Crowdfunding with inbuilt mediation

[IMPACT]

Our crowdfunding platform builds on top of Athena - A Cardano Blockchain Decentralized Justice ecosystem. Through this framework, we aim to create a crowdfunding platform with in-built KPI (Key Performance Index) through mediation/conflict resolution and participants credibility assessment algorithm to enhance all participants reliability

Every time a campaign is created, the proposer must define a set of tasks a corresponding token amount (e.g. [(“Research topic”, 2000 ADA), (“Make draft”, 3000 ADA), (“Write first 10 chapters”, 5000 ADA), etc]).

When the funding target is completely achieved, the campaign proposer will start completing those tasks. As he completes each task, he will trigger an action through our dApp, which will notify the mediators.

This is where the Athena framework comes into place. Via it’s conflict resolution mechanism, the mediators will decide whether the proposer did or not complete the target. Once a resolution is made, either the requested fund is released or the current amount goes back to the project contributors.

Any registered member can propose or support a project and also candidate to become a mediator for mediation cases in other projects.

A future improvement is the reward-penalty system - an algorithm that collects statistics related to the service transactions, user reviews, and other activities and returns the amount of tokens that will be rewarded. This will be done either through the launch of a native token or using part of the fees collected by the platform. To prevent abuses, members might need to prove their identity.

Crowdfunding features

When proposing a campaign, the following fields will be required (this might change)

1. Project description

1. Measurable performance items (KPI)

1. Collateral tokens (ADA): showing the commitment in delivering according to KPI

1. Value Target to achieve to make the campaign successful

1. Minimum single subscriber figure

1. Campaign start and end

1. Date of delivery if campaign is successful

1. Requesting the step-wise receipt of total pledged amount

1. Selection of mediator from available list

DApp Features

A. Ease of Use

From a user perspective the only requirements will be to have a browser wallet (such as Nami, GeroWallet or CCVault), fill the necessary fields (when necessary) and signing the transaction using the wallet.

B. Competitive fees

Crowdfunding related fees will be as low as one third compared with presently existing crowdfunding platform. This is achieved by low payment transfer fees thanks to Cardano transaction fees level and due to highly automated process integrated into the platform. A one-time small entrance fee is required mainly to prevent membership spam attacks.

C. Trust

In general, crowdfunding platforms are very centralized. Many good projects are censored because of ideology differences or even compliance issues. While conventional decentralized platforms avoid the censoring issue, because of their decentralized nature, there is even less guarantee that a proposer will indeed keep his promises. Our project tries to combine the good aspects of both approaches by being decentralized while also having a mediation mechanism that releases funds gradually.

Stages Features

Our project is divided into three stages. The first two will be focused on testing the platform and accessing our core issues. It will be happen inside schools and will enable students to propose and support educational projects through tokens that might be traded for actual grades. In contrast, the third stage will be a gradual launch of the crowdfunding platform for the public.

Hereafter the main features, during the first and second stages of development:

• Two tokens will be minted and provided to students of the selected pilot high school: GR (GRADES ) and SU (SUPPORTS)

• Each student registered on the platform receives 1,000 GR and 10,000 SU

• GR are used as collateral: the project proposer commits an arbitrary amount to show how committed he/she is to the project performance.

• SU are used to show support of other projects

• A higher amount of grades committed will mean also that the student will receive a higher evaluation, that is more GR, if the project is fully executed as for smart contract

• Students can 'trade' token for actual grades based on a algorithm agreed with the school teachers (option)

• A higher SU provided by other students will mean a higher acknowledgement and evaluation for those who supported a successful project. If the project fails, or succeed only partially, SU are lost or provide only a little contribution to those students who put them.

• Mediator role: checking and confirming the inputs set by the proposer in the campaign template. The mediator action enables the release of the locked-in funds/tokens (GR) and it determines whether the campaign proposer continues to receive funding or not. At this 1.stage it simply determines the amount of GR accounted to the proposer

Example 1 (Case of Stage 1. and 2.)

• Alice loves Mathematics and proposes building a cool website as project. This contains mathematics tools and resources to help students understand what is being taught at school. Accordingly she states some measurable and identifiable performance metrics, asks for 10,000 SU and place a collateral of 5,000 GR.

• So the campaign fields would be:

Crowdfund Campaign Title: Website containing tools to help Math students

Collateral: 5,000 GR

Project start / end: May. 2022 – Aug. 2022

Targets

• Create simple static website – Apr. 2022 - 3,000 SU

• Create area explaining core math concepts – Jul. 2022 – 2,000 SU

• Create area for anyone to write math blog-posts – Aug. 2022 – 5,000 SU

Judges:

• Mrs. Rachel

• Ms. Phoeby

• Mr. Chandler

• Bob, Charlie and 3 other students like Alice's idea and allocate 2,000 SU tokens each to contribute to Alice's project. Since the target (10k) was achieved, Alice can start working and achieveng the goals she set.

• Assuming she does achieve them, teachers (in this case the mediators) will confirm her success and release the SU tokens. Finally Alice's grade will be calculated through a formula weighting both committed GR and SU tokens.

• Otherwise, if Alice was not successful in one of her goals (say 3rd goal), she will only have receive “funding” for the goals she did complete (in this case 1st and 2nd) and the remaining, in addition to her collateral (in this case 5,000 GR), will be sent back to the students who contributed. Meaning there is an incentive for students to create meaningful, but feasible projects.

Example 2 (School Students Proposal, Stage 1. and 2.)

