[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Formalizing and developing a framework for an Asia Stakepool Alliance.

Bridging the gap between the Cardano ecosystem of single pool operators, the impact investing world, and would be delegators.

Accelerating progress to an equitable and sustainable world supported by an impactful Asia Stakepool Alliance.

An Alliance collaborating, combining and sharing resources in order to provide a clear, coherent and understandable offering to diverse stakeholders.

An Alliance that will effectively communicate and demonstrate the opportunities for investors/delegators to not only make a return on their investment, but to also have a positive social and environmental impact via supporting mission driven, single pool operators, the change makers on the ground in Asia.

In order to drive change where it is most needed, and to ensure finances are optimally used for maximum positive impact, accurate and trustworthy data is necessary to make informed decisions. Having said that, “statistics alone do not feed the hungry, create jobs or provide social services but they are critical in helping us to better understand the challenges, and to design more effective policies for inclusive, sustainable and resilient development.” - UNESCAP, 2017 - What’s Up with Statistics? Their Importance in the Asia-Pacific region

<u>What is Impact Investing?</u>

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv3oKGUbCPo>“Impact investing is not an asset class. It is an investment approach, across all asset classes, themes and geographies, and has a full range of risks and returns.”

<u>Why Asia?</u>

Asia is the most populated continent in the world (Statista, 2021).

With blockchain being the number 1 in demand hard skill of 2020, our proposal seeks to catalyze, cultivate and encourage the burgeoning interest amongst the architects and entrepreneurs of the future in blockchain and related technologies in the digital economy.

Business schools switch focus to people, purpose and planet l FT

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxgZWgqssV0>“We face an analogous situation in impact investing. Business schools can help to fill the gap. Graduates who are not trained to understand the social impact of the great breakthroughs happening in technology, biology, physics and other essential areas are less likely to understand the risks and rewards of investing in these innovations to overcome poverty and climate change… If business schools can capture this essential interplay between profit and purpose, they will go a long way to teaching their students that impact and a strong focus on environmental, social and governance factors are not just nice things to have, but bedrocks of sound financial investments.” - [**https://www.ft.com/content/3f1d912e-17b1-4d6e-ad28-20e52ed61ea0?shareType=nongift**](https://www.ft.com/content/3f1d912e-17b1-4d6e-ad28-20e52ed61ea0?shareType=nongift)

Cardano and its stake pool operators operating out of Africa and Asia, the two most populated continents globally, are perfectly situated to drive Cardano towards impact purposes, and provide many services across multiple fronts such as education, financing positive social and environmental initiatives and helping to uplift communities from poverty to prosperity through economic security and financial and digital literacy and upskilling. Such mission driven SPOs should be on the radar of the impact investors coming out of business schools across the world.

“In order to effectively and efficiently ensure that impactful changes are made, it is essential that interventions are based on evidence rather than assumptions. Blockchain technologies can play a crucial part in establishing the required chain of evidence for environmental compliance: validating sources of emissions data, informing policy decisions, providing evidence of compliance, and monitoring impacts in a transparent and incontrovertible way.” - https://static.iohk.io/green-blockchain-paper.pdf

Single SPO’s play an essential and integral role in ensuring Cardano remains a secure and decentralized network. Mission driven pools are also at the frontier of a paradigm shift in disrupting legacy systems and methods of directing finance to solve local and global problems.

Having said that, single SPOs everywhere have been struggling. A common theme pops up all around the community, the challenge of marketing a SPO and its benefits.

Simply put, they are failing to attract more delegators to their pool. This makes operating one economically challenging and unviable for many.

In the developing world, most people are unfamiliar with web 3.0, blockchain and Cardano. Many are oblivious to the potential benefits of blockchain, staking and what even is a SPO.

In the spirit of collaboration and collective intelligence sharing, cultural and knowledge exchange, we propose that a structured and organized Asia Stakepool Alliance can bring about many benefits to the Cardano community at large, the Alliance members, and provide a coherent and understandable message to would-be delegators, and potential impact investors.

