Please describe your proposed solution.
Problem Reframed
There is no doubt this proposal is complex and attempting to help tackle one of the world's largest problems.
Here’s a quick reframe to really put this issue into perspective.
It is estimated (UNDESA) that anywhere from 850k to 1 million people die across Africa from drinking unclean water. Deaths attributed to COVID-19 in 2021 (highest year) in the US were roughly 460k.
Not even a complex virus, but lack of access to a basic human need causes twice as many deaths every single year. The majority of these deaths are children under 2 who do not have a strong enough immune system to fight off water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, and typhoid.
Clean sanitation is also a major issue for young girls who experience period poverty.
Technology improvements, charity, and funding efforts have increased over the years to help. However, the sanitation gap has increased due to a doubling in population in sub-Saharan Africa and aid is not able to keep pace with this growth rate.
There is no argument that this is a large issue and has a lot of complex obstacles. As a result, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of charities of different sizes that have been putting in a lot of effort to help as best they can.
However, there are a variety of different issues within existing charities that limit their ultimate impact on the problem.
Some charities have gone the route of building as many Wells as possible and as a result as many as â…“ of them stop working within a year. Of course, this is not known to the donors or oftentimes the organizations themselves are unaware.
Others take time to bring the community together and show how to maintain the well. This takes time and there can still be issues, technical and practical, that arise that they are unable to resolve.
And of course, the issue that affects all charities is funding. Getting donations can often be difficult as some donors are hesitant to contribute when they have little evidence or proof of their money being well spent. The rise of effective altruism is a response to this void of measurement. Worse still, charity fraud has been on the rise and, after donating funds, it is generally not known exactly how those funds are spent.
Charities additionally incur a lot of expense in transaction fees sending money overseas to Africa.
Solution: CH2O - Bringing Transparency to Water & Charity in Africa
Part 1: Blockchain
As I studied blockchain architecture, I quickly realized one of the best applications for the technology is charity. Blockchain quite easily and readily solves three issues plaguing charities.
1 - Efficiency. Cross-border transactions through traditional means rack up fees and detract from a project’s overall funding — and therefore potential for success. In sending and receiving cryptocurrencies, the fees will be much much lower and faster.
2 - Transparency. All transactions by the charity would become traceable. This drastically reduces the chance of charity fraud, as the funds can easily be followed by discerning donors and watchdogs.
3- Fundraising. Digital assets, tokens, & NFTs allow for multiple flexible methods for raising capital. Due to their digital nature, this can easily be set up and can allow for quick fundraising.
Blockchain technology also has additional benefits in its ability to operate as a decentralized network for not only currency but also data. Live statuses can be captured on-chain for verification, depending on the inputs.
Further, smart contracts allow programmable money, and DAOs create programmable organizations. Donations can be secured in escrow-like environments and paid out automatically based on set preconditions established by the donor or the charity.
We have a plan to implement this new technology in a structured way that has the potential to raise massive awareness, capital, and drive productive change for thousands, perhaps millions of people.
The Cardano ecosystem has a lot of potential as the blockchain of choice due to its integration with the Cardano Africa project. They have already made partnerships with government officials in Africa (Ethiopia) and laid out the network for creating DIDs (Digital Identities) that will be tracked on-chain. Piggy backing off these discussions and utilizing existing networks where possible will be a great headstart to the infrastructure required for this project.
Part 2 - Tokenomics (NFTs & CH2O)
A lot of recent innovations in blockchain technology are implemented together in a unique way with this project that I have not seen previously. Firstly, we’ll look at the aspect of an NFT formed by the community, the NFT of the well, and how the CH2O token comes into effect.
Community Art
A robust community will be crucial for the success of this project. Not only for Well recipients in Africa but on the donor side as well (see the DAO section below).
The team will work with the community in Africa to create pieces of art embodying and representing what that community/local area represents for the people and what receiving a well would mean to them. The artwork could capture the traditions, heritage, and values of the community.
The local community would create art in a campaign to attract donors to back a well with clean drinking water! This gives the community an incentive to create, a sense of value for their art, and deeper participation in the larger project.
The Transparent Well.
Once agreed upon the next location we would send our team and contractors to dig and install the Transparent Well.
These wells would require a few advanced features. Each would be installed to proper depths and come with advanced filtration systems. Every well would have 2 flow meters reading the water movement, with a hardware oracle set up to transmit live pumping data from the well → processor -> encrypted -> blockchain. The two flow meters would have to come to a consensus on each value sent within a certain tolerance, to ensure accuracy of readings & security. Additionally, water quality data could be recorded and tracked/appended to the Well data. With the recent integration of Chainlink and Cardano, this data will be stored on-chain and utilized in the smart contract.
This infrastructure would require access to the internet to append updates to the blockchain on a constant basis.
The Community Art piece would be digitally created as an NFT and would be directly connected to the Transparent Well. These digital art pieces would go up on the H2O Africa website and auction off (similar to Nouns Project). This would foster friendly philanthropic competitiveness and push the amount raised from the auction higher than it would be from a typical mint.
