DeFi Access from Mobile Devices

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

We will build a DeFi connector for mobile wallets (iOS & Android) to solve the lack of mobile access to DeFi services for Thrift and other Cardano projects.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Our team members have combined experience in blockchain, finance, analytics, African business, big data, UI/UX.

[GENERAL] Requested funds in USD.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The path starts at the wallet level.. Through a wallet we can create an account, generate public addresses, receive and send assets, consult transaction history, vote and participate in staking as delegator. All these functionalities make up a wallet, and we can go even further. 

With the new Alonzo era, the Cardano blockchain benefits from using a second layer that runs smart contracts. These contracts allow the establishment of complex logics that give rise to new protocols that solve specific use cases.

We can leverage these protocols to get more out of the assets we own. For example, lending money without intermediaries (bank), or borrowing it.

Now let's look at a population that does not have access to traditional banking services in order to create a current account and start saving in a dignified way. We can think of places with fewer resources such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria or other African countries.

Banking institutions do not facilitate access to their services, making it even more complicated to maintain your financial health.

The continuous growth of internet access through smartphones in these places opens up a fair alternative for those who have no other options using public blockchain services.

In this way the users get the right to manage and decide sovereignly on all financial needs.

With the development and integration of the smart contracts connector for Thrift Wallet, users will be able to interact and take advantage of the possibilities of existing and future DeFi services of the Cardano ecosystem.

Thrift Mobile DeFi connector solves the problem of Mobile access to DeFi services within Cardano, in places like Africa where mobile access is key to adoption, it opens the road for Thrift and more Cardano projects for a massive adoption.

There are currently 2 ways to integrate a smart contract connector with mobile applications.

1. The first and already used by mobile wallets such as Eternl or Minswap integrates the WebView component within their mobile framework. In this way, from the wallet we don't have to build the transaction from scratch, we only need to sign the transaction generated by the injected platform and submit it to the blockchain. This way of interacting with smart contracts and building transactions for script(SCs) provides us and the rest of the community with a more abstract and generic way of using a connector. This is more in line with Open Source development, which unfortunately is not part of Catalyst's current fund.
2. Instead of having to render the entire web platform for a given protocol, there will be times when it will be more efficient to use only a portion of the services offered by the chosen DeFi protocol. In this case, it is not in the user's interest to have to navigate through such comprehensive platforms, which makes the whole process more complex. So, displaying the whole web from the app is not a suitable option for optimal UI/UX. That's why we understand that providing a more personalized, simplified and easier user experience will have more impact and adoption among users. Therefore, adding a layer of abstraction on top of these DeFi services to simplify their use from the mobile is the most powerful option.

Developing Thrift suite of products for inclusive savings, payments and investments requires the integration of implementation(s) like; DeFi Crowdlending & Savings: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/384797 into Thrift Mobile Wallet: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/398652. This is a step further in our sequential approach to solutions.

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

• Develop user-friendly financial mobile wallet to drive Cardano adoption through savings & open decentralized finance for Africa countries.

• Implementing RealFi solutions that will enrich the economic situations of Africans and the Cardano ecosystem.

• Providing a more integrated ecosystem of products and services by integrating DeFi services from third parties.

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

Team Risks

This is a young project involving a small management team with culturally different ideas and thoughts. Therefore, there is an inherent risk that we may come to have differences of opinion on priorities, and issues related to the hiring of contractors.

Despite the possible differences, since June 2021, the members of the management team have been working closely together on this for several months. We have always managed to move forward, settling any disagreements.

Technical Risks

The upcoming Vasil hard fork will involve changes to Cardano protocol that will improve the dapps experience. The base serialization library for building client-side transactions will need to be updated. 

In order to use new versions of this library with react native (same as Yoroi Mobile), it is also necessary to update the auxiliary bindings library, which has not been updated for 5 months[0]. There is a risk that can cause a delay in new implementations on transaction serialization and will not allow to take full advantage of the latest Cardano features.

Finally, in case the auxiliary library is not updated, it means that Yoroi Mobile will stop updating. If this happens, the most viable option will be to migrate from React Native to a broader development framework such as Ionic + Capacitor.

