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BORA: Empower Tomorrow’s Leaders

Problem

Thousands of students are excluded from education because they cannot access student loans (funding) due to a lack of a credit record and/or lack of access to funding.

Solution

Democratize access to student loans with BORA DAO, a DAO managed and operated by the community to approve student loans in a project catalyst inspired style.

Total to date

This is the total amount allocated to BORA: Empower Tomorrow’s Leaders.

$44,000

Total funds requested

484

Total votes cast

₳86.1M

Votes yes

₳17M

Votes no

About this idea

access adoption africa collaboration education smart-contract

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Bora’s vision is to fund the education of future leaders through community driven DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) funded through the value in cyberspace. Bora will bring financial inclusion, accessibility, and sustainability to students all over the world.

Bora will operate similar to Cardano’s Project Catalyst. “Catalyst is bringing on-chain governance to the Cardano blockchain by allowing the community to self-determine priorities for growth. It also lets participants deploy funding to proposals which tackle challenges and capitalize on opportunities that arise in the life cycle of Cardano.” Bora will draw inspiration from the Project Catalyst model by using Proposers, Voters and Community Advisors to operate and manage the Bora Protocol.

The Bora DAO will have three tokens that will be used for rewards, governance and transparency: $BORA, vBORA and sBORA. $BORA will be used to reward users for investing and performing different operations on the network. vBORA will be used for voting and governance. sBORA will be used to bring transparency and quality assurance to the Bora protocol.

Lastly, Bora will incorporate DIDs (Decentralized Identifiers) also knows as a Decentralized Digital Identity to function as KYC (Know your customer). All the students that use the Bora protocol have to complete a detailed KYC (Know Your Customer), consisting of various background checks, and reference letters from members of Bora or an recognized partner institute.

BORA inspired by the Project Catalyst Structure

Bora is building the Project Catalyst for student loans. Project Catalyst has empowered the Cardano community to Seed fund projects in order to grow the whole Cardano ecosystem. Bora will have a similar structure to Project Catalyst. Bora will empower our community to select the students and projects that will be funded. The Bora community will consist of Proposers (Students requiring funding), Voters and Community Advisors.

Proposers

A proposer is someone who submits a proposal (request for student loan, request to fund thesis project) to the Bora protocol to be funded by the treasury. The proposal presents the need for the loan with a detailed presentation of the problem faced. Proposers are the students in need, the people that require funding to reach their educational aspirations. The proposal is the way to communicate the request for a student loan to the Bora community. Furthermore, the proposal will connect members of the community with each other.

Voters

A voter holds vBORA and actively participates in the governance of the Bora protocol (DAO). Voters are the ultimate deciders of the direction of the protocol and which proposals obtain funding. Voters review proposers proposals and vote up or vote down the proposals they would like or dislike to see implemented. They are the stewards of Bora and by voting they bring Bora closer to its vision.

Community Advisor

A Bora Community Advisor (BCA) is a community member that participates in the quality assurance of proposals. BCA’s have the task of reviewing proposals submitted to a given Education Pool/Vault and supplying quality information to voters and proposers. Bora Community Advisors will consist primarily from students with existing loans obtained from the Bora Protocol. Further, a community advisors is anyone who participates in the community to develop, assist, advise, improve the project.

$BORA

Although Bora will have three different tokens, the main native token of the Bora protocol will be the $BORA token. $BORA will be a Cardano Native Token and as such will have all of the major traits of ADA by using the same underlying token logic, including the ability to pay network fees in Bora Token; this is called Babel fees. $BORA holders will receive a percentage of the interest earned in the Bora student loan pools. $BORA holders will also earn a percentage of the transaction fees of the Bora protocol.

vBORA

Governance of the Bora protocol will be done via voting. Holders of vBORA tokens will have the ability to a) Vote on which proposal get funded by the protocol and b) to propose new features for the protocol, vote on the proposed features and execute the approved proposals.

vBORA tokens can be obtained via two methods.

1) Stake BORA tokens in a smart contract to mint vBORA. The amount of vBORA to be minted will be dependent on the amount of BORA staked and the duration of the stake contract (3,6, 9 months etc).

2) Stake stablecoins in Bora Education Pools/Vaults. The Bora Education Pools/Vaults will be used to fund the students and projects approved by the community. Furthermore, users that stake stablecoins in the Bora Education Pools/Vaults will receive the majority of the APY obtained from the repayment of the loans taken out by the students through the Bora protocol.

Through voting for a proposal that gets funding, vBORA gives the providers of liquidity (users that deposit stablecoins in Education Pools/Vaults) the ability to decide where their provided capital will be deployed.