The winning donor would also receive the physical replica artwork from the community receiving the well — or could elect to keep the physical art piece in the community as a celebratory memento for the well’s installation.
CH2O Tokenomics
As a holder of a Transparent Well, I would be entitled to a stream of CH2O tokens tied to that specific well’s water production. Every CH2O token = to 1 Liter of Clean Water (H2O) pumped out.
CH2O tokens are generated by the hardware oracle passing along the consensus measurement of water produced from the 2 flow meters. Every liter that flows through the well becomes a single CH2O token dropped directly into the holder’s wallet. A real live number instantly shows donors their social impact happening thousands of miles away.
Cumulative token info is collected for the NFT holders. When certain milestone amounts of "received" CH2O tokens are reached, a secondary milestone badge NFT is airdropped into the holders’ wallets to celebrate the volume of water production.
What to do with CH2O tokens?
This is where large brands can get involved. Partnerships with brands will allow us to provide holders with products, raffle entries, access to exclusive charity events, and other benefits. Brands can advertise the current & ongoing cumulative value of all the CH2O tokens or Liters/Gallons of clean water pumped out as being a part of the project, providing visibility and value for the donor-holders.
Tokens could be attained in certain quantities or burned to redeem rewards from partner brands.
The Network!
As this project grows, there would be more and more wells transmitting data regarding water flow. First, this data ensures accountability and the integrity of the initiative. If a well stops flowing, not only will the holder of the NFT know, but the entire local and donor communities can see all the well’s data in a clear dashboard. This can alert donors to maintenance issues relatively quickly so they can deploy additional capital to restore the flow of clean water and CH2O tokens.
Secondly, by knowing exactly where each problematic water source is located, the SWAT teams (Maintenance crew) will be able to prioritize and efficiently plan repair and maintenance schedules.
Third, by also incorporating water quality sensors. A health profile of each well can be created on the platform. If a source becomes contaminated it can alert the community before large amounts of children continue using the well. Often it is assumed by travelers or community members that a well is clean but this is not always the case and can result in unexpected sickness.
Finally, all this data is likely useful to other researchers and organizations, with the potential to license the data to research institutions for nominal fees in order to support the treasury and fund additional wells/teams/support.
DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) Aspect
Once the community has been built up to a certain size, it would be possible to transition the charity to a full DAO model, with CH2O tokens affording voting power. The more one donates to creating the wells, the more voting power one accrues in the DAO.
Funds within the treasury would be primarily used for building more wells and maintaining existing ones. However, additional proposals and plans for the next locations could be voted upon within the community, as well as secondary projects such as expanding internet access or enabling solar energy installation. This is where the highly engaged members would have more ability to rise up in the DAO and help lead the project.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
With potential partnerships with other charities, businesses, and big brands, this project has the potential to drive a lot of attention to the Cardano network.
Cardano is a project keen on pushing development and truly values great community over any other project that I have seen. I was at Consensus 2022 in Austin recently and the Cardano expo booth was consistently the busiest booth area the entire weekend! To reiterate my point the deep community values here can be crowd-sourced and collaborated with to drive massive change.
This project/structure/DAO has the potential to be repeatable in other fields. Once successfully done here on Cardano it will open up a lot of doors for other similar projects and they will want to build it the same way.
Additionally, the purchase of these high-value NFTs in ADA will drive a lot of liquidity and cash flow for the ADA cryptocurrency.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
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From a recent discussion with a group of developers, there is a shortage of qualified Haskell/Cardano developers due to the added complexity of the code.
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I plan to utilize multiple communities and connections to help me find the right developers who also are aligned with the values of the project.
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Well being Vandalized, processors failing, Maintenance issues
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As soon as Clean Water stops flowing from the well everyone on the platform and in the organization is made aware due to the transparent data. This accountability brings both the community/organization together to resolve and the particular owner will be notified.
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Firstly, the community at the Well who were trained in some general maintenance practices will be contacted and the troubleshooting process will begin virtually.
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One possibility would be to recreate a well in a digital 3D environment and leave VR goggles with the community. An interactive connection could be set up to allow team members in the organization to assess the well and either suggest how to perform repair, send parts or schedule the SWAT maintenance team to visit the site and repair.
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With each of these wells being well funded additional R&D would go into creating redundancies and new technology to reduce the possibility of issues occurring.
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Incorrect Water flow data/Calibration/malfunctions
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Utilizing more than one flow meter and using an ultrasonic flowmeter as well to ensure data is within a measured tolerance between devices ensures that everything is working smoothly.
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Additionally, data sent to the chain will be encrypted so that it will be known if it is modified. Secure.
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Internet connections do not exist
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Cardano has existing networks set up for their identity projects
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Satellite connectivity and partnerships can be utilized
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R&D into transmitting data via radio signals or larger satellite dishes utilized to capture signals
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Data Queue technology used with pending transactions