BORA: Empower Tomorrow's Leaders

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Bora’s vision is to fund the education of future leaders through community driven DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) funded through the value in cyberspace. Bora will bring financial inclusion, accessibility, and sustainability to students all over the world.

We have our Product Version 0.1 (MVP) ready and we are starting to sign up users for the MVP platform. Below is a description of our product version at full capabilities. The MVP will address the core functions of the end product: Onboard Users, Receive loan applications (proposals), community reviews and votes to fund applications, disburse funds and track loan paybacks.

Bora will operate similar to Cardano’s Project Catalyst. “Catalyst is bringing on-chain governance to the Cardano blockchain by allowing the community to self-determine priorities for growth. It also lets participants deploy funding to proposals which tackle challenges and capitalize on opportunities that arise in the life cycle of Cardano.” Bora will draw inspiration from the Project Catalyst model by using Proposers, Voters and Community Advisors to operate and manage the Bora Protocol.

The Bora DAO will have three tokens that will be used for rewards, governance and transparency: $BORA, vBORA and sBORA. $BORA will be used to reward users for investing and performing different operations on the network. vBORA will be used for voting and governance. sBORA will be used to bring transparency and quality assurance to the Bora protocol.

Lastly, Bora will incorporate DIDs (Decentralized Identifiers) also knows as a Decentralized Digital Identity to function as KYC (Know your customer). All the students that use the Bora protocol have to complete a detailed KYC (Know Your Customer), consisting of various background checks, and reference letters from members of Bora or an recognized partner institute.

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BORA inspired by the Project Catalyst Structure

Bora is building the Project Catalyst for student loans. Project Catalyst has empowered the Cardano community to Seed fund projects in order to grow the whole Cardano ecosystem. Bora will have a similar structure to Project Catalyst. Bora will empower our community to select the students and projects that will be funded. The Bora community will consist of Proposers (Students requiring funding), Voters and Community Advisors.

Proposers

A proposer is someone who submits a proposal (request for student loan, request to fund thesis project) to the Bora protocol to be funded by the treasury. The proposal presents the need for the loan with a detailed presentation of the problem faced. Proposers are the students in need, the people that require funding to reach their educational aspirations. The proposal is the way to communicate the request for a student loan to the Bora community. Furthermore, the proposal will connect members of the community with each other.

Voters

A voter holds vBORA and actively participates in the governance of the Bora protocol (DAO). Voters are the ultimate deciders of the direction of the protocol and which proposals obtain funding. Voters review proposers proposals and vote up or vote down the proposals they would like or dislike to see implemented. They are the stewards of Bora and by voting they bring Bora closer to its vision.

Community Advisor

A Bora Community Advisor (BCA) is a community member that participates in the quality assurance of proposals. BCA’s have the task of reviewing proposals submitted to a given Education Pool/Vault and supplying quality information to voters and proposers. Bora Community Advisors will consist primarily from students with existing loans obtained from the Bora Protocol. Further, a community advisors is anyone who participates in the community to develop, assist, advise, improve the project.

$BORA

Although Bora will have three different tokens, the main native token of the Bora protocol will be the $BORA token. $BORA will be a Cardano Native Token and as such will have all of the major traits of ADA by using the same underlying token logic, including the ability to pay network fees in Bora Token; this is called Babel fees. $BORA holders will receive a percentage of the interest earned in the Bora student loan pools. $BORA holders will also earn a percentage of the transaction fees of the Bora protocol.

vBORA

Governance of the Bora protocol will be done via voting. Holders of vBORA tokens will have the ability to a) Vote on which proposal get funded by the protocol and b) to propose new features for the protocol, vote on the proposed features and execute the approved proposals.

vBORA tokens can be obtained via two methods.

1) Stake BORA tokens in a smart contract to mint vBORA. The amount of vBORA to be minted will be dependent on the amount of BORA staked and the duration of the stake contract (3,6, 9 months etc).

2) Stake stablecoins in Bora Education Pools/Vaults. The Bora Education Pools/Vaults will be used to fund the students and projects approved by the community. Furthermore, users that stake stablecoins in the Bora Education Pools/Vaults will receive the majority of the APY obtained from the repayment of the loans taken out by the students through the Bora protocol.

Through voting for a proposal that gets funding, vBORA gives the providers of liquidity (users that deposit stablecoins in Education Pools/Vaults) the ability to decide where their provided capital will be deployed.

