Cardano and impact
Impact is a key element of the Cardano philosophy. The first sentence at Cardano.org is “making the world work better for all” and you can see this line in practically every video of Mr. Charles Hoskinson as well as many of the Cardano ecosystem activities.
Following fund 6 we have conducted the research matching Catalyst proposals with SDGs and the results were very promising. Showing that 27.5% of the funded proposals directly connect to impact the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and 68.5% indirectly connect to impact the SDGs. This is not a surprise as blockchain technology has the potential to have an impact on financial inclusion, governance, education, and other areas which align with SDGs objectives. We have also developed the SDG Proposer Tool, which is now embedded in the Fund 7 Proposal processes, further recognizing the ongoing alignment between Catalyst and the UN SDGs.
Here is the closing report for our proposal with more details: docs.google.com/document/d/1uZ0Ci6JWowLVUWijpOTSSf_G5Q-xLIQg4C4_bwaLAoQ/edit#
Collaboration and partnerships is key to achieving the SDGs by 2030. It is the avenue to how we co-produce impactful solutions to wicked problems. By creating a space for these collaborations to take place, and designing a new framework to receive diligent leads, this will in effect help our global society work towards an inclusive and successful implementation of the sustainable development agenda.
United Nations India says “A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society.”
- https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-17/
We have already begun Cross chain collaboration :
Through our work we have already begun discussions with stakeholders of cross chain platforms, researchers and initiatives and advocated for the importance of Cardano “having a seat at the table” and being one of the recognized leaders of a Blockchain for Impact and Blockchain for Good.
<u>Here are some examples of work we have started:</u>
<https://positiveblockchain.io> - checkout the about section to see the synergies with our work, (Razali Contributor) (Cole Contributor) About Us | PositiveBlockchain.io
(Razali) Research initiatives: A scientific report - Dauphine University Paris, Blockchain for Good, and Positive Blockchain, analyzing the open access Positive Blockchain Database and surveying the Blockchain for Good + SDG ecosystem
Freeos.io: Working on EOS and ICP, and looking to collaborate with an impact driven community and blockchain.
senken.io : A climate fund and launch pad on Celo. Currently in talks of collaboration.
The solution:
C4C and Sustainable ADA are creating an open source innovative model to collaborate with the community ingenerating a range of opportunities for collaboration with impact businesses, entrepreneurs and creatives and onboard them to Cardano. This will allow a bridge for these cross chain initiatives into the Cardano, and Catalyst community. The goal is to generate a range of cross chain collaborations for greater impact.
Our solution aims to unlock the resources and capacity for our team and community to continue helping connect these stakeholders to our community of professionals, at a greater scale. Introducing them to teams to collaborate with one another. Ultimately creating a direct link to external cross chain projects who are not yet part of our community.
To incentivize the activity, community members will be compensated for generating leads that lead to conversations with businesses. For leads that will result in collaboration, the community member generating the lead will receive further compensation. The community member will fill up details of certain characteristics about the lead. Ex. (name, project description, website, socials, project lead contact info, github/gitbook) and will support to initiate the conversation and ongoing discussions as needed. All this information will help to build up the model and with the post lead conversation and audit process.
The solution will be a great use case for a model on how to include the cross chain community teams to create a greater impact across the whole blockchain space. Allowing teams working on other chains to contribute their work towards the Cardano community. Through these connections we will be able to expand the breadth and depth of the Cardano community, and build a cross-chain bridge for existing impact initiatives on other chains. Ultimately creating a healthier and more efficient crypto ecosystem allowing cross collaboration of skills, resources, and infrastructure to achieve impact goals.
The solution will be a great use case for a model on how to include the community in business activities. It will give a space for many to contribute and will also provide funding for time and efforts dedicated to promoting the community. Through the work, we will evaluate multiple business models around lead generation compensation (i.e. by IOG) or success fee based on collaboration which includes financial elements as well as tokens or other forms of incentives (i.e. receiving CLAP tokens for leads generated to Cardashift). The objective is to find a model that will allow the activities post-funding and support the ecosystem growth with the community serving as a remunerated business.
Long term vision:
Our long term vision is for in 6-12 months to have a working solution that can be used by different groups within the Cardano community, or when trying to on-board a solution into their cross chain ecosystem.
We will be creating a proof of concept that can be used within the Cardano community. This process will be documented, and open source. This tool, and the development of our new model will allow the total onboarding process to be improved, and will help with data management when community members are trying to work with new projects, who join the community via our leads. All of our research and final model will be shared, and connect our Catalyst-created solution to be adopted by other chains and communities.
An open source model will be a creation of a system with different subsystems of activities. Then replicated and shared to help drive more businesses to join our community, and take full advantage of the opportunities Cardano unleashes. This new open source educational resource will help with common research, education, outreach and on board more innovative projects with other chains and communities to Cardano.
Why is it important?
Interoperability of blockchains and multi-chain awareness guarantees shared success of the blockchain cryptoeconomy as a whole.
We have already started to create existing connections who we are onboarding into the Cardano community, and plan to be a direct avenue for cross chain collaborations. So they can be guided through Catalyst and our resourceful impact community will be guides for these new cross chain businesses/initiatives who join our space, and help with the future success of these projects.
What does success look like?
Collaborative value creation between Project Catalyst and other communities. Both technical and non-technical initiatives are welcome.
The collaboration could include technical and non-technical initiatives. This is the advantage of reaching out through the community as there are multiple capabilities, knowledge, and connections.
Success will be shown by reaching our KPI’s.
We will create an open source database that allows community members to track the number of companies who want to propose a Cardano based solution, the number of joint ventures between companies and a lead, and the projected growth metrics from the success of these projects being on boarded. Also shared in our community open source database (Gitbook).
Key Metrics to measure
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Number of proposals including participants from other blockchain communities
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We expect at least 5 to 10 collaborations which could lead to multiple proposals also for Catalyst starting from fund 9.
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Ideas from other chains implemented via Catalyst.
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Highly probable, as the work in this proposal will lead to proposals based on ideas from other chains.
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Projects and dApps from other chains implemented on Cardano
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Highly probable, as the work on this proposal will lead to dApps from other chains to be implemented on Cardano.
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Catalyst-created solutions adopted by other chains/communities
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Highly probable, as the work on this proposal will lead to Catalyst-created solutions adopted by other chains.
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Number of events / workshops / sessions arranged with other communities
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We will conduct 10s of sessions with other blockchains, join meetings with multi-chain platforms and will invite them to our dedicated meetups.
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Number of permanent initiatives with cross-chain teams (members from different blockchain communities together).
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As we approach the community to generate leads, one risk could be to get too many leads and need to make sure we are providing the right guidelines to make sure relevant and impactful leads will be generated.
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Building trust with initiatives that are in other blockchains might be an issue for blockchain maximalists. As we are focusing on impact related collaboration, it might prove easier and faster to build trust and collaboration.
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As it is a multi lead opportunity, for each initiative we need to find the most sustainable contact and company within the Cardano ecosystem. Maybe it will be IOG, Cardano Foundation, Emurgo, Catalyst initiatives, or Cardano based companies. Our team has already strong contacts with the community which will facilitate overcoming this challenge.
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Defining what is established as collaboration in order to compensate community members will be important to prevent conflicts. To mitigate this issue, we will define it in the guidelines provided and we will also allocate a budget for external auditing of the process.
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Incentive exchange rate risk. As significant funds will be dedicated for incentives there is a risk of ADA & USD fluctuation. To reduce the risk we will keep a record of the ADA & USD rate at the day of receiving the funds from Catalyst and all payments will be thereafter in ADA.