[IMPACT]
Short summary of the Profila app (as testing ground for our 5 funded projects integrating our ZKT) - Profila is a platform (mobile IOS/Android application for individuals and a web-based dashboard for companies, organizations, governments and other legal entities, we call "Brands") that enables individuals to communicate with various organizations in their lives, privately, one-to-one, and without supervision or surveillance.
Imagine an app that allows you to regulate all the pipes of information, where you can instruct each brand that has access to your data (i) which channel they can use, (ii) the frequency of the messages they can send, (iii) and the content of such messages / ads. If you accept to see paid content, it will only be from the companies you authorized, according to your instruction (see i-iii). Our revenue model is 50/50 namely we share all advertising revenue with users.
People can manage their digital life in one location via an app that shows which organisations have access to (certain parts of) their personal data. People can sort all their personal information, product preferences and communication preferences and communicate with all the organizations they want to interact with in the same easy way (instead of on each individual organization's platform each time). The entire tool is design for people to (1) gain control over their personal data; (2) choose to ethically share (or not) they personal data with organisations, and (3) get compensated if they do (today only in fiat).
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Cardano adoption in the next 3
1. Introduction to Profila
Profila GmbH is a Swiss company founded in 2018 with the main focus to give people control over their personal data and (re)connect brands with individuals in a privacy preserving manner, one-to-one and at scale. Profila has a vision of giving people agency over their online lives, and giving brands a better way to build meaningful customer relationships.
The major functionalities available in the Profila platform:
1. Privacy education and privacy rights management – people can learn about privacy and their legal rights, and exercise them towards brands via an easy 3-click process (see our funded proposal in fund 5 – “control your data; privacy ledger”, https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Control-your-data-%E2%80%93-privacy-ledger/350680-48088))
2. Ethical and consented data sharing - Individuals can select to share certain information to with a brand of their choosing and get compensated for it. (see our proposal in fund 6 – “dapp to control/monetize your data” - https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Dapp-to-control-monetize-your-data/366908-48088))
2. The Profila Platform today
With Profila, People can manage their digital life in one location via an app that shows which organisations have access to (certain parts of) their personal data. People can sort all their personal information, product preferences and communication preferences and communicate with all the organizations they want to interact with in the same easy way (instead of on each individual organization's platform each time). The entire tool is design for people to (1) gain control over their personal data; (2) choose to ethically share (or not) they personal data with organisations, and (3) get compensated if they do. (see “Illustration 1).
The Profila platform encompasses two major parts, a mobile app and a web app.
The mobile app allows the user to interact with remaining parts of the Profila platform. It will be used to set up user preferences, consent configuration, subscriptions to brands, etc. In addition, it will provide to the user access to all the information about all activities associated with Profila platform including which ads they have received, which ads they have interacted with, and videos or photos sent to subscribed brands.
The Mobile App: A person centric, multi brand experience mobile application that will enabling an individual to:
● Engage with brands and manage own privacy
● Create and selectively share own digital profile
● Get rewarded in cash and brand value
The Web App: A permission-based relationship for brands with individual customer that will enable to:
● Access evergreen, accurate zero-party data and insights
● Communicate and advertise on a private channel
● Earn attention and deliver true personalization
3. Profila tomorrow – the Catalyst project - integrating with IOG through ATALA PRISM for our identity management system component
Because of all these interactions in Profila between people and brands have legal consequences (including the payout to consumers for granting access to their data), we need certainty that the transactions happened between the 2 parties, and that the individual is who he/she says he/she is. We therefore need proof of identity.
Towards the further realization of the Profila platform, Profila is therefore looking to integrate with IOG through ATALA PRISM for the identity management system component. If you want to control your data online and receive (financial) compensation for your data, it is important you can provide proof of your identity. ATALA PRISM is the perfect solution. By integrating ATALA PRISM, we can better guarantee that the correct person is sharing information and is receiving payments.
