Commitly protocol

Problem Context

Today, working with each other requires a mean to exchange value, currently represented mostly by fiat or crypto currencies. Their circulation within the economy is subject to strict regulations and tax, but overall administrative overhead to constitute a registered organization. This hinders the bloom of local initiatives (even for non-profit volunteering) to better manage the economy at a human scale with individuals or organisations possessing low or no regular income and limited capital.

Moreover, globally exchangeable currencies carry the drawback of allowing the leakage of capital or value created locally towards centralized institutions (waiting for redistribution) or offshore companies (looking for the less regulated markets or cheapest manpower sources), and in certain cases their “freedom” of flow abroad to territories or financial institutions with very weak due diligence allows corruption and criminal activities to thrive.

Mission

By leveraging the features of local currencies, Commitly sets on a long term mission to provide a decentralized platform for individuals, willing to work with each other in fair and ethic terms, to create service exchange communities regulated by collective vote and open to adhoc and experimental policies to manage a human scale micro economy (150 members max), where the currency used for value transfer is protected by strict boundaries and benefits form the light administrative and tax framework of local currencies.

As an endgame, we want :

• For people to gain insights about the power of currency creation and get familiar with micro economy management and participative budget concepts, in a real context yet with gamified dynamics.
• Diverse communities to be created and experiment with different currency / service / marketplace policies adapted to their own needs, so they can fully develop collective intelligence / talents / inherent value and have social / financial recognition for potential investors or public subsidies programs for infrastructure and major community supported projects.
• Develop a network of complimentary communities interacting on equal terms regarding financial power and compatible administrative policies, thus creating actual synergies where capital (value) flows in a constructive manner without compromising either locally generated value or social stability.
• Finally, gaining knowledge about different strategies to organize people and communities with either mutual or differing interests and promote best practices for a healthy global yet fully anchored (to cultural roots and values) economy, thus drafting the future of possible resilient and sustainable human economies from the micro level (bottom up economy emergence).

Inspiration

Different successful experiences of local currencies used for different communitary purposes :

• Reach social development in full autonomy : Conjunto Palmeiras in Fortaleza, Brazil, raised from poverty and government neglect by using the Palmas Community Bank, recognized by Brazil central bank after 20 years of proven capability to be operated by the local citizens to become a Solidarity Fintech. https://www.localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/planet-local/local-business-finance/banco-palmas/
• Global settlements among biggest commodity trading companies : even though major trading companies sign trading contracts for goos all over the world, most of the money flow happens in local territory or cross-border, so a common local currency is adopted to avoid movilizing internal tresor liquidity and be safe from fiat market volatility and geopolitical phenomena. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/econographics/understanding-the-growing-use-of-local-currencies-in-cross-border-payments/
• Complimentary / collaborative business ecosystems : Companies willing to strenghten collaboration while protecting the local economy have implemented a modern way of bartering by paying employees with local digital currencies accepted only by the ecosystem partners but covering most of their daily needs : accomodation, restauration, transportation, local goods, etc. https://bartercard.com.au/

Besides, recent studies show that even though volunteering, as traditionally known (through an established organization), has decreased during / after Covid; however, people (specially young generations) are still willing to find fulfillment though civic service, as long as there are certain conditions are met:

• Flexibility to engage for short term or one time only participation
• Reduce administrative overhead and management / budget inefficiency within organizations
• Ability to see directly (or locally) the impact of their action, knowing that they are benefiting a tangible cause
• Motivation by acting together with members of their close circle / loved ones https://recherches-solidarites.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/LFB-etude-24-05-2022.pdf

Competitor solutions

In the market of DAOs for social collaboration through services or volunteering, apart from specific communities not expeorting their solution as a protocol, we have identified Popola dApp on Near blockchain as potential competitor with a slightly different vision (not local currency oriented)

This could be an interesting challenge to compare the difference in evolution and generated value protection of communities using both philosophies, local currency and global crypto currency subjected to speculation on 3rd party DeFI exchanges.

Web3’s role

As a way to control and ensure trust on value transfer through service exchanges, Web3 shows as an ideal technology for the construction of this platform :

• Primarily for the creation and distribution of a community dependent token currency (valid for transfer only through a Service management Smart contract on the possession of a soul bound token proving membership to a community)
• Secondly, to ensure not only data / value ownership and privacy, but accountability of members as well. Indeed, in order for this platform not to turn into a tool for black market services / out of law activities, we require the transparency and full record of exchanges among members recognised (in a descentralized way) as real / known humans.
• In general, Web3 ecosystems ensure that members can interact through third party services (social media, metaverse) with fair access and no risk of censorship, and important factor for the success of autonomous organisations participating in collective decisions about service acceptance and equal rights to impact management
• Finally, since aggregated transaction data will be the main source of reputation / recognition of communities on third party investment / trade markets, having proper data replication and platform resilience against infrastructure failures or end of creator’s support will be key for the sustainability of business model and global access of this protocol.

