Applicant
HumanVenture (the UK, Russia)
This is the INITIAL PROPOSAL. Please, see the UPDATED PROPOSAL in the comments.
Introduction
Many of us have been actively helping people in need in various forms, however, acute social challenges such as poverty, hunger, limited or absent access to social development opportunities etc. remain widely and wildly unresolved globally and may grow further due to CoVid-19. HumanVenture team, apart from helping people from our own resources for years, is working on digital solutions for sustainable development and social and environmental impact.
We are making this proposal to the esteemed FreeTON community as we want to unite efforts of conscious and capable people and teams to create positive change at scale and have most acute challenges of humanity successfully resolved as soon as possible. We are confident that members of FreeTON are as concerned (or probably a better word would be ‘obsessed’) about making our world a much better place as we are.
Problem Description
Despite all technological progress humanity has been making in the past decades, hundreds of millions of people still remain in poverty globally (e.g. 736 million in 2015 according to the World Bank) and this this figure is likely to grow dramatically because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While charitable donations remain one of the main means of poverty reduction, dozens of billions of dollars of donations are disappearing globally every year due to:
- Corruption
- Inefficiency of charities and other market players
- High number of intermediates
- Inappropriate use of donations
According to Fidelity Charitable Research, 64% of donors would donate more if they knew where their money went.
And this is not purely a money issue, as the result millions of people are starving, children cannot get normal education, disabled and elderly people are left alone with their problems, whole countries and regions are suffering. It is impossible to fix that without the transparency challenge being overcome.
Solution
HumanVenture is one of the pioneering market solutions of transparent donation management system for donation market players: charities, corporate&individual donors, recipients, state, and vendors/retailers supplying goods and services.
HumanVenture system includes:
• Platform for transparent donation distribution and online donation tracking for charities and their donors
• HumanVenture card - solution replacing help-in-kind, cash and bank cards, with restricted spending on alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, gambling, etc.
• Loyalty program for retailers where donations are obliged to be spent
Our aim is to disrupt the charity market by making charitable giving 100% transparent and 100% earmarked for specific purposes, while impact 100% traceable and measurable. It is reached through several innovative aspects:
• impact measurement, verification, and detailed reporting for platform stakeholders
• improved cost-efficiency of donation management
• applicable for unbanked people and people without smartphones
• free for charities and donors – thus 100% of aid reach aid recipients.
Solution Specs
The process flow has the following main stages:
- Donations transferred by donors to charities in fiat are tokenized into tokens on the FreeTON blockchain pegged to the respective fiat currencies (token minting)
(Solution to accept donations in cryptocurrencies with automatic exchange into fiat for charities is also possible at a later stage of legal and regulatory advancement) - Tokens are then distributed by charities to recipients’ wallets.
- Tokens can be spent only for eligible goods and services at vendors authorized by charities
- Recipients can spend tokens via the respective digital or plastic cards with QR codes; private keys are held at charities and for recipients are replaced with 4-digit PIN codes (similar to bank cards)
- Vendors can accept payments in multiple ways:
o Via integration with their loyalty/bonus programs
o Via integration of payment in tokens in their POS terminals (for corporate vendors)
o For individual donors – via HumanVenture mobile app
• Tokens spent by recipients and accumulated by vendors then are redeemed into fiat by the charities via a) redemption of tokens as cryptoassets, or b) invoices generated on the basis of tokens spent (depending on the level of legal adoption of blockchain and cryptoassets in the respective jurisdictions)
• Charities, donors and vendors can track donations through the entire supply chain in their accounts in HumanVenture system and the underlying blockchain transactions on TON.live
• The system also contains dashboard and visualization tools for online impact tracking and automated reporting
Benefits for system users
The project will create trust among donation market stakeholders, improve efficiency (shorter chain of intermediaries) reshaping donation market supply chain financially benefitting every stakeholder.
For charities:
• increased inflow of donations
• higher transparency and increased trust of donors
• increased efficiency and reduced operational costs of donation management, monitoring and reporting processes via automation with all data securely and immutably stored on blockchain
• decreased logistics costs as delivery of help in kind is replaced with plastic cards
• control of spending of donations towards designated purposes and exclusion of spending on certain goods and activities (alcohol, cigarettes, gambling etc.)
