Win-Win South Africa Expansion

[IMPACT]

Win-Win Dispute Resolution (mediators.ai)

Mediators.ai (previously known as Win-Win) is a decentralized dispute resolution platform and marketplace built on the Cardano blockchain. It allows disputing parties to find a suitable mediator to help resolve their conflict in a timely and cost-effective manner outside the court system. The marketplace enables mediators to focus on the mediation process without having to engage in often questionable business boosting practices.

Developed by Loxe Inc., a US based company, mediator.ai is initially focusing on the US market, as most of the team is based there and understand the mediation process for that country. However, our roadmap includes expanding our services to all continents.

As a platform working on the legal sector, we need to understand the specificities and particularities of each country we aim at expanding to, therefore some market and law research is required. We have already started our expansion to Latam with a previously funded proposal (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/384838). The goal of the current proposal is to fund the expansion of Win-Win to Africa, starting with South Africa. To achieve that, we will partner up with a local mediator which will support our research and expansion within the country.

We are proposing to localize and create partnerships between our project, a Cardano based solution, and local institutions. At the same time, we are going to provide our solution to the local population.

Therefore, we are contributing to the following challenge’s KPIs:

• Proposals clearly demonstrate Cardano tech use-case solutions
• Local impact (measurable through user activity and reach)
• Local partnerships formed (size of institution + influence)

The main challenges of this proposal would be connecting to a local mediator in South Africa, and possibly facing some cultural barriers to Alternative Dispute Resolution in general. Nevertheless, since this is partially a market research proposal, the latter would still be a valuable outcome of this proposal.

[FEASIBILITY]

September 2022

• Perform a selection process and partner up with a local mediator to work part time for 3 months
• Research about Alternative Dispute Resolution and Mediation in South Africa: awareness, success rates, certification processes, costs, etc.

October 2022

• Outreach to Law Universities.
• Outreach to local governments with Alternative Dispute Resolution programs.

November 2022

• Onboard at least 1 institution and 5 south african mediators to mediators.ai
• Localize mediators.ai to South Africa

Budget

• South African mediator compensation: $2000 / month
• mediators.ai team member as part time support: $2000 / month
• mediators.ai platform localization to South Africa: $3000
• Total for 3 months: $2000 x 3 + $2000 x 3 + $3000 = $15k

This proposal is going to be executed by Loxe Inc.’s team. The full team can be seen at https://loxeinc.com. The leadership team responsible for this project is:

Matthias Sieber

• Professional Software Engineer for over 20 years
• worked on Liqwid through MLabs internship
• Conflict Resolution Specialist (Mediator, Facilitator, Peacekeeper, Educator)
• BA in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding
• Master of Dispute Resolution
• Community-elected Moderator on Cardano Stack Exchange
• Plutus and Prism Pioneer (1st cohorts)
• Project Catalyst Community Advisor and Veteran Community Advisor
• Catalyst Circle member representing the Cardano Foundation
• Cardano Ambassador
• Built successful marketplaces, startups, SMBs, and mission-driven teams
• Ex-Gimbalabs PPBL Team Member
• CEO Loxe Inc.

Eli Selkin, L.C.S.W., M.S

• Professional Software Engineer for over 10 years
• Plutus Pioneer
• Ex-Gimbalabs PPBL Team Member
• MS in Computer Science, specializing in Machine Learning
• ML architect
• B.A. in Psychology
• Masters of Social Work
• Licensed clinical social worker
• CTO Loxe Inc.

Victor Corcino

• Energy Industry Engineer for 6 years
• Gimbalabs PPBL Team Member
• Member of the 1st Catalyst Circle as Community Advisors representative
• Catalyst Veteran Community Advisor and Proposal Mentor
• Co-creator of AIM Community Tools (CA/vCA Tools, Voter Tool)
• BSc Chemical Engineering and MSc Chemical Engineering and Software Development
• Specialization in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• PhD candidate, researching the field of Machine Learning applied to Computational Fluid Dynamics
• COO Loxe Inc.

Ganesh N

• Professional Software Engineer for over 8 years
• Plutus & Prism Pioneer (1st cohort)
• Ex-Gimbalabs PPBL Team Member
• BTech in Electronics and Communication Engineering
• Has lead development of large scale applications
• Experience in the financial services industry

[AUDITABILITY]

Internally, we will use the Agile methodology to manage and keep track of our progress on this project’s development.

Externally, for audit purposes, we will track the progress according to the delivery of the milestones presented in the roadmap included in the feasibility section of this proposal. This progress report will be done through the monthly meetings with the challenge team and coordinator meetings with the IOG team.

For this project, we would consider success if we are able to understand South Africa’s cultural nuances related to mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in general, and if we are able to create partnerships with some institutions and onboard South African ADR professionals into our ecosystem.

Success metrics

• After 3 months: To have on boarded at least 1 institution and 5 South African mediators to mediators.ai
• After 6 months: To have on boarded at least 20 more South African mediators to mediators.ai
• After 12 months: To have on boarded at least 40 more South African mediators to mediators.ai

This proposal is an expansion of a previously funded proposal: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/368353-48088

We have submitted a similar proposal that got funded previously, but focusing in Latin America, not in South Africa. For this country, this is the first time we are submitting it.