Humanity Card

According to the United Nations, as of 2021, an estimated 734 million people live in extreme poverty, which is defined as living on less than $1.90 a day. This represents approximately 9.2% of the global population. The majority of people living in extreme poverty are located in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this issue, with an additional 120 million people being pushed into extreme poverty.  Unfortunately, various challenges can make distributing funds to these individuals on a large scale difficult for local governments, non-profits, and foundations. Additionally, relying solely on donations for poverty alleviation can be risky, as market forces can cause a decrease in donations during economic downturns, leaving communities without the necessary funds. A sustainable solution is needed to provide ongoing support to those in need.

Humanity Card is a digital platform that combines credit card transactions, easy web3 onboarding, and decentralized blockchain-powered poverty alleviation programs. This platform is designed to provide socially conscious individuals with a way to use their credit card for everyday purchases, choose a community to support, and track their impact over time using a dynamic NFT in their Web3 wallet.Our credit card stands out because it features artwork from the NFT community. Unlike other credit cards that only pay artists a one-time fee for using their art, we share revenue with the artists. We believe that art is an ongoing contribution, and since artists are an integral part of web3 culture, they should have a stake in the financial instrument they help support.

Our approach to poverty alleviation involves decentralization to avoid fund mismanagement by intermediaries. As all transactions are recorded on the blockchain, we serve as an online repository that tracks how distributed funds are utilized in local communities. Humanity Card is uniting people worldwide not just in theory, but through measurable data and direct impact on individuals.

Our current goal is to assist the communities that receive support from the Impact Market program, which provides Unconditional Basic Income through the Celo blockchain. This program is currently active in 30 countries and has distributed almost 3 million cUSD. Unfortunately, donations have decreased due to the current bear market. To combat this issue, we plan to create a financial product that can automatically fund UBI without relying on one time donations, in order to help reduce poverty.

We are confident in our ability to provide this solution as we deeply understand the workings of smart contract technology and the efficiency of web3 in redistributing wealth. Additionally, we recognize the importance of NFT artists in building community and supporting the culture of web3 and cryptocurrency.

Currently we are not implemented yet, but in the past Fiona Aboud's art has generated about $2000 to alleviate poverty through Impact Market.  

While we possess a solid understanding of blockchain technologies and their utility, we currently lack the technical expertise required to bring our project to fruition. Our plan is to introduce a private label credit card, but we require assistance in fully comprehending the financial and legal aspects involved.

Our concept aims to change how we address poverty and value art in society. Currently, one-time donations to organizations like Impact Market are the primary means of alleviating poverty. We propose integrating contributions into our financial system to make giving a seamless part of everyday life. While our initial focus is not on revolutionizing the credit card industry, we aim to steadily grow and validate our idea before creating a more competitive and efficient version of the credit card. The current fee structure and executive payouts in the credit card industry are unfair, and the system is essentially a monopoly.

In today's financial structure, artists are typically commissioned for a piece of art and only the commissioned artist benefits financially. For instance, American Express commissioned Blue Chip artists Kehinde Wiley and Julie Mehretu to design art for their credit cards. However, imagine a world where the commission is ongoing and distributed among thousands of artists, helping to increase the earning potential of lesser-known artists. Our current plan is to associate each artist's NFT work with 100 credit cards in the form of an NFT, with each transaction fee being aggregated and distributed among all participating artists. This system not only provides a passive income for artists, but also eliminates bias in artist selection by decentralizing curation. While we will initially rely on our current artist community for adoption, the program is designed to benefit artists of all levels of recognition.

Our plan for the next five years is to establish a credit card infrastructure that distributes money per transaction to UBI protocols on the blockchain. Once we have achieved greater adoption, we aim to launch our own credit card product. 

In the first year, we will partner with an existing credit card company to create a private label credit card. We will develop the structure of the credit card and crypto backend, onboard artists and art using decentralized curation methods, and offer discounts to cardholders through partnerships with socially minded businesses. 

In the second year, we will begin onboarding customers through social media and traditional media marketing campaigns. We will build up donations and communicate tangible results, and artists will start receiving monthly commission crypto payouts. 