Stakeholders from ecosystems currently external to Cardano, but who are open to innovative ways to support mission driven causes and actors, whilst making a return on their investment via Cardano’s innovative Proof of Stake model, will be targeted for onboarding into the Cardano ecosystem.

The Asia Stakepool Alliance can prove to be an inspiration for others globally, with others inspired to follow a path that may have previously been deemed inaccessible.

Alliances currently exist in the Cardano community and we seek to add value to this growing constellation of impact actors in the increasingly decentralized network, by providing a framework for geographically situated mission driven, single pool operators to receive support in finding their feet.

The alliance made up of single pool operators can also collectively explore the research published by IOHK that proposes the idea of Conclave, “… stake pools tend to increase centralization, since they are typically managed by a single party that acts on behalf of the pool’s members. In this work we propose Conclave, a formal design of a Collective Stake Pool, i.e., a decentralized pool with no single point of authority.” - https://iohk.io/en/research/library/papers/conclavea-collective-stake-pool-protocol/

“One day I’d love to see Enterprise employees and shareholders voting on Cardano which MDPs to delegate ESG/CSR funds to for 12mth at a time.

Scores of SDG targets would be knocked down and many missions would be funded ad infinitum

#Cardano #Blockchain #Crypto #CardanoCommunity“

- David Taylor, Global Marketing Director, Cardano Foundation-

https://twitter.com/I_Am_DTaylor/status/1507430167991492625?t=P07uzndtLg_G4Z53QZtYuw&s=19

With the Asia Stakepool Alliance, in tandem with other Mission Driven Pools/Alliances, with the support of this proposal the Asia Stakepool Alliance can cover the costs, time commitment and resources needed to produce:

• An Alliance Website
• Social media channels
• External Communication materials such as an Impact Investor Pack

These efforts can support Alliance members in being seen and potentially receiving delegations from:

• financial institutions
• Corporates
• Philanthropists
• Private Equity and Venture Capital Fund managers
• Foundation Directors
• Family Office Principals/Directors
• NextGen Leaders
• Incubators
• Accelerators
• And all those who have access to significant capital, or have responsibility for large investment portfolios and are used to managing assets of High Net Worth Individuals, families or funds.

Armed with the awareness and knowledge of the happenings in the Cardano impact ecosystem, external stakeholders as listed above, and those such as individuals who are either deploying or intend to deploy capital with an impact investing lens can arrive at an array of options offered by the Asia Stakepool Alliance.

Evidence that there is indeed a desire out there for such a service and information is demonstrated with news announced at the Cardano Summit 2021. UBX, the fintech venture studio and fund spun out of UnionBank of the Philippines, opened their own public stake pool. UBX became the first in the world to run a public stake pool as a regulated institution. UBX Staking provides Filipinos a reputable and trustworthy source to earn rewards on their ADA for helping to secure and operate the Cardano blockchain. - https://www.ubx.ph/2021/10/01/ubx-leads-in-crypto-becomes-first-regulated-institution-to-run-a-public-stake-pool/

More info on the UBX stakepool:

https://staking.ubx.ph/

https://pool.pm/92a10197f76a6bf4e27f9c813a80b532d231e5b99da72603b2cd65fb

The Asia Stakepool Alliance will aim to include single pool operators as members from across Asia, representing Asia inclusively and reflecting its richness of cultural diversity.

Collectively the Alliance will work to improve the digital and financial literacy among its members and population, its delegators, and all those who stand to benefit from being part of this revolutionary Web3.0 digital movement, bringing power, ownership and value to all that wish to participate.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

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

<u>Why is it necessary?</u>

Impact investing is at its nascent stage in Asia. Although it is now getting an increasing level of attention from various actors in the social investment ecosystem, there are only a handful of impact funds and foundations that are actually practicing impact investing.

The obstacles that are hindering impact investing from gaining traction in Asia amongst wealth holders, asset managers and their advisors include the perception that it will necessitate a trade-off on financial returns, a lack of an investment-ready pipeline, inexperience in managing a portfolio, and the complexities in defining and evaluating impact measurement. - https://avpa.africa/africa-asia-impact-investing-fellowship/

With the support of this Catalyst proposal and the Cardano community, developing the Asia Stake Pool Alliance, will enable, equip and empower populations across the world’s most populated continent.

