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[PRE-PROPOSAL]: Dash 'Kuva' project - launching Dash in Zimbabwe

Would you vote for this proposal (MNO's only please)


  • Total voters
    14

Max Yoga

Member
Introduction and Proposal Owner
I'd like to take some time to introduce myself, our team and our project.

I am Andreiko ('Drako') Kerdemelidis and have been involved with crypto for over 5 years now starting with Bitcoin before moving into the altcoin ecosystem. More recently I have been involved with Dash. I feel that the Dash DAO is unique in the world of cryptocurrencies and aim to help bring the benefits of Dash to as many people as possible.
To this end, me and my colleagues James Saruchera and Steve August (Bio's below) have been working on developing a service to launch Dash in Zimbabwe, where there is presently a cash crisis and a current demand for alternative means to store value and make payments. This service will be called "Kuvacash".

We would love to know your feedback on our pre-proposal prior to posting it as a full proposal. We will also be running a webinar (provisional date is 23rd September 2017) to give MNO stakeholders and interested people an overview of the work we have done so far. This includes full financials, operating model, in-country insight (qualitative interviews in Harare) and our broader vision for Kuvacash to land Dash in an economy that desperately needs a new, secure and fair way for people and businesses to pay and get paid.

We feel that the time is right to launch this service; Dash is the only cryptocurrency that can be used to make day-to-day instant payments for individuals and businesses and we have a team that can make this happen. By providing the right infrastructure and an easy-to-use app/wallet locally in Harare and wider Zimbabwe, it is possible to land Dash as a true alternative to physical fiat payments.

Our bio's are below, together with links to our Linkedin profiles.

Summary and Goal

This project proposes to launch a Dash-based cryptocurrency service in Zimbabwe, to allow individuals and businesses an easier way to trade while addressing the current cash crisis in Zimbabwe. Following this, we intend to expand Kuvacash to the wider African continent as an inexpensive and convenient digital-cash service for day-to-day trading and payments.

Background
The current cash crisis in Zimbabwe has proven to be difficult to resolve. Ballooning inflation has led to a collapse of the national currency, forcing the government to issue USD tethered bonds as a stopgap measure:
https://www.economist.com/news/midd...es-and-insists-they-are-worth-much-us-dollars

Although the formal economy is worth $4 Billion USD, there is $7 Billion USD in cash currently circulating in the informal economy. Currently, relatively expensive centralised mobile payments comprise more than 82% of all transactions in Zimbabwe. The remainder of trade and payments are made in cash (USD). Because the cash circulates without being replaced, it drives a lucrative trade in providing fresh/cleaned banknotes for a premium of between 10-20%.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co/2017/05/root-causes-fiscal-monetary-crisis-zimbabwe/ https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/06/20/cash-crisis-continue/ https://www.dailynews.co.zw/articles/2017/04/21/cash-crisis-a-nightmare-zimra http://ewn.co.za/2017/04/18/zimbabwe-marks-37-years-of-independence http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-38130-Cash+crisis+continues+to+cripple+Zimbabwe/news.aspx

We believe Dash is a perfect alternative for making payments in Zimbabwe. Kuvacash aims to provide a digital payment platform (Dash to Dash) and facilitates payments both in and out of USD fiat. It has the potential to be an extremely popular service for both the Zimbabwean public as well as local businesses. The people of Zimbabwe have seen their savings dwindle during several cycles of ultra-inflation, and will benefit hugely by the security in owning a cryptocurrency that is tradable internationally, with trust-less issuance and supply rules. Dash is also the only cryptocurrency that allows instant transactions, which is necessary for rapid day-to-day trading.

To facilitate mainstream adoption, we will provide both ATM Services and a network of Service Agents to securely facilitate transactions in and out of Dash and into USD. We will demonstrate this model in the proposal webinar (date TBD following full proposal posting).

Kuvacash Team
The team leading this project has experience in software development and technical operations, trade development, regulated currency exchanges and international payments solutions, consumer insight, branding, and business strategy.

James Saruchera – Managing Director
A creative change expert with more than 10 years’ experience in marketing and digital transformation. James is a National Arts Merit Award nominee and holder of two patents with hands-on experience across three continents building world-class challenger brands from the ground up in extremely competitive sectors. He uses the benefits of technology to compete with larger competitors and has developed brands such as: Diageo, Budweiser, 3M, Topshop, Accenture and more.

