Last updated 2 years ago
Lack of a system to transfer NFTs placed at GPS coordinates as a reward for participating at community events and encourage healthy behavior
A Web DApp to place NFTs on a Map using a web-wallet and have users pick them up with their Phone that is running a tracking app and wallet
This is the total amount allocated to Cardano Beam - GPS based Assets.
Problem statement - long form
There is currently a lack of a “value transfer system” for placing NTFs, and other tokens, at GPS locations and having people pick them up. Nothing like this exists today and this is a potentially revolutionary application of the blockchain.
It all centers around rewarding someone for being at a certain location at a certain time. A few examples:
Someone might want to pay someone else 1 ADA if they come to the voting booth on a Sunday (think of a local government who wants to increase voter participation).
Or, I might want to pay someone 5 ADA to show up to my park run between 9:30 and 9:45 on a Saturday morning - and then I will give an NFT to the first 10 across the finish line!
Or, someone might want to spread HOSKY coins all over the city so people can walk around picking them up and doing some exercise while at it - sort of a Pokemon GO on Cardano.
Or it might be that I want to reward a delivery driver for an early arrival - I can place 5 ADA in front of my house that can only be picked up by the public key of the delivery driver no later than 7pm this Tuesday.
The problem is for anyone who ever wanted to incentivize someone else to be at a certain location out of need, or out of love. A form of a location-based Nudge that could alter people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.*
We researched 3 areas where this kind of a problem exists and for which we can develop a solution by leveraging the Cardano blockchain. Beyond these 3 areas there is a range of other possible applications to which we will get once the technology is developed.
1 - Sport Events
Organizers have a list of things to worry about when organizing and managing sports events:
These use case can be solved with a Web + a Mobile DApp and a smart contracts to manage locking and distribution of prizes
Target market: Participants in sport events and their organizers.
Sizing the market: Total market is around 100mn users worldwide. Of which around 75mn use their phone for tracking their activity while exercising. This estimate is based on the number of users of the Strava app which is the largest tracking app that is used by cyclists and runners, pros and amateurs - who recorded just over 1 billion activities in 2021. It is used by around 2/3rds of Tour de France riders. Strava had a revenue of c. $72mn for 2022 and is valued at c. $1.5bn
Taking the UK as a sample with a total population of c. 68mn, there are:
This makes 10mn activities per year in a country of 68mn population, or roughly 1 in every 7 people once per year at official events.
Resources used to collect the market data:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Parkruns_in_the_United_Kingdom#:~:text=This%20is%20a%20list%20of,Scotland%2C%20Wales%20and%20Northern%20Ireland.
https://www.letsdothis.com/gb/running-events?override=true
https://www.cyclinguk.org/events-listing
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/strava-statistics/#:~:text=Strava%20currently%20has%2076%20million,adds%20one%20million%20every%20month.
2 - Businesses Advertising
A “value transfer system” linked to the GPS location can transform how ads are placed and consumed at local and community level.
The global advertising market is around $700bn per year and has been growing between 10% and 20% per year over the last three years, but the majority of this is online advertising where global consumers are targeted by global brands. This overshadows the local advertising market where main street is competing for local foot traffic to their cafes, restaurants and stores. Targeted advertising for them is when a person comes by their business rather than visits a website. Small business owners have had to adapt and set-up facebook pages and websites to participate in the ever growing digital ad market, whilst their core business is still making coffee, serving good food and producing local goods.
Traditional forms of advertising in local newspapers and street banners can be costly and ineffective as user attention is moving into the digital world. Giving out discounts to second time visitors, or offering reward cards to try and make clients come back only really works when a client has been there before and does nothing in attracting the first time visitors.
The benefit of having a “value transfer system” that is linked to GPS locations is that local businesses will be able to target local consumers. Users will be on the lookout for offers around them. And advertisers will be able to reach all of these users instantaneously.
Businesses will be able to incentivize clients to pass by their store - physically. This is a step-up for businesses as they can get ‘guaranteed’ results for every dollar spent.
A brand doing an open house wants to to create buzz and have people show up
A coffee shop in the mountains with fantastic views and great coffee, but is off the beaten path
Town markets, the council wanting people to show up and give a voucher for a free hot-dog. Easy by dropping a few NFTs at the center of the market that are redeemable at the stall near them.
