Recognize Impact through DIDs

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

Socious uses Atala PRISM/ProofSpace to attribute “impact score” to visualize users' contributions to impact projects and reward them with crypto tokens, which increases utility & adoption of Cardano.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Socious is a fast-growing impact community with 1000 MAU, supported by 500Global and Microsoft. The team has expertise in impact measurement and blockchain development. ProofSpace has deep SSI experience and a proven set of no-code tools for building and deploying SSI workflows.

[GENERAL] Requested funds in USD.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

94% of young people want to use their skills for good, but only 10% are able to do so. This is because it’s difficult to visualize their impact and get rewarded for their contributions. Socious leverages Atala PRISM to attribute social & environmental impact to individuals/organizations and provides rewards in crypto tokens based on their impact score. 

We use blockchain technology to provide trust, transparency, and decentralization. First, we plan to leverage Atala PRISM to allow our users to become the owner of their digital identity and personal data. Atala PRISM facilitates KYC compliance, impact score certification, and asset transaction with trust and transparency. We can guarantee the traceability and transparency of transactions/impact scores by using blockchain technology. Blockchain technology also allows the community to own and run the platform without a third party and share the profits of the platform with the community members through tokens. By becoming a decentralized autonomous organization, the platform can continue to create social and environmental impact on a permanent basis. 

1. Decentralized Identity: In order to attribute “Impact Score” to each individual and organization, decentralized digital identity is essential.  
2. Impact Score: Our objective is to develop an algorithm that will recognize the good deeds of our users and make a record of them on the blockchain, motivating people to fulfill their positive impact potential. Our proprietary algorithm tracks and monitors a wide range of behaviors to generate an Impact Score for each user. This rating will inform the decisions of our users, offsetting the risk associated with engaging in business activities with other netizens and effectively increasing trust and the availability of resources in our impact ecosystem. Users will be incentivized to build their Impact Score with tangible rewards, such as period airdrops of THANK tokens and access to exclusive economic opportunities such as financial products and discounted ethical goods.
3. Decentralization: Socious uses our proprietary impact credentials “Socious Deeds” for governance purposes. Through on-chain governance processes, Socious Deed holders are able to vote on various aspects of organizational operations, allowing community-wide decision-making. Decisions on allocating funding, building new partnerships, verification of impact organizations, reviewing reported organizations/users/content, dispute resolution, and developing the platform can all be executed through this decentralized process. Socious Deeds are verifiable credentials, and therefore non-transferrable, in order to ensure that governance power is widely distributed and is in the hands of informed decision-makers. Only those who have an impact score above 700 are issued these verifiable credentials. Each Deed contains information on the user’s interests/expertise on specific social/environmental issues based on their behaviors on the Socious app. The voting power is proportional to their interests/expertise on the topic that is being voted on. For example, if the topic is about allocating funding to an environmental project, the votes of the users who have contributed their time/money to environmental projects and have posted/commented on content related to environmental issues will be weighed accordingly.

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

The proposed solution addresses the challenge in the following ways:

The overall question to be addressed by the challenge is “What dapps, products and integrations can be implemented to bring impactful use cases to Cardano ecosystem that help drive more adoption?”

Socious is a decentralized application (dapp) and its unique Impact Score has many use cases for the Cardano Ecosystem. This project will significantly increase the utility & adoption of Atala PRISM/Cardano. Users will be incentivized to build their Impact Score with tangible rewards, such as access to impact-focused grants/investments, rewards in THANK tokens (Socious’ native tokens), and access to exclusive economic opportunities such as financial products and discounted ethical goods. 

Types of proposals include “Marketplaces”, “Social Media”, “Environment” and DeFi. 

Socious is squarely in these areas. Socious is an “impact job marketplace” that matches impact organizations/projects with impact talent. The impact score system, an impact-based reputation management system, will facilitate users to progress in their impact careers. Socious is also a “Social Media for Social Good” where socially conscious individuals can share content and connect with like-minded people. 

In the future, Socious is planning to launch an “ethical product marketplace” where users can buy a variety of sustainable/ethical products that contribute to social and environmental impact. Similarly, Socious will launch an “impact lending” feature. Socious Impact Lending is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that allows people to lend and borrow THANKs without having to go through a centralized intermediary. Lending users earn interest and borrowing users pay it. Rather than relying on collateral, smart contracts calculate individual risk based on users' Impact Score, Interest rates will be allocated on the basis of this. By removing the middlemen, this peer-to-peer system offers not only greater value and efficiency in the lending process but also provides the unbanked population with access to capital without any assets or credit.  

