Please describe your proposed solution.

Problem:

Referral fraud is among the most popular types of fraud attacks, amounting to 21% of all attacks, according to Statista. This is a major challenge, particularly for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), which rely heavily on referral systems to expand their communities.

Solution:

In order to tackle this issue and provide a robust solution, we propose the development of a blockchain-based referral system specifically designed for DAOs. This decentralized approach offers an innovative solution, not just to the problem of referral fraud, but also to the broader challenge of community recruitment and growth for DAOs.

The problem of referral fraud is multifaceted and often driven by a lack of transparency and verifiability. Traditionally, referral systems have been vulnerable to manipulation due to a lack of secure and immutable data recording mechanisms. Furthermore, these systems often do not offer a way to validate the authenticity of referrals, leading to an increased risk of fraudulent activities.

Our proposed blockchain-based referral system addresses these issues by leveraging the inherent properties of blockchain technology. This includes:

1. Trust and Transparency: Blockchain provides an immutable, timestamped record of all transactions (or in this case, referrals), which can be independently verified by all participants, increasing trust and transparency.
2. Security: Blockchain's cryptographic technology makes it extremely difficult to alter or manipulate recorded data, thus significantly reducing the risk of fraud.
3. Efficiency: By automating the referral process through smart contracts, we can significantly increase the efficiency of referral systems, reducing the workload for DAOs and making it easier for members to make referrals.

By implementing this solution, DAOs will be able to create more secure and efficient referral systems, helping to foster growth and engagement within their communities. Additionally, the use of blockchain technology will increase the trustworthiness of these systems, enhancing the overall reputation of DAOs and the credibility of their operations.

What sets this solution apart is its application of decentralized technology to address a common and pressing challenge faced by DAOs. Its implementation could potentially change the way DAOs recruit new members, making the process more reliable, transparent, and rewarding for all involved.

To combat self-referrals and multi-accounting (e.g., one user creating multiple fake accounts to receive referral rewards), one of the most common referral fraud techniques, we will be leveraging Atala PRISM DID for identity management. We also use smart contracts to prevent account abuse (e.g., immediately canceling an action after the referrer receives a referral reward) and to automate referral reward distribution without the need for a central agency to verify and distribute rewards.

The solution for Socious DAO implementation consists of two parts:

• Refer a hiring organization and earn a percentage* of every invoice when your referral hires.
• Refer a freelancer and earn a percentage* of every invoice when your referral gets hired.

Referral rewards are distributed automatically through smart contracts. These smart contracts are open source, which means that other DAO projects can customize and use them for their own projects.

*The exact percentage will be decided after conducting thorough research.

Reasons for this Approach

We've chosen a blockchain-based solution due to its inherent properties of transparency, immutability, and security, which make it ideal for tackling referral fraud. Decentralization eliminates the need for a central authority and provides participants with equal access to verify referral data. Automating referral processes via smart contracts can boost efficiency and ease of use.

Engagement:

This project will engage DAOs in need of a secure, efficient, and transparent referral system. It will also be of interest to individual members participating in these systems, as well as the wider Cardano communities who value advancements in decentralized technology.

Demonstrating Impact:

We will track the number of new members who join DAO communities using the referral system, the reduction in referral fraud rates, and the number of DAOs adopting the system. These metrics will prove the impact of our solution.

Uniqueness and Beneficiaries

What sets this solution apart is its application of decentralized technology to address a common problem faced by DAOs. DAOs will benefit by having more secure, efficient, and transparent referral systems, fostering growth and engagement within their communities.

This is important to Cardano because it adds value to its ecosystem. By providing DAOs within the Cardano community with a tool to grow securely and automate their processes, we promote the growth and development of the Cardano ecosystem as a whole. Our solution also enhances the reputation of DAOs and the credibility of their operations within the Cardano ecosystem.

In summary, the proposed blockchain-based referral system will not only prevent referral fraud but also pave the way for a more transparent, secure, and efficient process of community recruitment for DAOs. As a result, this solution will not only benefit individual DAOs but also contribute to the broader Cardano community.

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

Our proposed solution addresses the challenge by providing an innovative, blockchain-based referral system specifically designed to prevent referral fraud in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). The blockchain-based referral system targets the issue of community recruitment and growth for DAOs, which is a prominent challenge as laid out in the brief.

