Blockchain Educational dApp

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

Develop an educational dApp with concise and interactive lessons on blockchain for beginners to easily understand. These topics are chosen by the user and consumed in bite-sizes to avert confusion.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

The project will be planned and executed by a team with more than 5 years of experience in software engineering, think tank development, user interface design, accounting, finance, and blockchain technology. All expertise suitable for building compatible and user-friendly dApps

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

This proposal seeks to develop an educational dApp on blockchain and its yields as a safe, long-term investment for the youth in Ghana. Users boarded onto the platform through community outreach, mainly across the various Ghanaian universities and beyond, will have a variety of topics to choose from, with compact yet interactive lessons to complete at their own pace. 

The identified challenge is centered in Ghana and therefore will be piloted in Ghana. Expansion into other African countries would be based on the popularity of the project and its increased usage amongst the target audience. 

Development of dApp

The dApp would be built as a go-to app for learners, new to blockchain technology. Concepts and topics would be designed and taught as concise and interactive lessons for beginner or intermediate-level learners to gain basic insights into this industry. Learners would have the autonomy to search for topics of interest on blockchain as well as project catalysts. 

Upon completion of a series of lessons, users would have micro assignments to practice and awarded badges to qualify and progress to the other stages in the course. The dApp would have functions that allow users to [1] track assessments and [2] earn rewards through the in-built smart contracts.

Smart Contract Function

The dApp would operate with a smart contract between learners and lessons completed. The smart contract would function to identify learners, course/lessons completed, and to distribute rewards to learners (badges/Ada)

Why Ghana?

The government of Ghana is heavily propagating and embarking on the digitisation of the economy. The digital Ghana Agenda as stated by the NCA, “seeks to digitize Government services, build a biometric National Identity register, deploy a digital property addressing system, mobile money interoperability and institutionalize paperless port operations among others”. This creates an open gap in educating young Ghanaians about the long-term benefits of blockchain investments and a market to sell our product; blockchain dApp. Despite the government's delayed support in using cryptocurrency in Ghana, operating as a private company will give us the autonomy to attract an organic target audience. This creates a good environment for digital solutions to thrive including our dApp that aims to educate individuals on blockchain and opportunities in the Cardano ecosystem

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Creating an educational dApp will provide a beginner-friendly environment for the on-boarded university community to explore and learn about blockchain, along with other outside users. Carefully curated topics and lessons are designed to create ease for the users as beginners in the blockchain industry. 

Outside the educational dApp is the university-wide community outreach on blockchain investments as an alternative to long-term wealth generation. Key partners in the Cardano community can support the outreach across Ghana to destigmatize and educate young people, especially on the role of blockchain in the current world economy. 

Per the likelihood of Ghana’s economy collapsing without the IMF bailout, as speculated by many financial experts and the noticeable hardships due to unemployment, civil servants underpaid and constant inflation, it is imperative that a good alternative like blockchain investments is presented to people willing to take risks to minimize their hardships. Through the community outreach onboarding process, many potential users can begin a new system of investing and wealth acquisition in Ghana. 

• A sleek and minimalist look of the educational dApp for ease in use and avert distractions

• Compact information on card size components with a swipe functionality 

• The recorded progress of each user and rewarded badges based on lesson progressions

• On-boarding potential users on a platform with introductory videos that sell the benefits of blockchain investments, the risks involved, and how to leverage responsible long-term investing. 

Project Impact

The long-term goal of the project is to increase the percentage of young Ghanaians trading using cryptocurrencies like the Cardano Ada. Our project strategy is to inform and not enforce blockchain involvement. 

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Scare tactics from the government to stifle the education of potential users and future investors on the high risks of cryptocurrencies and not its benefits. Also, its failure to accept cryptocurrencies as legitimate currencies can conflict with the mindset of others. However, operating as a registered company with a visible product will protect the genuineness of our initiative and its growth in the market. 

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

The project is still in its ideation stage and requires funding to begin the research and app development phase. This phase has a seven-month timeline to research, design and develops the educational dApp for beta testing. Our plan seven months post-funding is to embark on a two(2) weeks of user research and design a prototype suitable for our target audience. 

After the design prototype, a few participants will be selected to undergo usability testing for two(2) weeks to gather data and record the live reaction of participants interacting with our dApp.