The size of the incentives do not need to be large, but just enough to Nudge into a certain action - as popularized in the book “Nudge” by Thales and Sunstein: A nudge, according to Thaler and Sunstein is any form of choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without restricting options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must require minimal intervention and must be cheap. An obvious example is placing a very small amount of reward on a particular hiking route that is not very well explored … it could nudge hikers to explore this new route because they are going out on hike anyway and this route has something interesting that they others don’t
City councils are already developing apps to incentivize positive behavior. One example is a small city of Cascais with 200,000 inhabitants located just west of Lisbon, Portugal that developed an app at the end of 2021 where users are rewarded with points that they can redeem for services. The app has 10,000 installs.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.citypoints&hl=en&gl=US
3 - Charitable Donations based on location
This is linked to the first use case around sport activities, but with a different target market.
Amateurs particing in events will often ask for sponsorship from friends and family to help pay for event fees and other expenses. For example the required fundraising for charity to participate at the London Marathonis in the range of 2,000 dollars - the participant will often set up a webpage to collect donations and then use that to pay the participation fee.
It is cumbersome to collect money from friends and family with many opting for a third party service such as chuffed.org who charge a fee between 2 and 7%
An alternative solution that needs a “value transfer system” is to let friends and family place ADA, or other tokens on the event’s route so the participant can pick them up during the event. With the added advantages:
It ensures that the participant actually shows up!
Has a fixed cost that is slightly above the standard ADA transfer fee
Can be placed in real time during the event and have an expiration time… think of placing a token that can only be picked up if the runner averages better than 7min/mile for the first 10k
4 - Other
Other uses cases to which the solution can be expanded once the “value transfer system” is built:
Solution - long form
We will build a “value transfer system” that will allow anyone to place an NFT, or a token, on the map anywhere in the world by specifying the GPS coordinates and some other conditions like time and date. This NFT will be locked by a smart contract on the Cardano blockchain, and to unlock it, someone will need to pass at that GPS location. Once the user passes the NFT will get unlocked and get transferred to the user’s wallet.
This will allow for value to be transferred without payment terminals, without prior agreements so long as the person receiving the payment is physically present at the specified location and conforms to the other conditions of who ever placed there the token, or NFT
This will bring large new user base to the blockchain
Event organizers will be able to accept registration fees in ADA (or other tokens) and record the public key of who registered. They will be able to set up a course by placing tokens at checkpoints and monitor who picked them up. Race bibs can become the virtual public keys that each participant will carry on their phone. Race day registration can be done by placing a token at the start. Rewards can be paid out to the public key of the finishers. Chip timing can recorded when the participant unlocked a token and live tracking of the event will be available through our Web app
Business owners will be able to advertise their location by placing tokens next to their establishment and target a particular time and date. They can scale the rewards by paying out more during slow times. City market will be able to give out free gifts to those who turn up and make them redeemable for goods at the market
Athletes will be able to share their PublicKey with friends and family and request that they place their donation somewhere along the route. Then when passing that place the athlete’s wallet will recognise the donation and interact with the smart contract to collect it. When placing the donation it will be possible to make it collectable by anyone passing there, or only by a selected set of PublicKeys (e.g. publickeys that belong to the same family)
In practical terms there will be 2 application that will interact with the user:
1 - Web DApp with a Map
This will be used to place NFTs and tokens on the map and lock them into a smart contact at that particular GPS location. Some additional locking features will also be available to target a specific user group (e.g. list of public key who registered for an event) or target a specific time interval.
Flexible locking features will allow to build the desired incentives, for example:
2 - Mobile DApp with GPS Tracking and a Cardano Mobile Wallet
The user will pick up their rewards with Cardano Beam DApp running on their mobile phone and which will have GPS location tracking and a Cardano wallet
The Mobile DApp will have:
Additionally there will be 2 backend elements that will manage the communication between the user application and the Cardano blockchain
3 - Back end DB and APIs
Backend services that will need to support the web app and the phone app.
The DB will temporarily store the location of users that are using the phone app so that their location can be relayed to the web app.
The cardano-wallet and cardano-graphql services will let the Mobile DApp communicate with the Cardano blockchain.
4 - Smart contracts
Will be used to lock the tokens and NFTs and accept other conditions for unlocking (e..g time and date, public key of the user …), And they will be unlocking mechanism
This is a new use case for the blockchain. It targets a specific area where the use of blockchain can improve logistics and change how a part of an industry operates. An uptake of this innovation can attract a new and untapped user base to the Cardano ecosystem. It puts a foot in the door for Cardano into at least 2 new industries (sports and advertising) and shows the capability to use Cardano to solve non standard problems.