The challenge brief mentions “DAO community collaboration”, “DAO operation” and “DAO governance”. This solution brings several substantial benefits regarding these points:

1. Increased Security: By leveraging blockchain technology, our solution brings a high degree of security, making it nearly impossible to alter or manipulate data. This will help to foster trust and confidence in the operations of DAOs within the Cardano ecosystem.
2. Trust and Transparency: The blockchain-based referral system is built to be fully transparent. All transactions are timestamped and recorded in an immutable ledger, promoting trust amongst community members and potential newcomers to DAOs.
3. Efficiency: With the automation of the referral process via smart contracts, the efficiency of the overall process is greatly improved. This makes it easier for DAOs to grow and manage their communities, reducing workload and increasing the overall productivity of operations.
4. Growth of the Cardano Ecosystem: A secure and efficient referral system could attract more DAOs to operate within the Cardano ecosystem, leading to increased adoption and usage of the Cardano blockchain.

By implementing this system, we expect a significant rise in the number of new members who join DAOs within the Cardano ecosystem due to the increased trust and efficiency. This will consequently lead to an increase in the usage and transactions within the Cardano ecosystem. In terms of metrics, we can measure the impact of our project by tracking the number of DAOs that adopt our referral system and the increase in membership of these DAOs over time.

Additionally, the open-source nature of our solution means that it can be used, customized, and improved by other projects within the Cardano ecosystem (cf. DAO toolset/frameworks available for DAO Ops), fostering a sense of community and collaboration.

In conclusion, our proposed blockchain-based referral system not only addresses a significant issue faced by DAOs, but it also contributes to the larger Cardano ecosystem by encouraging growth, fostering trust, and promoting efficiency. This has the potential to attract more people and organizations to the ecosystem, bolster its overall strength, and solve a key problem related to community recruitment and growth in DAOs.

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

The benefits of our project to the Cardano ecosystem are multi-dimensional, contributing both quantitative and qualitative enhancements.

Quantitative Benefits:

1. Increase in Number of DAOs: By creating a secure and efficient referral system specifically for DAOs, we expect to see an increase in the number of DAOs operating within the Cardano ecosystem. This can be measured by tracking the number of new DAOs that are established after the implementation of our system.
2. Growth in DAO Membership: A secure and efficient referral system will likely attract more people to join DAOs. This can be measured by tracking the increase in membership of DAOs that adopt our referral system.
3. Increase in Transactions: With more DAOs and members, the number of transactions within the Cardano ecosystem is expected to rise, contributing to the overall growth of the Cardano ecosystem.

Qualitative Benefits:

1. Increased Trust: Blockchain technology's inherent transparency fosters increased trust in DAO operations. While this is difficult to quantify, surveys or interviews with DAO members can provide insights into this trust increase.
2. Improved Reputation: A secure and efficient referral system enhances the overall reputation of DAOs and the Cardano ecosystem as a whole. While reputation is a qualitative factor, it can be assessed through brand recognition surveys or sentiment analysis on social media platforms.
3. Community Engagement: Open-source solutions promote community collaboration and engagement. This can be gauged through the level of participation in the project, such as contributions to the code or discussions on community forums.

For this 12-month project, we will measure success by the number of newly registered users on the platform using the referral system. Currently, Socious has over 3,800 registered users, many of whom are new to the Cardano ecosystem. Our end goal for the project is to increase the number of registered users to 10,000, with at least 30% coming from referrals. These measures are realistic because they are based on the current growth rate and existing literature on referral systems.

Impact on Cardano's Productivity and Growth:

In the short term, the number of new users on Socious DAO will increase through the referral system.

In the long term, we expect to see an increase in the number of DAOs adopting our referral system, leading to an increase in transactions and memberships. This rise in activities will increase the overall productivity of the Cardano ecosystem. Additionally, the establishment of a secure and efficient referral system can act as a catalyst for the adoption of the Cardano blockchain by more DAOs and other organizations. As more people and organizations join the Cardano ecosystem, this will result in sustained growth and increased productivity. The open-source nature of our solution will also promote innovation and collaboration, leading to continuous improvements and advancements within the Cardano ecosystem.

In conclusion, our project offers both measurable and qualitative benefits to the Cardano ecosystem, promoting growth, enhancing productivity, and fostering trust and community engagement. These benefits align well with the growth trajectory and future potential of the Cardano ecosystem, making them realistic and achievable.

