everCrypt DAO|Basic Income Protocol

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

This proposal outlines a pseudo-stable reserve currency protocol which would be pegged to the Consumer Price Index via on-chain oracles. Frax Finance has a very similar token $FPI and Milkomeda C1 would be the perfect chain to implement its Accounts-based smart contracts. The DAO will be open-source and a non-profit organization. It will use its treasury to earn yield in various defi protocols by providing liquidity, staking (ve) tokens, yield farming in multiple chains via multisig wallets. The income from those investments will be distributed between the token holders and UBI recipients. A mobile app will be developed which would tie the human to the UBI wallet via ProofSpace ( proofspace.id ). The token holders will be able to vote on investments as well as earn bonuses for sharing yield strategies with the protocol which would also be enabled via the same identity layer.

The tokenomics and protocol design is similar to Frax Finance ( frax.finance ) on Ethereum, and we will fork it to start development. I will be presenting the project at BIEN2022 to get feedback from the wider basic income community and establish partnerships.

The main token ( $ECC ) will be pegged to economic inflation data eventually from on-chain oracles like Wolfram Alpha, Chainlink and Truflation. This would be updated periodically and the token holders vote on the various on-chain and off-chain data sources. CPI has performance issues, not the least of which is that it is only a monthly indicator. By combining CPI-U, GDP Price deflator (https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/gdp-price-deflator), Producer Price Index (https://www.bls.gov/ppi/overview.htm), PCE Indicator (https://www.bea.gov/data/personal-consumption-expenditures-price-index), we will gain several overlapping datasets that are part of the Federal Reserve's formula for adjusting and smoothing actual inflation measures. We will look to increase the peg at the smallest possible increments to avoid price shock and reduce unnecessary arbitrage by external parties.

This creates a “pseudo-stable reserve currency” which is looking to hedge inflation while also providing those who need a potential source of basic income. The core protocol will be built on Milkomeda ( milkomeda.com ) C1 sidechain allowing the development team to take advantage of audited and production-live accounts-based smart contracts written by other protocols on EVM chains like Frax Finance to start the development. Using Milkomeda will mean lesser transaction costs as well as higher throughput than building on Cardano L1 directly. This would dramatically reduce the cost and time required to build the initial MVP. Frax Finance’s token called $FPI along with its governance token $FPIS which is live on Ethereum mainnet . Link: https://docs.frax.finance/frax-price-index/cpi-peg-and-inflation-hedge

We are working with ProofSpace to provide the identity layer with an eventual Atala Prism backend while allowing us to rapidly iterate on their existing HyperLedger infrastructure which can be ported over later once Atala Prism is live in 2023. Once the user is onboarded and has credentials issued they would be able to use the mobile app to claim the periodic basic income. In the future, by partnering with payment solutions like COTI’s ( coti.io ) Payment Network, users will be able to execute one tap payment directly from the mobile app to the supporting retail stores, this is a more long-term goal for the protocol. We expect the protocol to scale gracefully as we onboard more and more users over time. The payment to the UBI wallet would be periodic and would expire if unused, this creates an incentive to spend $ECC, and overall as the network grows and scales it increases the “velocity of money” of the core token. Using ProofSpace would also allow for other partner protocols to share users and create a growing network effect.

everCrypt DAO leverages a dual-token model, two distinct tokens with overlapping benefits, each supporting the ultimate goal of everCrypt DAO.

$ECC, an algorithmic pseudo-stable reserve currency, backed by a configurable collateral and pegged to the inflation. 

$ECC token is envisioned to be a cost-of-living token looking to hedge inflation and allow for predictable and long term engagements between parties. For example, receiving your salary in $ECC has a significant advantage for the employee, salary negotiations are no longer about macro-economics rather about the value the employee provides . Similarly, funding through incubation programs like Catalyst can be made more predictable and protect fledgling projects from getting a short end of the stick since say ADA is down 30% or more. This means that the money allocated for a project would still hold value say a year down the line, whereas using free floating tokens like ADA could jeopardize the viability of the funded projects due to crypto volatility.

$ECS, the governance and utility token that enables holders to participate in governance and staking.