Bora will make use of the Voltaire governance protocol to operate as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) governed by vBORA holders. The vBORA token is designed to be used in the future governance of the Bora protocol. vBORA holders who hold 1% or more of the total vBORA supply can submit development proposals, while any vBORA holder, regardless of how much they hold, is able to vote on these proposals. The vBORA token allows the Bora community to propose features, vote on the proposed features and execute the approved proposals.

Bora governance has been designed in a way that will eventually let the core Bora team step out of the decision-making process entirely, achieving a truly self-sustaining and completely decentralized protocol controlled by the Bora token holding community.

sBORA

Transparency and quality assurance will be incentivised with the sBORA token. Any student that submits a loan proposal request through the protocol will be required to hold a proportional amount of sBORA to the value of the loan requested. sBORA will serve both as collateral that will be staked with the loan agreement, and a show of trust that the particular student is actively involved within the community.

sBORA tokens will be issued as follow:

1) A minimal amount of sBORA will be issued upon successful completion of a student’s DID and acceptance into the protocol.

2) sBORA will predominantly be issued through functioning as a Bora Community Advisor. BCAs have the task of quality assurance for the proposals that the Bora protocol funds. They identify and validate proposals, and filter for proposals that resonate with the Bora mission. This means that the more actively involved with the protocol a student is the greater the loan amount they can take out.

3) sBORA is also issued upon successful repayments of loans proportional to the amount of the loan once again building increased trust into the protocol. Conversely sBORA will be burnt with every default payment.

BCAs are incentivised to do first class quality assurance on proposals as successful repayment of loans insures a low APY on all the loans taken out. The low APY for student loans on the Bora protocol is depended on a low default rate. A low default rate is encouraged via the community mechanisms: 1) members vouch for each other to join the Bora protocol (DAO) - members are accountable to those that vouched for them. 2) Bora Community Advisors are affected by the default rate, it is in the whole communities interest to select and approve quality proposals to fund known individuals to ensure accountability.

sBORA and vBORA will be exchangeable for a small fee that will be paid in BORA this allows for active sBORA holders to exchange a portion of their sBORA for vBORA and gain greater voting and governance rights over the protocol and conversely vBORA holders may convert to sBORA to allow them to apply for a student loan or put forward a proposal to the community.

DAO Fund Management

Successful proposasl approved by the Bora community will be funded from the Bora Treasury. The Treasury will consist of various pools (vaults) that will be funded with stablecoins. Users that deposit stablecoins into the education pools (vaults) will be rewarded in two ways:

1) Depositors will earn ~6% APY on the stablecoins deposited into the Bora pools (vaults).

2) Depositors will receive vBORA to enable depositors to participate in the governance of the Bora protocol and to vote on various funding proposals from the community.

The Bora protocol will offer student loans at a 8% APY. Students would take out the loan, service the interest payments while finishing their education, upon graduation and increased earnings, payback amount will increase to repay the principle down. The payback method takes pressure away from students during studies and offers the opportunity to repay more at a later stage when graduated students have increased their monthly income.

Different Bora pools (vaults) can be set up for each SubDAO, different pools (vaults) can be created to cater to a certain sector or area: Example is to create a pool focused on disabled students, or a pool focused on funding dentistry etc. Creating investment pools/vaults with a focus on a specific area or need, will help members fund the causes that align with each investor’s individual values.

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

Our solution directly addresses the F10 DAO’s <3 Cardano challenge brief in various ways (pls see below). As per the challenge brief: “Currently if a DAO (even one that is aimed to build products and services around Cardano) wants to setup their DAO infrastructure, the current options are all based on, mostly, the Ethereum blockchain.“

Cardano needs:

Similar tools that offer superior features to those offered on other chains.

The Bora DAO will incorporate DIDs (Decentralized Identifiers; Identities on the blockchain) for KYC (Know your customer) as we onboard students to receive proposals and approve funding of the student loans. Cardano’s use of DIDs is ahead of other chains, BORA DAO will further solidify Cardano’s advantage and provide real world use cases for DIDs.

