ADAGram- Decentralized Social Media

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

AdaGram will solve the problems of traditional social media platforms by introducing a Cardano Powered Social Media platform to all users within the Cardano Blockchain. AdaGram will take a different approach to censorship, allowing all users to express their thought processes and have a decentralized governance system when censoring any piece of data. We tend to find many 'influencers' with bot accounts that deceive the general public. Creating an AdaGram profile will be very straightforward but involve actions the user will need to complete to prevent bot existence on the platform.

AdaGram will use Cardano's PoS protocol, whereby AdaGram users and Cardano holders will be able to delegate their ADA to earn the ADG native token to use on our platform actively. With the excellent functionalities of Proof of Stake, variables such as security protocols, decentralization, and power and cost-efficiency are essential factors taken within our platform. AdaGram considers the Cardano solution being developed by IOG (previously IOHK) to be the most suitable for implementing our platform, despite the fact that there are several blockchains with varying features and strengths.

While many others claim to be developing a third-generation blockchain, the Cardano project teams are initially concentrating on three main features they believe are crucial for widespread adoption of the technology: 

1. Scalability: The capacity to handle hundreds of thousands to millions of users is a prerequisite for a technology to achieve widespread acceptance. This is especially true for AdaGram, as our technology intends to eventually enable a globally distributed social networking service that many users adopt.
2. Sustainability - This refers to putting a process in place to ensure the technology is maintained beyond the completion of the first project. Despite the fact that Cardano already benefits from being an open-source project, crucial infrastructure such as this must continue to evolve, which is typically a slow process if unfunded. Having a Treasury system built into Cardano so that continued development may be supported through community-agreed projects is a crucial criterion for AdaGram's trust in Cardano's long-term viability as an underlying blockchain infrastructure.
3. Interoperability – This is not only being considered to allow Cardano to exchange value with other public blockchains that operate as cryptocurrencies (an important goal for the blockchain industry as a whole). But, this is also supporting interoperability with permissioned blockchains that have specific use cases (e.g., industry supply chain tracking or a nation's government identity system) so that users of those permissioned blockchains can interact with external systems and markets globally... An example of how AdaGram may benefit from this capability is by integrating with projects working to implement ownership of the work content creators have published, such as NFTs. 

As adverts and data on social media sites grant these big corporations millions of dollars in revenue, users do not recognize the share in profit. AdaGram will take a different approach to this consensus, one that allows benefits the users and future development of the project. The revenue generated via adverts will be split into two buckets, one directly invested into the community the other into the AdaGram foundation treasury. By directly investing into the community, we provide users to have a fair share of the income earned on the AdaGram platform. The funds deposited into the treasury will be distributed through a community governance model and used to encourage further development on the platform, provide aid to social causes, and whatever else the community users decide upon. We believe this will reward the AdaGram community monetarily and as well as improve usability within the service provided.

Additionally, due to the decentralized network AdaGram is run on, information can be shared in parts of the world where oppressive governments censor information coming into the country and run propaganda campaigns to manipulate its citizenry. Traditionally, governments block webpages from entering the country through a centralized power source because the content is coming from a single node. However, when the sites are run on a decentralized system with hundreds or even thousands of nodes transmitting the content, governments are unable to stop information from coming in. This gives citizens in an oppressive government access to information they otherwise would not have, as well as share information with the world about the oppressive actions the government is taking. AdaGram seeks to better the lives of these oppressed people by building a platform for them to access and share content. 

The AdaGram platform will allow not only typical social features like creating profiles and posts but also new blockchain-native features like in-app tokens, tipping, and NFTs. These features enable entirely new types of money-enabled products, including social NFT experiences and tokenized influencer profiles. In turn, these solutions would allow creators to earn greater royalties on AdaGram than on conventional social networks while keeping a more direct interaction with their followers. The AdaGram business strategy centers around transactions flowing across a decentralized network of possibly hundreds of third-party apps on the Cardano ecosystem, so producers are not trapped in a single app. We believe that this more decentralized economic model can replace the traditional ads-driven business model for social media, which requires users to be concentrated in a few highly centralized apps in order to maximize profit.

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

Building a social media DApp on Cardano will be crucial for bringing about real-world adoption and users to the ecosystem. Our goal is a create a self-sustaining DApp, where after the initial development, users and creators take part in co-creation for further development.

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

We see two primary risks for the platform. One technological, blockchain-based problem and one more social, philosophical problem.