Bora will make use of the Voltaire governance protocol to operate as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) governed by vBORA holders. The vBORA token is designed to be used in the future governance of the Bora protocol. vBORA holders who hold 1% or more of the total vBORA supply can submit development proposals, while any vBORA holder, regardless of how much they hold, is able to vote on these proposals. The vBORA token allows the Bora community to propose features, vote on the proposed features and execute the approved proposals.

Bora governance has been designed in a way that will eventually let the core Bora team step out of the decision-making process entirely, achieving a truly self-sustaining and completely decentralized protocol controlled by the Bora token holding community.

sBORA

Transparency and quality assurance will be incentivised with the sBORA token. Any student that submits a loan proposal request through the protocol will be required to hold a proportional amount of sBORA to the value of the loan requested. sBORA will serve both as collateral that will be staked with the loan agreement, and a show of trust that the particular student is actively involved within the community.

sBORA tokens will be issued as follow:

1) A minimal amount of sBORA will be issued upon successful completion of a student’s DID and acceptance into the protocol.

2) sBORA will predominantly be issued through functioning as a Bora Community Advisor. BCAs have the task of quality assurance for the proposals that the Bora protocol funds. They identify and validate proposals, and filter for proposals that resonate with the Bora mission. This means that the more actively involved with the protocol a student is the greater the loan amount they can take out.

3) sBORA is also issued upon successful repayments of loans proportional to the amount of the loan once again building increased trust into the protocol. Conversely sBORA will be burnt with every default payment.

BCAs are incentivised to do first class quality assurance on proposals as successful repayment of loans insures a low APY on all the loans taken out. The low APY for student loans on the Bora protocol is depended on a low default rate. A low default rate is encouraged via the community mechanisms: 1) members vouch for each other to join the Bora protocol (DAO) - members are accountable to those that vouched for them. 2) Bora Community Advisors are affected by the default rate, it is in the whole communities interest to select and approve quality proposals to fund known individuals to ensure accountability.

sBORA and vBORA will be exchangeable for a small fee that will be paid in BORA this allows for active sBORA holders to exchange a portion of their sBORA for vBORA and gain greater voting and governance rights over the protocol and conversely vBORA holders may convert to sBORA to allow them to apply for a student loan or put forward a proposal to the community.

DAO Fund Management

Successful proposasl approved by the Bora community will be funded from the Bora Treasury. The Treasury will consist of various pools (vaults) that will be funded with stablecoins. Users that deposit stablecoins into the education pools (vaults) will be rewarded in two ways:

1) Depositors will earn ~6% APY on the stablecoins deposited into the Bora pools (vaults).

2) Depositors will receive vBORA to enable depositors to participate in the governance of the Bora protocol and to vote on various funding proposals from the community.

The Bora protocol will offer student loans at a 8% APY. Students would take out the loan, service the interest payments while finishing their education, upon graduation and increased earnings, payback amount will increase to repay the principle down. The payback method takes pressure away from students during studies and offers the opportunity to repay more at a later stage when graduated students have increased their monthly income.

Different Bora pools (vaults) can be set up for each SubDAO, different pools (vaults) can be created to cater to a certain sector or area: Example is to create a pool focused on disabled students, or a pool focused on funding dentistry etc. Creating investment pools/vaults with a focus on a specific area or need, will help members fund the causes that align with each investor’s individual values.

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

Our solution directly addresses the F9 DAO’s <3 Cardano challenge brief in various ways (pls see below). As per the challenge brief: “Currently if a DAO (even one that is aimed to build products and services around Cardano) wants to setup their DAO infrastructure, the current options are all based on, mostly, the Ethereum blockchain.”

Cardano needs:

Similar tools that offer superior features to those offered on other chains.

The Bora DAO will incorporate DIDs (Decentralized Identifiers; Identities on the blockchain) for KYC (Know your customer) as we onboard students to receive proposals and approve funding of the student loans. Cardano’s use of DIDs is ahead of other chains, BORA DAO will further solidify Cardano’s advantage and provide real world use cases for DIDs.

Effective Collaboration Management Platforms to Organize Community Intentions and Actions

BORA DAO will operate in a project catalyst model by using Proposers, Voters and Community Advisors to operate and manage the Bora Protocol. BORA DAO innovative use of 3 different tokens will give the community the tools to manage the treasury and incentivise community intentions and actions. The Bora DAO will use three tokens for rewards, governance and transparency: $BORA, vBORA and sBORA. $BORA will be used to reward users for investing and performing different operations on the network. vBORA will be used for voting and governance. sBORA will be used to bring transparency and quality assurance to the Bora protocol.