Effective Collaboration Management Platforms to Organize Community Intentions and Actions

BORA DAO will operate in a project catalyst model by using Proposers, Voters and Community Advisors to operate and manage the Bora Protocol. BORA DAO innovative use of 3 different tokens will give the community the tools to manage the treasury and incentivise community intentions and actions. The Bora DAO will use three tokens for rewards, governance and transparency: $BORA, vBORA and sBORA. $BORA will be used to reward users for investing and performing different operations on the network. vBORA will be used for voting and governance. sBORA will be used to bring transparency and quality assurance to the Bora protocol.

Additional not yet existing tools to give Cardano a distinct advantage

BORA DAO will create tools in Product Version 2.0 that can give Cardano a distinct advantage, BORA DAO will incorporate the qualifications and diplomas obtained by the community to the blockchain for access and verification by third parties. BORA DAO in full action will be a DAO that allows anybody anywhere to create a Sub-DAO with the tools to govern and manage, while simultaneously performing KYC with DIDs and recording qualifications (credentials) to the blockchain for access and verification by any third parties.

DAO community collaboration

BORA DAO operates in a similar manner as project catalyst. The protocol is setup so the community must collaborate with each other to approve proposals and receive funding. Students that need a loan must first complete KYC, then create and submit a proposal for the loan. Existing community members (students that received funding in prior rounds) will evaluate the proposals before presenting the proposals to the community for voting. Besides the BORA DAO operating mechanism, community collaboration is further incentivised because members vouch for each other to join the Bora DAO - members are accountable to those that vouched for them to join the DAO. Furthermore, all Bora DAO Community members are affected by the loan repayment default rate. A high default rate will lift the APY repayment rate for all community members, thus it is in the whole community's interest to select and approve quality proposals to fund known individuals to ensure accountability.

DAO creation

The Bora protocol will enable the forming of SubDOAs - allowing anybody, anywhere to create and manage their own DAO. Each SubDAO’s will have similar operational mechanics as the main (first) Bora DAO with investment tools. SubDOAs can be formed based on investment type (cohort), such as by country, economic status, course type, or age group. Effectively, any school (from anywhere, academic/ non-academic) can apply to create a SubDAO and add students who could benefit from a loan on the Bora protocol. Creating pools/vaults with a focus on a specific area or need will help members invest in the causes that align with each investor’s individual values. Investments could also be made in several different portfolios to hedge risk across sectors.

DAO operation

BORA DAO created the sBORA token to be used for operating the DAO.Transparency and quality assurance will be incentivised with the sBORA token. sBORA will be issued to community advisors and students that completed KYC. Any student that submits a loan proposal request through the protocol will be required to hold a proportional amount of sBORA to the value of the loan requested. To receive additional sBORA and thus increase the size of the loan available to the student, the student will have to be active in the community. This means that the more actively involved with the protocol a student is the greater the loan amount they can take out.

DAO governance

BORA DAO created the vBORA token to be used for governance of BORA DOA. Holders of vBORA tokens will have the ability to 1) Vote on which proposal get funded by the protocol and 2) to propose new features for the protocol, 3) vote on the proposed features and execute the approved proposals. Bora will make use of the Voltaire governance protocol to operate as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) governed by vBORA holders. The vBORA token is designed to be used in the future governance of the Bora protocol. vBORA holders who hold 1% or more of the total vBORA supply can submit development proposals, while any vBORA holder, regardless of how much they hold, is able to vote on these proposals. The vBORA token allows the Bora community to propose features, vote on the proposed features and execute the approved proposals.

As seen above, BORA DAO directly addresses several of the needs set out by the challenge brief. BORA DAO will provide a protocol so anybody, anywhere can create a sub-DAO and have the tools and mechanisms to successfully manage and operate the DAO.

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

We completed the build of our MVP (live on testnet) and we have launched the product to students from Makarere University Business School in Kampala Uganda to sign up for our first cohord of student loans.

We intend to use all the proceeds from our catalyst proposal (ADA 52,000) to directly supplement our lending pool - All the ADA received from this proposal will directly go into our loan pool to serve as a loan to a real world student based in Kampala, Uganda.

In the previous question above we described the benefits and affect of our project to the Cardano ecosystem in detail. But in short, we will attract users to to ecosystem and drive activity through applying and voting for student loans. Loans will be used and repaid by students.

