[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.
Our solution is a rental marketplace for cryptocurrency and fiat payments, where properties can be listed for single rental prices or for auction sales.
The Loqul marketplace will function similarly to other rental marketplaces, both on- and off-chain with the added feature of crypto transactions and secure proofs of payment. Inspired by current NFT marketplaces on Cardano, rental agreements and payment receipts will be managed on our platform.
We plan on partnering with local brokerages, and onboarding their real estate agents to get both landlords and tenants that the agents work with to list on our site.
The user will be able to see different rental property listings posted by landlords and their descriptions. Once they find a property they’re interested in, they can place an offer of interest for the property, in the case of a standard listing, or participate in the auction. All transactions are handled by smart contracts.
The auction will be formatted like an eBay listing; users can see the highest bid, the time left on the auction, and, if applicable, a “rent it now” option. To be able to submit a bid or even list a property, users will have to connect their wallets and show their NFT identity. (We hope to be using Atala Prism in the coming months).
NFT Identities backed by Atala Prism will allow our smart contracts to be legally binding just like a regular rental contract would be.
These listings can be for a whole property/unit or just a room, allowing landlords to increase revenues while decreasing tenants' housing costs.
Upon auction close or rental contract payment accepted, landlords are issued 12 NFTs of the rental agreement that will be sold to the tenant every month; thus, acting as an NFT-receipt and irrefutable proof of payment. These receipts can be used to calculate a "crypto credit score" and assist users in acquiring other economic identities on the blockchain.
Landlords, Tenants, and Roommates will be held accountable through a rating system, similar to that of Uber and Lyft's rating system. That way, roommates and tenants alike will be incentivized to not damage their reputation. Similarly, Landlords can now be held accountable for their actions and are encouraged to service tenants swiftly.
Our target audience is Landlords that have 1-4 Units that they manage on their own (B2B), and Gen-Z/Young Professionals/College Students since they are already open to having housemates (B2C). We are also looking to partner with larger property owners and property managers interested in using our platform.
97% of U.S. landlords own between 1-4 units and 73% of those Landlords are individual investors. We believe that these investors could benefit from a simple, secure, affordable system to handle their payments and tenant search; while experiencing increased revenues over traditional rental solutions.
Gen Z includes people who are more likely to own/be interested in crypto, share living spaces, or be willing to adopt new real estate marketplaces. We especially see this type of model attracting more students, or college towns, and cities where there is a large young professional population with high rental costs such as Miami, NYC, and LA.
[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
Our main objective is to deliver a blockchain solution with real-world impact and utility to all parties involved in a transaction. By introducing transparency, speed, secured payments, and a frictionless process enabled by the Cardano blockchain, we believe that we are adding real-world value to property owners, tenants, and the Cardano community as a whole as we bring new fresh users to the ecosystem as they explore new and more valuable mechanisms on web 3. Through our partnerships and strategic advisors, we have collaborated with other projects for future integrations growing the ecosystem as a whole. By building a great set of smart contracts and applications we are helping both individuals and businesses enter the ecosystem, benefit from it, and grow in a trusted and frictionless manner.
Our performance indicators include:
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New Addresses and identity credentials to track new users
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Number of properties listed and turnover rates
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Number of tenants on the site
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Transactions are done through our protocol
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Assets Minted on our protocol
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Products that our end users use eg. (ADAHandle, ADAdomains, Atala Prism, GeroWallet)
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Revenues for property owners
[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
We have already been working on creating our MVP for a few months now, and the main hiccup we are running into on the technical side is finding a good fiat-crypto on and off ramp. We believe it is vital to provide a seamless experience for users to be able to pay in dollars, and have us convert to ADA on the backend to be able to use smart-contract functionality, then be able to quickly convert back. Or we could use a stablecoin but those are currently out of the question for the United States because Djed will not be available for use here.
We know Moonpay is an option but we would rather use a different service as we find them to be unreliable and overpriced. Luckily we have heard word from the developers of Lace wallet that better solutions are coming, they could not disclose specifics due to NDA but we are hopeful to have a good solution in the upcoming months.
Another challenge is finding good APIs to work with the Cardano blockchain. Luckily, we found great partners in TangoCrypto, a pair of very kind Cuban developers that we met in person at a Miami Cardano meetup. They have an API service for Cardano that provide a large amount of the functionality we need.
Another tough part is finding a way to do quick and reliable background checks.