Additional not yet existing tools to give Cardano a distinct advantage

BORA DAO will create tools in Product Version 2.0 that can give Cardano a distinct advantage, BORA DAO will incorporate the qualifications and diplomas obtained by the community to the blockchain for access and verification by third parties. BORA DAO in full action will be a DAO that allows anybody anywhere to create a Sub-DAO with the tools to govern and manage, while simultaneously performing KYC with DIDs and recording qualifications (credentials) to the blockchain for access and verification by any third parties.

DAO community collaboration

BORA DAO operates in a similar manner as project catalyst. The protocol is setup so the community must collaborate with each other to approve proposals and receive funding. Students that need a loan must first complete KYC, then create and submit a proposal for the loan. Existing community members (students that received funding in prior rounds) will evaluate the proposals before presenting the proposals to the community for voting. Besides the BORA DAO operating mechanism, community collaboration is further incentivised because members vouch for each other to join the Bora DAO - members are accountable to those that vouched for them to join the DAO. Furthermore, all Bora DAO Community members are affected by the loan repayment default rate. A high default rate will lift the APY repayment rate for all community members, thus it is in the whole community's interest to select and approve quality proposals to fund known individuals to ensure accountability.

DAO creation

The Bora protocol will enable the forming of SubDOAs - allowing anybody, anywhere to create and manage their own DAO. Each SubDAO’s will have similar operational mechanics as the main (first) Bora DAO with investment tools. SubDOAs can be formed based on investment type (cohort), such as by country, economic status, course type, or age group. Effectively, any school (from anywhere, academic/ non-academic) can apply to create a SubDAO and add students who could benefit from a loan on the Bora protocol. Creating pools/vaults with a focus on a specific area or need will help members invest in the causes that align with each investor’s individual values. Investments could also be made in several different portfolios to hedge risk across sectors.

DAO operation

BORA DAO created the sBORA token to be used for operating the DAO.Transparency and quality assurance will be incentivised with the sBORA token. sBORA will be issued to community advisors and students that completed KYC. Any student that submits a loan proposal request through the protocol will be required to hold a proportional amount of sBORA to the value of the loan requested. To receive additional sBORA and thus increase the size of the loan available to the student, the student will have to be active in the community. This means that the more actively involved with the protocol a student is the greater the loan amount they can take out.

DAO governance

BORA DAO created the vBORA token to be used for governance of BORA DOA. Holders of vBORA tokens will have the ability to 1) Vote on which proposal get funded by the protocol and 2) to propose new features for the protocol, 3) vote on the proposed features and execute the approved proposals. Bora will make use of the Voltaire governance protocol to operate as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) governed by vBORA holders. The vBORA token is designed to be used in the future governance of the Bora protocol. vBORA holders who hold 1% or more of the total vBORA supply can submit development proposals, while any vBORA holder, regardless of how much they hold, is able to vote on these proposals. The vBORA token allows the Bora community to propose features, vote on the proposed features and execute the approved proposals.

As seen above, BORA DAO directly addresses several of the needs set out by the challenge brief. BORA DAO will provide a protocol so anybody, anywhere can create a sub-DAO and have the tools and mechanisms to successfully manage and operate the DAO.

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

The main challenges for BORA DAO project have been identified, listed and mitigations proposed below:

Challenge: Project not on budget, expenses are running over planned costs.

Mitigation: The project budget is linked with the planned dates and milestones created. Monitoring and tracking the expenditure over time allows the team to early on identify and address any expenses that are the cause of running over budget - correct the cause and ensure the project stays within the projected expenditure.

Challenge: Project not on time and running late.

Mitigation: The project will be tracked closely with the use of dates and milestones. Close monitoring and tracking will allow the team to identify any time slippages early on and address the cause of the slippage early and ensure the project stays on time.

Challenge: Project runway ending, how will BORA DAO get future funding after development of the MVP.

Mitigation: BORA DAO will continue participating in project catalysts funds. We believe that our project will deliver value to the Cardano ecosystem and the community will recognize our effort and continue to support our mission. Alternatively BORA DAO can host an IDO to distribute BORA tokens to early supporters of the project and raise funding in that manner.

Challenge: Community not compliant, try to game the system and proposals.

Mitigation: BORA DAO will first launch and MVP, the MVP will be opened to a selected members of the community - students that joined the BORA and are active in the community and are known in the community. (Please see our target market section below). Because everybody know each other and all proposals are open sourced and reviewed, we can ensure the protocol is not gamed and exploited from within.

Challenge: Loans are not repaid by students - default rate on loans.

