[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Problem and Solution:

Existing crowdfunding platforms have been criticized for being biased towards wealthy individuals, leading to a lack of representation and diversity of projects. This has made it difficult for small, underrepresented open-source projects to receive support. Therefore, we propose a new approach called extended quadratic crowdfunding. This approach “extends” or improves upon quadratic funding schemes.

Quadratic funding combines small individual contributions with larger matching sums. This means that contributions made by more people will be matched more generously than contributions made by fewer people. For example, the quadratic formula would give the project with 10 donations of $10 each more matching funds because it has more favored donors than the project with 1 donation of $100 each.

Source: https://www.wtfisqf.com/

For more information about quadratic funding, visit <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1809.06421.pdf>.

So, what is Extended Quadratic Funding? It's an improvement on Quadratic Funding that adds another layer: the "impact score" of individuals. Socious' Impact Score indicates how much an individual has contributed to social and environmental impact. You can find more information about Impact Score here: <https://www.notion.so/socious/Socious-Whitepaper-58fbe2c106f547898df42e409a00c73e?pvs=4#27759763f0d941788af336561a40d8d7>.

Extended Quadratic Funding takes into account the contributor's impact score, making the system more equitable. This means that people who have made contributions to improve the world can have more voting power than wealthy individuals. The goal is to create a more decentralized and fair system that promotes inclusive funding for public goods.* By allowing individuals who may not have large sums of money to participate in the funding process, we can increase diversity and enhance the representation of all voices. This, in turn, may lead to a more equitable distribution of funds and an increase in support for public goods.

The decision-making process on extended quadratic crowdfunding platforms is decentralized and transparent. This can help to build trust among users and ensure that decisions are made in the best interests of the community as a whole.

Our long-term goal is to create a circular economy that sustainably produces public goods in perpetuity. In this system, funded projects produce verified outcomes (i.e. impact), which are verified by the Impact Genome Registry. These outcomes are then sold on OutcomesX, a marketplace for social outcomes. For example, UBS Optimus purchased USD 2 million worth of verified outcomes related to Ukranian children's improved education and mental health outcomes produced by 21 different organizations.

Demonstrating Impact

In the "Extended Quadratic Funding" project, all funded projects' social outcomes will be verified by the Impact Genome Registry. The verified outcomes will then be sold on OutcomesX, and the proceeds of these sales will go toward the matching pool for the next round of crowdfunding. Additionally, since the efficiency of projects to produce social outcomes is verified, funding is optimally allocated in the next round to projects that are best suited to deliver social outcomes. Our impact score also takes into account social outcomes, so those who create more verified outcomes have more voting power. This system creates a virtuous circle in which the funding pool is constantly replenished and optimally allocated where it's needed.

Reasons for this Approach:

1. Equity and Inclusion: We incorporated the Impact Score into our model to ensure a fair and diverse representation in funding decisions, moving away from favoring only those with substantial financial resources.
2. Transparency and Decentralization: We chose a transparent and decentralized decision-making process to democratize funding and build trust within our community.
3. Sustainability and Impact: Our model's sustainability lies in verifying and selling social outcomes, creating a circular economy of public goods, and ensuring the funded projects deliver tangible societal benefits.
4. Optimal Allocation of Funds: By considering social outcomes in our Impact Score and fund allocation, we aim to direct funds to projects that generate the most significant social impact.
5. Fostering Innovation: We believe in nurturing innovation by providing an inclusive platform that supports diverse and underrepresented groups, particularly in open-source projects.

Engagement:

The Extended Quadratic Funding model is designed to engage a wide range of individuals and organizations. It's intended for open-source project creators, especially those working on projects that generate social or environmental benefits. Simultaneously, it empowers contributors who have a high Impact Score, regardless of their financial status.

Uniqueness

Our approach of Extended Quadratic Funding is unique because it adds a layer of fairness to the quadratic funding model by considering an "Impact Score." This score, developed by Socious, reflects an individual's contributions to social and environmental impact. By accounting for this score, our system provides individuals who may not have substantial financial resources but have made significant contributions to society with greater voting power. This, in turn, helps create a more equitable funding process and ensures the inclusion of diverse voices.