End user Product

Commitly presents as a mobile / web application :

• linked to smart contracts responsible for community / members registration, currency management and service requests / delivery dynamics,
• A transaction data indexer to aggregate and present / publish pertinent KPIs about each community
• and third party services for Decentralized ID check, voting protocols (for service acceptance / community projects support), content (NFT) acquisition for exchange on marketplaces or the metaverse (social dynamics) and community valuation by decentralized curators

What it does

Provide a seamless way to join a community by sharing common interests / pain points and manage a local / free currency to reward members taking action or fulfilling a service in a gamified experience.

Temporary members can explore and suggest services / pain points on a map or by discovering near located community suggested services (Tinder like profile swiping) according to their privacy / filtering choices

Either by regular voting or funding, Certified member's (through third party DID/KYC) can participate on defining global services for the community and the rewarding policy / contract rules, as well as the amount (and the subjective value) of the local currency.

The idea is to favor local service and product providers in order to strengthen the communities resiliency against monetary crisis / globalization threats, or even environmental hazards. At the same time, administrative overhead for projects that can be self managed with local manpower and businesses is reduced, all while preserving real liquidity / treasury for projects requiring external trade.

Community tokens can only be traded between members through a service request, in order to maintain stability of emerging economic models until maturity (even though there's no real trade value, the value of the community is made by the increasing transactions and synergies generated). NFTs on the other hand are linked to the user's main account to serve as a reputation / membership proof or for use / trade as rewards on other decentralized applications (like social media, videogames or metaverse partners with Commitly) in a permission-less way.

Besides, by using analytics, we leverage the value of every DAO's transactional data to provide credibility on the community's capacity to handle its own economy and to use the full potential of their own members skills and local businesses value, so they can be granted external funding (in FIAT or tradable crypto), by government officials or private investors, to build more ambitious infrastructure projects.

Furthermore, in the case of communities built at a city / county level, thanks to insights on global members participation / self funding dynamics, government officials can better assess the strengths and opportunities as well as the pain points of their citizens, and in consequence redirect public budget in a more strategic manner.

New communities can just deploy the DAO + LocalCurrency contract on a new canister and experiment token prices / minting amounts in a safe environment, before eventually deciding to support more ambitious community projects (through participative budget) or making trading agreements with other communities with a dedicated token for this interaction or NFT exchange.

The main features for prototype / final version :

• Explore communities and requests or apply as candidate to services (open to unverified members)
• Become a verified / registered member, which open the possibility to create a community, submit a new service / project for community acceptance, vote for or fund services

Features in v1 :

• Consult the community stats, purpose and policies (future Data Market for investors and market analysts)
• Capability to request funding from 3rd party investors or public institutions to support collective initiatives
• Extended community management tools and community / service templates for users intending to focus on specific community types (volunteering associations, loyalty programs by local stores, co-property or collectivity members)

Features in v2:

• Interact with members through third party socials or metaverse who have allowed this option and buy / give as rewards (as utilitary NFT) to use on these external platforms to create social dynamics (Content Market)
• Bridge with existing communities who have reach certain maturity goals (according to the data market score / KPI) by using an intermediate local currency or way to exchange services and value without incurring extra legislation compliance
• Extended management tools and pre existing content for professional organizations

Features in V3 :

• Advanced accountability system to comply with legal / tax frameworks
• IA powered tool to detect synergies among communities and suggest bridging candidates
• Protocol to export Best practices and business rules as code, so we can foresee the export of community models
• Plug with crypto market for communities with proved maturity and healthy synergies who would like to use their reputation / stability as market driver for an external crypto currency / portfolio that could help them become financially autonomous.

Competitor solutions

In the market of DAOs for social collaboration through services or volunteering, apart from specific communities not expeorting their solution as a protocol, we have identified Popola dApp on Near blockchain as potential competitor with a slightly different vision (not local currency oriented)

This could be an interesting challenge to compare the difference in evolution and generated value protection of communities using both philosophies, local currency and global crypto currency subjected to speculation on 3rd party DeFI exchanges.

Distribution channels

For our first communities test, we have identified Madeira Friends and Digital Nomads association supported by Madeira Startup as suited candidate for implementing the pilot protocol for volunteering and member rewards management.

Indeed, since a local currency has no value, volunteering with optional rewards for Digital Nomads providing value by commiting with local communities is a good way to practice before going to real services