We have found a business that provides quick background checks that has an API that assists companies like Lyft and Uber and we are trying to coordinate with them on a solution that fits our standards for real estate rentals.
We are confident that we will be able to deliver an MVP that works, the question of how much adoption we can achieve largely depends on how smooth we can make the user experience, and how we manage to overcome the general complexity associated with current web 3 technologies.
This is why we believe the most important part is to have a stablecoin or a very relieble fiat to crypto on and off ramp we can use to handle the conversions on the backend for our users.
Homeowner associations/condos could possibly fight our systems. In fact, this is a valid concern because many HOA’s or condominiums have rules against renting, or subleasing, which could cause problems as we launch in different markets. However, we are able to assign this liability to the landlord, while we implement compliance processes for these specific case scenarios.
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.
In 2022 Q3, we will deliver the MVP marketplace and the project’s tokenomics. Our site will also be updated with new marketing material and Search Engine Optimization. Our initial MVP will be available as a closed beta for Miami properties.
In 2022 Q4, we will be launching the new marketplace with full listing and onboarding features in a fully decentralized manner. This will be available to the greater-Miami area, and other metropolitan areas, as long as it is legal.
In 2022 Q4, we will implement the Rating System where Landlords, Tenants, and Roommates can rate each other. We will also be adding our sponsoring sections which Landlords can use to promote their listings on the marketplace; thus, generating Ad Revenue for us.
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.
our team has been working on this project as a labor of love for a few months now, we have all been working for free, including our developers and a couple interns. We would like to express our appreciation to them as well as allow ourselves to cover expenses we have as we continue to work on this.
$20,000 | Runway for Founders
$15,000 | Paying our developers for the part time work they have been doing
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.
Hans Rueckschnat - Co-Founder & CTO
Marcial Barros - Co-founder and Chief Blockchain Officer
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcial-b-5a15a290/
Randolph Vaughan Russell - Chief Mathematician
- BS in Mathematical Sciences | Exp. as a Customs Broker & Manager in St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Catherine Komi - Web Developer
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterina-komissarova/
Angel Mendez - Full Stack Developer
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/angel-mendez-cs/
[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.
For a perspective on the big picture vision we have for Loqul, please look at the Loqul explainer. Yes we would most certainly like to come back for more funding, this request is for a bare minimum initial seed that allows us to dedicate ourselves and focus on delivering an MVP without worrying about immediate expenses upcoming in the future. For the business to properly take off we will need substantially more funding, we would like this initial seed to be a way to build trust with the cardano community so that next time around we can ask for a larger amount to further expand the marketplace.
[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?
This funding is to help get our MVP off the ground to get it up and running. We will measure progress through updates on the Loqul.io landing page, as well as updates on the Loqul marketplace.
We use Ora for project management software, and we keep track of small steps and goals necessary for getting our MVP up and running.
We can give updates on any functionality we achieve. For example, progress on the smart contracts, progress on API integrations with TangoCrypto, progress on background check integration, and finally getting the fully functional MVP ready.
Once the MVP is functioning, we will collect metrics on our Daily Active Users, Weekly Active Users, and Monthly Active Users; allowing us to calculate a retention rate and track how effective our product is. Moreover, we will collect the number of tenants bidding per property, allowing us to leverage our tenant supply to our Landlords. Lastly, we will be tracking the number of properties listed, % of those that get fully rented out, and how long it took to rent them out.
[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?
Success for this proposal looks like a fully completed MVP that can onboard landlords, agents, and tenents in a smooth and seamless fashion onto our rental marketplace with background checks and identity tokens completed.
From there the goal is to make people's renting experiences far smoother, allow people to leverage their rental history on our platform to show they are good market participants, and build a community of participants that can trust each other and weed out the bad actors through our rating system.
[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.
This is a new proposal
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating
Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
SDG subgoals:
11.1 By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums
11.3 By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries
11.a Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning
11.c Support least developed countries, including through financial and technical assistance, in building sustainable and resilient buildings utilizing local materials
Key Performance Indicator (KPI):
11.1.1 Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing
11.3.1 Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate
11.3.2 Proportion of cities with a direct participation structure of civil society in urban planning and management that operate regularly and democratically
11.a.1 Number of countries that have national urban policies or regional development plans that (a) respond to population dynamics; (b) ensure balanced territorial development; and (c) increase local fiscal space