The blockchain-based problem is transaction fees being too high and reducing the desire of users to participate in the platform. We have various ways we can address this. One reason we believe Cardano is the best chain for our development is the development of babel fees. Once this becomes available, we will test and review the feasibility of babel fees to keep transaction cost low.

The other solution for high transaction fees is to give users the options to have their transaction done on-chain or off-chain. A similar method is used in another decentralized social media platform, Minds. Transaction costs can be kept low if done off-chain. We can incentive users to keep transactions on-chain by providing greater rewards for on-chain transactions (think posts, comments, etc), but by not requiring everything on-chain, we can keep transaction cost low for our users.

None of the solutions will be hasty, as we plan to run a test-net version of the DApp and learn from our users before it has a full release to ensure a top-quality product for our users.

The social, philosophical problem of ADAGram is centered around the balance around free-speech, censorship, and moderation. We strongly believe in the power of free speech. Individuals should be given the opportunity and power to speak what they believe. Nearly everyone, at least in the West, believes in this idea. However, often times there are bad actors and hateful people. They use their speech to poison and destroy, not to correct and build. Many platforms that had the idealistic goal of bringing about true free speech soon became a safe haven for hateful, extremist groups. Moderation was near nonexistent and most rationale, thoughtful, kind people left the platform. We do not want ADAGram to fall victim to the same fate.

Conversely, more mainstream platforms seek to moderate this behavior and censor objectionable content. Again, this may be down with pure intentions. However, when the decision on what to moderate is left in the hands of few, with little insight into how decisions are made, we may see over-censorship and the unjust silencing of voices. Whether or not an individual agrees with these policies by large platforms based on their own political temperament, nearly everyone has heard the complaints of certain groups. Due to the perceived over-reaching, we have seen an increase in alternative social media platforms.

ADAGram seeks to find a balance between the two. We have included Professors of Philosophy who focus heavily on free speech on our team. We will outsource the problem of censorship to our community. We believe by making free-speech a central value to our platform, we will attract individuals who care about free speech. Instead of having a small group of individuals review "reported" behavior, we will allow all users to see the content in question. While we still need to test a threshold for censoring or banning objectionable material, we will require a super majority vote to enact a ban. We do this because a simple 51%-49% vote is not a true indicator of a truly offensive or hateful piece of content. However, if 99% of people see a post as wrong and offensive, there's a higher chance the content is in fact wrong and offensive.

The balance between free speech and moderation is a difficult one to navigate, which is why will again test the policy in our beta mode before we launch the platform for the entire public.

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

Q3 – 2022 

• Build website (domain names already purchased)- Marketing and Development Team, input from Board of Directors (for mission and vision communication)

• Launch Twitter, Discord, Telegram, subreddit, and YouTube channel- Marketing Team, Founder and Co-Founders

• Hire and Introduce Full stack, front end, and/or back end developers to the team (3 total hires)- Founder and Co-Founders Team

• Introduce ISPO for platform rewards- Operations and Development Team

• Partnerships with fellow Cardano projects- Marketing Team

• Attend Cardano Summit 2022 as well as other blockchain summits and event. Promote DApp. Get feedback from others in community- Founders and co-founders, Marketing Team

Q4 – 2022

• Hire at least 4 customer service representatives/ platformer onboarding team to provide 24 hour customer service- Founder & Co-Founders Team, Development team to help teach platform

• Intensive marketing to reach 20,000 users- including weekly AMAs, podcast appearances, live streams, etc. This will continue throughout - Marketing team, board of directors, founder and co-founders

• Babel fees introduced to platform (provided there is functionality on Cardano) - Development team

Q1 – 2023

• Platform beta works- Development team, early ISPO delegators, marketing team.

• Crowdfunding platform pilot release- Development Team

• Introduce exclusive Cardano NFTs- Development team, Marketing Team, Cardano Partnerships, early ISPO delegators

• Integrate exclusive tools to AdaGram such ADA Pools, IOHK news and more- Development team, Marketing team, Cardano partnerships

Q2 - 2023

• Gain feedback from pilot release and fix problems- Founder and Co-Founders, Marketing team, development team, board of directors

Q3 - 2023

• Full launch of platform- all members of project

• Full distribution of ISPO rewards to all delegators upon launch- development team, ISPO delegators

• Continued development going forward- all members

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

These figures are based on costs associated with the roadmap. Founders, Co-Founders, and Board of Directors have agreed to forego a traditional salary and instead will pay themselves through the funds raised through the ISPO. Founders, Co-Founders, and Board of Directors are committed tying their financial earnings to the success of the project, measured by community support. Catalyst funds will be used solely for future development and promotion of the DApp.