Importance for Cardano

Our solution holds immense value for the Cardano ecosystem. By encouraging and supporting open-source projects, we are fostering innovation, promoting inclusivity, and contributing to a more sustainable and equitable world. Cardano, with its commitment to peer-reviewed academic research and providing fresh avenues for global financial and social systems, can significantly benefit from the positive social and environmental impacts generated by projects funded through our model. In addition, this project has the potential to attract more projects and developers to build open-source Dapps on Cardano in order to get funding via the Extended Quadratic Funding. Furthermore, the transparency and decentralized decision-making inherent in our model align well with Cardano's principles, enhancing trust and community participation within the ecosystem.

In summary, the proposal of Extended Quadratic Funding seeks to remedy the biases and underrepresentation prevalent in existing crowdfunding platforms. This approach builds upon the concept of Quadratic Funding, which uses a combination of small individual contributions and larger matched sums. The extension lies in the integration of an "Impact Score", an assessment of an individual's contribution to social and environmental causes. This means individuals with significant social contributions have more voting power than merely wealthy patrons, creating a more equitable system. Furthermore, the decision-making process is decentralized and transparent, encouraging trust and community-centric decisions. The overarching objective is to create a sustainable, circular economy of public goods. Projects funded through this method produce verified outcomes, confirmed by the Impact Genome Registry and sold on OutcomesX, a marketplace for social outcomes. The income from these sales then replenishes the funding pool, which, along with the Impact Score, guides the allocation of funds in subsequent rounds, thus creating a self-sustaining cycle of public good generation. we believe that this system attracts more people to build open-source projects in the Cardano ecosystem.

*In economics, public goods are commodities or services that are provided to all members of a society, either by the government or by a private individual or organization. Examples of public goods include clean air, public parks, street lighting, and public infrastructure like roads and bridges. In the context of this proposal, public goods could also include open-source projects and other initiatives that generate social or environmental benefits.

References:

1. Mankiw, N. Gregory. Principles of Economics, 8th Edition. Cengage Learning, 2017.
2. Samuelson, Paul A. "The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure". Review of Economics and Statistics (The MIT Press) 36 (4): 387–389, 1954.

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

Our proposed Extended Quadratic Funding solution addresses the challenge at hand from multiple angles:

1. Prioritizing Key Tools: The challenge seeks to identify critical tools for prioritization. We believe a fair funding scheme should take precedence. Traditional crowdfunding methods often overlook small, underrepresented open-source projects. By introducing Extended Quadratic Funding, we ensure these projects have a fair shot at acquiring necessary funding.
2. Attracting External Developers: The challenge also underscores the need to engage developers outside the current community. Our solution offers an appealing incentive structure. The Extended Quadratic Funding system not only facilitates access to funding but also promotes improving one's Impact Score. A high Impact Score enhances the chances of securing funding and increases one's voting power. This structure motivates individuals to contribute positively via their open-source projects in the Cardano ecosystem.
3. Support and Collaborative Structures: Our solution directly aligns with potential directions of the challenge, including "Support structures" and "Collaborative structures". We provide financial backing for underrepresented open-source projects through an inclusive funding system. Quadratic funding inherently promotes collaboration as it rewards projects with wider community support with higher matching grants.
4. Increasing Open-Source Projects: In line with the goal of bolstering the number of open-source projects on Cardano, Socious is itself an open-source initiative. It leverages the Extended Quadratic Funding mechanism to financially aid open-source projects on Cardano.

Our project aligns seamlessly with the key metrics for the challenge:

• Number of developers actively building on top of Cardano: By offering financial backing to open-source projects via an equitable crowdfunding platform, we aim to attract a larger developer community to the Cardano ecosystem.
• A vibrant community of developers and proposers engaged in project collaboration: As a social networking app, Socious cultivates connections among developers, fosters a sense of community, and encourages dynamic discussions.

Currently, Socious boasts over 3,800 registered users, including many developers who hadn't had the opportunity to build on Cardano before joining our platform. We firmly believe that through our project, we can significantly increase the number of developers actively contributing to the Cardano ecosystem.

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

The primary benefits of our project to the Cardano ecosystem include:

1. Attraction of external developers to the Cardano platform by offering financial support for small, underrepresented open-source projects. This diversifies the pool of innovators contributing to the ecosystem.
2. Encouragement of impactful open-source projects through incentivization tools such as voting power under Extended Quadratic Funding and the Socious Impact Score.