Profila would integrate its platform with IOG identity management system to enable customers owning DID based digital ID and various credentials which will be the base for their communication with brands. The identity management part is needed to incorporate zero knowledge proof, the aspect of enabling an individual to share her/his own data (psychographic, preference, etc.) and contents to brands with the fact that the brand does not know any more details about the individual except that information is of a living person who is uniquely identified by the Profila platform and is used for targeting and advertising purposes.
We believe that we can use ATALA PRISM for the following capabilities:
1. Digital ID – one click registration; login; confirmation
2. Credential management – user owning and sharing credentials
3. Data privacy management – user exercising legal data subject rights
4. Document certification (ID documents, legal documents, certifications, KYC, etc)
5. Data Sharing – user selectively sharing information
6. Personal Data Vault – user controlling third party access
The following use cases are foreseen:
1. User registration - As Profila, we need to register any Profila user with digital ID or Physical ID to ensure that he/she is a living person. -> This is being developed under the first Prism proposal - fund 6, for our brand customers (companies)
2. User identification - As Profila, we need to ensure that all users are cryptographically identified as a unique person so that no two users with the same identity can register in Profila Platform -> This is being developed under the first Prism proposal - fund 6, for our brand customers (companies)
3. User’s data sharing (consented, via data subscription – OPTION 1) – as a user, I need to have an option to take my consent for sharing the whole of my profile non-anonymously to a specific bran
-> Topic 3 is the the subject of this follow up proposal under fund 8.
4. User’s data sharing (anonymously – OPTION 2) – as a user, I need to be able to choose to disclose only some parts of my profile anonymously to a brand of my choice, and securely share information
-> This will be the subject of another follow up proposal.
5. Brand advertising - As a brand admin, I need to create a private and secured connection with individual for advertising
-> This will be the subject of another follow up proposal.
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Based on current development path of fund 6 Atala PRISM challenge, in contact with IOHK we decided to implement Atala Prism as Identity provider for the Brand Portal which is the B2B Layer.
In our SSI Fund 8 follow up proposal, the implementation is going to be extended to the B2C Layer to our Profila App (identity provider for App users). In collaboration with IOHK we are going to develop SDK for Cross-platform App (in our Case React-Native) so both B2B and B2C users of the Profila platform use Atala Prism as Self Sovereign Identity.
In addition, under this proposal we will integrate PRISM into the existing data subscription functionality of our platform.
The challenge is as follows: "what solution can we develop and implement with PRISM to have the most positive impact and opportunities for rapid growth of Cardano".
Profila is creating a decentralized marketing platform (DeMar) and data marketplace that is entirely in controlled by people. We are projecting to have 100.000 + users at the end of the year, sharing data on the platform with brands, viewing advertising from brands. If Atala Prism is integrated into our data sharing system, the adoption of Atala Prism would be enourmous.
After several workshops we have done with IOHK's professional services team around the integration of Atala Prism in the Profila app, we now have a good view what PRISM can do today, and what it will be able to do in the future. A risk is that several functionalities which we need for our Decentralized Marketing (DeMar) platform to work in the future, are not yet ready.
[FEASIBILITY]
For a detailed version of the Profila roadmap, see attached the "Profila pitch deck".
The milestones & deliverables for this specific proposal are as follows: (post funding):
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Week 1: project kickoff with COO, internal dev team and external game developer, further discussing technical requirements to be included in the PRD (product requirement document)
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Week 2: submission of the PRD (product requirement document) by business team (start week), with comments of the development team (end week).
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Week 3: final PRD submitted, with project divided in 14 days sprints, with scrum calls and update calls in the calendar of all team members.
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Week 4: first development work starts.