Using the guarantor system, users can leverage the trust of other people to borrow THANKs without having a high Impact Score. This system also allows users to improve their impact score by being a guarantor and earning a percentage of the interest repayment. On the other hand, the guarantors’ impact score will decrease if the borrower fails to repay their debt. This balanced approach will increase access to financial services for the unbanked.

The project is highly relevant to the key metrics for the challenge:

• Increasing the number of dapps and products available for the community to use that help to enrich the ecosystem with new use cases: If the project is successful, it will lead to many more use-cases of the Impact Score system and DID, including a peer-to-peer lending system for financial inclusion of the unbanked and an ethical marketplace of products and services.
• Increase the number of integrations that bring existing solutions together for a more seamless and connected experience between different products: We bring Cardano, Atala PRISM, Milkomeda, Proofspace, and ERC-20 compatible wallets together to provide a more seamless and connected experience between different products. 

Finally, the Impact Score system - with its many use cases - is able to scale to address future challenges.

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

Possible challenges or risks to delivering this project successfully include:

Risk: Integration of ProofSpace/Atala PRISM to an existing mobile app rather than a web app. 

Strategy to mitigate: We will mitigate this challenge by working with ProofSpace and learning and getting support from the Atala PRISM Pioneer Program. All of the Socious core team members are part of the Atala PRISM Pioneer Program. 

Risk: Collaboration between Socious and ProofSpace with the time difference between Europe and East Asia.

Strategy to mitigate: We will leverage various tools such as Slack, Trello, GitHub, etc. to work asynchronously with occasional video conferences. 

Risk: ProofSpace has an F8 proposal entitled “Credential-based token, e.g. KYC” which will support the Socious Deed function, creating a dependency on ProofSpace to deliver that proposal.

Strategy to mitigate: The first two parts of this proposal are deliverable with current ProofSpace capabilities, and the dependent proposal is scheduled for completion by the end of August. This should mean that the new feature is ready to be used by Socious by the time this proposal is funded.

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

We expect that the proposed project can be brought to market within three months of approval of funding – no later than the end of 2022. We will be monitoring the results of the project for three months after the launch. We will submit the final report in the sixth month.

Target Milestones & Deliverables

September 2022 

• Project approved by Catalyst voters
• Technical and market analysis of the project
• Finalize workflow between Socious and ProofSpace
• Ideate and Create Prototypes for User Research
• Conduct User Research using the Prototypes
• Compile and Analyse the findings
• Finalize the UI/UX Design/Technical Architecture 

October 2022 

• Start Running Development Sprints
• Systems and API integration between Socious and ProofSpace
• Unit Testing 
• Integration Testing 
• System Testing

November 2022 

• User Acceptance Testing 
• Final Adjustments
• Deployment
• Marketing

December 2022 - February 2023 

• Monitor KPIs
• Prepare technical documentation
• Deliver the final report 

Breakdown of Tasks for “Finalise Workflow between Socious and ProofSpace”

1. Enable sign up/log in using SSI OAuth and “Socious User ID”
2. Configure Socious on-boarding workflow in ProofSpace Dashboard using SSI OAuth feature.
3. Integrate ProofSpace Dashboard with Socious CRM using webhooks
4. Complete deep linking integration between ProofSpace App and Socious App
5. Issue users an Impact Score
6. Automatically issue users an Impact Score from Socious CRM/algorithm (via ProofSpace Dashboard) upon completion of impact project. 
7. (Covered in a separate proposal: use that Impact Score to be rewarded with THANK tokens)
8. Implement automated Socious Deed verifiable credential solution for Impact Scores of over 700
9. Configure Socious CRM logic on Socious Deed thresholds and trigger webhook to issue a credential of Socious Deed to user.

Deliverables

1. Functioning SSI OAuth flow for Socious sign up/log in using PRISM credentials.
2. Functioning Impact Score issuing/holding/verifying flow using PRISM credentials.
3. Functioning issuance of Socious Deeds as verifiable credentials based on Impact Score verifiable credential.
4. Fully operational workflow of all three functions.