Andreiko Kerdemelidis – Finance and Technology Director
Andreiko (Drako) is a New Zealand-born digital entrepreneur who connects insight, technology and business strategy to build optimal brand, product and service experiences for people.

Drako has an engineering background and has built B2B currency exchanges (www.currencycart.com, www.regentfx.com), online consumer insight businesses (www.visionslive.com, www.teragence.com ), that service top-tier insight brands (GfK, IPSOS, YouGov, Havas). Drako is actively developing strategies and technologies for major blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, with a focus on the field of instant payments, exchange propositions, and smart contracts.

His work spans across several industries such as Banking and Finance (Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Currencycart.com/Regent Foreign Exchange), Telecommunications (Teragence Ltd) and Consumer Insight (Visionslive Ltd).

Steve August – Executive Advisory
Steve is a serial entrepreneur, creative technologist and founders’ coach. From 2006 until 2014, he was Founder and CEO of Revelation, a market research software company that he took from idea stage to a multi-million dollar exit. He has taken a lap around the C-Suite and boardrooms in private equity backed companies, serving as CEO, CMO and Chief Innovation Officer. Over the course of is career his companies have served a myriad of world class clients including Facebook, Twitter, Proctor & Gamble, Pfizer, Phillips and many others.You can find his writings on Medium and LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Bios are included below:

www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-saruchera-7590912 (James)

www.linkedin.com/in/onlineresearch (Andreiko)

www.linkedin.com/in/steve-august (Steve)


Project Details
This project will be implemented across several stages to minimise risks to the funding derived from the network and other investment partners.

Regulatory environment
Zimbabwe has strict financial regulation in place for all forms of currency services, including mobile payments and money transmission. The key to the success of Kuvacash is to align with these regulations. We are engaged with the regulator to operate as an Authorised Dealer with Limited Authority (ADLA) for the purpose of making money remittances on a peer-to-peer basis, including fiat (USD) cash-out. Collateral must be posted with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe of between $50,000.00 USD (Tier 1, early phase) and $100,000.00 USD (Tier 2, full launch) in order to commence operations.

Business Structure
A holding company based in Delaware, United States, will hold and license intellectual property. A Swiss-based operations company will run technical and exchange operations and license this accordingly to the Kuvacash-regulated entity based in Zimbabwe. The IP holding and licensing company providing technical services will be 100% owned by both James and Andreiko together with additional investors that may be brought on board. This provisional business structure and jurisdiction is subject to more detailed legal advice and ongoing discussions with the regulator.

Technology
To allow for rapid adoption and ease of use for the Zimbabwean market, we will develop a cryptocurrency wallet (based on Copay wallet for Android) that allows peer-to-peer transfers using cryptocurrency network methodologies. We will also provide for payments to be made directly via phone-number-based messaging. It will allow Dash to be bought with cash, and cash to be booked and withdrawn from our ATM infrastructure - a critical factor to drive adoption of the cryptocurrency in the market. Our app will allow users to invite others to download the App and get paid as part of our member-get-member strategy. We have been in discussions with a major ATM supplier and identified cash-in-transit and storage suppliers. We have developed a cash replenishment model, including an automated cryptocurrency exchange float management method.

These technologies will be fully implemented in the course of the project according to the stages indicated in the Kuvacash business summary document (this will be posted following full proposal submission).

Smartphone penetration
Currently, most people in Zimbabwe (94.8%[1]) have a mobile phone, 43% of which are smartphones[2]. Internet penetration is at 40%. An increasing number of users are able to use Apps in order to make payments if such a service was available. As a part of this proposal we are developing an application (App) based on a customised build of a ‘Copay’ code-base Android Dash wallet to allow for simple phone-number based currency transactions, similar to what the local market is accustomed to.

Marketing and local adoption
The executive team has deep experience across finance, consumer insight, analytics and marketing. The Kuvacash team has already implemented in-field insight in Harare, covering both agents and customers. This insight shows there is affinity with a new and economical mobile-payments system, based on a ‘safe’ cryptocurrency (which is not subject to interference from a third party, and can be used to store and transfer value). The average payment values and frequencies are known, as well as the reasons for making mobile payments. A unique member-get-member strategy has also been developed, which we believe can drive very rapid adoption while allowing us to control and manage growth.

