US-Kenya Based WOT Remittance Chain

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Build a name for Cardano in diaspora. The Safararicom payment system is all over Africa and Gulf.

Solving these problems by establishing trust at all levels is the solution.

Antiquated systems and concentrations of power unwilling to relent and change these systems, become more unaccountable and unreasonable. 

A well architected system built on trust and avoids these issues by default. While serving as a model for all participants in our interconnected world who also want trust, safety and security.

The goal is to inform the diaspora in the United States that a solution exists in Cardano being interoperable with the Bank of Kenya, a US ally, and their digital payment system that has KYC built in, while also enabling Kenyans and Kenyan businesses enjoy life with free and easy mobile payments.

The proof-of-concept will focus on switching remittance senders to the Cardano solution by incentiving the service as free of charge, and future incremental improvements as the if the base cases are successful. An example feature would be taking advantage of the mature African-native, mobile-first payment platform’s services to allow American residents to setup auto-pay, as the service offers bill payments to a variety of services, and even markets.

Ideally, with enough trust, the trust-chain will be used to avoid being crushed by currency shocks and runaway inflation, as the high-trust, low-value ecosystem will be as easy and fast to use in whichever base it is stored in, and with no transaction fees we can expect a pattern of hedging on chain. Of course though, the transactions are all kept in their respective countries. This is the only way we can be sure that the star prosecutors in the Eastern or Southern District looks for something else to do.

But the system already exists in Cardano, and in its own novel way in Kenya and throughout the greater region. With Cardano we have the immutable blockchain, which in this case will be forced to comply with the most hostile laws around being in New York City, and in Kenya, we have all of these pre-KYC'd users who are already making and receiving payments on their mobile phones, and more recently smartphones. 

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

It builds a chain of real individuals as a web of trust, connecting NYC cryptocurrency laws and legislators with the Bank of Kenya's KYC credibility. It open up room for innovation as the system is open multi-party at inception.

I think all parties would appreciate the idea of scheduled remittances that automatically pay bills and dues, as banks love money they can reliably count on and people love to not think about it.

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

Code, the services are quite simple, expecting minimal information from either API before completing a payment in Kenya, but I am not a software engineer and so this will be a learning process; Unfamiliarity with Kenyan business; Though I can test the API now, I would need to establish a business account at some point. Preferably we can have a proof-of-concept first, and defer the investment for a later stage during which we establish a person or team in Kenya.

The ADA received as payment will have to stay on chain, and really remain untouched. As this will be occurring in the US and in NYC of all places. The project has a secondary goal of helping the City understand that people want to do good things if they were given the freedom to. To avoid laundering and seizures, we'll not even plan to touch the ADA until the environment is less hostile.

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

1. Build proof of concept service that works with Cardano
2. Build similar service that works with Safaricom API
3. Shared library should be minimal, as a simple contract that binds the two, and lives in both projects.

Those would be the bare minimum to accomplish before needing any funds. I would need to be advised on setting reasonable timelines and goals.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Monthly cost:

$0–19 - Blockfrost.io

$0–25 - Development tools

$0–25 - Collaboration tools

One-time costs:

$100 Business registration

Taxes:

$0 - Running at a loss

To keep the cost at zero and incentivize a user base, I will cover the costs which range from a few cents to eighty-five cents USD for transactions ranging from a few cents up to $1,300 USD maximum allowed by the services. The ADA fees will likely be higher, though they are not spent the way covering transactions with Safaricom will need to be.

I would like most of the spend going to the ongoing promotion for its adoption. I don't have a good understanding of the costs of having a partner in Kenya will be, or what the involvement would necessitate in such an early stage.

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

I would like help in making the idea more attractive in software or in concept.

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

We would have to evaluate what would be best. If it's something that people are using and we have gone through the 25,000 or so free transactions, it would be worth sustaining with new development. If there isn't a meaningful user base, then I do not think so.

[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?

I would like advice on this, but I will probably use something like Azure DevOps with its Kanban boards at least. I would leave large summaries if I worked outside of the source-control for long, and of course give anyone who needed access. GitHub seems pretty identical and could also share that.

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

Success would be the institutions in East Africa appreciating the network effect that well done, inexpensive remittances can do for their new digital economy that they are so invested in and removing the burden of subsidization from this project.

If it were a success, it would be natural for the the stakeholders to have an equal voice, if not greater, and direct the project with their own ideas.

[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 a novel proposal that has never been announced or disclosed, that I have wanted to do with cross-border payments, but have decided to simply never touch the ADA, but I feel that if we are able to subsidize KYC-to-KYC transactions with an inflow towards capital scarce regions, is worth it when it promotes Cardano as a way East Africans are extending their own homegrown digital solutions and mobile trust platforms.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Reduce inequality within and among countries

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

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

SDG subgoals:

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

Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed

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

Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all

Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets

Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Remittance costs as a proportion of the amount remitted

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

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI):

r) intensify efforts, especially in rural and deprived urban areas, to:

• achieve higher levels of employment, e.g. through vocational training and infrastructural measures
• regularize the situation of informal sector workers by progressively improving their working conditions and including them in social security schemes
• take special measures to increase employment opportunities for women, persons with disabilities, refugees and internally displaced persons and other disadvantaged and marginalized groups
• ensure that labour inspectors act as an independent and effective instrument to combat violations of basic labour rights 
• establish a data collection system to monitor unemployment and informal sector employment

Education

123.  Facilitate access to vocational training opportunities, so that persons with albinism, regardless of their performance in academic subjects, can prepare for careers that would allow them to work indoors and lift themselves out of poverty, and therefore into both financial and physical safety;

w) enshrinement in Children's Act of every child's right to name and nationality and measures taken to ensure registration

c) high percentage of children not registered at birth, especially in rural areas, and restrictive measures around birth registration, discrimination with regard to registration of children born out of wedlock and of non-Kenyan fathers, as well as lack of mechanisms and infrastructure to facilitate birth registrations 

#proposertoolsdg

SDG goals:

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Reduce inequality within and among countries

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

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

SDG subgoals:

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

Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed

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

Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all

Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets

Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Remittance costs as a proportion of the amount remitted

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

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI):

r) intensify efforts, especially in rural and deprived urban areas, to:

• achieve higher levels of employment, e.g. through vocational training and infrastructural measures regularize the situation of informal sector workers by progressively improving their working conditions and including them in social security schemes take special measures to increase employment opportunities for women, persons with disabilities, refugees and internally displaced persons and other disadvantaged and marginalized groups ensure that labour inspectors act as an independent and effective instrument to combat violations of basic labour rights 
• establish a data collection system to monitor unemployment and informal sector employment

Education

123.  Facilitate access to vocational training opportunities, so that persons with albinism, regardless of their performance in academic subjects, can prepare for careers that would allow them to work indoors and lift themselves out of poverty, and therefore into both financial and physical safety;

w) enshrinement in Children's Act of every child's right to name and nationality and measures taken to ensure registration

c) high percentage of children not registered at birth, especially in rural areas, and restrictive measures around birth registration, discrimination with regard to registration of children born out of wedlock and of non-Kenyan fathers, as well as lack of mechanisms and infrastructure to facilitate birth registrations 

#proposertoolsdg