Adoption & Market Risks

Since we intend to offer a pioneering solution in the financial health and personal finance sector from mobile devices, there is a significant risk that we will not be the first to market, and that the positive effects of our solution will be somewhat attenuated by the competition in the market, being mostly competitors of traditional service providers, which places us as an alternative rather than direct competition. Moreover, the important thing is not to be the first to arrive but the last to stand.

Adoption of this particular implementation maybe the slow due to the time it should take to implement it in relation to the need for it, but to mitigate this, we have partnered with competent technical hands to support the development.

https://github.com/Emurgo/react-native-haskell-shelley/issues/58[0]

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

The wallet connector, which we are developing in parallel, is an indispensable part to offer interaction with existing or in-house DeFi services from mobile devices.

This is important because it allows us to offer profitable and secure services from the Cardano ecosystem to Africa countries, which is our main target.

How we are going to achieve it

Initially, we will analyze and explore existing tools and libraries, then choose the ones that best suit our needs, for haskell/plutus and mobile resources.

The Plutus development will be led by a Haskell expert, in tune with the management of Thrift Labs manager, who will coordinate the progress and provide public reports .

In addition to the off-chain code in Plutus, it is necessary to build the transaction for the script from the client side. For this we will use the Typescript language and the standard Yoroi library for serialization.

On the app side, we will have experienced designers to work on UI/UX, frontend developers building the user interfaces, a mobile engineer and wallet integration developer for wallet tasks.

August 2022

• Migrate landing page to Nextjs framework & add new content.
• Connect with common extension wallets and show advantages when using Thrift Wallet and Connector from the given assets. Onboarding process.
• UI/UX Design with Figma.
• Meet with existing DeFi protocol teams to identify a number of services potentially usable by Thrift Wallet.

September 2022

• Consulting with Plutus firms.
• Explore alternatives to implement the dapp connector. Selection of the most suitable option.
• Publication of article #1
• Design and spec writing for the dapp connector. Plutus.
• Integrate new UI/UX designs with React Native. 1/3

October 2022

• Select an existing DeFi service to integrate with the wallet.
• Scripts Parameterization.
• Integrate new UI/UX designs with React Native. 2/3
• Setup logic for components. 1/2
• Migrate light db to sqlite.

November 2022

• Build transactions for interact with scripts (SCs). 1/2
• Update CoinSelection algorithm. How UTXOs are used.
• Integrate new UI/UX designs with React Native. 3/3
• Setup logic for components. 2/2
• Update db models.

December 2022

• Build transactions for interact with scripts (SCs). 2/2
• Social Media Marketing Campaign
• Community feedback
• Product enhancement
• Test UI/UX from working apk. Fix bugs.

January 2023

• End2End transactions on testnet.
• Publication of Article #2
• Translate new content.
• Continued Social Media Marketing

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Budget

Mobile Engineers 5 months Full time[0]: $56k

Haskell & Plutus expertise for consulting and technical support: $14.4k

Cloud costs(off-chain code and APIs) $300 per month for 12 months: $3600

Frontend: $14k 

UX/UI: $8000

Graphic design $2400

Training: $900

Project Management: $16k

Social Media Marketing: $3600

Incentivized Campaigns: $900

Documentation: $2800

Writing and publication of 2 articles: $600

Translations: $ 1800

Licenses: $1200

Total: $118200

Without the funds above, we cannot guarantee that the full proposal will be implemented.

[0] 40% of allocated funds for mobile engineers will be used to pay the remain costs for Thrift Wallet. Without completing the basic functionalities of the mobile wallet we will not be able to move forward with the smart contracts connector. This does force the sharing of funds between the two proposals. You can check the current status of the wallet development through Trello board. Check "AUDITABILITY" section.

Thrift Wallet proposal: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/398652 - Fund8

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

Thrift Finance has become one of the 9 selected projects along 40 candidates to join the first batch of IOG & Iceaddis Incubator Program for Africa.

"Building from the ground up Startup Incubation and Acceleration"

You can see the complete list of selected startups here: https://ariob.io/startups/

About Thrift Project

The idea started in Nigeria, June 2021, with the intention of offering DeFi services from mobile devices, facilitating access in developing areas, such in Africa countries.