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

We plan to spread the project's outputs during and after its completion. While building, we provide monthly and milestone reports, and present in two Town Hall meetings every two weeks: the Eastern Town Hall and the Pacific Town Hall. We regularly attend these town hall meetings to provide project updates and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. While we are based in Japan, which naturally aligns our schedules more closely with these two Town Halls, we make efforts to reach beyond these forums. At significant moments, such as the completion of a project phase, we expand our participation to include other town halls, overcoming time zone challenges to do so. We greatly value these occasions as they present an opportunity to share our accomplishments and engage in beneficial discussions with a wider audience.

We will share the projects’s outputs, impact and opportunities with the community members. The links to our close-out report and video will be publicly available on Youtube. We will also share information on our website and social media. Because we are a gig marketplace, gig opportunities for Cardano developers will be listed on our Socious platform.

Since Socious is an open source project, our code base is public on our GitHub page and Cardano developers are encouraged to fork and use it for other projects.

We will be analyze the results of this pilot project to further our research and development activities.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

Our team is aptly suited and equipped to successfully deliver this project. We possess the requisite capabilities that uniquely position us to execute this project to high standards of trust and accountability.

As outlined in the section "Who is in the project team and what are their roles?", our team is composed of seven full-time members, each bringing considerable experience in developing Dapps. To supplement our core team, we maintain a reserve of skilled freelancers, ready to contribute at short notice. Our talent marketplace, Socious, is a hub for over 3,800 individuals, many of whom could potentially assist in this project, if required.

Our ability to deliver is not just theoretical but backed by a track record. We have successfully completed five distinct Catalyst projects funded in Fund 9, all within the projected timelines and budget. These accomplishments bear testament to our capabilities and our commitment to deliver projects as proposed.

The Fund 9 projects we’ve completed are as follows:

1. Recognize Impact through DIDs <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-dapps-products-and-integrations/recognize-impact-through-dids>
2. Atala Integration with Milkomeda <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-dapps-products-and-integrations/atala-integration-with-milkomeda>
3. Decentralized Escrow for Remote Job <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-developer-ecosystem/decentralized-escrow-for-remote-job>
4. Impact lending for the unbanked <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-dapps-products-and-integrations/impact-lending-for-the-unbanked>
5. Scoring Social/Environmental Impact <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-catalyst-natives-x-cardashift-demonstrating-and-monetizing-impact/scoring-socialenvironmental-impact>

The trustworthiness in our fund management processes is grounded in our serious adherence to legal and financial compliance. Each transaction conducted is meticulously documented with tangible evidence and audited internally for accuracy. To bolster our commitment to financial transparency, we have established collaborations with external accounting firms that assure compliance. Our Japanese entity works with Tatsumi Accounting Firm (https://kessan-online.jp/company), while our Singaporean entity partners with BBCIncorp (https://bbcincorp.com/offshore/accounting-and-auditing).

Additionally, we liaise with an external law firm, Enlighten Law Group (https://www.enlightenlaw.com/), to ensure full legal compliance. This meticulous, multilayered approach to fund management reflects our dedication to maintaining high levels of trust and accountability.

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The goals of the project is develop the “decentralized referral system” feature on the Socious app (https://socious.io/app) so that the users can perform the following functions on the app.

• In order to receive referral rewards, users need to have Atala PRISM DID and verify their identity
• As a user, I can refer a hiring organization to Socious
• As a user, I can earn 2.5% of every invoice when my referred organization hires.
• As a user, I can refer a freelancer to Socious
• As a user, I can earn 2.5% of every invoice when my referred freelancer gets hired.

Our Technical Approach:

We use several technologies to develop the functions mentioned above. We use Atala PRISM DID to combat self-referral and multi-accounting. Socious is already integrated with ProofSpace which supports Atala PRISM DID. For identity verification and KYC-AML, we use Veriff which is fully integrated with ProofSpace; our users can use passports and other IDs to verify their identity. For fund transfers and automated referral reward distributions, we use Milkomeda, Cardano’s side chain, and Solidity/EVM for smart contracts. We use React for the frontend technology and Capacitor to deploy the app to App Store and Playstore. Our backend technology is Javascript, and we use a MySQL database on AWS. For Agile tools, we use GitHub and Notion. For design tools, we use Figma and Miro.