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month 2: designer produces new screens for in the app in parallel of dev work
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month 3-5: continued development work
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month 6: testing and final adjustments
Via this submission, we are requesting funding for the second stage of development of our ATALA PRISM DID integration. We assess that this will require at least a budget of 67.500 USD for a 6-month development project, to be allocated as follows:
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20 days of senior developer @ 900 USD per day – totaling 18.000USD
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20 days of Atala Prism expert (@IOHK, professional services team lead by Carlos Vargas)
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25 days of web/backend developer @ 400 USD per day – totaling +
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25 days of app developer @ 400 USD per day – totaling +
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10 days of legal and project management work @ 950 USD per day – totaling +
We are aware the the project described in this proposal will require more funds than only the 67.500 USD asked, as Atala Prism is complex technology and we have many different use cases to work out (as described earlier). However, we will be paying for additional development ourselves via our token sale proceeds, if the token sale (march/april 2022) provides us with sufficient funds.
Who will be the senior blockchain developer? Our own CTO Raja is becoming well acquainted with the technology via the Plutus pioneer program, also created the token on 22 November 2021. In addition, we are very pleased with the help we are getting from IOHK's professional services team as well. In addition, we are working together with MLabs and the professional services teams of IOHK for additional expertise.
Team – We have a versatile team with experience in blockchain projects that is able and committed to tackle this challenge. Please find below more information on the Profila leadership team:
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MICHIEL VAN ROEY, (Co-founder, Crypto-legal expert and Chief Legal Officer); Belgian, 10 years XP as EU-qualified business lawyer in international law firms, an international organization (CERN), and a multinational company (Cisco). Specialized in tech & and privacy law; author crypto-asset regulations (see https://thelawreviews.co.uk/title/the-virtual-currency-regulation-review/belgium). See LinkedIn profile of Michiel, https://www.linkedin.com/in/michielvanroey/.
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RAJASEKARAN YOGARAJAH (Chief Technology Officer), Swiss resident, 15 years XP as software developed and serial entrepreneur, with experience in blockchain-based business models and e-commerce platforms. See LinkedIn, see https://www.linkedin.com/in/life-artist/.
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SHAWN BOONE JENSEN, (Founder & CEO); South African; 20+ years XP in senior management role in ISP's, SI and global Telco organizations, most recently as Head of Product &Head of Customer Presales and Service MEA in Vodafone Global Enterprise (VGE). See LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnj/.
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LUKE BRAGG, (Chief Product Officer); US citizen & Swiss resident; 20 years XP designing creative digital solutions for complex organizations (G7 organization in Russia; digital strategy lead for Akzo Nobel in the Netherlands; Director of Enterprise Architecture for Merck/MSD). See LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasbragg/.
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IPEK SAHINER, (Chief Operating Officer); Swiss and Turkish citizen, Computer Engineer with 20 years XP as computer engineer and project manager in the telecom sector at Nokia, supporting local Swiss and global network operators. See LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/ipeksahinerschlecht/.
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MICHAEL RAVA, (Chief Marketing Officer); Swiss; high-end networker with over 30 years of business experience as entrepreneur, influencer, consultant, advisor, investor, full-stack marketer, brand and retail expert, social media visionary, keynote speaker, and digital ethic warrior. See Linkedin, https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravamichael/.
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REMY MERCKX (Chief Growth Officer); French; 23 years XP in the Travel & Hospitality Industry,
Please find below more information on the Profila advisory team:
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CLARA-ANN GORDON, Swiss; partner at Niederer Kraft Frey (NKF; Zürich), legal advisor to Profila. See LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/clara-ann-gordon/.
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ELIE AUVRAY, French; co-Founder of logion (public blockchain network), blockchain advisor to Profila; See LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/elieauvray/.
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MIKKO KOTILA, Finnish, software developer and ad-tech industry expert, technology advisor to Profila; See LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikkokotila/.
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PHILIP LAMS, Belgian, serial entrepreneur & Profila board member, sales & business advisor to Profila; See LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-lams-a9a64215/.