Financing
The full project launch schedule runs for 7 to 8 months, and costs $550,000.00 USD (excluding collateral payments and full cash float required to start operations which we estimate to be $200,000.00 USD at this stage). Network funding is critical, since given the risks, institutional private investment for such a project is very difficult to obtain. Although there may be further network funding and potentially private investment to cover additional or unforeseen costs, we are aiming to become cash-flow-positive as soon as is possible.

Stage Planning
To adequately control risks and track milestones, a 5-point stage plan has been developed spanning;

1. Initial development of the business structure, legal framework and regulatory operating environment

2. Software and technical operations development phase

3. Operations implementation and controlled launch

4. Full launch and initial scaling

5. Scaling phase (local expansion and planning/pilot of new regions/countries)

Communications
We believe in full transparency. Given the nature of the Kuvacash project this is key to maintaining ongoing support from the network and wider stakeholders. Prior to the full proposal passing, we will hold a web conference for interested parties and will endeavour to answer any questions you may have. We will hold a quarterly briefing via web conference that anyone can request to join, and other briefings at stage-gate milestones.

Benefits to the Dash DAO and network
If Kuvacash can bring mainstream local adoption of Dash cryptocurrency to the Zimbabwe economy, this would be a world first and would bring considerable media coverage and interest to the cryptocurrency. Dash would see its footprint widened in terms of users, and increase its circulation and transaction volumes.

Our Vision

Our current focus is on providing a rigorous approach and solution to the Zimbabwean cash crisis; we aim to build a highly scalable peer-to-peer payments system that provides opportunity for unbanked populations to more easily participate in the economy. We want to prove that a Dash-based cryptocurrency platform can be established, to learn from the experience and use this as a launch pad into as much of the African continent as possible.

Funding Schedule
550K USD = 1692 Dash @325 USD/Dash + 5 Dash proposal fee
TOTAL 1697 Dash

Treasury payments over 3 months;
Month 1 : 565.67 Dash
Month 2 : 565.67 Dash
Month 3 : 565.67 Dash

Feedback for full proposal
Please let us know what you think of our pre-proposal, so that we can consider any necessary adjustments prior to posting as a full proposal, also if you have any questions in the meantime we'll be more than happy to address these here and in our webinar (Pending us posting as full proposal)

Thank you for your time and we hope you will help us to move forward with this exciting project!

---------------------------------
James - Drako - Steve


[1] http://www.technomag.co.zw/2017/03/08/mobile-penetration-94-8percent-2016/

[2] http://www.technomag.co.zw/2014/07/16/zimbabwe-mobile-penetration-full-report-now-at-106-4/
 
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Sounds interesting enough... But w/ those numbers you should be working w/ a project manager / escrow services from the Core Team... 2cents.
 
Hi Joe, thanks for the first comment! We're splitting up the funding over three months to allow some de-risk to the network. To that effect we will be reporting our progress on a monthly basis and at major milestones as we do expect to be working for our funding and providing full transparency to stakeholders. I have discussed the option of escrow earlier this year with Ryan, our team and investors decided direct funding was more appropriate for us for at this initial stage, but I am happy to discuss this further. We didn't discuss having a core project manager, from what I gather Core Team are very busy with Evo, but we do have our own PM on our side as this is a complex project.
 
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Couple questions & comments I'd have:

Has hardware been selected / investigated for placement of fiat/cash distribution?
Is this going to need security people &/or offices on the ground to distribute cash to machines or collect cash from "depositers" (dash buyers)? If so, can agreements be made w/ local institutions?
Does the 7-8 month "launch" timeline include hardware production &/or deployment?

I like that you're (presumably) building on what we're doing with the Dash Copay Wallet! We're currently analyzing the long-term support plan for that Application, and it may be worthwhile to discuss future costs associated with the maintenance of that Codebase should Dash migrate away as Evolution more fully develops.
 
Couple questions & comments I'd have:

Has hardware been selected / investigated for placement of fiat/cash distribution?
Is this going to need security people &/or offices on the ground to distribute cash to machines or collect cash from "depositers" (dash buyers)? If so, can agreements be made w/ local institutions?
Does the 7-8 month "launch" timeline include hardware production &/or deployment?