We believe that our approach is feasible as we have used these technologies and tools in the past, delivering successful projects including the five Catalyst projects in Fund 9.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

We have six milestones, including the final milestone, and we plan to complete the entire project within 12 months from the start.

For a summary of the milestones, please visit:

<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z3mQzGf8QFnegQ8-9fjO52AdXnCALaPpIo7mK9GXgxY/edit?usp=sharing>

Milestone 1

Title: Market and Technical Research

Outputs

Milestone 1 includes the following key activities:

• Conduct a literature review of the issue.
• Perform a market analysis.
• Conduct a competitor analysis.
• Conduct interviews with stakeholders and analyze them (recording dates and timestamps).
• Conduct research on technical aspects of the project.
• Develop a detailed plan of action for the project.
• Draft a technical and market research paper summarizing the findings above.

Acceptance criteria

The market and technical research paper is finalized and published on Notion. It is accessible for community review.

Evidence of Milestone completion

Community members can access the market and technical research paper to find the following content:

• Literature review
• Market analysis
• Competitor analysis
• Interviews with stakeholders and their analysis (including dates and timestamps)
• Technical aspects of the project
• Detailed action plans for the project

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 2

Cost

51,143 ADA ($14,320)

% Completion

15%

Milestone 2

Title: UI/UX Research

Outputs

Milestone 2 includes the following key activities:

1. Based on the market and research paper, brainstorm and Ideate
2. Create prototypes for user research
3. Conduct user research using the prototypes
4. Compile and analyse the findings
5. Iterate design and repeat Step 3 and 4.
6. Finalize the UI/UX design
7. Consult with the developers to decide on the technical architecture based on the design
8. Draft a UI/UX Research Paper

These steps will results in a finalized UI/UX Research Paper.

Acceptance criteria

The UI/UX Research Paper is finalized and published on Notion. It is accessible for community review.

Evidence of Milestone completion

Community members can access the UI/UX research paper.

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 4

Cost

60,286 ADA ($16,880)

% Completion

32%

Milestone 3

Title: UI/UX Design

Outputs

Milestone 3 includes the following key activities:

1. Complete the production-ready design in Figma.
2. Film a video walk-through of the design.

These steps will result in a finalized, production-ready UI/UX design in Figma, along with a video walk-through.

The Figma file will be published and made available for community review. Similarly, the video walk-through will be published on YouTube and made available to the community.

Acceptance criteria

The production-ready UI/UX design is finalized, published and is accessible to the community for review.

The finalized production-ready design will be handed over to the engineering team. “Production-ready” means that it doesn’t need more work from designers and is ready for the engineering team to turn the design into code.

The video walk-through will be published on YouTube and made available to the community.

Evidence of Milestone completion

The Figma files and the video walk-through are publicly available and community members are able to review them.

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 6

Cost

32,857 ADA ($9,200)

% Completion

42%

Milestone 4

Title: Backend and Blockchain Development

Outputs

Milestone 4 involves the following key activities:

• Sprint planning, which includes meetings with the Product Manager, designers, and developers. This includes writing tickets with specifications, assigning story points, and more.
• Backend development
• Blockchain development
• Unit testing
• Manual testing
• Bug fixes
• Deployment
• Documentation

These steps will allow us to develop the feature and make the GitHub repository (public) available to the community member.

Acceptance criteria

The community members can review the source code which will be available on GitHub (open source)

Evidence of Milestone completion

Community members can view the source code of the features on GitHub (open source)

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 8

Cost

55,714 ADA ($14,400)

% Completion

58%

Milestone 5

Title: Frontend Development

Outputs

Milestone 5 involves the following key activities:

• Sprint planning, which includes meetings with the Product Manager, designers, and developers. This includes writing tickets with specifications, assigning story points, and more.
• Frontend development
• Unit testing
• Integration testing
• Manual testing
• End-to-end testing
• Bug fixes
• Deployment
• Documentation
• Film a product demo video

These steps will allow us to deploy the "decentralized referral system" feature and produce a product demo video.

Acceptance criteria

Users can go through the “decentralized referral system” feature on the Socious app. They include the following functions:

• In order to receive referral rewards, users need to have Atala PRISM DID and verify their identity
• As a user, I can refer a hiring organization to Socious
• As a user, I can earn 2.5% of every invoice when my referred organization hires.
• As a user, I can refer a freelancer to Socious
• As a user, I can earn 2.5% of every invoice when my referred freelancer gets hired.