There are more than 2 million daily activities recorded by users of the Strava app and there are millions of small businesses worldwide. Even a small uptake of this use case would increase the transaction volume on Cardano by a substantial amount.
Cardano is eco-friendly, scalable and maintains security when scaling, and its native assets (tokens) protocol is easy and secure, second to none.
This section lists the biggest risks to the project and discusses the possible mitigating actions.
Stability of the front end - the web app might crash under significant load if it is accessed by more people than expected. Mitigant - the service provider who hosts the servers is able to upgrade to higher spec machines. The load will be tested during the incentivized Test Net and should the load reach critical levels the machine will be upgraded. A higher expenditure for this has been accounted for in the budget.
Failure of the phone app - the phone app might crash, or fail to accurately record the location, the phone might run out of battery during the long event. Mitigant - app stability will be tested during development throughout the Test Net. The app is being developed for Android first to avoid the distraction of bugs on more than 1 type of device.
Smart contract congestion - after the smart contract is designed and deployed it is possible that the question of concurrency comes up and it may lead to substandard performance of the apps. If this becomes an issue we will try to mitigate this by having each NFT deployed in their own smart contract.
GPS spoofing - users of the phone app might try to fake their true GPS location by using malicious software, or an emulator to simulate that they are traveling the route when actually not. For event organizers this risk can be mitigated by pre-registering participants and their addresses, so the rewards can be picked up only by those. And for anonymous users the phone app will collect static data from the phone such as the GSM carrier, if an emulator is running as well as additional location based info such as the location of nearby GSM towers and cross check this with the recent travel history and speed.
Event can’t be held due to Covid-19 restrictions, illness, weather or other force majeure - the event will be rescheduled for spring as long as restrictions are lifted and there are at least 12 hours of daylight in a day
Target Functionality:
The app consists of 2 front end apps, a backend and smart contracts. The target functionality of each one is described in the sections below. Correct functioning of the app will be prioritized on the Test Net before releasing onto the main net.
Target Functionality - 1) The Web DApp
The Web DApp will be accessible to all. In the DApp the user will see a map and all the users currently cycling, running, walking or performing other activities. Each user will be identified by a marker and each one will have a public key that will represent their wallet address on the Cardano blockchain. Clicking on the user on the map will show some detail such as their current position, their pace and how many rewards they have collected so far (e.g. how much of token X they collected and what NFTs they hold).
Anyone will be able to place a token on the map by using their web-wallet. To do this they will click somewhere on the map and then choose from their web wallet what assets to place. They will be given an option if they want the token to be picked up only by some selected public keys, or by anyone - thus allowing them to target a donation towards friends and family only.
A demo of this app is available at https://dynamicstrategies.io/sports/tracker , the demo will be updated to include the functionalities of adding tokens and interacting with the blockchain as deliverable elements of this proposal
Technology used:
Target Functionality - 2) The Mobile DApp
The Mobile DApp will be downloadable from Google Play store and will include tracking the user's position and communicating their location to the backend and will have a Cardano Wallet that will interact with the blockchain and show the user the Assets and NFTs that they hold
A demo of the Mobile DApp has been developed and is being currently tested on Android devices. The React Native was used to build the app and the codebase will be ported to support Apple devices after the Android version passes all the functional tests - the decision to use React Native was made specifically so that porting to Apple would be faster than if using an Android specific codebase (e.g. Dart)
Technology used:
Target Functionality - 3) Backend
The web app and the phone app communicate with the backend to read / transmit the location of the athlete. This uses a REST API service and a MongoDB to store the data on the server. A cardano-wallet service also runs on the backend which is used by the phone app to create new wallets, restore wallets from the mnemonic and query for assets held on the wallet.
Technology used:
Target Functionality - Smart contracts
A smart contract will be designed and deployed to interact with the Web DApp. It will accept the location coordinates and lock the assets that the athletes will be able to unlock when they pass that location.