We intend to measure the success of our project using both quantitative and qualitative metrics:

• Quantitatively, we will track the number of open-source projects funded via our platform. For this pilot phase, our realistic target is to fund at least 10 projects. We benchmark this expectation on the success rate of other crowdfunding schemes such as Project Catalyst.
• Qualitatively, we plan to gather user feedback and testimonials. Understanding our users' experiences and their opinions of the platform will provide critical insights into how well the system works and where improvements can be made.

In terms of productivity and growth, we believe our innovation will make a positive impact on Cardano in both the short and long term. In the immediate future, it provides Cardano developers with alternative funding opportunities outside of Project Catalyst, thereby enabling the creation of more impactful open-source projects.

In the long run, by utilizing the unique incentives of Extended Quadratic Funding and Impact Score, we aim to draw a larger pool of developers to build open-source projects on Cardano. This continued influx of creative talent and innovative solutions is expected to propel sustained growth in the Cardano ecosystem.

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

We plan to spread the project's outputs during and after its completion. While building, we provide monthly and milestone reports, and present in two Town Hall meetings every two weeks: the Eastern Town Hall and the Pacific Town Hall. We regularly attend these town hall meetings to provide project updates and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. While we are based in Japan, which naturally aligns our schedules more closely with these two Town Halls, we make efforts to reach beyond these forums. At significant moments, such as the completion of a project phase, we expand our participation to include other town halls, overcoming time zone challenges to do so. We greatly value these occasions as they present an opportunity to share our accomplishments and engage in beneficial discussions with a wider audience.

We will share the projects’s outputs, impact and opportunities with the community members. The links to our close-out report and video will be publicly available on Youtube. We will also share information on our website and social media. Because we have a gig marketplace, gig opportunities for Cardano developers will be listed on our Socious platform.

As Socious is an open-source project, our codebase is publicly available on our GitHub page. Cardano developers are encouraged to fork and use it for other projects.

We will analyze the results of this pilot project and use the findings to inform our future development activities and future rounds of crowdfunding.

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

Our team is aptly suited and equipped to successfully deliver this project. We possess the requisite capabilities that uniquely position us to execute this project to high standards of trust and accountability.

As outlined in the section "Who is in the project team and what are their roles?", our team is composed of seven full-time members, each bringing considerable experience in developing Dapps. To supplement our core team, we maintain a reserve of skilled freelancers, ready to contribute at short notice. Our talent marketplace, Socious, is a hub for over 3,800 individuals, many of whom could potentially assist in this project, if required.

Our ability to deliver is not just theoretical but backed by a track record. We have successfully completed five distinct Catalyst projects funded in Fund 9, all within the projected timelines and budget. These accomplishments bear testament to our capabilities and our commitment to deliver projects as proposed.

The Fund 9 projects we’ve completed are as follows:

1. Recognize Impact through DIDs <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-dapps-products-and-integrations/recognize-impact-through-dids>
2. Atala Integration with Milkomeda <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-dapps-products-and-integrations/atala-integration-with-milkomeda>
3. Decentralized Escrow for Remote Job <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-developer-ecosystem/decentralized-escrow-for-remote-job>
4. Impact lending for the unbanked <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-dapps-products-and-integrations/impact-lending-for-the-unbanked>
5. Scoring Social/Environmental Impact <https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/9/f9-catalyst-natives-x-cardashift-demonstrating-and-monetizing-impact/scoring-socialenvironmental-impact>

The trustworthiness in our fund management processes is grounded in our serious adherence to legal and financial compliance. Each transaction conducted is meticulously documented with tangible evidence and audited internally for accuracy. To bolster our commitment to financial transparency, we have established collaborations with external accounting firms that assure compliance. Our Japanese entity works with Tatsumi Accounting Firm (https://kessan-online.jp/company), while our Singaporean entity partners with BBCIncorp (https://bbcincorp.com/offshore/accounting-and-auditing).

Additionally, we liaise with an external law firm, Enlighten Law Group (https://www.enlightenlaw.com/), to ensure full legal compliance. This meticulous, multilayered approach to fund management reflects our dedication to maintaining high levels of trust and accountability.