The creation and formalization of this framework and Alliance will open up new pathways for stakeholders and impact investors from the world’s largest markets.

As a coherently organized Alliance, with professional, high quality materials and resources, the Alliance can approach and be approached by stakeholders from impact investing fellowships and networks and beyond.

An Asia Stakepool Alliance can capture external stakeholder’s attention and bring attention and real financial flow where it is needed, to who needs it, by providing capital and resources to those who are best placed to understand the problems and how to solve them, those on the ground. This in turn can catalyze a positive multiplier effect with new inflows of capital unlocking the potential of grassroots change makers and organizations, helping to accelerate their progress and giving them the means to scalably have the most impact on the ground.

This proposal will work to bring all interested members/SPOs in the ecosystem, to be part of the group of ‘founding members’, to lay the groundwork and continue building towards a common vision and mission of a better world for not just those in Asia, but the whole world!

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTJYOHEtn-4>$1 Billion Impact Investor Explains How She Makes Money While Making The World A Better Place

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

The deliverable/s and KPIs will be:

• Onboarding process how to guide A-Z Asia SPO document

• Telegram managed channel for Asia SPOs and community support

• Open access database of Asia SPOs (Asia based and those supporting Asia with mission driven causes - once vetted) - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C8dG__cEmiScN1YTk8jZL_efV4Ih4p1rMeRRgiWa5Gk/edit?usp=sharing

• Input Metrics (leading indicators):

• number of promotions for the service on public forums, telegram groups, and twitter

• number of qualifying projects (peer verified)

• number of qualifying stake pools (peer verified)

• Output Metrics (lagging indicators):

• number of SPOs and projects that work together

• amount of delegated ADA to these pools before and after partnering

• amount of rewards generated before and after partnering

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

The development and outcome of the project will be regularly published on our social media accounts and websites that will be created (we will explore creating a website on web 3.0 infrastructure using unstoppable domains that are yoroi wallet compatible and also a webpage and payment address all in one that bridges to other blockchain ecosystems).

We will also share and host AMAs in public town halls, such as the Eastern Town Hall, and twitterspaces.

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

We have had a lot of success while growing Sustainable ADA over the last few years. We have been closely connected to the Cardano community through our Project Catalyst proposing experience.

Learn more about all of our past funded projects here: <https://sustainableada.com/catalyst/>

Sustainable ADA has created: 48 individual stories on projects building in the Cardano community and making the world a better place.

More info here: <https://sustainableada.com/news/>

Sustainable ADA also created the Cardano Impact Report where they highlighted over 65+ Impact Project buildings on Cardano to make the world more sustainable and equitable for all.

Free Version can be found here: <https://sustainableada.com/cardano-impact-report/>

More work we have taken part in:

Impact Measurement research: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFC7zRNrdg/em1s_yQDnNU6sPW6KJ8hnA/view?utm_content=DAFC7zRNrdg&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

Positive Blockchain Cardano integration and Project Catalyst Support:

We have been creating a community of impact, forged through strategic and impactful partnerships:

Streets of ADA - A Samsudin Brothers Projek also has a diverse and strong team with an Asia presence:

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

• #no of existing Asia based single stakepool operators joining the alliance
• #no of new Asia based single stakepool operators that are created with the help of the Asia Stakepool Alliance and join the alliance
• #no of partnerships created between stakeholders external to the Cardano ecosystem and the Asia Stakepool Alliance, based single stakepool operators, that are created with the help of the Asia Stakepool Alliance and join the alliance
• #no of partnerships created between stakeholders external to the Cardano ecosystem and Asia single stakepool operators, thanks to the support of the Asia Stakepool Alliance
• # of new delegators staking with Asia Stakepool Alliance members
• Total amount in ADA (and in $USD) being staked with Asia Stakepool Alliance

Participatory monitoring and evaluation from beginning to the end of the pilot project.

We will measure and have sign ups using google forms/sheets and have publicly accessible information that we will share via the website (soon to be made) and on the open access publicly viewable sheet.