Q3, 2022 - 3x Developer Annual Salary (above average salary for Indian developers)- $50,000

• We are seeking top level developers. Average developers earn ~$7,000-$8,000 USD/year

Q3, 2022 - Cardano Summit Budget- 5 team members (tickets, airfare, hotel, food, etc)- $10,000

Q4, 2022 - Customer Service Reps Salary, 4 Workers @ $5/hour average, 8,760 hours in a year (based on CSR salaries through upwork)- $43,800

Q4, 2022 - Marketing blitz, based on $7,500 for 4 months- $30,000

Q3-Q4, 2022 - 3 other blockchain summits- 5 team members (tickets, airfate, hotel, food, etc) - $30,000

Contingency - $36,200 - should the contingency not be used by the full-launch of the DApp, there will be a community vote on the DApp to decide a nonprofit to donate the used funds to.

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

Gregory Hamalian- Founder.

Greg has wide and deep skillsets as a result of diverse experiences and interests. He is formally educated in mathematics and philosophy. In his career, he has held many leadership positions within the organizations he's worked. He has a strong operations management l background and understand how to bring products to launch. In 2021, he started his own coaching company, Answered Potential, with the desire to help other's achieve their personal and professional goals. He sits on the Advisory Council at Cal State- East Bay for their course "Transformative Leadership in Disruptive Times."

After being arrested in 2012 at 21 years old due to a combination of an offensive and wrong joke, poor timing, and a huge misunderstanding, Greg became extremely in the idea of free speech, what type of speech should be restricted, how we can share knowledge with the world. While during the pretrial procedures it was made clear Greg had no intent to carry out any crime and had simply made a joke in poor taste, it experienced left a mark on Greg and his goal is help others learn from and avoid the mistakes he made.

Greg is been a long-time supporter of Cardano (as well as other blockchain projects) and has participated in ISPOs for numerous DApps.

LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-hamalian/

Answered Potential- https://www.answeredpotential.com/

Dr. Ward Heilman- Co-Founder & Board Member. BA, BS, State University of New York at New Paltz. MA, Pennsylvania State University. PhD, Northeastern University.

Dr. Ward Heilman started his academic career as a Religion and Philosophy major. After dropping out of college a few times he finally finished an undergraduate degree in Psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Extensive experience driving trucks and taxis, unloading railroad cars and working in warehouses led back to a second undergraduate degree; this time in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science. He worked a few short stints at IBM and then obtained a Master's degree in Mathematics from Pennsylvania State University. Eventually he earned a PhD in Mathematics, with a specialization in Combinatorics, from Northeastern University. He has enjoyed teaching at Bridgewater State University since 1996.

Professor Heilman delights in teaching courses in Logic, Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Abstract Algebra, Cryptology and Formal Language Theory. He encourages students to engage in undergraduate research and has mentored a Shea Scholar, many honors theses and several Adrian Tinsley Summer Research projects.

Dr. Heilman's original interests were in Mathematical Logic and Group Theory. He later became enchanted by Graph Theory and Combinatorics. Most recently he has become fascinated with Cryptology, in particular public key encryption systems and elliptic curve cryptography.

https://www.bridgew.edu/department/mathematics/dr-ward-heilman

Dr. Aeon Skoble- Board Member. BA, University of Pennsylvania. MA, PhD, Temple University. Bartlett Chair in Free Speech and Expression; Professor and Acting Chair of Philosophy; Co-coordinator of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

Professor Skoble is the author of Deleting the State: An Argument about Government (Open Court, 2008) and The Essential Nozick (Fraser Institute, 2020), the editor of Reading Rasmussen and Den Uyl: Critical Essays on Norms of Liberty (Lexington Books, 2008), and co-editor of Political Philosophy: Essential Selections (Prentice-Hall, 1999) and Reality, Reason, and Rights (Lexington Books, 2011). In addition, he has frequently lectured and written for the Institute for Humane Studies, Cato, and the Foundation for Economic Education, and he is a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute. His main research includes theories of rights, the nature and justification of authority, and virtue ethics. In addition, he writes widely on the intersection of philosophy and popular culture, among other things co-editing the best-selling The Simpsons and Philosophy (Open Court, 2000) and three other books on film and television.