1. The source code will be available on GitHub (open source)
2. These features will be published and available for the community members to go through the flow on the Socious app.
3. We will film a walk-through of these functions and publish the video on Youtube so that community members can access it.

NB: The aforementioned functions are subject to change, depending on the result of research in this project.

Evidence of Milestone completion

1. Community members can view the source code of the features on GitHub (open source)
2. Community members can view the video walk-through of these functions on Youtube.

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 10

Cost

94,517 ADA ($26,480)

% Completion

85%

Final Milestone

Title: Marketing, user testing, data analysis and final report

Outputs

Final Milestone involves the following key activities:

• Marketing to a specific target audience
• Onboard users as beta testers
• Conduct user acceptance testing
• Analyze users’ feedback
• Bug fixes if necessary
• Draft a project close-out report
• Record a close-out video

These steps will produce two deliverables: a close-out report and a close-out video

Acceptance criteria

The following items are publicly available for the community to review.

• Project close-out report
• Project close-out video

Evidence of Milestone completion

Community members can access and review the project close-out report. The project close-out video is published on Youtube for the community to review.

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 12

Cost

51,143 ADA ($14,320)

% Completion

100%

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestone 1

Title: Market and Technical Research

Outputs and Deliverables

Milestone 1 includes the following outputs:

• Conduct a literature review of the issue.
• Perform a market analysis.
• Conduct a competitor analysis.
• Conduct interviews with stakeholders and analyze them (recording dates and timestamps).
• Conduct research on technical aspects of the project.
• Develop a detailed plan of action for the project.
• Draft a technical and market research paper summarizing the findings above.

At the end of these outputs, we deliver a technical and market research paper summarizing the findings above

Intended outcomes

The market and technical research paper is finalized and published on Notion. It is accessible for community review.

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached below.

Community members can access the market and technical research paper to find the following content:

• Literature review
• Market analysis
• Competitor analysis
• Interviews with stakeholders and their analysis (including dates and timestamps)
• Technical aspects of the project
• Detailed action plans for the project

Milestone 2

Title: UI/UX Research

Outputs and deliverables

Milestone 2 includes the following key activities:

1. Based on the market and research paper, brainstorm and Ideate
2. Create prototypes for user research
3. Conduct user research using the prototypes
4. Compile and analyse the findings
5. Iterate design and repeat Step 3 and 4.
6. Finalize the UI/UX design
7. Consult with the developers to decide on the technical architecture based on the design
8. Draft a UI/UX Research Paper

These steps will results in a finalized UI/UX Research Paper.

Intended outcomes

The UI/UX Research Paper is finalized and published on Notion. It is accessible for community review.

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

Community members can access the UI/UX research paper.

Milestone 3

Title: UI/UX Design

Outputs and deliverables

Milestone 3 includes the following key activities:

1. Complete the production-ready design in Figma.
2. Film a video walk-through of the design.

These steps will result in a finalized, production-ready UI/UX design in Figma, along with a video walk-through.

The Figma file will be published and made available for community review. Similarly, the video walk-through will be published on YouTube and made available to the community.

Intended outcomes

• The production-ready UI/UX design is finalized, published and is accessible to the community for review.
• The finalized production-ready design will be handed over to the engineering team. “Production-ready” means that it doesn’t need more work from designers and is ready for the engineering team to turn the design into code.
• The video walk-through will be published on YouTube and made available to the community.

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

The Figma files and the video walk-through are publicly available and community members are able to review them.

Milestone 4

Title: Backend and Blockchain Development

Outputs and deliverables

Milestone 4 involves the following key activities:

• Sprint planning, which includes meetings with the Product Manager, designers, and developers. This includes writing tickets with specifications, assigning story points, and more.
• Backend development
• Blockchain development
• Unit testing
• Manual testing
• Bug fixes
• Deployment
• Documentation

These steps will allow us to develop the feature and make the GitHub repository (public) available to the community member.

Intended outcomes

The community members can review the source code which will be available on GitHub (open source)

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

Community members can view the source code of the features on GitHub (open source)

Milestone 5

Title: Frontend Development

Outputs and deliverables

Milestone 5 involves the following key activities:

• Sprint planning, which includes meetings with the Product Manager, designers, and developers. This includes writing tickets with specifications, assigning story points, and more.
• Frontend development
• Unit testing
• Integration testing
• Manual testing
• End-to-end testing
• Bug fixes
• Deployment
• Documentation
• Film a product demo video

These steps will allow us to deploy the "decentralized referral system" feature and produce a product demo video.