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

The goals of the project is develop an “Extended Quadratic Funding” app and run one round of crowdfunding as a pilot project. On the app, the users should be able to perform the following functions:

• As a project owner, I can publish my project.
• As a donor, I can connect my crypto wallet and donate assets to a project.
• The donation is matched by the matching pool based on the Extend Quadratic Formula
• As a project owner, I receive the funds (donation + matched amount).

Our Technical Approach:

We use several technologies to develop the functions mentioned above. We use Atala PRISM DID to receive non-transferrable verifiable credentials (i.e., impact points) to determine their voting power. Socious is already integrated with ProofSpace which supports Atala PRISM DID. For identity verification and KYC-AML, we use Veriff which is fully integrated with ProofSpace; our users can use passports and other IDs to verify their identity. For fund transfers, we use Milkomeda, Cardano’s side chain, and Solidity/EVM for smart contracts. We use React for the frontend technology and Capacitor to deploy the app to App Store and Play Store. Our backend technology is Javascript, and we use a MySQL database on AWS. For Agile tools, we use GitHub and Notion. For design tools, we use Figma and Miro.

We believe that our approach is feasible as we have used these technologies and tools in the past, delivering successful projects including the five Catalyst projects in Fund 9.

[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.

We have seven milestones, including the final milestone, and we plan to complete the entire project within 12 months from the start.

Milestone 1

Title: Market and Technical Research

Outputs

Milestone 1 includes the following key activities:

• Conduct a literature review of the issue.
• Perform a market analysis.
• Conduct a competitor analysis.
• Conduct interviews with stakeholders and analyze them (recording dates and timestamps).
• Conduct research on technical aspects of the project.
• Develop a detailed plan of action for the project.
• Draft a technical and market research paper summarizing the findings above.

Acceptance criteria

The market and technical research paper is finalized and published on Notion. It is accessible for community review.

Evidence of Milestone completion

Community members can access the market and technical research paper to find the following content:

• Literature review
• Market analysis
• Competitor analysis
• Interviews with stakeholders and their analysis (including dates and timestamps)
• Technical aspects of the project
• Detailed action plans for the project

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 1

Cost

43,857 ADA ($12,280)

% Completion

9%

Milestone 2

Title: UI/UX Research

Outputs

Milestone 2 includes the following key activities:

1. Based on the market and research paper, brainstorm and Ideate
2. Create prototypes for user research
3. Conduct user research using the prototypes
4. Compile and analyse the findings
5. Iterate design and repeat Step 3 and 4.
6. Finalize the UI/UX design
7. Consult with the developers to decide on the technical architecture based on the design

These steps will results in a finalized UI/UX Research Paper.

Acceptance criteria

The UI/UX Research Paper is finalized and published on Notion. It is accessible for community review.

Evidence of Milestone completion

Community members can access the UI/UX research paper.

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 3

Cost

60,286 ADA ($16,880)

% Completion

21%

Milestone 3

Title: UI/UX Design

Outputs

Milestone 3 includes the following key activities:

1. Complete the production-ready design in Figma.
2. Film a video walk-through of the design.

These steps will result in a finalized, production-ready UI/UX design in Figma, along with a video walk-through.

The Figma file will be published and made available for community review. Similarly, the video walk-through will be published on YouTube and made available to the community.

Acceptance criteria

The production-ready UI/UX design is finalized, published and is accessible to the community for review.

The finalized production-ready design will be handed over to the engineering team. “Production-ready” means that it doesn’t need more work from designers and is ready for the engineering team to turn the design into code.

The video walk-through will be published on YouTube and made available to the community.

Evidence of Milestone completion

The Figma files and the video walk-through are publicly available and community members are able to review them.

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 5

Cost

32,857 ADA ($9,200)

% Completion

28%

Milestone 4

Title: Backend and Blockchain Development

Outputs

Milestone 4 involves the following key activities:

• Sprint planning, which includes meetings with the Product Manager, designers, and developers. This includes writing tickets with specifications, assigning story points, and more.
• Backend development
• Blockchain development
• Unit testing
• Manual testing
• Bug fixes
• Deployment
• Documentation

These steps will allow us to develop the feature and make the GitHub repository (public) available to the community member.