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BULLISH DUMPLING, Cardano Community ambassador and interviewer, with 5000+ highly relevant cardano followers, known for interviewing Cardano Foundation CEO (Frederik Gregaard) and IOG CEO (Charles Hoskinson). See Twitter - https://twitter.com/BullishDumpling
[AUDITABILITY]
Profila will provide the community with detailed periodical progress for this proposal (once funded) in the following ways:
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Github repository updated (1x per month, after the initial scrum sessions for creation of the PRD, product requirement document
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Two-weekly updates to other Cardano proposers via the Catalyst coordinator call
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Two-weekly updates in our "Cardano projects" newsletter (register via our website https://ico.profila.com))
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Monthly project process and KPI reports submitted to Catalyst teams and available to the public for verificatio
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Monthly Swarm session office hour (at end of townhall) for a Question and Answer session about our funded project
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Periodical AMAs by the Profila founders to talk about our progres
The Atala Prism integration into our app under the Catalyst fund 6 funded proposal and this follow up proposal will add important functionalities to our consumer App – which is being tested on the market during the next 6 months.
The POC will also advance our mission and vision to provide people with control of their data and compensation for their attention.
Success of the POC would be that we can integrate it into our existing App with one of the 5 SME brands that are testing, and make sure it works with their consumers.
We already a developed our mobile application (2 years in development) in which we are integrating the Fund 5/6/7 proof of concepts. Our mobile application (iOS/Android) is being tested with 5 SME consumer brands in 3 regions (Benelux - Switzerland - Orlando/California), and we are expecting +/- 1000-2000 users per month to join (via B2B2C model, as invited by brands).
With our Radisson trial, our expected user base would surpass min 37.000, but even up to 100.000 by the end of the year.
The proposal is a second step (or second use case) of our zero-knowledge token. The first use case received funding as part of the following proposal under fund 7 - <https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/382488>
Additional proposals that received funding:
NFT business models (F6) — NFT for customer feedback/content - <https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/NFT-for-customer-feedback-content/368122-48088>
Dapps and Integrations (F6) — Dapp to control/monetize your data - <https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Dapp-to-control-monetize-your-data/366908-48088>
Atala Prism Adoption (F6) — Control your data (vault) via PRISM - <https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Control-your-data-vault-via-PRISM/367840-48088>
Metadata (F5) — Control your data — privacy ledger - <https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/350680>
Dapps and Integrations (F7) — Anonymity and data control online via ZKT - <https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/382488>
All these challenges are part of our DeMar (decentralized marketing) and ZKA (Zero-knowledge advertising) development roadmap, which consists of many features already funded under project catalyst:
- step 1 - personal data license smart contract - fund 6 (funded).
Recording a company's access to your personal data, including the terms of such access (compensation to you, duration, purpose, etc) on the Cardano blockchain, so you have immutable proof for each piece of data you shared, ever.
<https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Dapp-to-control-monetize-your-data/366908-48088>
- step 2 - privacy ledger – fund 5 (funded).
A ledger for all privacy interactions via the privacy rights management platform. UPDATE - We have submitted this proposal under the "metadata challenge" of FUND 5 and received the first place! #thankyouADAcommunity.
https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Control-your-data-%E2%80%93-privacy-ledger/350680-48088.
- Step 3 - digital ID - fund 6 (funded).
Atala implementation – If you want to control your data online and receive (financial) compensation for your data, it is important you can provide proof of your identity. Atala Prism is the perfect solution. By integrating Atala, we can better guarantee that the correct person is sharing information and is receiving payments. We have submitted this proposal under the FUND 6 challenge "Atala PRISM DID Mass-Scale Adoption" and were funded! #thankyouADAcommunity.
<https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/campaign-home/26116>
- step 4 - zero-knowledge advertising and zero knowledge token - first use case - fund 7 - (funded)
For more information about our research paper "Zero Knowledge Advertising: a new era of privacy-preserving AdTech solutions", and our Zero Knowledge Token whitepaper, see our website <https://profila.com> or the documents attached to this proposal.