Intended outcomes

Users can go through the “decentralized referral system” feature on the Socious app. They include the following functions:

• In order to receive referral rewards, users need to have Atala PRISM DID and verify their identity
• As a user, I can refer a hiring organization to Socious
• As a user, I can earn 2.5% of every invoice when my referred organization hires.
• As a user, I can refer a freelancer to Socious
• As a user, I can earn 2.5% of every invoice when my referred freelancer gets hired.

1. The source code will be available on GitHub (open source)
2. These features will be published and available for the community members to go through the flow on the Socious app.
3. We will film a walk-through of these functions and publish the video on Youtube so that community members can access it.

NB: The aforementioned functions are subject to change, depending on the result of research in this project.

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

1. Community members can view the source code of the features on GitHub (open source)
2. Community members can view the video walk-through of these functions on Youtube.

Final Milestone

Title: Marketing, user testing, data analysis and final report

Outputs and deliverables

Final Milestone involves the following key activities:

• Marketing to a specific target audience
• Onboard users as beta testers
• Conduct user acceptance testing
• Analyze of users’ feedback
• Bug fixes if necessary
• Draft a project close-out report
• Record a close-out video

These steps will produce two deliverables: a close-out report and a close-out video

Intended outcomes

The following items are publicly available for the community to review.

• Project close-out report
• Project close-out video

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

Community members can access and review the project close-out report. The project close-out video is published on Youtube for the community to review.

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Please find below a detailed breakdown of our budget, including the number of people and hours allocated to each task. We have calculated the cost at $40 per person per hour. The base conversion rate for USD-ADA is 0.28.*

Executive summary:

Total Cost: 345,714 ADA ($95,600)

Milestone 1: 51,143 ADA ($14,320)

Milestone 2: 60,286 ADA ($16,880)

Milestone 3: 32,857 ADA ($9,200)

Milestone 4: 55,714 ADA ($14,400)

Milestone 5: 94,571 ADA ($26,480)

Final Milestone: 51,143 ADA ($14,320)

Please find the details of the breakdown here:

<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z3mQzGf8QFnegQ8-9fjO52AdXnCALaPpIo7mK9GXgxY/edit?usp=sharing>

*We've adopted the USD-ADA conversion rate of $0.28 which is the rate at the time of the proposal submission deadline.

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Socious (https://socious.io) is a fast-growing impact startup that provides a talent marketplace, making impact work accessible and transparent. We connect purpose-driven professionals with impact organizations through AI matching. We use blockchain to trace impact work and reward contributions.

Socious is supported by 500Global, Microsoft, and Milkomeda Foundation. Our platform lists over 70k jobs, 23k organizations, and has 3.8k registered talents. Our team consists of experts in impact measurement, finance, data science, and blockchain development.

Socious has extensive experience in the Cardano ecosystem, having successfully completed five Catalyst-funded projects in Fund 9.

• Seira Yun

Title: Founder and CEO

Role: Product Ownership, Project Management, Research

Linkedin:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/seirayun/>

Bio: Seira Yun is the Founder and CEO of Socious.io, a talent marketplace that makes impact work accessible and transparent. Socious connects purpose-driven professionals with impact organizations through AI matching, and uses blockchain to trace impact work and reward contributions.

Seira is a serial impact entrepreneur with years of experience in the sector. He has led teams within the ICRC, UNHCR, and social ventures. Drawing from personal experiences as a migrant, an autistic person, and a proud pansexual queer, Seira is driven to make the world a better place through social innovation. As a full-stack developer with a Master's in Social Innovation from the University of Cambridge, he enjoys blending technology with purpose. Seira is also an impact angel investor, a member of Hustle Fund's Angel Squad, and a mentor for 4WARD.VC's Climate Accelerator. When not working, he enjoys shooting hoops, running, reading, spending quality time with the kids, or embracing the adventure of getting lost during travels. He is also a long-term member of the Cardano community; he’s won and managed five Catalyst projects and has participated in Atala PRISM Pioneer Program.