Acceptance criteria

The community members can review the source code which will be available on GitHub (open source)

Evidence of Milestone completion

Community members can view the source code of the features on GitHub (open source)

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 7

Cost

55,714 ADA ($14,400)

% Completion

39%

Milestone 5

Title: Frontend Development

Outputs

Milestone 5 involves the following key activities:

• Sprint planning, which includes meetings with the Product Manager, designers, and developers. This includes writing tickets with specifications, assigning story points, and more.
• Frontend development
• Unit testing
• Integration testing
• Manual testing
• End-to-end testing
• Bug fixes
• Deployment
• Documentation
• Film a product demo video

These steps will allow us to deploy the "extended quadratic funding" feature and produce a product demo video.

Acceptance criteria

Users can use the “Extended Quadratic Funding” feature on Socious. They include the following functions:

• As a project owner, I can publish my project.
• As a donor, I can connect my crypto wallet and donate assets to a project.
• The donation is matched by the matching pool based on the Extended Quadratic Formula
• As a project owner, I receive the funds (donation + matched amount).

1. The source code will be available on GitHub (open source)
2. These features will be published and available for the community members to go through the flow on the Socious app.
3. We will film a walk-through of these functions and publish the video on Youtube so that community members can access it.

NB: The aforementioned functions are subject to change, depending on the result of research in this project.

Evidence of Milestone completion

1. Community members can view the source code of the features on GitHub (open source)
2. Community members can view the video walk-through of these functions on Youtube.

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 9

Cost

94,571 ADA ($26,480)

% Completion

58%

Milestone 6

Title: Pilot Round Marketing Prep

Outputs

Milestone 6 includes the following key activities:

1. Prepare marketing materials - copywriting
2. Prepare marketing materials - visual assets

These steps will result in the following deliverables:

• Text materials to be used for pilot round marketing
• Visual assets to be used for pilot round marketing efforts

Acceptance criteria

• Text materials are finalized and available to the community members.
• Visual assets are finalized and available to the community member for review

Evidence of Milestone completion

• Community members can access text materials on Notion.
• Community members can access visual assets on Google Drive.

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 10

Cost

119,000 ADA ($33,320) including 107,143 ADA ($30,000) for the initial matching pool.

% Completion

82%

Final Milestone

Title: Testing and one round of crowdfunding

Outputs

Final Milestone involves the following key activities:

• Marketing to a specific target audience
• Onboard users as project beta testers
• Conduct user acceptance testing
• Analyze of users’ feedback
• Bug fixes if necessary
• Marketing efforts to onboard project owners
• Marketing efforts to onboard donors
• Efforts to get large donors for the matching pool
• Analyze the results of the first round of crowdfunding
• Draft a project close-out report
• Record a close-out video

These steps will produce the following deliverables:

• one round of crowdfunding completed
• a close-out report
• a close-out video

Acceptance criteria

The following items are publicly available for the community to review.

• Crowdfunding platform available to the public to participate.
• The results of the crowdfunding campaign will be published on our website at <https://socious.io>
• Project close-out report
• Project close-out video

Evidence of Milestone completion

• Community members can access, review, and participate in the crowdfunding campaign.
• The results of the first round of crowdfunding will be published on our website at <https://socious.io> and community members can review them.
• Community members can access and review the project close-out report.
• The project close-out video is published on Youtube for the community to review.

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 12

Cost

90,000 ADA ($25,200)

% Completion

100%

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

We have the following deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes for each milestone

Milestone 1

Title: Market and Technical Research

Outputs and Deliverables

Milestone 1 includes the following outputs:

• Conduct a literature review of the issue.
• Perform a market analysis.
• Conduct a competitor analysis.
• Conduct interviews with stakeholders and analyze them (recording dates and timestamps).
• Conduct research on technical aspects of the project.
• Develop a detailed plan of action for the project.
• Draft a technical and market research paper summarizing the findings above.

At the end of these outputs, we deliver a technical and market research paper summarizing the findings above

Intended outcomes

The market and technical research paper is finalized and published on Notion. It is accessible for community review.

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached below.