$ECS token holders will be able to add new asset types to the protocol, add new pools, adjust the rules of existing pools, and more. They also have rights over the bonus fee paid to incentivize arbitrageurs with the goal of helping the price of $ECC stay stable, balanced, and pegged to the CPI index. $ECS holders will need to stake their tokens and receive a voted-escrow NFT which will act as a receipt and help calculate voting power. This mechanic is based on Curve’s mechanism to encourage holders to stake for longer durations ( Link: https://resources.curve.fi/governance/vote-locking-boost )

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

The proposal is a multi-chain DAO using its partnerships and unique proposition to establish long term cross-chain collaboration between Cardano's growing ecosystem with the already existing Defi community on the EVM side. We are open to using the new EVM Sidechain launched by IOG if it helps bring and bridge more communities. A Dex ( Decentralized Exchange ) could be baked into such a plan.

Partnerships

Having a robust network of protocols and projects working together to further goals of SSI, Economic freedom, Decentralization is critical to the overall success of the Cardano ecosystem. To achieve this, the protocol has partnered with the following projects to ensure that there is maximum network effect and everCrypt is being built on top of existing Catalyst projects and not trying to reinvent the wheel. I hope to personally help manage and architect the solution itself, and leave the heavy lifting to Low Code / No Code platforms wherever possible to reduce development risks.

• ProofSpace ( https://proofspace.id/ ) - ProofSpace is an interoperable identity network wrapped with no-code tools for issuing and verifying reusable identity credentials. This allows everCrypt to focus on its own protocol design and spend less time building the identity layer. As ProofSpace will support Atala Prism this meets the overall goal of providing a robust, scalable and decentralized identity layer without spending additional development efforts. ProofSpace can also act as a L2 Trust Registry allowing other partnered protocols to share users without onboarding them separately using SSO. ProofSpace is heavily engaged and active in the Project Catalyst and has funded proposals in Fund 8, as well as multiple partnerships with other proposals and organizations.

Here is the first iteration of the new user onboarding flow we have been collaborating on.

• Snapbrilla ( https://www.snapbrillia.com/ ) - Snapbrillia is an inclusive hiring system that creates fair opportunities and empowers your teams to hire the best people faster regardless of who they are. Exploring opportunities to use their platform to do development itself (Link: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/396834 )

• Clarity ( https://clearcontracts.io/ ) - Clarity is a powerful DAO tooling protocol built alongside an easy-to-use web interface. Create and manage DAOs, establish governance rules, and execute votes on-chain, all without writing any code. We are discussing design patterns for governance and community engagement starting off with a PoC using a Discord Bot for Phase 1. There is a lot to explore and iterate on here, and we are looking to build on top tooling being built out by the Catalyst community ( Link: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/396524 )

• GoKey DAO ( https://gokey.network/ ) GoKey is on a mission to help everyday people access the wealth building benefits of real property ownership. One key component of GoKey's strategy is the development of the $GOKEY payment and utility token, which is designed to adjust its supply and scarcity in proportion to movements of US real estate market prices. Our initial collaboration would be limited to best practices around DAO governance as part of the Clarity ecosystem but in the future we can explore further collaboration.

• MADAO: Mutual Aid DAO ( https://madao.io/ ) is a web3 e-commerce network with a built-in Basic Income utilizing the macroeconomic principles of Capital-Consumption Theory. The issuance of the cryptocurrency token as UBI is calibrated to the level of economic activity in the network. Bridge demand of individuals or entities that use the currency in trade and hold the currency between the time of selling and buying of goods and services in the network provides stable monetary value, while calibrated UBI issuance corrects under-utilization in the wider economy and provides jobs and opportunities to network members to their level of full potential. Using innovative metrics designed specifically for MADAO, we ensure our network is rooted in real economic activity performed by real people, rather than mere financial speculation.