We intend to track the following metrics in detail and report to the community:

Number of users signed up - measurement of product market fit and users attracted to the Cardano ecosystem.
Number of loan applications received - measurement of user retention
Number of votes cast during voting process - measurement of user engagement
Number of loans given - measurement of "customers acquired"
Value of loans given - measurement of financial indicators
Payback lengths - measurement of customer expectations
Default rate - measurement of loan performance

The above metrics will provide direct insight into the performance of the MVP. The results from the measured metrics will prove the success of failure of the MVP and form the basis for further product development.

We will publicly report the performance of the MVP - we will publicly share all the metrics that we will measure.

We intend to issue a monthly report on all the metrics.

We will report the metrics measurement results on our telegram channel <https://t.me/borafinanceofficial> and on our twitter <https://twitter.com/BoraFinance>

Lastly, we will submit a monthly report with all the measured metrics and performance to Project Catalyst.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

Fanna and Bradley have been members of the catalyst community since February 2021. Over the past two years both have reviewed numerous proposals and submitted a couple of proposals. We are known in the community and have participated the last two years.
We submitted a proposal to F9 to fund the development of our MVP <https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/64158> Although our application was unsuccessful, we still built the MVP. We are now back to apply for funding to support our lending pool.
We had a proposal funded in F8. <https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/62287> The proposal was successfully implemented and results shared with the community.
Our MVP is ready and deployed to the test net. All transactions and flow of funds will be visible.
Team previously won $70,000 in a hackathon in September 2021. The team responsibly managed the funds to built the MVP. <https://twitter.com/CardStarter/status/1451251343247609868?s=20>

Our team members are known and proven in the community, we have a successful track record and completed catalyst projects before. Building the MVP and getting to this point has been 90% of the work, proving the team can deliver and manage a projects successfully.

We have also identified challenges around gaming the system and have mitigations as follows:

Challenge: Community not compliant, try to game the system and proposals.

Mitigation: BORA DAO will first launch and MVP, the MVP will be opened to a selected members of the community - students that joined the BORA and are active in the community and are known in the community. (Please see our target market section below). Because everybody know each other and all proposals are open sourced and reviewed, we can ensure the protocol is not gamed and exploited from within.

Challenge: Loans are not repaid by students - default rate on loans.

Mitigation: Students (community members) have to vouch for each other to get access to the protocol. Furthermore the community selects and approves quality projects to receive funding. The loan default rate affects the overall API that the whole community has to repay, if my friend that I vouched for to get funding does not repay his loan, I will have to repay more on my loan. Our mitigation relays on the community being accountable to each other to ensure loans get repaid and “students” don't disappear with funding.

Challenge: Who will use the protocol MVP - what is the initial target market

Mitigation: The Bora team has been active with market research in Uganda over the last six months. We have built up a community with several hundred students. We have great traction and we are developing a local community chapter at Makerere University in Kampala Uganda. We sponsored a local football team from the university that went forward to win a multi month league and emerged as champions (please see photos below). We are active in the community and building our first group of students that we will allow into the protocol to participate in the MVP. BORA DAO is managed and operated by the community - transparency and accountability are community driven, thus it is important that we launch the initial MVP with a community that knows and trusts each other. The initial cohort will become the first Bora Community Advisors and will drive the protocol in the future.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal of our project is to prove our MVP product market fit. We developed the MVP as a platform for student loans. We need to deploy loans and track the performance over time.

Our aim is to set up our first lending pool for Cohord 1. We are aiming to deploy $20,000 in capital for the first cohort

1st Goal: Sign up 150+ students to cohort 1.

2nd Goal: Deploy ~100 loans at an average loan value of $200.

3rd Goal: Deploy the entire lending pool of $20,000

4th Goal: Have a default rate of 0%

5th Goal: Have all the loans repaid within the specified period

We will measure our metrics and compare against our goals to determine the MVP feasibility.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] 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.

31 Aug - Milestone 1 - Complete Sign Ups - Project Cost: 0 ADA

Now - August 31th

Registration window is open for cohort one students to sign up. Students in Uganda are on summer break and will return to campus when the academic calendar resumes mid August.

21 Sep - Milestone 2 - Complete voting- Project Cost: 0 ADA

Sep 1st - Sep 21st

Window to review proposals (applications) submitted by students for loans and for the community to vote on which proposals to fund.

1 Oct - Milestone 3 - Disperse loans to students - Project Cost: 52,000 ADA

October 1st.

Disperse loans to students in time to pay fees to write exams. As said before, all funding received from this proposal will be used to supplement our lending pool - all funding received from this proposal will go directly to a student in Kampala to fund their education.