Community members can access the market and technical research paper to find the following content:

• Literature review
• Market analysis
• Competitor analysis
• Interviews with stakeholders and their analysis (including dates and timestamps)
• Technical aspects of the project
• Detailed action plans for the project

Milestone 2

Title: UI/UX Research

Outputs and deliverables

Milestone 2 includes the following key activities:

1. Based on the market and research paper, brainstorm and Ideate
2. Create prototypes for user research
3. Conduct user research using the prototypes
4. Compile and analyse the findings
5. Iterate design and repeat Step 3 and 4.
6. Finalize the UI/UX design
7. Consult with the developers to decide on the technical architecture based on the design
8. Draft a UI/UX Research Paper

These steps will results in a finalized UI/UX Research Paper.

Intended outcomes

The UI/UX Research Paper is finalized and published on Notion. It is accessible for community review.

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

Community members can access the UI/UX research paper.

Milestone 3

Title: UI/UX Design

Outputs and deliverables

Milestone 3 includes the following key activities:

1. Complete the production-ready design in Figma.
2. Film a video walk-through of the design.

These steps will result in a finalized, production-ready UI/UX design in Figma, along with a video walk-through.

The Figma file will be published and made available for community review. Similarly, the video walk-through will be published on YouTube and made available to the community.

Intended outcomes

• The production-ready UI/UX design is finalized, published and is accessible to the community for review.
• The finalized production-ready design will be handed over to the engineering team. “Production-ready” means that it doesn’t need more work from designers and is ready for the engineering team to turn the design into code.
• The video walk-through will be published on YouTube and made available to the community.

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

The Figma files and the video walk-through are publicly available and community members are able to review them.

Milestone 4

Title: Backend and Blockchain Development

Outputs and deliverables

Milestone 4 involves the following key activities:

• Sprint planning, which includes meetings with the Product Manager, designers, and developers. This includes writing tickets with specifications, assigning story points, and more.
• Backend development
• Blockchain development
• Unit testing
• Manual testing
• Bug fixes
• Deployment
• Documentation

These steps will allow us to develop the feature and make the GitHub repository (public) available to the community member.

Intended outcomes

The community members can review the source code which will be available on GitHub (open source)

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

Community members can view the source code of the features on GitHub (open source)

Milestone 5

Title: Frontend Development

Outputs and deliverables

Milestone 5 involves the following key activities:

• Sprint planning, which includes meetings with the Product Manager, designers, and developers. This includes writing tickets with specifications, assigning story points, and more.
• Frontend development
• Unit testing
• Integration testing
• Manual testing
• End-to-end testing
• Bug fixes
• Deployment
• Documentation
• Film a product demo video

These steps will allow us to deploy the "extended quadratic funding" feature and produce a product demo video.

Intended outcomes

Users can use the “Extended Quadratic Funding” feature on Socious. They include the following functions:

• As a project owner, I can publish my project.
• As a donor, I can connect my crypto wallet and donate assets to a project.
• The donation is matched by the matching pool based on the Extended Quadratic Formula
• As a project owner, I receive the funds (donation + matched amount).

1. The source code will be available on GitHub (open source)
2. These features will be published and available for the community members to go through the flow on the Socious app.
3. We will film a walk-through of these functions and publish the video on Youtube so that community members can access it.

NB: The aforementioned functions are subject to change, depending on the result of research in this project.

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

1. Community members can view the source code of the features on GitHub (open source)
2. Community members can view the video walk-through of these functions on Youtube.

Milestone 6

Title: Pilot Round Marketing Prep

Outputs and deliverables

Milestone 6 includes the following key activities:

1. Prepare marketing materials - copywriting
2. Prepare marketing materials - visual assets

These steps will result in the following deliverables:

• Text materials to be used for pilot round marketing
• Visual assets to be used for pilot round marketing efforts

Intended outcomes

• Text materials are finalized and available to the community members.
• Visual assets are finalized and available to the community member for review

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

• Community members can access text materials on Notion.
• Community members can access visual assets on Google Drive.