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

1. Third Party Risks - We are working with multiple partners and platforms. There are risks of delays caused by events out of our control.
2.  Regulation Risk - The regulatory environment is currently quite chaotic, especially after the events surrounding Terra\Luna.
3. $ECC Token de-peg is not a project risk, but a protocol risk. The recent events with the Terra ecosystem and the UST stablecoin have shown the obvious design flaws in a fully-algorithmic stablecoin. This proposal is NOT the same, the design is similar to the FRAX model which is backed by collateral and the collateral ratio is tweaked by the community based on market conditions and confidence. The protocol will launch with 100%+ CR (Collateral Ratio) and will only be reduced slowly over time to improve protocol efficiency. The efficiency gained will be utilized to share value with all humans through the UBI program. We expect to use DJED (or equivalent) as the the collateral asset and itself is over-collateralized by 400-800% ( Link: https://medium.com/cotinetwork/what-gives-djed-its-strong-stability-5adfd74b724b ). This is an open-source, community-owned DAO project and we aim to provide full transparency on the decision-making as well as treasury operations.

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

Link: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOtywQnY=/?share_link_id=40734689494 

The DAO roadmap backlog will be worked in semi-annual ( roughly 6 months ) phases, here is the current plan. The funding requested is to ensure that the MVP ( Phase 1 & 2 ) is built out regardless of market conditions. The ICO will then help engage / onboard users as well as create initial liquidity pools for day to day operations.

Phase 1 ( Foundational work | 6 months | Jan 2023 ):

1. Core protocol implementation :This will be most of the work in this phase, ensuring we have a solid foundation for the future of the protocol. Having access to existing open source projects that we can fork will help speed up the protocol design. Since this is being built on Milkomeda we expect to take advantage of existing audited and production-live smart contracts ( like those from Frax Finance )
2. dApp : Build out the core DApp to interact with the protocol and integrate with the static website. Reference design : app.frax.finance
3. ProofSpace Implementation: Build forms, KYC process, design user flows for MVP.
4. Basic DAO Governance implementation: Discord Bot based voting and user verification in the initial MVP. Already partnered with Clarity Protocol to help build this out. 
5. Audit, Certification & KYC : Big risk in meeting timelines as it involves external firms, however this is a MUST for testnet launch
6. Legal formalities : DAO must be registered as a legal entity before testnet launch.
7. Mobile Wallet PoC - Evaluate available OSS wallets as well as Lace from IOG.
8. Testnet release marks the end of Phase 1

Phase 2 ( Going live | 6 months | July 2023 ):

1. Bug fixes and UX improvements based on testnet feedback.
2. Initial Coin Offering for $ECS
3. Mainnet release by end of Phase 2
4. everCrypt Mobile Wallet ( potential fork of AlphaWallet ) launch with ProofSpace SSI Integration.
5. Formation of independent, multi-sig working groups that manage specific aspects of the protocol.
6. Investment Treasury partial automation - Daily data harvesting automation as well as yield strategy suggestions. Voting on investments by veNFT holders using Discord.
7. Community outreach and Product Marketing - once the protocol is live and stable we will look to get the word out there.

The following phases are much more future looking and are NOT scoped yet. Defi is a very fast evolving space and we will need to iterate on it based on how the industry and technology is developing. We expect to be designing features to fit the scaling requirements based on the demand for the $ECC currency and desire for basic income. 

Phase 3 ( Expanding the protocol ecosystem | 6 - 12 months | July 2024 ):

1. Mobile App Feature enhancements 
2. Partnerships with Payment Providers - Already had an initial conversation with COTI, and they are willing to work with everCrypt once its funded. COTI will be the gateway to the traditional financial and payment networks.
3. Partnership Retail Chains \ Grocery Stores - My past experience at Instacart will help here, designing PoS integration with payment processors to get end-to-end vertical integration.
4. Grass roots adoption work in identified regions like Africa, Asia / LATAM
5. Dex - Decentralized Exchange build

Phase 4 ( Feature-rich protocol | Multiple 6 month cycles | July 2025 )

1. Bond NFTs - Long term bonds which can be traded in secondary markets
2. Lending/Borrowing using bonds as collateral. 
3. Low interest micro-lending with partial ( or no ) collateral to UBI holders using wallet reputation mechanics
4. Further decentralization of governance 
5. Cross-chain Treasury partial automation - Smart contracts looking to optimize yield using protocols like GeniusYield etc to do the grunt work and let humans do the decision-making.
6. Incubation Program - Incubating other projects which match the philosophy and mandate of everCrypt. Help other projects get funded and share the value created with everCrypt participants.
7. Expansion into developed countries - If revenue generated is significant we will look to start planning rollouts into developed countries.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

The aim is to reach self-sufficiency by the end of Phase 2 which is the launch of MVP and current estimates are based on a rate of $100 / hour for Builders and $50 / hour for Supporters. Additional expenses will be absorbed by the ICO during Phase 2. We are working with Snapbrillia to explore the possibility of using their platform to help distribute the workload and build the protocol itself with a decentralized model. Estimates are based on analysis and discussion with peers in the community.

