Week 1 Deliverables
Hackathon Challenge: Impact for Identity/Vulnerable populations
Problem:
The world’s best, largest, and freest university is the internet, yet poor youth have not been incentivized to leverage it for developing real world job skills. How can we incentivize education, skills and job training, to vulnerable youth populations.
Current scholarship models speculate on future outcomes based on past results. This means working youth are penalized versus their wealthy peers who have tutors, studying time and additional tools for learning at home. The "C" of a student who works a full time job is lost compared to the "A" of the student with private tutors for each subject.
Why are Nigerians famous for email scams? They have good English, coupled with good internet, yet not enough opportunities. Why are poor women in Argentina making money as cam girls rather than finding non exploitive work? There is both a physical and virtual 3rd world, and connectivity can result in harm without the proper skill sets to avoid being taken advantage of.
Blockchain Solution:
GoSOFI! Stands for “Self Organizing Financial Incentivization,” . The platform connects donors, students and both digital and human oracles. Donors can fund smart contracts which issue micro-rewards to students as they complete online coursework. Upon completion of the course students will receive a certification secured by ethereum's blockchain and audited by GoSOFI!.
The blockchain technology will facilitate:
-Automated distribution of micro scholarships based on coursework completion, turning the scholarship model on its head. Actual effort towards acquiring a measurable skill is rewarded vs speculating on future performance.
-Smart contracts with partners incentivizing certain skills in certain regions
-Immutable, auditable certification of said skills to equalize employment opportunities for remote workers
-The pseudonymous nature of blockchain means donations to an open scholarship fund are traceable, and the receiver of that automatically distributed fund can send thank you notes back, therefore build a relationship with their donors. What was considered a bug is a feature in GoSOFI.
-Simple tokenization allows sponsors to gift rewards for students without human intervention (i.e. vouchers for digital and physical goods.)
-Banks the unbanked, inclusion of those that don’t have access to a bank account More capable of using other types of technologies to help in identification of people. AI and other identity
By reaching individuals in these connected, poor communities we can aggregate the data of their skills, interests and needs geographically, and hone in on which initiatives creates the biggest social impact.
Market Size: Urbanization rates are on the rise in developing countries. The potential size of the social impact market is youth (or adults) who suffer economic disparity, yet have an, an internet connection. Our test market in Buenos Aires largest slum, Villa 31, sits next to one of the most privileged neighborhood and therefore, has nearly identical 4G internet service. This is similar in Rio de Janeiro and many of the biggest cities in the developing world.
Current Solutions: There are a range of free education resources, but none provide financial rewards for poor youth completing these online courses. There are NGOs involved in vulnerable youth, yet by definition they can only focus on specific fields due to their physical and financial limits.
Team:
Xavier Lavayssière -Developer
Tony Rose- Developer
Paul- Developer (no email yet)
Maria Alvarez- International educational development
Aditi- Consensys Academy (mentor)
Chris Sorrentino- Social business entrepreneur
Selva- UIX (mentor)
Rachel Turner- Visual design, marketing, strategy, content
Ben - Accounting/law (not confirmed)
Marjan- Social impact consultant (mentor)
Cooper- Education industry/business mentor (no email yet)
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