[DAO: QmYJrCs] Bitsoko Merchants shops on Decentraland

by 0xd51ea3dad67c86d4edd7403d3288c2217ae1d2b3

Should the following Tier 6: up to $240,000 USD, 6 months vesting (1 month cliff) grant in the Platform Contributor category be approved?

Abstract

Hello?

I am Gibson Juma, i have been working in the Blockchain space for the last 6 years after winning a global grand challenges a few years ago for more details about the challenge, check out

We have been working with merchants in Nairobi and its greater suburbs by developing Blockchain based solutions and helping small businesses go online.
https://gateway.bitsoko.org/soko.html
Having said this, i have seen the benefits of digitizing business solutions and believe Decentraland is the next frontier of doing business, because a digital the business environment will have greater customization hence streamline the business process

Grant size

240,000 USD

Beneficiary address

0xD51eA3DAD67C86D4Edd7403D3288C2217aE1D2b3

Description

We are targeting the African population who’s median age in is 19.7years. This means capturing a market while in its infancy. More users creating accounts to make purchases, or visit shops , and in return more impressions for other users and other projects on the Metaverse.

Africa’s internet infrastructure is pretty much non existent, or very poor where it exists, we are happy to be one of the few companies building it. What this means for the young people doing business online, it is challenging, also for the few who have managed to conquer the internet they frequently face multiple roadblocks like nonexistent platform integration ie pay pal failure to integrate Mobile money though some progress has been made towards this end it has been long overdue. There is a nonexistent bridge between Credit cards a payment mode dominant in the west. This means restricted capital flows hence a problem resolved by digitizing the business premises . Its worth noting credit and debit cards are NOT accepted by a large number of residents of the vast continent, but mobile is the dominant form of payment in the order of several fold. Bitsoko is Building its services around mobile money.

We intend to resolve this by allowing our merchants to sell their digital goods and services in the Metaverse thereby eliminating excessive bureaucracy and excessive red tape experienced during the business registration process experienced by many young entrepreneurs starting their entrepreneurship journey.

Capturing the market potential of the Young African continent should be something Decentraland should be interested in. Not only will they visit our shops on the mataverse, they will also visit other locations on Decentraland implying positive multiplier effects in terms of user visits and Platform adoption, I am sure they will be spending alot too.

Specification

We intend to hire more developers particularly to develop 3D models for the Metaverse. I believe we will have multiple integrations between the real world shops and those in the metaverse which can end up slowing you down.

Its worth noting Bitsoko has a plot of land on Decentraland though not the desired size check out.
https://play.decentraland.org/?position=58,-125

we have also been creating content posted on our youtube, check out

Without a doubt we see the potential of the Metaverse.
Thanks to Bill and Melinda gates foundation, an angle investor does not require much from you, we have been working without any fixed deadlines on the project. This has not stopped us from seeing the project is a success, as we have partnered with other industry leaders including Solana, Algorand, wallet of satoshi, among many others still in the works.

More details about the project timeline check out our Whitepaper on our community page here.

Personnel

We are a large group of developers but principally led by the co-founders Gibson Juma and Allan Juma more about us check out the whitepaper on our website check out.

Roadmap and milestones

We hope to be able to let our users buy and sell digital products and services within 1 year after we receive the grant, thereafter we hope to be able to enable our users sell other goods from the Metaverse using interrogations with google maps and Bluetooth beacons in physical shops in the real world over the next year. thanks to our Networking department Dooca check out https://gateway.bitsoko.org/dooca.html

We hope to report on a trimester basis every 4 months but its good to note we are in a third world country and most things do not run like in a first world country. We have no issue moving elsewhere as we have done during our many visits around the continent, and we have come to like it the way it is, as it has informed our product development heavily. We are developing a service to be used in a market which we already are already part of. Be that as it may, we are very young developers with a vision for the continent and hope to bring the project to a successful end.

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

Awesome project!

Decentraland is not the most accessible platform (can’t run on mobile or small notebooks). But maybe it can serve as a storefront to offer services from Africa to the world.

I know what is like to be unable to offer services to the world due to traditional finance systems limitations, and how crypto can solve that. Voting yes!

I’m keeping the yes vote, but I find some issues:

  • The grant is too big too soon.
  • You will be using resources (developers) to build in Decentraland, but those resources could be better used on other aspects of your platform that have a immediate benefit on your community.
  • You could describe also in more detain how your project can benefit Decentraland. Hint: The Decentraland community needs developers and designers, not only users.

The offered digital services will be useful for the Decentraland community?

Would be great if you can expand on those topics!