I like that you're (presumably) building on what we're doing with the Dash Copay Wallet! We're currently analyzing the long-term support plan for that Application, and it may be worthwhile to discuss future costs associated with the maintenance of that Codebase should Dash migrate away as Evolution more fully develops.
Thanks for the questions Chuck, with regards to hardware we have discussed requirements and have costs from a major ATM vendor for suitable hardware for this project. We will develop our own float management software and have a model for cash replenishment as well, which we will present at the webinar. We also have costs for cash-in-transit and secure truck rolls to ATM's and agents in Harare. The launch timeline includes our software development and operations setup, we will cover all this in the webinar as well.
The Kuva app is based on Copay so it would be good to discuss maintenance costs, we do understand that on the roadmap there will be migrations and updates so let's have a session to talk about this, especially if you guys are developing a clear view of the roadmap to Evolution.
 
Hey Bro

I apologise for taking 2 days to respond. Life.

I can give you a few suggestions. I hope that you take no offense; I mean everything constructively.
1) Your team sounds excellent, and your pre-proposal is really well written.
2) The proposal won't be approved (not in the current form) in my opinion. But that will be debated on the forums before you edit and submit; so that's all good.
3) Start blogging about your activities on Dash Africa.:) Why not get free publicity? We'd appreciate it too!

Peace&Love
 
Hey Bro

I apologise for taking 2 days to respond. Life.

I can give you a few suggestions. I hope that you take no offense; I mean everything constructively.
1) Your team sounds excellent, and your pre-proposal is really well written.
2) The proposal won't be approved (not in the current form) in my opinion. But that will be debated on the forums before you edit and submit; so that's all good.
3) Start blogging about your activities on Dash Africa.:) Why not get free publicity? We'd appreciate it too!

Peace&Love
Hi DashingDude,
Thanks for the support, very much appreciated and I agree we're here to discuss what we need to do to get this proposal funded. We feel it's a huge opportunity for us to land Dash in Zimbabwe as a local currency and make history so I hope you will support us! Answers to your queries below:

1. Thank you, it's taken us a long time to get all the insight together for the proposal, looks like we have a few positive votes already and I hope we can get this project underway!
2. Could you please elaborate more specifically on what you think needs to be changed with the form of the proposal? We do have a very comprehensive plan that we are presenting at the webinar when we post the final proposal next week, this may answer some/all of your concerns. I am also keen to know what to change on the proposal document if necessary, so please don't hold back on feedback!
3. I note that you are involved with Bitcoinfundi in Zimbabwe, which provides an alternative exchange service for crypto. Please understand that we're not competing with this, we are adding a new way for people to trade with Dash in Harare and wider Zimbabwe as a launchpad to the rest of the African continent. When we get on the ground, I think we could discuss some synergies between what we are both doing. I would be very happy to write up an article on Dash Africa, so I'll PM you and we can arrange to speak!

Cheers,
Drako
 
Sorry again for the delay @Max Yoga

I've been SO busy! I'll PM you.

I support the idea of introducing Dash to Zimbabwe. But you are asking for quite a lot of money, without guarantee that your project will succeed. Dash community prefers a milestone-approach (similar to your proposal) but the people will want to see evidence of progress. So you'd be more likely to succeed if you were able to start smaller, prove your concept, and then later expand.

Looking forward to the webinar!

No problems with Bitcoinfundi :)
 
Sorry again for the delay @Max Yoga

I've been SO busy! I'll PM you.

I support the idea of introducing Dash to Zimbabwe. But you are asking for quite a lot of money, without guarantee that your project will succeed. Dash community prefers a milestone-approach (similar to your proposal) but the people will want to see evidence of progress. So you'd be more likely to succeed if you were able to start smaller, prove your concept, and then later expand.

Looking forward to the webinar!

No problems with Bitcoinfundi :)
Hi DashingDude,
Yes, but as per proposal, we do have a milestone approach and multi-month funding. Some major proposals, like this one, will necessarily be more complex and multi-staged and therefore will also have higher cost. We have already spent funds of or own to get to Zimbabwe and run our research on the ground, developed the operating models and now need to move onto activities that will involve spending some larger amounts across a staged process.
We also mention in the proposal we will have full transparency, in fact far more than we have seen with other projects (see bottom of proposal under 'Communications') as we are also sometimes frustrated by lack of reporting for some of these other projects on Treasury and so are making sure that we have this covered. If you mean that you would be happier to see this go through Core escrow please say so as we're also fine with considering that, but no mention above?
Consider that our reputations are on the line here, - we are not an anonymous group but professionals with a well planned approach that are trying to really land this project and make a difference, as I hope you'll see. Once again thanks for the comments and hope you support our proposal!