The contract will be parametrized by the GPS coordinates. It will accept and lock the assets at a UTXO by posting a transaction to it from the Web DApp, and it will release assets at the UTXO if a transaction is sent with the correct parameters from the Mobile DApp - at which point the assets will be transferred to the user's wallet
A.1: Inputs into smart contract when locking assets:
A.2: Output:
B.1: Inputs into smart when redeeming assets
B.2: Output:
Target Functionality - Future Module
The functionality described in the previous sections will prove the viability of the “value transfer system” based on GPS location of users. After the planned delivery of this project additional development is already being planned
Future development will focus on two main themes - scaling and embedding functionality into local economies and expanding the functionalities to cover other uses cases
The application will be tested and scaled to cope with increases in demand and work done to embed it into the operating models of organizations. Large event organizers, municipalities and local businesses will be engaged to trial technology.
Build out additional functionalities to address other use cases as described to in the problem statement (tracking of goods in a production line, geocaching, vote participation, tracking of cars and vessels, bonuses for urgent parcel delivery)
Demo Web DApp and Mobile DApp
A demo of the system has been built and is being tested in Lisbon, Portugal by a group of friends. It includes a demo of the web app, a demo of the phone app and a functioning backend that links them together.
Additional features that would make the app interact with the blockchain, make it more user friendly, planning the incentivized test net and the main event are described in the schedule in the next section.
Demo web-app: https://dynamicstrategies.io/sports
A demo Mobile DApp has been reviewed by Google and has been released for internal testing. A few printscreen of the app.
Delivery Schedule and Roadmap
Each month is divided into 4 weeks, any remaining days are sundry and clean up
1 month - Set-up the testing environment with Cardano node and wallet service running.
Week 1 - Contract a VPS from Contabo, install Ubuntu
Week 2 - Spin up a full Cardano node on the Test Net
Week 3 - Configure cardano-graphql and cardano-wallet
Week 4 - Configure SSL and NGINX reverse proxy’s for the services. Test the API endpoints are accessible from the web
2 month - Enhance the functionality of the web app so users are able to click and place assets on the map. Design and deploy on the test environment the smart contract that users will interact to lock assets at coordinates on a map. Integrate with available the web wallets: Nami, CCVault and Flint
Week 1 - enhance the web app to allow for point and click functionality on the map to add tokens
Week 2 & 3 - design and deploy a smart contract on the Test Net that locks an NFT
Week 4 - integrate a web wallet with the smart contract
3 month - Design and deploy on the test environment the smart that the phone app will interact with. The app will submit current and recent history of GPS coordinates and claim the tokens placed at those locations
Weeks 1 & 2 - design and deploy a smart contract on the Test Net that accepts GPS coordinates and unlocks the NFT if they are within acceptable bounds
Week 3 - enhance the Mobile DApp wallet to send transactions to the smart contract
Week 4 - test the Mobile DApp on the road and troubleshoot
4 month - Release a test version of the mobile app that communicated with the Cardano Test Net and test in a small group around Lisbon, Portugal
Week 1 through 4 - Testing and monitoring for stability and bugs. Test on different browsers and different phone models. Tweak smart contracts as needed
5 month - Incentivized Test Net. Place tokens at difficult to reach locations and have a group of athletes pick them up throughout the month. The tokens will be placed on a Test Net with the agreement that the equivalent amounts will be credited onto the Main Net wallet at the end of the month.
Week 1 - Gather interest on social media and local contacts on participating in an incentivized test net. Collect the publickey from those interested and their locations.
Week 2 - Spread the 1 000 EUR in units of 1 EUR at locations where the participants are.
Week 3 - Run the incentivized Test Net, monitor progress and collect feedback from participants. Prioritize bug fixes and enhancements.
Week 4 - Process payouts to participants on the main net.
Go / No-Go call is made at the end of the month to promote smart contracts to the Main Net, or run the event on the Test Net. The decision is made by the project lead with consultation with Cardano Foundation
6 month - Refine and fix bugs. Lock the app. If the Go is given to release to Main Net then replicating the contracts and releasing to the Main Net. The node, GraphQL and wallet services are already running on the main net and serving other projects.
7 month - Event date
Build:
Full stack development @ 30 EUR per hour for 120 hours per month x 6 months = 21 600 EUR
Project Management and outreach @ 30 EUR for 10 hours per month x 6 months = 1 800 EUR
1,000 EUR incentivized Test Net = spread tokens an d NFTs and have users go out collect
Sub-total = 24 400 EUR
Event day:
800 EUR for day-of-event logistics, including assistance, transportation and validation/auditing of process.
200 EUR - Design and production of a custom Cycling jersey with “Cardano Beam” written across (70 euros for design using web app + 130 for production and delivery of 2 jerseys). https://en.owayo.com/design-customised-cycling-jerseys.htm#productTab_pricing
1,500 EUR equivalent of tokens to place along the way to incentivize participation. 200 EUR first prize, 150 for EUR 2nd and 100 for 3rd prize. Other tokens spread out.
