1st Traceable RewardCurrency FLORAS

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

We have been approached by a group of European companies that want to be part of a Coalition reward program to support sustainable projects.

We are a start-up in UC Berkeley accelerator Skydeck. We apply Economics to currency interactions and focused on developing Monetary systems and Reward programs. We worked with Airlines for many years and learned a lot from them, they have the biggest currency in the world, Airmiles. There are 10 Trillion outstanding miles in the economy and 500 billion miles issued every year. Airlines are the best at developing and executing Loyalty programs. (As a quick note, United generated more than US$ 3B in revenues last year by selling their currency to partners that use the miles to incentivize customer behavior, think co-branded credit cards)

We treat Reward currencies like any other currency, they have a supply, a demand, and a value.

Our project involves this group of European companies (we called CoalitionGreen), that will share the same reward currency: "Floras" under the same monetary program. 

Like Airmiles, our solution involves two key actions: Earn currency and Redeem currency.

Earn:

Floras will be issued as rewards when customers buy products from the Coalition Green companies (electronics, food, travel, etc.). They are given to end customers under a ratio decided by the companies ( X Floras per dollar spent). The cost to purchase 1 Flora has been established to be 2 cents.

Example: Customer buys a $1000 fridge and earns 5% cashback in Floras ($50) deposited in his Floras' wallet.

Note that in this stage, the fridge manufacturer purchases $50 of Floras to be given to the end-user, in this case, $50@0.02 per Flora issued = 2500 Floras to be deposited in his wallet.

With the wallet, the customers is able to manage the Floras balances and transactions.

Redeem:

Floras can be redeemed (spent) only at our certified sustainable projects that provide carbon credits. Customers will be able to choose from several projects integrated to our redemption alternatives (see www.Patch.io) where to send their Floras to support the selected project and also get the Carbon Credits. 

(A carbon credit is a kind of permit that represents 1 ton of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. They can be purchased by an individual or, more commonly, a company to make up for carbon dioxide emissions that come from industrial production, delivery vehicles, or travel.)

Example: Customer sends $50 in Floras to a certified "Reforestation project in Amazonas, Brazil", so then we transfer the funds to the project and receive the carbon credits that are automatically allocated to the company that issued the Floras originally.

Win-Win-Win

Note that the end-user buys a product and receives a reward to then decide where to send the funds to support a sustainable project but the company that issued the reward receives the benefit of offsetting the carbon credit from their carbon footprint.

According to Reuters, the value of traded global markets for carbon dioxide (CO2) permits grew by 164% to a record 760 billion euros ($851 billion) last year, analysts at Refinitiv stated.

We can achieve a massive amount of transactions since European Climate Law is pushing to turn the political commitment into a legal obligation and more and more companies will need to offset their carbon footprint.

Since the currency could be fueled by ADA, there is a great component that will increase the value of the Cardano network as transactions increase.

All this reward system is based on three tools we have already developed and provided to the companies but will need customizations:

A) Currency Wallet. This is a native mobile app and is already prepared to send or receive currency funds to other wallets or retailers. Can read QR codes and has a payment module. Also, it is open to communicate with users to share the different places where to Earn and/or Redeem Floras.

This wallet will be adapted to the Cardano technology.

B) MarketPlace (web). This is where companies can upload their products to sell and where members can Earn or redeem the currency. It has its own admin with different levels of access (manage products, images, prices, content, amount of Floras per product, etc)

C) A unique currency "FLORAS". This is based on a monetary system that allows companies to use the currency to reward members or collect currency as a payment. It is the most important piece since it connects all the different parts and the network.

The first phase of the program will be to allow those companies to reward their buyers with FLORAS, fund projects, and receive carbon credits by doing it in a transparent way.

In a second phase, we will allow converting frequent flier miles/points to Floras to then get carbon credits. This opportunity is unprecedented since these loyalty programs have millions of members with money (miles/points) to be spent on sustainable projects. We know most of the airline frequent flier programs in the world, and in the past, we have integrated our system to redeem their miles for other things.

Loyalty industry approach to companies we know

Marriotts has US$ 4B in liability in their books for points issued, we can allow their members to redeem Marriott’s points for FLORAS, to be used only on sustainable projects, and get the carbon credits. Even if you get a 5% conversion rate, this represents US$ 20M to be spent on sustainable projects. Marriott removes liability and at the same time offset carbon footprint, end-user decides what project are funded and sustainable project owners receive funds.

In conclusion, the user flow is simple, a B2B and B2C combined: 

1) Customers buy products from companies inside the Coalition Green program.

2) Companies give FLORAS as rewards (rebate on purchase) that can only be spent on the sustainable projects we are connected to (Patch.io/Gold standard/Pachama)

3) Customers send their FLORAS to those projects and the companies receive the carbon credits

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

Traceability - Why Cardano Blockchain?

In the past, we have developed other loyalty currencies but we have never involved blockchain technology. In this specific case, we will need to make sure we can track who issues the currency and where is spent it, to correctly allocate the carbon credits. This can only be achieved by a blockchain system. After reviewing Solidity on Etherium smart contracts we found transactions are too expensive to execute so we believe we have a good alternative to build our solution on Cardano native token. This technology will allow us to track and flag the company that issues the Flora and when redeemed, connect those credits accordingly.

Example: If I earned 50 Floras from Disney and 30 Floras from Nestle in different transactions and my total balance in my wallet is 80, when I spend 40, where are those credits transferred to?

With traceability, we can connect both ends.

Transparency

Cardano Blockchain will also give us a lot of transparency on where the funds are flowing to and what are the companies behind each of the transactions. Also for customers, it is important to see that the projects selected are receiving the funds as planned.