Cheers,
Drako
 
This is a great project. I will vote yes if I could. I can't wait to see that beautiful country Zimbabwe free from its web of financial struggles. This project is needed and I say Kudos to you and your team. I wish you good luck
 
Sorry again for the delay @Max Yoga

I've been SO busy! I'll PM you.

I support the idea of introducing Dash to Zimbabwe. But you are asking for quite a lot of money, without guarantee that your project will succeed. Dash community prefers a milestone-approach (similar to your proposal) but the people will want to see evidence of progress. So you'd be more likely to succeed if you were able to start smaller, prove your concept, and then later expand.

Looking forward to the webinar!

No problems with Bitcoinfundi :)
Good observation,
 
This is a great project. I will vote yes if I could. I can't wait to see that beautiful country Zimbabwe free from its web of financial struggles. This project is needed and I say Kudos to you and your team. I wish you good luck
Thanks Mahamadu, really appreciate your support and please do spread the word!
 
I just watched the interview with Tao. OK, this is not a cheap proposal but Drako comes over very well, the project looks credible and if successful it would be massive for Dash. I am inclined to say yes.
 
I too watched the video... and would have to wait for the webinar.... I'm seeing some thing I like (the market) but somethings I don't (proposal track record) and for 500k... There should be something... I'm inclined to say no... We shouldn't be fragmenting the Dash Brand, buy building interfaces on top w/ the Kuvacash wallet... Dash is universal digital cash and that should be good enough... I'm also, concerned the team isn't technically seasoned enough to pull this off... Support from the core is rightly focused on Evo... I like the idea of the SMS layer on top of the wallet, if it was Dash Branded, but other than that I'm meh. my2cents.
 
Hi Drako,

Thanks for your hard work and vision on this proposal.

I enjoyed your interview with Tao and it was shocking to hear about literally cleaning "dirty" money. Wow.
Too bad American dollar bills aren't made of plastic like the ones we have in Canada!

Anyway, as mentioned, I'd like to see milestone-based payments in escrow with Core.
Also, if you aren't prepared to offer an equity stake and since Dash is paying for the vast amount of the research and hardware, I'd like for your technology and app to be open-sourced and shared with Core.
This way, if for some reason it doesn't work in Zim, or something happens to this venture, we will have something to show for it.

With that, I will vote yes. If not, I will abstain.
 
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I too watched the video... and would have to wait for the webinar.... I'm seeing some thing I like (the market) but somethings I don't (proposal track record) and for 500k... There should be something... I'm inclined to say no... We shouldn't be fragmenting the Dash Brand, buy building interfaces on top w/ the Kuvacash wallet... Dash is universal digital cash and that should be good enough... I'm also, concerned the team isn't technically seasoned enough to pull this off... Support from the core is rightly focused on Evo... I like the idea of the SMS layer on top of the wallet, if it was Dash Branded, but other than that I'm meh. my2cents.
Hi Joezippy, thanks for the comments - I have to say regarding the technicals, both Steve and myself have delivered very complex software projects. I have specific experience in the domain of regulated deliverable currency exchanges as well, which still operate. We have posted our LinkedIn bios so please do take a look at our experience and recommendations and see what you think, but we are certainly qualified to deliver projects like this from both technical and strategy viewpoint.
It is important to note that what we are doing here is designing the wallet to be appropriate for the local market, to that effect it needs to operate within a regulatory framework, include compliance reporting as well as let people cash in and out from Dash. We need to ensure users can always get cash out and so we have the need for a float management and cash replenishment model with ATM infrastructure to ensure this is the case. We also do need people to send via phone numbers, as this is what they are used to. To this effect, we need to build a custom wallet and some back-end modules to support this functionality, or we would not be able to operate at all in this market. As a fallback measure, should anything happen to Kuvacash we will ensure users can send Dash directly to any other Dash wallet regardless of whether our extended infrastructure is operating or not. The long term strategy of Evolution is precisely to allow partners like us to use the dAPI in order to develop solutions that have a market fit and which require specific services for users and local regulatory compliance. I hope this answers your questions!
 
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