Final Milestone

Title: Marketing, user testing, Governance Framework and final report

Outputs and deliverables

Final Milestone involves the following key activities:

• Marketing to a specific target audience
• Onboard users as project beta testers
• Conduct user acceptance testing
• Analyze of users’ feedback
• Bug fixes if necessary
• Marketing efforts to onboard project owners
• Marketing efforts to onboard donors
• Efforts to get large donors for the matching pool
• Analyze the results of the first round of crowdfunding
• Draft a project close-out report
• Record a close-out video

These steps will produce the following deliverables:

• one round of crowdfunding completed
• a close-out report
• a close-out video

Intended outcomes

The following items are publicly available for the community to review.

• Crowdfunding platform available to the public to participate.
• The results of the crowdfunding campaign will be published on our website at <https://socious.io>
• Project close-out report
• Project close-out video

How we measure the project’s progress

We use Notion's project management function to track the progress of our projects. We organize our work into different projects, tasks, and sprints, and this tool allows us to measure our progress. An example is attached above.

• Community members can access, review, and participate in the crowdfunding campaign.

• The results of the first round of crowdfunding will be published on our website at <https://socious.io> and community members can review them.

• Community members can access and review the project close-out report.

• The project close-out video is published on Youtube for the community to review.

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

Please find below a detailed breakdown of our budget, including the number of people and hours allocated to each task. We have calculated the cost at $40 per person per hour. The base conversion rate for USD-ADA is 0.28.*

Executive summary:

Total Cost: 496,286 ADA ($138,960)

Milestone 1: 43,857 ADA ($12,280)

Milestone 2: 60,286 ADA ($16,880)

Milestone 3: 32,857 ADA ($9,200)

Milestone 4: 55,714 ADA ($14,400)

Milestone 5: 94,571 ADA ($26,480)

Milestone 6: 119,000 ($33,320) including 107,143 ADA ($30,000) for the initial matching pool.

Final Milestone: 90,000 ADA ($25,200)

Please find the details of the breakdown here: <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CeEEn7XnFCTysUeQrA6r0BQpwHzRI1p9mckNE92pB48/edit?usp=sharing>

*We've adopted the USD-ADA conversion rate of $0.28 which is the rate at the time of the proposal submission deadline.

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

Socious (<https://socious.io>) is a fast-growing impact startup that provides a talent marketplace, making impact work accessible and transparent. We connect purpose-driven professionals with impact organizations through AI matching. We use blockchain to trace impact work and reward contributions.

Socious is supported by 500Global, Microsoft, and Milkomeda Foundation. Our platform lists over 70k jobs, 23k organizations, and has 3.8k registered talents. Our team consists of experts in impact measurement, finance, data science, and blockchain development.

Socious has extensive experience in the Cardano ecosystem, having successfully completed five Catalyst-funded projects in Fund 9.

• Seira Yun

Title: Founder and CEO

Role: Product Ownership, Project Management, Research

Linkedin:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/seirayun/>

Bio: Seira Yun is the Founder and CEO of Socious.io, a talent marketplace that makes impact work accessible and transparent. Socious connects purpose-driven professionals with impact organizations through AI matching, and uses blockchain to trace impact work and reward contributions.

Seira is a serial impact entrepreneur with years of experience in the sector. He has led teams within the ICRC, UNHCR, and social ventures. Drawing from personal experiences as a migrant, an autistic person, and a proud pansexual queer, Seira is driven to make the world a better place through social innovation. As a full-stack developer with a Master's in Social Innovation from the University of Cambridge, he enjoys blending technology with purpose. Seira is also an impact angel investor, a member of Hustle Fund's Angel Squad, and a mentor for 4WARD.VC's Climate Accelerator. When not working, he enjoys shooting hoops, running, reading, spending quality time with the kids, or embracing the adventure of getting lost during travels. He is also a long-term member of the Cardano community; he’s won and managed five Catalyst projects and has completed Atala PRISM Pioneer Program.

• Minh Douangprachanh

Title: Lead Designer

Role: Design

LinkedIn:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/michel-douang/>

Bio: With more than a decade of experience specializing in product design, Minh is a multidisciplinary artist who has always believed art has a language of its own. As a neurodiverse individual, Minh is passionate about helping people and creating sustainable and inclusive solutions.

• Ehsan Mahmoudi

Title: Senior Backend Engineer

Role: Backend/Blockchain/AI Engineering

LinkedIn:

<https://linkedin.com/in/ehsan-mahmoudi-611123b8/>

Bio: More than 8 years of experience in Python and Machine Learning as well as extensive experience in blockchain development. Ehsan has worked for global startups including Rechat, AEC, and Navaak.

