<u>Background: the need for a new economy</u>
The African population will double by 2050, which increases the demand for stable jobs and economic growth. Yet, currently a large part of Africans work in informal jobs and the economic development can not nearly keep up with the growth. At the same time, Africans are more and more connected to the world and moving to cities, leading them to desire a fulfilling job, products that are made for their needs and higher living standards.
In short, African economies need to develop fast and leapfrogging industrialization is the only way to achieve stable economic growth and massive job creation.
How can we create systemic change and build scalable, yet sustainable industries fast? How can we leapfrog industrialization?
<u>Solution: The first factory of a new industrial network</u>
Waya Collective is building the operating system for a new, decentralized economy. Providing the necessary knowledge, liquidity and trust to build a collaborative and 100% locally owned economy. The “green field” provides the opportunity to leapfrog and create the most efficient, sustainable and inclusive economy in the world.
The first Waya garment factory in Uganda will set a new standard for highly efficient, sustainable and decentralized production in Africa. It will be the first factory in the Waya Collective network and therefore the first factory to use and test the Waya DApps. It will lay the foundation for Waya Collective and a new, decentralized economy in Africa and beyond.
The factory supplies products for the local demand and is part of the first Waya Collective ecosystem in Uganda. Waya ecosystems consist of three different types of Autonomous Collectives (AC):
- Creation AC: Creates Intellectual property such as new brands, products etc.
- Distribution AC: Customer facing, such as stores or last mile delivery services
- Producing AC: Manufacturing entities, such as factories
The first ecosystem in Uganda is entirely centralized and built to test the model and develop the standards to be replicated as franchises.
- The first brand (Creation AC) which sells products online is already developed and soon to be launched, the first store (Distribution AC) is currently in development, as any new ecosystem has to start demand driven.
- The first Factory (Producing AC) is therefore the last to be implemented as it is also more capital intensive. The first factory is the focus of this proposal.
<u>How does the Factory use Blockchain and Cardano?</u>
The Cardano Blockchain is the core of the Waya Collective system. It …
- governs both the collectives and the network (Autonomous Collectives Operating System (ACOS)),
- it finances the network (Liquidity Protocol (LP)),
- it organizes supply chains into a trustless system Autonomous Inventory Management (AIM),
- and it organizes and distributes intellectual property (Knowledge Sharing Protocol (KSP)).
More information in the attached White Paper.
<u>How will these systems be implemented and developed within the first factory?</u>
Wallet: In order to decentralize factories and businesses, they need to be “on-chain”, which means they can access the liquidity protocol, the knowledge sharing protocol, and share and receive data within the Inventory management protocol. The first factory will serve as a real-world testing ground for the business wallet.
Governance: Connected to the wallet, the factory will also be the first to implement the governance. It is a crucial part in order to create a thriving economy which benefits everyone, because good governance means efficient businesses and happy workers.
Identifier: To enable a truly transparent governance, we have to bring all stakeholders on-chain, meaning we can not stop at the company level, but go down to the individual level. In the first factory, we will test and implement the identifier and see how it needs to be built.
Oracles: The entire value stream of the factory should automatically be made visible in the Inventory management protocol. To make that possible the factory will be constructed with oracles to achieve that. We will use RFID Chips (can be sewed into every piece of garment) which can automatically detect every product and attached information. For that, the factory entrances will be of a specific width in order to secure the detection and will have cameras as a second source of data.
<u>What will the factory look like?</u>
The factory will have ~50 employees and will be able to produce a range of products from T-shirts to different types of pants and dresses. It will be able to work with different knitted and woven fabrics and be able to take a product from the initial parts (fabric, buttons) to a finished, packaged fashion product. A couple of tasks will be outsourced such as embroidery and printing since these take a large investment and can easily be outsourced to existing companies in Uganda at the moment. Though there will be space left to add such machines in the future.
Capacity
In a factory like this with a small degree of automation, the flexibility and possible product ranges is very high. Yet, the capacity is highly dependent on good management and training of the factory. Therefore, we put a lot of emphasis on good governance and creating working conditions that enable learning and productivity.
The factory will start with two production lines, each line having 11 workers. The following describes the number of T-Shirts one line can produce in one day with the right training:
- Day 1: 100 pcs
- After 1 month: 1000 pcs
- After 4 months: 1600 pcs
- After 1 year: 2500 pcs
A production plan for the T-Shirt for one production line and with a capacity after 1 year is attached.
This proposal is part of Waya Collective in the sense of being a building block of it and therefore developed within the Waya framework. However, it is an independent solution which will be made available to the ecosystem and benefit everyone.
Waya Collective
Waya Collective is a DAO built on Cardano with the aim to leapfrog industrialization by building the operation system for a new economy. Starting in Africa, Waya builds new industries from the ground up and utilizes Cardano to scale across the world.
Waya Collective will make Cardano for millions of people the gateway to their business, their job, and their livelihood. All members of the economy such as workers, entrepreneurs and creatives will be connected to at least one of the DApps. It will be how they will get paid, receive instructions, buy and sell goods and receive the necessary capital for any operation. This will result in a massive adoption of Cardano from Africans . Furthermore, it will strengthen Cardano because it will be used in physical value creating operations and therefore have a robust real world value disconnected from the crypto market.
Next to building new Factories and businesses running on Cardano, Waya will also enable collaboration with other local entities such as fabric producers, training entities, local construction companies, local logistics companies and so on.
Waya will efficiently and fully integrate industry and blockchain which is only possible because the factories and businesses will be built using the DApps and fully integrate the incentive structures in the network. This will revolutionize Blockchain for business and build the first truly blockchain based industry model only available on Cardano.
The first factory built will have the function to prove the concept and in that line, show and inspire the world with the potential of Waya and Cardano. It will be the foundation to convince people all over Africa to also build Waya factories and businesses, and together, leapfrog industrialization.
Therefore, we will share the setup of the factory with the world via Twitter and grow our community. Furthermore, the consumer brands will be another angle of creating recognition and trust for Waya Collective.
Building a factory and an industry is a big endeavor in itself, with multiple risks and challenges attached. First of all, we see a political risk since many African countries, such as Uganda, are not entirely stable. We mitigate political risk by scaling to other countries as soon as possible to not be dependent on just one country. The local approach of Waya also mitigates the risk for damaged supply chains in a case of disturbance.
Getting the right people on board and being able to efficiently train the workers needed is also seen as a challenge. We are creating a very intense training program and working together with both local and international partners to make sure members have the right skills.