Sub-total = 2 500 EUR
TOTAL = 26 900 EUR ($30 682)
Project lead has relevant experience:
Dmitry Shibaev is leading the project. Linked in profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shibaev/
5 years experience in big tech delivering large scale projects on the SAP system at energy companies in south of Europe
15 years experience in financial markets at an investment bank in London, Singapore and Amsterdam. Built and delivered tools to manage the bank’s capital, balance sheet and trading positions and led large investment projects.
Builds community tools, see section below
Built the full stack behind the Dynamic Strategies website: https://dynamicstrategies.io
Dmitry was part of the first cohort of Plutus Pioneers:
NFT celebrating course completion: https://pool.pm/asset1357ggsrjp232jwn5g7qqc9zetpsphzdawalgez
Track Record of building Community Tools:
Github: https://github.com/dynamicstrategies/cardano-wallet-connector
App: https://dynamicstrategies.io/wconnector
Github: https://github.com/dynamicstrategies/cardano-public-graphql
App: https://dynamicstrategies.io/gqlclient
App: https://dynamicstrategies.io/crewardcalculator
https://github.com/dynamicstrategies/cardano-wallet-functions
Received recognition for building community tools at Adafolio:
https://adafolio.com/portfolio/8f7da192-0257-11eb-9684-a45e60be653b
Stake Pool Operator on Cardano:
Ticker DSIO registered in 2020, previously received a delegation from Cardano Foundation. Link with pool details: https://adapools.org/pool/6ae0fb9fc19ad1b82521d6e4b9f6e9bad4d150529673c95c5b5cf4e4
Active on Cardano forum and Cardano Stack Exchange:
https://forum.cardano.org/u/dstratio/summary
https://cardano.stackexchange.com/users/6196/d-s
Eager Cyclist:
Dmitry is also an amateur cyclist who has clocked over 20 000 kms and more than 2 000 rides over the last 5 years. He will be testing the app, organizing and participating in the event
A report with the following KPIs will be produced at the end of each month
Build KPIs
Stability KPIs
Delivery KPIs
Test Event
The DApp will be tested on a cycling event stretching 300km in Portugal, between Lisbon and Vilamoura and it will take place somewhere between September and October 2022. It will be ridden by a member of the project team and streamed live on our website along with other participants who decided to join the event.
The event is getting attention on a local cycling forum with more than 2 000 views and multiple replies. Engagement will increase when it is announced that the event will have an incentive.
http://www.forumciclismo.net/index.php?threads/lisboa-algarve-em-1-dia.19659/ (Post is in Portuguese )
The council of Cascais has shown support to create a local digital currency and is amicable to blockchain technology (link in portuguese: https://www.dn.pt/local/cascais-vai-ter-uma-moeda-digital-para-promover-a-economia-circular-14377772.html ) . Once project is approved the council will be engaged to showcase the app in the local bulletin
The event will also be posted on the Cardano forum and in the local meetups.
Tech is built and released
Successful Event
A cycling event will be organized for September / October of 2022 between Lisbon and Vilamoura to be completed within a day. The success would be if we managed to track the event online, place rewards along the way ahead and during the event and have the participants successfully pick them up and see them in their wallet.
After the project finishes a tool would have been released which anyone can use to organize their own events and advertise their business to get foot traffic. The company that built the DApp will then assess the next course of actions, to seek venture capital investment to expand or come back for additional funding to project catalyst.
This is an entirely new proposal
SDG goals:
Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
SDG subgoals:
8.2 Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors
8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services
8.9 By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
Key Performance Indicator (KPI):
8.9.1 Tourism direct GDP as a proportion of total GDP and in growth rate
8.2.1 Annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person
NB: Monthly reporting was deprecated from January 2024 and replaced fully by the Milestones Program framework. Learn more here
Project lead builds community tools for Cardano and is an SPO. Has 20 years of professional experience at large tech and financial institutions. Plutus pioneer from 1st cohort. A demo web app and a phone app with core functionalities is available for internal testing.