Technical Aspects (architecture, language, technologies):

Blockchain: Cardano/Milkomeda

Smart Contracts: Solidity/EVM

Frontend Mobile App: Typescript React Native

Frontend Web App: Typescript NextJS

Backend: PHP Laravel/Typescript Node.js

Database: MySQL

DevOps: AWS

Machine Learning: Azure

Agile tools: GitHub/Trello

Design Tools: Figma/Miro/Canva

Managing the workload of this and other proposals:

Socious:

Here is a link explaining workload management.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xOIocF5W9Njsu60e5-aoWzVLpplktzvu3CA881n4kWE/edit?usp=sharing

ProofSpace:

Here is a link explaining workload management.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xkE9MMoJGXWKLl9Lkdh7c-R3hH1nn7XdMsZzRSE9LCY/edit?usp=sharing

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

The budget is segmented according to the identifiable items below at a ratio of $100/hr.

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

Socious

Socious is an impact gig marketplace powered by blockchain and AI. We are building an ecosystem to help socially conscious individuals contribute to social/environmental impact by visualizing and rewarding their efforts.

The Socious Team working on this project:

Founder and CEO:

Name: Seira Yun

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seirayun/

Position: Founder & CEO

Bio: Seira Yun is a serial social entrepreneur and an impact angel investor. He has worked in the impact sector since 2008 in the Middle East, Africa and Asia leading teams within the ICRC, UNHCR, and social ventures. He founded Discover Deep Japan Inc. in 2019, a social venture that focused on diversity and inclusion, which was acquired in 2021. Seira is a full-stack developer and holds a Master in Social Innovation degree from the University of Cambridge. His lived experience as both a migrant and a pansexual queer drives Seira’s passion for social change. Atala PRISM Pioneer Program participant

Name: Jayson Ilagan

Location: Manila, Philippines 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayson-ilagan/

Position: Senior Developer

Bio: 

Jayson is a web and mobile app developer with over 12 years of experience. He earned his degree in Computer Science from the Lyceum of the Philippines-Laguna. He accepted his school invitation to work for them after graduation to build systems and worked on developing a faculty performance evaluation system.

After spending six years working at Ivoclar Vivadent Inc. as an IT Global Software Developer, where his primary focus was project creation, he decided to move to Singapore for two years to join Direct Asia Management Services Pte. Ltd. As a web developer, he enhanced the Quote and Buy journey of the company portal that caters to motorcycles and travel insurance. He hopes to build an application for kids with curable diseases who don't have the means to pay for medications to help them access proper medical treatment. Atala PRISM Pioneer Program participant.

Name: Cristhian Tejada

Location, San Salvador, El Salvador

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristhian-tejada-a73844174/

Position: Blockchain Developer - freelancer

Bio: A blockchain developer/data scientist with 9 years of experience. Cristhian strongly believes that artificial intelligence and blockchain will play an essential role in sustainable development and social good in the coming years. He currently stands out as a data scientist and blockchain developer in several social impact projects using the technology as a main tool. He also works in the Open Bank Project developing blockchain-based solutions for the financial and banking sector. He has studied business and economics but the need to create tools that improve living conditions and solve environmental problems has driven me to develop skills in computer science. 

In the next few years, he plans to continue his doctoral studies investigating new economic models using Web3 technologies. Atala PRISM Pioneer Program participant.

Name: Raphael Hode

Location: Tokyo, Japan

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

Position: Design Advisor - freelancer

Bio: Raphael is a Strategic Designer with a passion for social innovation and sustainability. After a few years in advertising agencies in Paris, Raphael moved to Tokyo in 2015 and joined Designit, a global strategic design firm. At Designit Raphael worked on growing a team and helping some of Japan’s most ambitious companies make innovation happen, leading him to endorse a variety of roles across UX design, service design, business design, and strategy.

In parallel, he has been passionately engaging in activities related to sustainability and social innovation: giving talks and workshops, mentoring early-stage social founders, and eventually co-founding a social venture. Today, he spends most of his time working with incredible social entrepreneurs to help them define, design, and launch visionary products that contribute to creating a more sustainable society.

ProofSpace

ProofSpace is a multi-network identity platform, wrapped with no-code tools for building and scaling decentralized ID workflows and ecosystems.  Our goal is to eliminate the barriers to adopting Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and proliferate the range and volume of use cases on production. Our vision is to power global digital inclusion and cross-chain commerce with interoperable verifiable credentials, and in so doing expand use of blockchain as a medium of trust. We are live with Hyperledger Indy, on testnet with Atala PRISM and reviewing SSI protocols on Polkadot, Ethereum and Solana.