Project Manager & Growth Hacker: Odosu Josiah is an active member of the Cardano community, Plutus Pioneer, Product Designer, Founder of Thrift.finance, founder of two businesses on ground in Nigeria focused in bridging IT and e-commerce gaps for local businesses with previous experience in the banking sector (GTBank).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cjosiah

Wallet Developer: Jaime Caso Onzain is a Full Stack & Mobile Engineer. SPO and Cardano Wallet Developer.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-caso

Financial Analyst: Loveth Chukwu is a Finance Executive. MBA Fintech. She is the co-founder, Morgate Financial Services, a firm that provides accounting, audit and consulting services to business owners in Nigeria. She is the convener, Morgate Tax boot Camp; an organization that brings together business owners to get awareness and knowledge about accounting, tax and investments annually.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lovethchukwu

UI/UX Designer: Odiabo Emmanuel. Mobile App Design, Web, UI UX, Figma, UI Design, Prototyping.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/obiabo-immanuel-5a66371aa/

Hiring: we are looking for Haskell and Plutus developers, a Mobile Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Community Managers. At the same time we have agreement with an expert Haskell/Plutus labs already involved in Cardano ecosystem.

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

Yes, we have considered a step by step approach to implemeting the suite of products that makes up Thrift.

[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?

Thrift Mobile MVP - Trello Board

The following are the estimates on results of the work carried out by month.

September 2022

• New landing page with browser wallets interaction.
• Virtual onboarding based on assets from current user.
• Create at least 12 new design using Figma for the wallet.
• Attempt to contact at least 2 different Cardano protocols that potentially fits our needs.

October 2022

• Attempt to contact and partner with at least 1 Plutus company that potentially fits our needs.
• Define connector requirements and off-chain code needed.
• Select the most situable way to build the dapp connector from mobiles.
• Publication of the first article about our Dapp Connector solution.
• Generate connector specifications from the Plutus side.
• Integrate 4 new views with React Native.

November 2022

• Selected the most situable DeFi service.
• Explore and define the needs for the selected smart contracts.
• Migrate to new database for persist data through sqlite.
• Continue integrating 4 more views with React Native.
• All previous frontend views should have implemented the full logic behind including persisting in db.

December 2022

• Build and serialize transactions to interact with a specific test script.
• New CoinSelection algorithm.
• Continue integrating last 4 views with React Native.
• All previous frontend views should have implemented the full logic behind.
• Build new model for persist data in db.

January 2023

• Build and serialize transactions to interact with the selected smart contracts.
• Start first marketing campaign for the new features.
• Get feedback from Cardano and others crypto communities, with at least 30 filled forms.
• All new views has to be tested and fix founded bugs.

February 2023

• Working End2End on testnet for the selected DeFi service.
• Publication of the last article about our Dapp Connector final solution.
• Get translations for at least 3 languages, for old and new content.
• Continue marketing campaign for the new features.

Formal tracking of the project progress will be publicly reported every two weeks to Catalyst organizers and the rest of the community through our social media channels and through our public Trello board.

Current Trello board for Thrift Wallet MVP:

https://trello.com/b/ih4cgwaG/thrift-wallet

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

1. Number of third party existing DeFi services integrated into Thrift Mobile Wallet ecosystem.
2. Number of Dapps using the implementation to integrate in-house and third party DeFi services.
3. Number of individuals/businesses leveraging the DeFi services integrated into the Thrift Wallet ecosystem.
4. Increasing collaborations facilitated by this implementation. 

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

Integrating DeFi Crowdlending & Savings:

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/384797

DeFi services into Thrift Mobile Wallet:

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/398652 will be possible through this proposal.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

• Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
• Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

SDG subgoals:

10.1 By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average

10.c By 2030, reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent

8.1 Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries

8.10 Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all

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

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

10.1.1 Growth rates of household expenditure or income per capita among the bottom 40 per cent of the population and the total population

10.c.1 Remittance costs as a proportion of the amount remitted

8.10.2 Proportion of adults (15 years and older) with an account at a bank or other financial institution or with a mobile-money-service provider

8.1.1 Annual growth rate of real GDP per capita

#proposertoolsdg