Mitigation: Students (community members) have to vouch for each other to get access to the protocol. Furthermore the community selects and approves quality projects to receive funding. The loan default rate affects the overall API that the whole community has to repay, if my friend that I vouched for to get funding does not repay his loan, I will have to repay more on my loan. Our mitigation relays on the community being accountable to each other to ensure loans get repaid and “students” don't disappear with funding.

Challenge: Require additional developer for final 25% of the project

Mitigation: Start the talent search and job advertisement early to align an additional engineer for the team during the final stages of the project. Rely on our existing network and known engineers to ensure we have a developer for the final push.

Challenge: BORA DAO requires a stablecoin to deliver value to the ecosystem

Mitigation: DJED - BORA DAO will rely on the stablecoin DJED, developed by COTI and IOHK to function as stablecoin for the Cardano ecosystem. The stablecoin will launch to mainet after the VASIL hardfork.

Challenge: Who will use the protocol MVP - what is the initial target market

Mitigation: The Bora team has been active with market research in Uganda over the last six months. We have built up a community with several hundred students. We have great traction and we are developing a local community chapter at Makerere University in Kampala Uganda. We sponsored a local football team from the university that went forward to win a multi month league and emerged as champions (please see photos below). We are active in the community and building our first group of students that we will allow into the protocol to participate in the MVP. BORA DAO is managed and operated by the community - transparency and accountability are community driven, thus it is important that we launch the initial MVP with a community that knows and trusts each other. The initial cohort will become the first Bora Community Advisors and will drive the protocol in the future.

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

Below we outline major versions for the specifications and implementation of the Bora Student Protocol. The versions are aligned with the major strategic priorities of the project over time and expected hard-fork combinator events on Cardano that will make certain new approaches possible.

RoadMap

Week 0 - Project start

Week 2 - Complete initial Scaffold of the Protocol

Week 4 - Develop on-chain script development in Plutarch for v 0.1

Week 6 - Complete on-chain scripts for v 0.1

Week 8 - Test on-chain scripts for v 0.1

Week 10 - Develop on-chain scripts for v0.2

Week 12 - Develop off-chain contracts for v0.2

Week 14 - Complete and test on-chain minting policies for v0.2

Week 16 - Commence Frontend Integration

Week 18 - Complete and Test on-chain validator scripts v0.2

Week 20 - Complete off-chain contracts v0.2 completed & Frontend integration

Week 22 - Launch on Testnet

Week 24 - Pilot project with initial sample group run on Mainnet

RoadMap: Bora Dao RoadMap

Version 0.1 Minimal product (end to end on chain) and Staking functionality

Estimated delivery: End of Week 10

Staking (vBORA)

This version is intended as a starting point for the incremental evolution of the product. The goal is to create a minimal implementation that can be tested end-to-end. This version will not include front-end or centralized back-end components, but it will include smart contracts for a staking system where holders of BORA can earn vBORA. As well as test suites that cover the essential properties of the staking system.

Smart Contracts will be written and tested in Plutarch

Version 0.2 Minimal Viable Product

Estimated delivery: End of Week 24 Subject to Cardano Transaction Library delays.

Loan Application (sBORA)

This version is intended to be a MVP where a small test batch of students can apply for loans, advise on proposals and earn sBORA. It will include smart contracts for receiving sBORA proportional to the individual engagement level of the protocol as well as for locking sBORA upon the application of a loan. It will also include test suites that cover the essential properties of the loan application system.

All offchain contracts will be written in purescript utilizing the Cardano Transaction Library

Identity (sBORA)

KYCs will have to be completed but DIDs will not be onchain and all information will be held by the BORA team. sBORA will be air dropped manually upon KYC completion

Staking Upgrades (vBORA)

New features: The creation of a Stable Coin staking pool dependent on the ecosystem and whether or not a Cardano native stable coin (DJED) is available.

Version 1.0 Launch product

Estimated delivery: Q1/Q2 2023

This Version Is intended to be a full end to end product that consists of a smart contract suite covering staking, voting and funding onchain. With test suites that cover all of the above. With this release loan payments will be issued automatically. Audit process and auditor will be decided closer to the time.

Identity Upgrades (sBORA)

A minimal DID will be created with the successful completion of a KYC and sBORA automatically airdropped however this is dependent on many factors including the state of ATALA Prism as well as strategic partnerships.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Please see below our budget breakdown.

Note: - We are only requesting funding for our engineers. The operating, marketing and general expenses will be funded from another source. Furthermore, please note the fair labor rate that we ask to pay our engineers - $30/hour for an engineer is fair market value.

Week 2

Complete initial Scaffold of the Protocol