• Sajad Abbasi

Title: Senior Frontend Developer

Role: Frontend Development

LinkedIn:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/sajad-abbasi-39485696/>

Bio: An experienced frontend developer with 10+ years of experience.

• Sanaz Mahmoudi

Title: Frontend Developer

Role: Frontend Development

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanaz-mahmoudi/

Bio: An experienced frontend developer with 4+ years of experience.

• Azin Zare

Title: QA Engineer

Role: Quality Assurance

LinkedIn:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/azin-zare-355a27179/>

Bio: An experienced QA engineer with 9+ years of experience.

• Madi Lommen

Title: Partnerships Lead

Role: Project Management, Research

LinkedIn:

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/madi-lommen-394940b0/>

Bio: Madi has 10+ years experience in social entrepreneurship, impact investing, and partnership building. Madi is passionate about interdisciplinary learning / problem-solving that leverages entrepreneurship and multilingual teamwork for community development. In recent years, she founded Madibanani Co. to champion refugee youth, designed a data collection program on the Jordan-Syrian border, and coordinated military-like training for Emergency & Disaster volunteers of La Cruz Roja (Red Cross) in Ecuador. After completing a thesis on medieval Arabic poetry at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, she worked with a network of angel investors scaling women-led SMEs tackling poverty in Southeast Asia. She has experience working in four languages (English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese) and has lived in Singapore, Jordan, Ecuador, the UK, South Africa, the USA, and Japan.

• Raphael Hode

Title: Design Advisor

Role Design Direction

LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelhode/>

Bio: Raphael is a Strategic Designer with a passion for social innovation and sustainability. After a few years in advertising agencies in Paris, Raphael moved to Tokyo in 2015 and joined Designit, a global strategic design firm. At Designit Raphael worked on growing a team and helping some of Japan’s most ambitious companies make innovation happen, leading him to endorse a variety of roles across UX design, service design, business design, and strategy.

In parallel, he has been passionately engaging in activities related to sustainability and social innovation: giving talks and workshops, mentoring early-stage social founders, and eventually co-founding a social venture. Today, he spends most of his time working with incredible social entrepreneurs to help them define, design, and launch visionary products that contribute to creating a more sustainable society.

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

The proposed project holds immense potential to further the Cardano ecosystem, and while there are significant costs involved, they are justified in their allocation, and as such, represent excellent value for money.

To start, the impact of our Socious initiative is already apparent, with 3,700 individuals already introduced to the Cardano ecosystem. The current project not only aims to maintain this trend but to accelerate it further. This will help to expand the user base and, consequently, the value of the Cardano network, providing a high return on investment.

Addressing the labor costs, we have optimized our budget based on industry standards and geographical considerations. According to ZipRecruiter data, the average salaries for product designers, developers, and product managers are $72, $68, and $65 per hour, respectively. However, we have managed to budget the hourly salaries at a more cost-effective rate of $40, without compromising the quality of the work or expertise of the individuals involved.

This is made possible by leveraging our network of professionals who are both passionate about our mission and have agreed to work at rates that allow us to provide value to the Cardano ecosystem. As a result, our operational costs are significantly reduced while maintaining the necessary high standards of quality and professionalism.

In addition, we've allocated a significant chunk of the budget (107,143 ADA, equivalent to $30,000) to establish an initial matching pool. These funds will be methodically distributed among community members (project owners) following the principles of the extended quadratic funding model. This approach ensures a fair, democratically influenced allocation of resources that stimulates project development and community engagement.

Furthermore, the project budget was not created in isolation. It was meticulously crafted based on our extensive experience with similar projects in the past. This has given us a clear understanding of the human resources and hours necessary to successfully implement this project, resulting in a reliable, accurate budget.

For a comprehensive breakdown of the project costs, please refer to the following document:

<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CeEEn7XnFCTysUeQrA6r0BQpwHzRI1p9mckNE92pB48/edit?usp=sharing>

In conclusion, every dollar spent on this project is a targeted investment towards expanding the Cardano ecosystem, enhancing the utility of Cardano, and providing exceptional value for all stakeholders.