ProofSpace Team working on this project:

• Viktor Radchenko - CTO and mobile dev for ProofSpace. 20-year R&D track record. Skilled in project and product management, solution architecture, science consulting, blockchain, mobile, web, game, and embedded development. 6 publications in peer-reviewed journals. 
• Ruslan Shevchenko, PhD - Solution Architect and BE for ProofSpace. Skilled architect and scientific researcher with 30-years’ experience across blockchain, telecom, advertising and financial services. Researcher in the Institute of Software Systems and Founder of several successful ventures including NBI (an Internet Provider), GradSoft (a software development firm) and UA Scala user group. 10 publications in peer-reviewed journals, co-authored book entitled “Methods of Algebraic Programming” and is an active columnist for the Ukrainian developers' community portal.
• Alexey Hodkov - FE/BE for ProofSpace. Talented web backend and frontend solution architect and developer with 17-years’ experience. Team leader, tech mentor and CTO in complex projects for various companies like Yandex LLC and Megogo.
• Viacheslav Zhelobkov - Senior Mobile Dev for ProofSpace. Software developer with 20 years experience in wide variety of IT areas including embedded, mobile, web, backend, etc. in roles from solo founder to Solution Architect and CTO.
• Olesya Kershaw - Customer Success Analyst. A professional musician, experienced concert pianist and teacher who made a career change into digital technologies. She uses her analytical, relationship building and research skills in her work as a business and customer success analyst, while continuously developing her technical skills.
• Nick Mason - CEO for ProofSpace. Experienced social entrepreneur and venture analyst with a proven track record of social venture funding and of starting and growing ventures in Europe and Africa. Background as Consultant venture analyst at Toniic, Head of Portfolio and Operations at BeyondMe, UK Director for Sierra Leone based education charity and Trustee for Street Child. Co-Founded ProofSpace (formerly ZAKA in 2019).

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

Socious is planning to become a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) by 2026. In order to achieve this goal, we need to build an ecosystem that people love to be a part of in the long term. We will return to Catalyst to build necessary features that allow the core Socious team to gradually step out of the decision-making process and achieve a truly decentralized and fully autonomous organization.

[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?

This project has two clear deliverables that will act as proofs of completion:

• A video of the full demo
• Anyone can sign up and go through the flow

Our key metrics/ KPIs for this project will be:

a) the number of users registered with DID (Atala PRISM): 2,000 - 4,000; 

b) the number of transactions that affect the impact score recorded to the Cardano blockchain: 6,000 - 12,000

In addition, we will measure project progression against the Milestones & Deliverables plan above. Our progress will be reported in the monthly reporting for Catalyst and in the final project report. We may also present at Townhall and other community meetings on an ad hoc basis.

Furthermore, the team adopts Agile methodology based on the tools provided by Trello and GitHub. Besides the monthly progress reports, the progress will be tracked by Trello Kanban Board, Github issues, and commits. Intermediate progress will be reported as Sprint Burndown, a KPI metric that shows the progress in the percentage of each development sprint.

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

The success of the project would involve:

• ProofSpace/Atala PRISM is integrated into the existing Socious app (iOS and Android);
• Users can visualize their social and environmental impact through Impact Score issuing/holding/verifying flow using PRISM credentials.
• Users can receive Socious Deeds as verifiable credentials based on Impact Score verifiable credentials and participate in Socious’ governance.

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

Entirely new proposal. 

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

Socious brings more financial and human resources to impact organizations to accelerate social and environmental impact. While SDGs’ Indicator 17.17.1 “Amount of United States dollars committed to public-private and civil society partnerships” may be close to what we use, we specifically use the following indicators: a) the amount of money donated to impact organizations; b) the number of impact organizations that received donations; c) the number of organizations that received time/skills contributions; d) the number of hours that were contributed to impact organizations; e) the number of people who contributed their time/skills to impact organizations

Socious also seeks to create a virtuous circle of giving, giving back, and pay forward through THANK tokens. While it is difficult to measure the impact of showing gratitude, we believe it brings joy and happiness to both the giver and the recipient. The indicators we follow include a) the number of times users thanked other users for their acts of kindness and b) the amount of THANK transferred as a sign of gratitude.   

Our long-term vision is to build an impact ecosystem that can transform the world. If we successfully implement our project, more people will contribute their time and money to social causes, which will accelerate social and environmental impact.