We are adapting our web2 solution to blockchain to achieve these two needed aspects and bringing on board companies that will use Cardano technology for the first time.

This is not just another typical token with the goal of raising funds. This will be the first loyalty currency run under Cardano to support sustainable projects that can connect issued with redeemed.

It will give a lot of exposure to the Cardano network and position the technology as the first one to build a program with these characteristics.

Most sustainable supporters will adopt Cardano to collect Floras to help projects.

New Revenues will be generated from ADA transaction fees.

[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 challenge we foresee is the integration of our wallet into the Cardano system, but we have already discussed the solution with some full-stack developers in the Cardano community and they have expressed it will not be an obstacle when executing the project, on the contrary, they said it is a straight forward case to implement Cardano technology.

Cardano Native tokens technology also has been released and will facilitate the issue of our Floras currency.

One risk we notice is the high demand for Haskell developers but we are confident we have the resources to do it.

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

We usually work with our technology team in Sprints, each of them is defined first and is adjusted on a weekly basis by grooming. We estimate we will need at least 20 developing sprints, or 5 months total to launch a customized fully functioning MVP.

Sprints are detailed with use cases and each of them corresponds to different features of the solution.

All sprints are reflected in a live document with a Dashboard, execution Plan by dates, a backlog, and a Grooming list.

Month 1:

Planning and Initiation

Floras definition of currency system (values, exchanges)

Floras APP Wallet set up and customization

Earn and Spend Floras Web set up

Graphic design, logo, brand, and colors definition of the program

Month 2:

Set up Back end admin for the currency system

Web design Floras Earn and Spend options

Web integration with Floras currency admin

Finalize graphic design deliverables

Month 3:

Integration of mobile APP with web solution under the same currency

Cardano Blockchain integration to the Wallet

Native token set up plan and tokenomics definition

Month 4:

Integration with Carbon credits providers (Pachama/gold standard)

Testing of Floras exchange to carbon credits (transfer of funds)

Month 5:

Set up all systems into Amazon web services

Features adjustments

Testing and launch of MVP

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

We estimate most of the cost will be in developing and integrations.

App development and customizations

1 mobile developer full time, 5 months @ 3000/ month = 15k

Web site development and customizations

1 web developer full time, 5 months @ 3000/ month = 15k

Blockchain integration and tokenization

1 full stack developer full time, 5 months @ 3000/ month = 15k

Backlog and direction of developers

1 CTO and scrum master 5 months @ 2000/month = 10k

Marketing and design of the brand, website and app

1 graphic designer, 2 months @3500: = 7k

Overall direction of the project

1 project director 5 months @ 3000 = 15k

Amazon web services set up =1k

TOTAL US$ 68000

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

Gonzalo de los Rios - Project director

My background is in Economics and Loyalty.

Entrepreneur and part of UC Berkeley Skydeck program with Aeros Wallet. Also part of British Airways incubator program.

Worked within redemption of miles for partners like United Airlines, Avianca Airlines, and British Airways among others.

Developed a Loyalty currency system with a total valuation of US$22M in currency.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gonzalo-de-los-rios-a8a9/

Rafael del Corro - CTO and Scrum master

Founder of many (tech and non-tech) startups, experienced in technology and strategy. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdelcorro/

Franco Fadini - Lead / Prod. Developer

Vast experience in building multiple MVP projects from scratch (mobile, web, backend) and leading teams.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/francofadini/

Agustin Campos - UI/UX Spec developer

UX Designer for digital products with experience in Agile methodologies. Worked for 500 fortune companies and small agencies.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/agucampos/

Gustavo Lombardi - PM Communication & Marketing

Marketing and Brand Communications Strategist with experience in VISA and Fintech companies.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustavolombardi/

Juan Herrera - Graphic design

Marketing and Communication Strategist and Co-Founder en LOCO Digital Agency

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanhrr/

Lucas Sasso - PM Web developer

Woocomerce specialist and Ecommerce integration tool expertise

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-daniel-sasso/

Javier Santiago Ortiz Correa

Ph.D. in Economics - University of California specialized in data, market analysis, and project evaluation.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/javiersantiagoortiz/

Most of the team is based on a part time allocation therefore they will be no conflict with other proposals

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

We expect to execute the biggest amount of work with these funds but we are also aware that smart contracts could need adjustment and monitoring of the whole currency system so we are not closing the window on requesting more funds in the future to improve our solution.

[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?

As mentioned, all sprints are reflected in a live document:

Dashboard

Where all the sprints are accounted for and the number of hours spent

Product snapshot is divided into the Core app, wallet, exchange, Earn, Spend, Pay module, movements, and notifications.

Also the minimum requirements.

In this Dashboard, we will reflect all the progress of the project by dates.

Sprints Plan

Divided into 5 sprints with dates and status of each of the actions and milestones to be achieved on each Sprint.

Backlog List

Each use case has its own ID with its correspondent extension (Core app, wallet. etc)

Minimum requirement, status, and sprint allocation are reflected here

The release date is also reflected in this backlog list

Grooming

Here the use cases are prioritized by low, medium, or high, and status is also reflected and visible.

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

1) MVP customized with FLORAS mobile wallet reflecting balances,

allowing the creation of a unique QR code for transactions plus Earn and spend currency capabilities functioning.

2) MVP customized FLORAS web where members can Earn and Spend currency.

3) Floras as a Cardano native token with tracking of issue and redemption of Floras currency

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

No. It is not.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

SDG subgoals:

Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

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

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI):

#proposertoolsdg