• increased financial inclusion via providing more freedom of choice to recipients vs help in kind
• enhancement of business model helping to get new sources of funding for multiplication of positive social impact and creating a sustainable economic mechanisms of poverty reduction
For partner vendors:
• revenue growth since all donations will be spent at the shops of partner vendors
• positive image of socially responsible business → increase of customer loyalty
• automated CSR and ESG reporting with all data securely and immutably stored on blockchain
For donors:
online tracking of money distribution and spending increasing trust to charities. For corporate donors:
- demonstration and reporting of their impact to stakeholders – clients, shareholders, investors, employees, and authorities – for better market positioning as socially responsible business
- reduced costs on social impact (ESG) reporting due to automation of HumanVenture reports with all data securely and immutably stored on blockchain
For governments, development organizations, regional authorities:
• increase in donation inflows especially among millennials and generation Z (up to for 54-65%)
• increase in donation process efficiency due to automation reduction of crime
• traceable reduction of poverty in the region
• improvement of social impact data verification, measurement, and reporting
• wider involvement of various economic agents in resolution of poverty and other global challenges
• the system contains direct quantified tracking of fulfilment of several UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, such as #1 Poverty, #4 Hunger, #4 Education etc. – volume of aid provided, number of recipients (wallets), etc.
Social impact for aid recipients:
• improvement of quality of life
• freedom of choice in a way similar to regular financial services, and thus phycological support in overcoming difficult life circumstances though socio-economic integration rather than getting usual aid in kind
• financial inclusion of unbanked and gadgetless people
Current Status
• HumanVenture system has been developed on a proprietary blockchain platform DCore of DECENT (Slovakia)
• Partnerships are in discussion in Austria with a leading Austrian charity
• Partnership with the largest Russian FoodBank and the largest Russian retail chain for a country-scale project is due to in Nov.’20.
• Charities in India, Sri-Lanka, Benin (Africa), Belarus, Germany, Singapore showed great interest during our customer development interviews
• HumanVenture is included in the UK Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP) by the UK Department of International Trade (DIT)
• HumanVenture was awarded the government Innovate UK Smart grant for the UK market entry
Team
The team of 11 members from Austria and Russia with experience of 20+ years in international banking and finance, 11+ years in blockchain, 20+ years in IT, 10+ years in innovations. We have a BoD Member of Chevening Global SDG Network, Microsoft Golden Partner & advisor to OSCE, and other experienced professionals.
HumanVenture is supported by Advisory Board with reputable members holding senior positions in sustainability and running innovative businesses in Europe.
Benefits for the Community
• Boost use of FreeTON in the donation market
If successful, we are planning to cover up to 100,000 recipients in 2021 (meaning millions of blockchain transactions) and 5,000,000+ in 2025. The total number of users (recipients, charities, donors, vendors) to exceed 10,000,000 by the end of 2025. The vision is to build a system to make tangible contribution in pulling 745 million people out of poverty globally (World Bank data 2015)
• Visibility of FreeTON via HumanVenture’s participation in state grant programs for impactful business in a number of countries
• Innovative compatible products for social impact creation and tracking with further expansion of impact tracking digital solutions (e.g. TreeTON – for reforestation tracking, renewable energy tracking, pollution reduction environment, gamification in sustainable development, and others)
• Financially inclusive payment solution for unbanked people and people without smartphones to help FreeTON ecosystem spread irrespectively of the level of digitalisation
• Legal and regulatory clearance in the markets of presence depending on the level of recognition of cryptoassets (external legal opinions and statements of regulators as applicable in Russia, the UK, Austria, and other markets globally) for the benefit of further legal and regulatory adoption of blockchain in general and FreeTON-based solutions in particular
• Efficient and transparent solution for making the world better and at the same time benefitting the FreeTON ecosystem itself. Increase in the overall level of adoption of blockchain technology for resolution of key challenges of humanity
• Positive image of FreeTON community and technologies through contribution to reduction of global poverty and fulfillment of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals #1,2 – No Poverty, No Hunger and others
• Solid technological and economic basis for real-life implementation of Universal Basic Income (UBI) model
• Bridge between FreeTON and non-crypto world via integration of the system into the existing fiat-based business models and processes and adoption by corporate and institutional users
• Synergies and partnerships worldwide with stakeholders interested in eradication of poverty globally – e.g. with the UN, charity sector, impact investors, governments, etc.