2 Oct -> 31 Mar - Milestone 4->10 - Track loan performance - Project Cost: 0 ADA

Report and track on the performance of the loans over a 6month period.

Each month deliver a summary and report on all the metrics measured.

1 April - Milestone 11 - Project Completion- Project Cost: 0 ADA

End the MVP project period having completed all the goals listed.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

The main deliverable is to show the success of the MVP over a 6 month performance period.

We intend to track the following metrics in detail and report to the community:

Number of users signed up - measurement of product market fit and users attracted to the Cardano ecosystem.
Number of loan applications received - measurement of user retention
Number of votes cast during voting process - measurement of user engagement
Number of loans given - measurement of "customers acquired"
Value of loans given - measurement of financial indicators
Payback lengths - measurement of customer expectations
Default rate - measurement of loan performance

Milestone 1 - Complete Sign Ups

Achieve the 1st Goal.
Sign up 150+ students to the protocol
Form the pool of students for cohort 1 to whom we will disperse capital

Milestone 2 - Complete Voting

Point to measure the engagement and user retention by reviewing the number of loan applications received and number of votes cast
End of community governance and loan approvals

Milestone 3 - Disperse Loans to Studens

Achieve goals 2 and 3.
Deploy 100+ loans
Deploy the whole lending pool
Successful deployment of capital to fund our first cohort of student loans

Milestone 4->10 - Track Loan Performance

Measure the payback and default rate
Monthly reports to track loan performance

Milestone 11

Successful project completion
Achieve goals 4 and 5
Zero default rate
All loans repaid on time
Data captured shows product market fit and forms the basis to further develop the product.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Funding requested: 52,000 ADA

The 52,000 ADA will go directly into the lending pool for our first cohort of students. This capital will be used to subsidise our lending pool. All the ADA received from this proposal will directly go as a loan to a real world student based in Kampala, Uganda.

Costs like salaries/publicity/marketing/engagement/documentation ect. will not be funded by this proposal - the team will carry theses costs themselves with funds from other parties.

We are aiming to deploy a lending pool of $20,000 (~ADA70,000) to fund ~100 loans at an average loan value of $200.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Bradley Heather - “The Tech Guru”

Brad is an Architect turned blockchain engineer with a deep passion for functional programming. Brad completed the second cohort of the Plutus-Pioneer-Program and an internship at M-Labs and has been actively building on Cardano ever since. He has led the development of projects in both Plutus.Tx and in Plutarch.

https://github.com/Bradley-Heather

Fanna Park - “The All Rounder”

Fanna obtained his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Fanna brings an understanding of financial technology, capital markets, investment banking and consulting.

He has a cross-cultural understanding of African economies combined with multi-year hands-on experience spanning product development and delivery of strategic partnerships.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/dfn-fanna-park-782b69160/>

Michael Ochailap - “The Educator”

Michael is a holder of a Bachelor of Computer Science and information technology with several years working experience in marketing, management, ICT, entrepreneurship, crypto trading and crypto training. Micheal is an active member in the Ugandan blockchain industry. Micheal will act as a moderator and advisor for our community channels.

Robert Kabega - “The Voice”

Robert is a hands-on sales, marketing, and business development professional with vast experience in supporting small to medium-sized businesses. Robert is adept at mentoring & coaching, strategic planning, project planning & management, and sales development. Robert’s uses his analytical thinking and communication skills to act as the voice of our community.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The costs represent value for money to the ecosystem because:

All funding received from this proposal goes directly to users (students) in the form of a student loan. The funding received will be used to fund the education of a real world student based in Kampala, Uganda.
All expenses associated with the team (salaries, travel, insurance, ect) are carried by an outside party - zero funding received from this proposal will go to the team
All expenses associated with the project (marketing, engagement, documentation, registrations, communications, etc) are carried by an outside party - zero funding received from this proposal will go to project costs
The capital is not "used" and wil be recycled. All the funding received will go directly to the loan pool. Capital will be dispersed to successful loan appliances, the loan applicants will repay the loan and thus recycle the capital back to the lending pool. Once the capital has been recycled it will again be availible for dispersement.
Recycling the capital provide tremendous value because the money gets used over and over. Over a period of the time the same capital can fund numerous different loans. The capital stays in the ecosystem.

bookmarked!