Area of Expertise- Political Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, PPE (Philosophy, Politics, Economics)

https://www.bridgew.edu/department/philosophy/dr-aeon-j-skoble

Trio Marketing- Marketing Team.

Trio Marketing is a creative and digital agency focusing on being the bridge between culture, Web 3.0 and social impact. The combination of lived, professional and academic experience within the agency, inspires clients from a diverse array of backgrounds. Trio's highly-regarded team have worked with crypto projects, SMEs, non-profits and Changemakers to help bring their stories to life through content, brand awareness and strategic marketing campaigns.

Website: https://trio.ventures/

We are seeking additional team members with experience in platform, DApp, or web 3.0 development. If interested in the project, please reach out to Greg through LinkedIn

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

It is highly unlikely we will return to Catalyst in a later round. Our plan is use the funds from this catalyst round to get the project launched. Once built, we will use an ISPO to continue funding the project. The use of the ISPO will also allow us to gather users who are most excited about the project and reward early adopters of the platform.

[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?

Our first measure of progress we care about measuring is the excitement and engagement of the Cardano community in AdaGram. We have a variety of ways we will track the excitement and engagement. We will continually monitor our social channels (twitter, discord, telegram, and youtube) to track how many followers and subscribers we have, as well as the level of engagement in the channels (posts, comments, retweets, etc). We can also measure the engagement through the ISPO we run and see how many individual ADA addresses are delegating to our stake pool. This will allow the Cardano community to track the project.

The second way we will track our progress is through partnerships within the Cardano ecosystem. Our goal is to not only promote ADAGram, but to shine a spotlight on other Cardano projects that are making real-world impact. By creating partnerships within the ecosystem, we believe the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. Cardano has so many amazing projects, and if ADAGram can help highlight these projects and get them closer to their goals, we will consider our project a success.

Lastly, we will be extremely open and transparent about our goals and our roadmap progress. Once developers are onboarded, we were have weekly AMAs and live-streams with our community so they can see our development.

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

Our first measure of success will be launching a decentralized social media DApp. We will have users participating in content creation, sharing opinions, and engaging in a fun, exciting, and rewarding platform. We will have, at the very least, created something that works and can be used for future development. Users will feel rewarded when engaging with ADAGram and want to share the experience with their friends. Bringing a product to market is an incredibly difficult pursuit, and when we succeed in the launch, everyone who participate in the launch will have learned something. We will have setbacks we learned from (and therefore others in the future can avoid our mistakes) and will we have overcome obstacles, inspiring others to do something difficult.

A second measure of success is forming meaningful partnerships with other Cardano projects and highlighting those projects through our platform. New Cardano projects will seek out partnerships with us because we will have proven we are able to help other projects grow. We will become the sought after DApp for all things Cardano, and hopefully the wider blockchain ecosystem.

A third measure of success will be actually paying out content creators. We want content creators to be fairly compensated for the engagement they bring to a platform If we can inspire, foster, and promote individual creativity, we will have succeeded.

Finally, we will want to advance free speech around the world. We want to see human rights elevated as a result of interacting with our platform. We know it's a utopian goal, but we seek to get information to every individual on the planet and allow them the opportunity to access and research the truth.

[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 proposal.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Reduce inequality within and among countries

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

SDG subgoals:

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

By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status

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

Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage

Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere

End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children

Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all

Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels

Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels

Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance

Promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development

By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes

By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university

By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development

By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States

Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life

Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws

Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Completion rate (primary education, lower secondary education, upper secondary education)

Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill

Participation rate of youth and adults in formal and non-formal education and training in the previous 12 months, by sex

Extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development are mainstreamed in (a) national education policies; (b) curricula; (c) teacher education; and (d) student assessment

Proportion of seats held by women in (a) national parliaments and (b) local governments

Proportion of countries where the legal framework (including customary law) guarantees women’s equal rights to land ownership and/or control

Financial Soundness Indicators

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

Proportion of population that feel safe walking alone around the area they live

Proportion of population subjected to (a) physical violence, (b) psychological violence and (c) sexual violence in the previous 12 months

Number of victims of human trafficking per 100,000 population, by sex, age and form of exploitation

Proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanism

Proportion of population who believe decision-making is inclusive and responsive, by sex, age, disability and population group

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

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI):

#proposertoolsdg