Plan of action
Technical development:
- Integrate HumanVenture with FreeTON blockchain
- Develop HumanVenture v.2.0:
- evolution of desktop webApp for charities, vendors, donors
- evolution of mobile app for individual vendors
- module of online impact tracking
- module of impact analytics and visualization in charities’, donors’ and vendors’ dashboards
- automated tokens redemption module by charities
- Develop the ‘off-the-shelf’ solution for easy onboarding/integration via open APIs and white-labelling for easier scaling
Business development (2020-2021):
- Legal and regulatory clearance in the current (initial) markets of presence depending on the level of recognition of cryptoasset (Russia, the UK, Austria, other countries)
- Entry of the UK market and at least 2 emerging markets in Africa and Asia
- Scaling in Russia and Austria: we strive to connect up to 100 000 people receiving and spending help monthly (millions of blockchain transactions)
- Partnerships with supranational organizations (UNDP, UNIDO, UNESCO, UNHCR, World Bank) in poverty reduction worldwide
Further business scaling (2021-2022+)
• Geographical (EU, Singapore&other Asia, Middle East)
• Segments: expansion to other segments: education, healthcare, energy, affordable housing etc.
• Introduction of impact investing module
Target vision: Global digital system for transparent donations, impact investing, and universal basic income distribution
Token request
Total token request: 1,510,000 Crystal TON tokens:
• Integration with FreeTON blockchain (tokens minting, creation of wallets, redemption, data visualisation etc.) – 200,000 tokens
• Evolution of the current version of the system (additional features in desktop and mobile app, data visualisation) - 150,000 tokens
• Successful launch of integration module(s) with non-crypto vendors (retailers, pharmacies, online shops etc.) – 150,000 tokens
• Development of off-the-shelf version with open API and customization options for charities and vendors for easy onboarding and white-labelling – 450,000 tokens
• Legal and regulatory clearance of the product in various countries, such as Russia, Austria, the UK, etc. - 360,000 tokens
• Business development – searching for further practical cases in the UK, Austria, and other countries, development of partnerships – 200,000 tokens
Token distribution schedule & KPIs
• 490,000 tokens upfront:
o 200,000 tokens - integration
o 180,000 tokens – 50% of projected legal and regulatory budget
o 110,000 tokens – approx. 1/12 of the rest of the project budget
• 1,020,000 tokens – depending on the KPIs:
o KPI#1: HV develops and updates the system on FreeTON blockchain with TON Surf for all roles (charities, donors, recipients, vendors), tokens minting and data visualisation
100,000 tokens paid out
o KPI#2: After 3 months of updates and fixes for issues raised on the corresponding GitHub project - a submission if filed
50,000 tokens paid out
o KPI#3: HV develops an off-the-shelf universal system with open API for integration of vendors and charities
200,000 tokens paid out
o KPI#4: After 3 months of updates and fixes of off-the-shelf version with open API for vendors and charities for issues raised on the corresponding GitHub project - a submission if filed
100,000 tokens paid out
o KPI#5: System gets legal and regulatory clearance in various countries
60,000 tokens per jurisdiction where the system has been cleared, for each case submission is filed with proofs – external legal opinions, approval letters of regulators, legally cleared signed contracts for the system with clients etc. (as applicable and to the extent possible due to NDAs/confidentiality requirements of the respective counterparties)
Cap – max 180,000 tokens (3 jurisdictions)
o KPI#6: Onboarding of corporate and institutional customers
30,000 tokens per 1 new corporate or institutional customer – charity, retailer, corporate donor etc. with proofs to be provided in the form acceptable to the community (e.g. official public announcements by counterparties, proof of contracts signed (to the extent possible due to NDAs/confidentiality requirements of the respective counterparties)), etc.
Cap – max 90,000 tokens (3 corporate or institutional users)
• Additional benefit: for each new 10,000 users onboarded as a direct result of the use of the system HV gets 30,000 Crystal Tons.
Cap – max 300,000 tokens / 100,000 users
This is our company wallet for receiving tokens:
0:a9ebd03cfc436861c6d86ec7cb5b4936360aae12a3d6bb00651d2718777dd04c
Disclaimer
Neither HumanVenture is the US business nor any of its founders are the US citizens.
