Please describe your proposed solution.
The solution we propose is a mobile app, "Catalyst4Carbon". This app will address climate change by focusing on individual engagement and incentives. Most people are aware of the fact that climate change poses very significant challenge for our planet, however, most of them feel powerless and don’t know how they may contribute on solving this problem. Our app aims to change this narrative by engaging individuals in a gamified the process that will help them calculate and reduce their carbon footprint.
The game we propose is simple and powerful at the same time. Users will be asked to self-report their daily, weekly, and monthly activities, for example what transportation methods did they use and how long was the distance they covered, did they consume any meat today, how much water did they use, what was the electrical bill they paid this month etc. Based on these data, the app will calculate the user's carbon footprint.
Our gamification strategy is:
At the end of each cycle (30 days), if the carbon footprint of the user is below a predetermined threshold, they will be awarded game tokens which can be used to purchase different forest elements such as trees and animals to populate their virtual forest. This feature will add a visual element to the game and will help keep users engaged in terms of their carbon reduction achievements.
On the other hand, if a user's carbon footprint is above the predetermined threshold, their virtual forest will suffers some consequences. For example, some trees in their forest may rot or some animals may disappear, and no game tokens will be awarded for that cycle. We believe that this visual effect will act as a powerful motivator for users to be more responsible in reducing their carbon footprint the next cycle.
Moreover, the app will allows users to purchase additional game tokens with ADA. This feature is intended more for users whose carbon footprint exceeds the threshold, so that by purchasing additional game tokens with ADA they will prevent their forest from perishing. All the ADA gathered from these transactions will be donated to environmental organizations at the end of each cycle.
With "Catalyst4Carbon", we intend reach and engage a broad range of users. We believe that this app will get attention from individuals who are concerned about climate change and want to do something about it, people who are enthusiastic about blockchain technology, and people who enjoy gamified apps. By intertwining individual carbon footprint reduction with a simple, fun game and a real-world positive outcome, we hope to inspire users to take more responsibility for their personal carbon emissions
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
The solution we propose directly addresses the challenge of climate change . The "Catalyst4Carbon" bring awareness to the climate change problem in terms of what an individual can do to be part of the solution and it gives the users the opportunity to be part of a fun and engaging game while helping them reduce carbon footprint.
The benefits that our project brings to the Cardano Ecosystem are:
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Community Growth: our app will attract new users, mostly people who are interested in climate change. All of the new users will have to interact with the Cardano blockchain hence the number of interactions and adaptations will increase.
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New Use Case for ADA: ADA integration in a key part our gamification strategy, thus it makes ADA have an additional use case.
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Positive Impact on Environment: Our app aims to encourage users to reduce their carbon footprint and at the same time it makes real-world contribution to environmental causes through ADA donations.
Within the first year, we expect the “Catalyst4Carbon” app to reach thousands of downloads. In addition to contributing to the fight against the climate change, these users will also engage with the Cardano Ecosystem, hence it will help expand Cardano’s reach and impact.
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
The key indicators that will help measure the success of our project are:
- The total number of users who download our app, how often do these users interact with our app, and the how healthy are their virtual forests.
- The quantity of ADA tokens used for maintaining virtual forests, and then donated to environmental organizations.
- The number of users who succeed on lowering their carbon footprint overtime.
- Feedback from our users on what we can do to make their experience in the app better.
In the short term, by following this metrics we will be able to track the impact that our app has had. In the long term, as more users download the app, we intend to measure the success of the project by the overall decrease in carbon footprint and the quantity of ADA tokens donated to environmental organizations.
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
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Open Source Repository: We intend to make our application's code publicly available on GitHub. We welcome constructive feedback from other developers.
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Progress Updates: we will post regular updates on development progress in Cardano Forum.
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Social Media Engagement: We plan to be fairly active in platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for announcing our project updates.
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Community Interaction: We intend to be very active on the Cardano Discord and Telegram channels for communicating with community members directly.
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Success Metrics: When the app becomes operational, key performance indicators of our app (downloads, user engagement, and ADA donations) will be posted regularly on our website and social media profiles
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Collaborative Efforts: We’ll announce, through all available channels, the amount of money collected from our app in ADA, which then will be donated to environmental NGOs at the end of each cycle.
We are committed on keeping stakeholders updated on our "Catalys4Carbon" project, fostering a sense of participation in our fight against climate change.