Number of sign ups that meet our criteria for the Asia Stakepool Alliance, to become listed in our open access database (google sheet).

[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.

<u>3 month roadmap:</u>

<u>Month 1</u>

• Establish a panel of project peers to evaluate and determine "proof of soul" for community projects.
• Establish a panel of SPOs to verify the security, configuration, and ensure candidate stake pools are following best practices
• Establish best practices around wallet management and margin allocation between stake pools and projects

<u>Month 2</u>

• Begin working with partners to find projects that are interested in stake pool support
• Outreach to xSPO and other SPO communities to find interested stake pools to come meet the projects
• Begin peer evaluation process and matchmaking

<u>Month 3</u>

• Publish open-source documentation on how peer review happens for projects and stake pools

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

• Have a set of criteria and documented procedures for peer-reviewing stake pools and projects by the end of Month 1

• Forge alliance between Asia Stakepool Alliance, Africa Stakepool Alliance, and relevant SPOs

3 months: SPOs all completed their reporting and contributed significantly to the documentation, which is well received by the community.

Longer term vision:

6 months: Feedback gathered on both the program and the current state of SPOs in Asia, what their risk profiles are and how to address their main challenges.

12 months: Second iteration of project launched, with a focus on software tools, dashboards and data management to support a larger number of SPOs.

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

Project Management = 12 months x $1000 = $12000

Website 12 months + Maintenance = $2660

• ADAHandle, Unstoppable domains and yoroi compatible web 3.0 domain and handles for addresses:one off payments for life = $100

Marketing Campaign (to SPOs and projects) = $40/hr * 10 hrs = $400

Community Management = $50/hr * 40 hrs = $2000

SPO security review process = $50/hr * 40 hrs = $2000

Pool Network Coordination = $50/hr * 20 hrs = $1000

Communication Hub Management (Discord, Telegram) = $25/hr * 10 hrs = $250

Technology and infrastructure = $500

Resources: $6000

• Translation of How to be a SPO in Asia into multiple Asian languages
• Template video for marketing and communications
• Youtube subtitles
• PDF packs (brochures)
• Website resources and translation plug ins

SPO incentives $10000

Total = 116,000 ADA or $36910 (ADA/USD = 1/0.32 - 17.7.23)

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

Team Info:

Impact Web3 & Sustainable ADA

Cole Bartlett and Razali Samsudin Co-founded Sustainable ADA and Impact Web 3, and have been shaping it into what it is today.

It all started with the initial idea for Sustainable ADA back on April 20th of 2021 (Sustainable ADA 2021). Together, we co-founded it in June of 2021. We have backgrounds, professional experiences, and knowledge in education, economics, sustainability, and how blockchain technologies can be harnessed for good.

Cole Bartlett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-bartlett

Bachelors in Economics and Sustainability | Blockchain/Sustainability Researcher | Social Entrepreneur | Co-Founder of Impact Web 3 & Sustainable ADA | Positive Blockchain Contributor | Impact Measurement Expertise | Donation Officer for Yagazie Foundation | Blockchain Learning Center Core Member | Co-Founder of Vermont Fishing | Decentralized Lead Generation | UNITE 2030 Youth Delegate

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-bartlett>

https://twitter.com/cole_vt

Razali Samsudin: Co-author of Recalibrating Value, Identity and Impact Through the Blockchain Cardano Impact Report

Co-Founder of Sustainable ADA, Streets of ADA - A Samsudin Brothers Projek,

15 years of experience as an interdisciplinary Educator from early years settings to postgraduate level, with a background in social sciences, humanities, and sustainability. Author, Writer, Editor, Digital Economy, Blockchain, Sustainability and Impact Measurements, Researcher (Research Lead Connecting SDGs to Project Catalyst and lead on the SDG Proposer Tool and SDG Search Tool with Cardano AIM #Blockchain4Good, #Cardano4Good, #NFT4Good). Social Entrepreneur, Catalyst Proposal Mentor.

