Please describe your proposed solution.
[IMPACT]
Please describe your proposed solution.
Project Description
In Africa, slightly used devices are high among the population and the situation is not different in Ghana. Both rural and urban population with low income rely on used phones, laptops, and tablets to interact on the internet and do their daily activities. For the purpose of this proposal, tech repairers are entrepreneurs in the informal market of Ghana whose specialties include repairing broken devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, and tech devices.
However, tech repairers are not easy to find in the Central Business District and a few parts of the country. In most instances, the repairmen are mostly scattered across the country, with few centered within the business district, making accessibility and affordability difficult. The existing company that intend providing repair services to everyone via their services –tech market solutions, has failed to meet this standard —accessibility and affordability. Hence, some communities faces challenges accessing the services of these repairmen not because they’re not available but they are mostly difficult to find in some part of the country. One main challenge of tech market solution– a company which provide repair services on behalf of customers is that, their services are very expensive and difficult to access. This is because, the platform is a centralized platform that receives and repair damage phones via their repair partners. With this service, the company undertake repair service on behalf of customers, denying customers direct access to the repair specialist for any other services.
Therefore, the possibility of decentralization via blockchain would help enhance the current system. Hence, we would introduce a DApp platform that would bring all repair specialist across the country unto this platform and enable individuals to connect directly with tech repair specialist for quality services and repairs. The adoption of DApp has been slow paced in developing countries like Ghana hence this idea is novel in terms of integration (DApp) with other existing products services and would therefore improve the end-user experience and give users more options or make repair services easier and eventually benefits the wider Cardano ecosystem, in terms of awareness creation. This initiative is very feasible considering the wide range of smart phone usage in Ghana and the improved accessibility to internet connectivity.
DApp Registry and Smart Contract
The DApp for Tech Repairers would use AtalaPRISM to provide unique identification for tech repairers. For the purpose of this proposal, tech repairers are entrepreneurs in the informal market of Ghana whose specialties include repairing broken devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, and tech devices. The unique digital identity which would be assigned to repairmen would help individuals with broken devices to have easy access to tech repairers. The DApp would be created using Plutus and the interaction between tech repairers and device owners would be done via smart contract. The smart contract would have the main function to show proof of fault (information on broken devices), transparent cost, and distribution of incentives. The on-chain solution aims at providing a cost-effective and quality P2P ecosystem by identifying tech repairers and connecting them to device users. This would provide incentive and generally increase the income level of informal sector workers like tech repairers, hence reducing poverty.
The information on the identity of repairmen from their national identification cards and their certificate of qualification will enable the platform to assign an efficiency rating tag to each tech repairer onboarded onto the DApp. This rating system, just like what’s done for each software application on Google play store, would range from 1 star to 5 star, with 1 representing very poor service, 2 poor service, 3 normal service, 4 representing an efficient services and 5 representing very efficient services: this is aimed at determining the efficiency of each repair specialist. The DApp would also be designed to provide users the details of the cost of repairing a broken device. The platform would engage tech repairers to set a fair price by using information about the state of a faulty smart device, device brand, and other device information. The Dapp platform would also offer a unique services that affords customers the comfort of having their phones picked up for repair.
As a preview to how we intend to develop our platform, we'll deploy Tech market solutions –http://techmarketgh.com/service-request as a reference point and as a complement to our research on project design. We consider the interface at tech market solutions relevant to our project however, we also believe our platform would be more distinctive and more decentralized which would removes third party interference. Hence the need to pursue this project.
Partnership and educational Outreach
How to identify and Register Repair specialist
Partnership
The proposer have already worked with a host of repairmen during his period of work at tech markets solutions as a marketing specialist— a company that repair broken and damaged devices on behalf of customers via their repair specialist. Our project is a departure from the centralized system under which tech market solutions operates; our project provides a Decentralized Application platform for customers to have a direct access to repairmen, which is a departure from tech market solutions – the proposer's previous company. The proponent’s experience with tech market solution enabled him network and establish relationship with well recognized repair specialist. Based on this established relationship, we would leverage on that as the starting point to reach more audience. And also reach out to other repairmen via their official email and other contacts.