Breakdown of Expenses by High level, Phased Activities ( see Roadmap )

Phase 1 ( $101,749 )

• Smart Contracts - 100 hours - $10,000
• dApp - 180 hours - $18,000
• SSI workflow research and design - $4,600
• Audit - $25,000
• LLC - $1,000
• Community - 150 hours - $15,000
• Admin - $5,000
• SSI workflow implementation and integrations - $14,372
• Mobile Wallet Fork & PoC - 35 hours - $3,500
• 12mo ProofSpace “Validate” Package Subscription - $2,277
• 12mo ProofSpace dedicated support - $3,000

Phase 2 ( $62,500 )

• Smart Contract updates - 35 hours - $3,500
• dApp updates - 35 hours - $3,500
• Mobile Wallet build - 265 hours - $26,500
• Re-Audit - $4,000
• Community - 150 hours - $15,000
• Admin - $10,000

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

Abhiroop Sharma - Founder / Product Owner - I will be managing the MVP phase of the project while we build a community through Project Catalyst.

The remaining roles need to be filled, however we are using a very common web3 application stack ( Solidity, etc ) and it should be possible to rapidly hire after funding.

Many aspects of the protocol is based on existing open-source repos and the low-code / no-code approach to identity and governance will allow us to grow a community while building the MVP.

Interested community members are requested to please join our Discord and help make this a reality.

https://discord.gg/5Eqc3bnN2a

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

No, ICO is planned in Phase 2 to help bootstrap the treasury and handle development costs after MVP.

[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?

Dework.xyz will be used to do day to day task management, with more high level planning with tools like Miro and Jira. Catalyst Swarm uses the same process, we hope to replicate the same template.

Phase 1 Deliverables | Jan 2023:

1. $ECC and $ECS smart contracts and supporting infrastructure on Milkomeda testnet
2. everCrypt dApp Testnet launch on beta.evercrypt.org
3. ProofSpace configuration, testing and deployment
4. Initial ‘Governance with Discord’ PoC with Clarity DAO

Phase 2 Deliverables | July 2023:

1. Implement everCrypt Mobile Wallet ( potential fork of AlphaWallet )
2. Mainnet launch for everCrypt dApp
3. everCrypt Mobile Wallet SSO Integration with ProofSpace
4. Testnet and Mainnet launch of everCrypt Mobile Wallet

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

1. Launch the core DeFi protocol on sidechain testnet within 6-8 months of securing funding.
2. Launch an Android mobile app which utilizes ProofSpace for identity and allows users to claim periodic UBI into their Web3 Wallet with the MVP Launch in approximately a year
3. Successful ICO by end of year 1 to bootstrap the treasury and launch on mainnet.
4. Protocol is audited and certified before launching on mainnet.
5. 10,000 App downloads on Google Play Store within 3 months of mainnet launch
6. 1,000+ active community members in Discord, taking part in governance and voting on protocol decisions within 3 months on mainnet launch
7. Achieve a TVL of $50 Million USD by end of 2nd year of mainnet launch

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

No, however the last iteration of this proposal was presented in Fund 8 https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/400892

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

Reduce inequality within and among countries

SDG subgoals:

Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard

Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality

Improve the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions and strengthen the implementation of such regulations

Ensure enhanced representation and voice for developing countries in decision-making in global international economic and financial institutions in order to deliver more effective, credible, accountable and legitimate institutions

Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies

Encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to States where the need is greatest, in particular least developed countries, African countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in accordance with their national plans and programmes

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

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Remittance costs as a proportion of the amount remitted

Total resource flows for development, by recipient and donor countries and type of flow (e.g. official development assistance, foreign direct investment and other flows)

Recruitment cost borne by employee as a proportion of monthly income earned in country of destination

Proportion of members and voting rights of developing countries in international organizations

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI):

#proposertoolsdg