Wada UN SDG and Education Coordinator, Contributor at Cardano AIM, PositiveBlockchain, Cardano4Climate, Catalyst School, Adafilms.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/razali-samsudin>

<https://twitter.com/Razlosophy>

Catalyst Journey:

We joined Project Catalyst, Cardano’s decentralized innovation fund, during fund 4. After applying and learning from both funds 4 and 5 along with lots of support from Cardano community members and teams, we were able to construct a strong proposal together that focused on our goals and ambitions for Sustainable ADA, and the Cardano community’s goals. We submitted a proposal focused on helping Grow Cardano, and Grow Africa.

With this funding, we had more capacity to focus on researching and sharing stories from change-makers in Africa and the diaspora, who are engaging with Cardano, creating a better tomorrow, today.

Thanks to the Cardano community and the use of their voting power from holding and staking ADA, we successfully secured the funding we were seeking. This helped us to take significant steps towards fulfilling our vision and mission having secured these crucial and helpful funds.

Through our time in the Project Catalyst ecosystem, we have been able to create a lot of strong and exciting partnerships with projects and businesses all across the world. This has led us to develop new ambitions for the work we do and to expand beyond education.

More about the projects we have been involved in: <https://sustainableada.com/catalyst/>

Experience and Expertise

The Sustainable ADA team has experience working with Figma, Canva, Wix, Final Cut Pro, Da Vinci Resolve 17, Adobe CC, Microsoft Products (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc).

Sustainable ADA has experience and backgrounds in Sustainability, Economics, Humanities, Social Sciences. Along with work with NGOs, Social Enterprises, Freelance journalism, and blogging.

The team has been a part of the Cardano ecosystem since 2020 and is very dedicated to the Cardano ecosystem. We created Recalibrating Value, Identity & Impact Through the Blockchain: Cardano Impact Report 2023“.

The team also has undertaken the first of its kind Cardano Impact Report.

The Cardano Impact Report is a comprehensive publication that aims to capture and showcase the positive impact generated by the Cardano community. It is designed as a book NFT (Non-Fungible Token) to leverage the unique features of blockchain technology, ensuring authenticity, transparency, and immutability of the content.

<https://sustainableada.com/cardano-impact-report/>

Sustainable ADAs community partners:

At A Samsudin Brothers Projek team, we have already developed an international network of partners, advisors and supporters from within the Cardano community and beyond, who believe in our vision and are down for the mission:

Affendi Samsudin: Co-Founder at Streets of ADA - A Samsudin Brothers Projek team and Lead Artist

<https://twitter.com/TR1PL7>

<https://asamsudinbrothersprojek.gitbook.io/streets-of-ada/>

<https://t.me/+7vGMYWxIeukyNmI0>

Asia Stakepool Alliance Telegram chat

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

With the support of Catalyst funding and the Cardano community, this proposal would have enabled our team to have the resources and capacity to direct focused efforts that facilitate a significant inflow and redirection of ADA, and capital from stakeholders that were external to the Cardano ecosystem before the proposition of the Asia Stakepool Alliance.

ADA is now flowing towards and being staked with single pool operators in Asia and parts of the world that were originally marketed as the key beneficiaries of Cardano’s ambitious, innovative and disruptive solutions, including to bank the unbanked and underbanked.

The grand vision of Charles Hoskinson is a daily reality for millions more people across Asia and the diaspora.

Change makers are able to drive positive action with the support of a decentralized network of impact oriented actors and SPOs, all aligned by common values and connected by their passion and drive to build a better, equitable and sustainable world for all.

The cost of the project represents value for money as it enables the kickstart and acceleration of impactful activity by the Sustainable ADA and Streets of ADA - A Samsudin Brothers Projek team. We have already worked since 2022 to onboard members into the Cardano community, including the 39 NGOs of the Palawan NGO Network Inc., Talk to Loop, and other stakeholders.

We have already been the boots on the ground, connecting the dots in the community and beyond:

<https://twitter.com/streetsofada/status/1664055863898693632/photo/1> - Co-founder Affendi, @TR1PL7 recently met Miguel - Community Manager @CardanoSpot @Le_Migzerazzi on the @streetsofada , Manila, the Philippines.