• Bob got inspired by Alice’s success and decided to make a project of his own. Different from her, though, Bob is more of an eletronics guy. So his project would be the following:

Crowdfund Campaign Title: Digital system for tracking dismantled electronics

Collateral: 10,000 GR

Project start / end: Sep. 2022 – Feb. 2023

Targets

• Create database including main and relevant materials related to electronics item to recycle – Nov. 2022 - 5,000 SU

• Create front-end for administrator and users – Dec. 2022 – 2,000 SU

• Add tracking through Cardano transactions – Feb. 2023 – 8,000 SU

Judges:

• Mrs. Angela

• Ms. Pam

• Mr. Michael

Example 3 (Stage 3.)

In stage three, we gradually open the platform to the public, meaning the projects are not school-specific anymore and transactions are made in the main-net with valuable tokens (e.g. ADA).

For example, Charlie, an engineer could try to get funds for his cool assistant robot idea:

Crowdfund Campaign Title: Assistant Robot development

Collateral: 5,000 ADA

Project start / end: Jun. 2023 – Jun. 2024

Unit price:

• Product A (8 GB RAM) : 500 ADA

• Product B (4 GB RAM) : 400 ADA

Targets

• Create robot sketch – Jul. 2023 – 2,500 ADA

• Create prototype – Sep. 2023 – 7,500 ADA

• Make robot lightweight (lower than 6 kg) – Nov. 2023 – 10,000 ADA

• Add Ultra-sound and vision sensors with on-edge ML – Mar. 2024 – 10,000 ADA

Judges:

• Mrs. Oliver

• Ms. Marple

• Mr. Hastings

Attracting Users

Through stages 1. and 2., we believe our platform will be able to attract user mainly through our school integration program.

• Through the Ministry of Education cooperation, the outcomes of first and second stages deployment might spill over to more schools in Italy fulfilling criteria set by the Ministry.

• Dual system (school/work): students actively participating on the platform will be able to propose projects to the many small-, mid- sized companies which are in demand of blockchain know-how but did not deploy it (local chamber of commerce will be an effective channel in this respect)

In addition to these, we also expect to attract and engage users from many audiences through

• Electronics, Robotics and IoT sectors

• Discord, Twitter and Telegram channels / pages for people who are also trilled about Blockchain, Cardano, Justice and Crowdfunding

• NFTs, which we are thinking about rewarding to the first people who register in the platform

Remark:

We use the term 'Mediation' according to definition from Oxford dictionary:

• Intervention in a dispute in order to resolve it; arbitration.

• Intervention in a process or relationship; intercession.

We partner with OpenSource Quadratic Voting Funding team https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/396834

By integrating real-world reliable inputs with strict on-chain contracts, the platform mitigates the ambiguity common in natural-language written contracts, while preserving the flexibility needed to communicate with the real world.

When signing into the platform members receive a reliability score of 60 (max is 100), called CAS (Credit Assessment Score). Based on activities on the platform, an algorithm periodically and dynamically updates CAS values. CAS represents a key attribute associated with each member and displays the reliability of the member. It has also an ethical value in preventing misbehaviors and driving commitment. Finally mediators, qualified in specific fields, get rewarded for their activity. CAS value represents the basic reliability indicator of a proposer. Additionally the proposer’s set collateral amount indicates his/her commitment.

-Deploying the system over a large community outside the school system, legal aspects need to be defined, especially for different legal territories

-Marketing the platform in an effective way to assure the benefits are well understood by the target users

[FEASIBILITY]

Rolling Schedule

Funding: May 2022

Front end and Back end final development for stage 1.: Jun. – Aug 2022

Stage 1.

Pilot school crowdfunding platform in Italy with agreement with Italian Ministry of Education (MIUR, Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell’Universita' e della Ricerca) in Varese province.

• Training students of selected High School: Aug. 2022

• MVP Launch in pilot High School: Sep.2022

• Students involvement in Catalyst projects: Dec.2022

• Transactions on Cardano testnet

Stage 2.

• Launch in entire Varese province (38 schools): Apr.2023

• Transactions is planned on Cardano testnet; if the environment/school conditions allow it a migration to Cardano public net shall be executed

• CAS (Credit Assesssment Score) functionality

Stage 3.

• New Fund raising for Launch of full-fledged crowdfunding platform : May 2023

• Launch full-fledged crowdfunding platform: Sep 2023

Break-down of funding requirement for 1. and 2.Stages

-Development Front-end : 1k USD/ year

-Development Back-end : 1k USD/ year

-Marketing, social networks (Discord, Instagram, Facebook) : 1k USD/ year

-Contabo VPServer management and maintenance Fees: 3k USD/year

-Contribution to Promotion, Training and Marketing Campaign: 4k USD

The team is ready to complete stages 1. and 2.. Three Plutus Pioneer Program members (PPP), Hackaton final team at 2.PPP, 10+ years IoT/Robot design experience, 10+ y computer science experience, 10+ y marketing, project management experience.

-Samuel, 3+ years experience as front-end engineer

-Mateus, 2+ years as back-end engineer

-Gabriele, 10+ years as entrepreneur, IoT designer and robot system engineer

At 3.Stage following profiles will join the team:

-additional back-end engineer

-marketing manager

[AUDITABILITY]

• Training material, including videos, for easily operate the platform by Jul.2022

• Launch of Stage 1. with > 50 students registered by Sep.2022

• Launch of Stage 2. with > 1000 students registered by Apr.2023

• Participants acquired knowledge and understanding of Cardano eco-system

• Students feed-back about easiness to operate and blockchain concept understanding

• Increasing involvement in projects discussion on socials

This is a entirely new proposal