Educational outreach
There world be a short video description on how to register on our platform for both repairmen and device owners. This would be a guideline for those new to the blockchain technology. Aside our video based guidelines on the use of our platform, we would formally engage each repair specialist on a one-on-one basis as part of our educational approach to brief repair specialist on the DApp platform, its opportunities and address their concerns.
MARKETING STRATEGY
Considering the nature of the project, the target audience in the short term is smart device owners who are conversant with smart phone usage which includes repair specialist. This is because of how smart phone is now widely used in Ghana. In essence, by targeting these audience, we anticipate that developing a strong reputation with our platform will enable our customers speak well of our services to more people based on their experience with our platform. Hence our marketing would be aimed at such audience via social media Advertisements (influencers and video based ads). However, we also consider that we may not reach all target audience via our social media Advertisements, hence we would undertake offline Advertisement using the traditional media channels which may have more reach. The starting point for our marketing strategy would be the use of social media Advertisements via social media influencers and online video Ads. Subsequently, there would be a gradual introduction of the platform on the traditional media to a larger audience.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the challenge?
The DApp for Tech repairers would be developed to bring tech repairers onto a single platform using DApp. The DApp for Tech Repairers would use AtalaPRISM to provide unique digital identification for tech repairers using their certification and national identification cards. The digital identity would help device owners easily identify tech repairers and connect to them for their services. The DApp would be created using Plutus and the interaction between tech repairers and device owners would be done via smart contract. The smart contract would have the main function to show proof of service, transparent cost, and distribution of incentives. The on-chain solution aims at providing a cost-effective and quality P2P ecosystem by identifying tech repairers and connecting them to devices users. This would provide incentive and generally increase the income level of informal sector workers like tech repairers, hence reducing poverty.
The information on the repair will enable the platform to assign an efficiency rating tag to each tech repairer onboarded onto the DApp. The aim is help identify repairmen that provides quality services. The DApp would also be designed to provide users the details of the cost of repairing a broken device. The platform would engage tech repairers to set a fair price by using information about the state of a faulty smart device, device brand, and other device information. The Dapp platform would also offer a unique services that affords customers the comfort of having their phones picked up for repair.
<u> KEY IMPACT OF THE PROJECT TO THE CHALLENGE </u>
The project intends to achieve the following goals in the short to long term;
Accessibility
To enable owners of portable devices to have easy access to repair specialists for their services, providing convenience and preventing the extra transport cost of searching for tech repairer; by creating a web based decentralized platform that will eventually provide ease and comfort in business transactions.
Adoption
Taking into account the myriad of online businesses in Ghana with enough piece of infrastructure for the integration of DApp into their online product and services, the realization of this project will not only create more awareness but would also facilitate the adoption process of DApp in Ghana especially on the Cardano network. We envision that by this initiative we'll fast track the transition of business unto the Cardano blockchain in Africa by being a starting point.
Revenue Increase
The Dapp platform does not only intend to streamline the activities of repair specialist; however by exploring the Dapp platform we anticipate that tech repairers will easily have access to their target market, so as to boost the income level of the tech repair specialist.
Reduction in E-waste
In Ghana, the difficulty in getting quality repair services due to proximity and cost of transport compel device owners to prematurely dispose off their devices into the environment, increasing the level of E-waste. This platform seeks to discourage this practice by providing damaged devices a new life so as to prevent device owners from resorting to dumping old devices into the environment for new devices.
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 the project is likely to face is the difficulty in enrolling repair specialist unto the Dapp platform. In that regard, we would provide a short video description on how to enrol unto the platform and also provide an incentive program which will be designed to reward tech repair specialist a small amount of Cardano for enrolling on the Dapp platform. In this way, we would also introduce cardano to the repair specialist community.