• Minh Douangprachanh

Title: Lead Designer

Role: Design

LinkedIn:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/michel-douang/>

Bio: With more than a decade of experience specializing in product design, Minh is a multidisciplinary artist who has always believed art has a language of its own. As a neurodiverse individual, Minh is passionate about helping people and creating sustainable and inclusive solutions.

• Ehsan Mahmoudi

Title: Senior Backend Engineer

Role: Backend/Blockchain/AI Engineering

LinkedIn:

<https://linkedin.com/in/ehsan-mahmoudi-611123b8/>

Bio: More than 8 years of experience in Python and Machine Learning as well as extensive experience in blockchain development. Ehsan has worked for global startups including Rechat, AEC, and Navaak.

• Sajad Abbasi

Title: Senior Frontend Developer

Role: Frontend Development

LinkedIn:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/sajad-abbasi-39485696/>

Bio: An experienced frontend developer with 10+ years of experience.

• Sanaz Mahmoudi

Title: Frontend Developer

Role: Frontend Development

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanaz-mahmoudi/

Bio: An experienced frontend developer with 4+ years of experience.

• Azin Zare

Title: QA Engineer

Role: Quality Assurance

LinkedIn:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/azin-zare-355a27179/>

Bio: An experienced QA engineer with 9+ years of experience.

• Madi Lommen

Title: Partnerships Lead

Role: Project Management, Research

LinkedIn:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/madi-lommen-394940b0/>

Bio: Madi has 10+ years experience in social entrepreneurship, impact investing, and partnership building. Madi is passionate about interdisciplinary learning / problem-solving that leverages entrepreneurship and multilingual teamwork for community development. In recent years, she founded Madibanani Co. to champion refugee youth, designed a data collection program on the Jordan-Syrian border, and coordinated military-like training for Emergency & Disaster volunteers of La Cruz Roja (Red Cross) in Ecuador. After completing a thesis on medieval Arabic poetry at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, she worked with a network of angel investors scaling women-led SMEs tackling poverty in Southeast Asia. She has experience working in four languages (English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese) and has lived in Singapore, Jordan, Ecuador, the UK, South Africa, the USA, and Japan.

• Raphael Hode

Title: Design Advisor

Role Design Direction

LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelhode/>

Bio: Raphael is a Strategic Designer with a passion for social innovation and sustainability. After a few years in advertising agencies in Paris, Raphael moved to Tokyo in 2015 and joined Designit, a global strategic design firm. At Designit Raphael worked on growing a team and helping some of Japan’s most ambitious companies make innovation happen, leading him to endorse a variety of roles across UX design, service design, business design, and strategy.

In parallel, he has been passionately engaging in activities related to sustainability and social innovation: giving talks and workshops, mentoring early-stage social founders, and eventually co-founding a social venture. Today, he spends most of his time working with incredible social entrepreneurs to help them define, design, and launch visionary products that contribute to creating a more sustainable society.

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The proposed project holds immense potential to further the Cardano ecosystem, and while there are significant costs involved, they are justified in their allocation, and as such, represent excellent value for money.

To start, the impact of our Socious initiative is already apparent, with 3,800 individuals already introduced to the Cardano ecosystem. The current project not only aims to maintain this trend but to accelerate it further. This will help to expand the user base and, consequently, the value of the Cardano network, providing a high return on investment.

Addressing the labor costs, we have optimized our budget based on industry standards and geographical considerations. According to ZipRecruiter data, the average salaries for product designers, developers, and product managers are $72, $68, and $65 per hour, respectively. However, we have managed to budget the hourly salaries at a more cost-effective rate of $40, without compromising the quality of the work or expertise of the individuals involved.

This is made possible by leveraging our network of professionals who are both passionate about our mission and have agreed to work at rates that allow us to provide value to the Cardano ecosystem. As a result, our operational costs are significantly reduced while maintaining the necessary high standards of quality and professionalism.

Furthermore, the project budget was not created in isolation. It was meticulously crafted based on our extensive experience with similar projects in the past. This has given us a clear understanding of the human resources and hours necessary to successfully implement this project, resulting in a reliable, accurate budget.

For a comprehensive breakdown of the project costs, please refer to the following document: <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z3mQzGf8QFnegQ8-9fjO52AdXnCALaPpIo7mK9GXgxY/edit?usp=sharing>

In conclusion, every dollar spent on this project is a targeted investment towards expanding the Cardano ecosystem, enhancing the utility of Cardano, and providing exceptional value for all stakeholders.