3 Months - dApp development

In three(3) months developers will begin building the front and backend of the platform. Also implementing approved functions like lesson card components and smart contracts for tracking lessons and distributing rewards.  

3 Months 

DApp beta testing and bug fixing for an additional three(3) months to improve and control function, usability, and a better user experience before launch. 

The second phase of the project will be for community outreach in various universities nationwide and an extensive marketing campaign in the subsequent year which would require another round of funding to proceed. 

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

User Research & Usability testing - $3,000

Project Management - $4,000

Administrative costs - $2,132

Design & Prototype - $3,000

Frontend development - $12,000

Backend development - $10,120

Beta testing/Bug fixing - $5,000

Smart Contract Dev - $3,500

Team Fees                - $1,900

Educational Rewards - $4,000

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

The project is backed by the collaborative effort of a team with diverse experiences in software engineering, mobile app design and development, accounting and finance, and blockchain technology. 

Abigail Ayisi Duodu: With a BSc degree in Linguistics, Abigail currently practices as a creative freelance writer and UI designer. She has experience in UI design, writing creative briefs, promotional copy for brands, and building brand strategies for small businesses. 

Role: Team lead/ UI designer

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/grey-freelance-240596

Christopher Aikins: A Senior Accounting Assistant with the Volta River Authority with 10 years of working experience in the Finance unit, he is good at holding strong ethical standards and good at implementing change. He holds an MSc degree in Accounting and Finance from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), a Master’s degree in Computer Application from Amity University (India), a BSc in Business Administration (Accounting) KNUST, a Higher National Diploma in Accountancy from Cape Coast Technical University. He enjoys researching and surfing the internet to learn about new developments in the technology world. He believes in blockchain architecture and feels it solves many problems. He has been a community advisor and voter in the project catalyst funding cycle since fund 4.  

Role: Auditing & Administration

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-pokoo-aikins-65181996

Nathaniel Dwamena: He has a B. A (Hons) in Geography and Rural Development. He is a researcher and has more than seven years of experience in think tank development, non-profit management, and business development consulting. He was part of the team contracted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ Ghana) to conduct a study on red tape for doing business in Ghana. He successfully completed think tank training in Nigeria and project management training in Kenya, which aided in his successful graduation from the Atlas Leadership Academy, Atlas Network (USA). He is a member of Wada and has been involved in Catalyst since Fund 7 and funded proposer in Fund 8

Role: Research 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-dwamena-02578a127/

Eugene Aikins: An experienced software engineer with extensive expertise in designing, installing, testing and maintenance of software systems. As a proficient backend developer, Eugene is experienced in various programming languages and development tools, platforms and systems. He can independently oversee projects and perform as a productive team member. 

Role: Full Stack Development

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epaikins

Angela Okai-Nartey: The Executive Director of the Ladies Network for Economic Freedom. She has 3 years of experience in Think Tank Development, Non-Profit Management, and Digital Marketing.

She holds a BSC in Information Technology from Ghana Communication Technology University. She also holds a Think Tank Foundations Certificate from Atlas Network Academy and a Digital Marketing Certificate from Google Digital Workshop. Angela is a blockchain enthusiast, She has been a Community Advisor since Fund 7. A challenge team member for Scale-UP Cardano Community Hubs in Fund 8.

Role: Marketing and Communication

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-okai-nartey-8b8aa81b2/

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

This proposal is designed to scale into the future and has a going concern that will help ensure financial sustainability. That said, depending on various outcomes we may need to apply for further funding to support the sustainability plan. The second phase of our project also requires additional funding to support the nationwide community outreach across Ghanaian universities and finance the necessary marketing campaigns to improve our visibility on the market.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Each milestone achieved in the first phase will have written reports presented to the community for progress tracking and to ensure transparency before the project completion. Our key metrics in tracking the project’s performance are:

• The relevance of data gathered and its validity in answering the problem statement
• A complete design and a functioning prototype
• The number of genuine feedback from users based on their interactions with the prototyped app
• A fully developed mobile application ready for beta testing
• A fully developed mobile application with no bug issues  

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

• A fully functional app upon completion of phase one of the project, available on the market.
• Generate a list of organic downloads and usage before phase 2. 

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is an entirely new project

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG 4: Quality Education

SDG 8: Decent work and Economic Growth

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

SDG 17: Partnerships For The Goals