassador, CA, and Funded proposer. Passionate about radical inclusivity and community, and devoted to making Cardano the best community on the planet. Nori brings over 30 years of experience in software development, agile methodologies, leadership and managing teams, and founding and running technology startups.

Melanie Russo, Community lead Cardano4Climate facilitator

Melanie is a mother, tree-hugger, and connector. Melanie is one of the co-facilitators of the decentralized action group Cardano4Climate. This work has made her a respected leader in the Cardano community. Melanie will be applying her empathetic relation-building skills to connect with compatible stakeholders and projects.

Razali Samsudin, Research lead https://www.linkedin.com/in/razali-samsudin

Educator, Editor, Digital Economy, Blockchain & Sustainability Researcher, Social Entrepreneur, Catalyst Proposal Mentor, Wada UN SDG and Education Coordinator, Co-Founder of Sustainable ADA, Contributor for Positive Blockchain & Catalyst School Core Member.

Cole Bartlett, Youth lead, https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-bartlett

UNITE 2030 Youth Delegate, a recent graduate in Economics & Sustainability, Founder of Sustainable ADA, Contributor for Positive Blockchains, Blockchain & Sustainability Researcher, & Social Entrepreneur, Ecoquest Education Foundation - Sustainability Research, B Impact Clinic part of UNH's Changemaker Collaborative - Kikori, Sustainability Splash Program Organizer, Bronze UNH Sustainability Award Winner.

Yoram Ben-Zvi, Partnership lead, https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoram-ben-zvi-446836

A social entrepreneur. In the last five years, Yoram is focusing on combining impact and business. A mentor with international board, operations, and startup experience. Yoram is an active catalyst member, CA, and part of the Cardano4Climate community. In Addition, active in promoting the Catalyst and Cardano community to impact companies and networks to connect them to the ecosystem (i.e. seedstars.com).

Cardano4Climate.com (C4C) community includes over 200 members and growing. C4C is organizing weekly meetups and monthly events and collaborating with multiple impact communities (i.e. climateneutralcardano.org), companies (i.e. Veritree, Cardashift) and the Cardano companies (IOG, Emurgo, Cardano Foundation).

SustainableADA.com team is focusing on educational services, research and communication of impact projects on the Cardano blockchain, spreading the word of the work and impact of the Cardano ecosystem .

All the information will be open source, and shared with the community.

We will have dedicated google folders where we will put together all the presentations, leads database and progress reports. We will also open discord and telegram channels for communication and information gathering and sharing. The meetings will be recorded and shared as long as the collaborative party agrees. There will be a monthly summary, accessible for all, explaining the work done and deliverables and KPIs achieved during the month. Through this process it will be possible to progress in alignment the proposal.

In limited cases, details about specific collaboration terms may be undisclosed based on the collaborative parties. However the community will be informed about the collaboration framework.

Transferring incentives to community members as well as for meeting participation will be done based on a detailed monthly report and it will be done in ADA, transferring between wallets. (Before each transfer all steps to acquire a lead must be complete and publicly viewable).

Finally, we will have an external audit team from the Audit challenge setting team or by the financial auditing team. We will also evaluate using the DYOR form. Each member will submit the form that will then be open source and part of the DYOR library by SCAT DAO. (https://www.scatdao.com/dyor-tool). We will evaluate the most sustainable audit solution and process for such a model.

Reaching the KPIs will be a key success indicator. In addition, a key element of success will be the number of community members catalyzing and cultivating collaboration and being rewarded for it. It will be an important use case for collaborative efforts for success. We aim to learn during and from the process, and start developing it into a replicable model that could be self-sustained and adapted accordingly depending on the context.

This is a new proposal. However, the proposer’s have had many proposals related to impact and sustainability. Here are couple of examples:

Add SDG ratings to proposals - AIM F6: Partnerships for Global Adoption

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/367569

Research in Applying Frameworks-AIM, F6: Partnerships for Global Adoption

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/369294

Global Sustainable Stories/Usecases F6: Grow Africa, Grow Cardano

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/369883

Proposal Framework Tool - AIM F6: DLT Entrepreneurship Toolbox

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/369300

Proposal Framework Tool - AIM F7: Open Source Developer Ecosystem

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/383692

This proposal is focusing on business to business, business to customer, and cross chain partnerships for impact and the SDGs mentioned below relate to that. The outcome of the proposal will impact multiple SDGs based, on the collaboration established and specific initiative objectives.

SDG goals:

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

SDG subgoals:

17.16 Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

17.19 By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

17.16.1 Number of countries reporting progress in multi-stakeholder development effectiveness monitoring frameworks that support the achievement of the sustainable development goals

#proposertoolsdg

================