In the third year, we will prove adoption and start fundraising to create our own credit card infrastructure. We will integrate crypto-native payments into the card. 

In the fourth year, we will roll out an independent credit card in the US, with higher numbers for reducing poverty and thousands of artists participating. NFTs will be bought and sold on our platform, resulting in additional funds to donate to UBI. 

In the fifth year, we will roll out the credit card worldwide.  By this point we wish to have contributed 10 million dollars to poverty alleviation.  

Our decentralized infrastructure allows us to send money to people living in extreme poverty and track the impact of our funding using blockchain data. This helps us keep track of the number of people we support, where they live, and where the money is spent.

1. Problem statement: Identify the problem of poverty and its root causes in the targeted areas and communities.

2. Solution: Develop a blockchain-based financial transaction platform that charges a minimal fee on every transaction made, and channel a portion of the fees to poverty alleviation programs in the targeted areas and communities.

3. Activities:

• Building and launching the transaction platform on the blockchain: This includes developing the software, testing it, and deploying it on a blockchain network that supports transactions.

• Identifying and partnering with poverty alleviation programs and organizations in the targeted areas and communities: This involves identifying organizations that have a proven track record of working on poverty alleviation on the blockchain, and establishing partnerships with them to channel the transaction fees to their programs.
  

• Marketing and promoting the platform to potential users: This includes creating awareness about the platform, its benefits, and the impact it can have on poverty alleviation efforts. Onboarding Artists onto the platform and have artists engage with their communities to promote the platform.The goal is to encourage people to use the platform and contribute to poverty alleviation programs.

1. Outputs:

• Number of transactions made on the platform: This is an important metric to track, as it reflects the adoption and usage of the platform.

• Amount of fees collected: This is the revenue generated by the platform, which can be channeled to poverty alleviation programs.

• Number of poverty alleviation programs and organizations that receive funding: This indicates the reach and impact of the platform in supporting poverty alleviation efforts.

1. Outcomes:

• Increased financial inclusion and access to financial services for people in poverty: By providing a low-cost and accessible financial transaction platform, the company can enable people in poverty to access financial services, such as making payments, receiving money, and saving.

• Improved financial literacy and management skills among users of the platform: By providing a platform that is easy to use and transparent, the company can help improve financial literacy and management skills among its users.

• Enhanced capacity of poverty alleviation programs and organizations to provide support and services to people in need: By channeling transaction fees to poverty alleviation programs and organizations, the company can help enhance their capacity to provide support and services to people in need.

• Reduction in poverty levels in the targeted communities: By contributing to poverty alleviation efforts through its platform, the company can help reduce poverty levels in the targeted communities.

Impact:

Based on the outcomes achieved, the company can scale up its operations and increase its impact by expanding to other communities and regions. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the global effort to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development goals. As the platform grows, the company can also explore new ways to enhance its impact, such as partnering with governments and other stakeholders to support poverty alleviation efforts.

The core technology of Humanity Card collects financial transaction fees from a credit card and donates them to poverty alleviation on the blockchain can be broken down into four main components:

1. Credit Card Payment Processing System: The company would need to integrate with the private label credit card issuer's payment processing system to securely and reliably capture transaction data from credit card payments. This would require building a payment processing gateway that can communicate with the issuer's payment processing system and handle payment data.

2. Blockchain Platform: The company would need to build a blockchain platform to receive, process, and track transaction fees from private label credit card payments. This platform would need to be capable of securely handling financial data, and have the ability to track transaction history in a transparent and immutable way.

3. Smart Contracts: The company would use smart contracts on the blockchain to automatically execute the donation of transaction fees to poverty alleviation programs and artists. Smart contracts would need to be designed to accurately calculate and distribute transaction fees to the appropriate poverty alleviation programs based on pre-defined criteria, such as geography or focus area.

4. Private Label Credit Card Integration: In addition to integrating with payment processors, the company would need to integrate with the private label credit card issuer's systems to securely retrieve transaction data and other relevant information. This may involve building custom integrations and APIs to connect with the issuer's systems.

Overall, the core technology of the company would be focused on securely capturing transaction data from private label credit card transactions, processing it on a blockchain platform, and using smart contracts to automate the donation of transaction fees to poverty alleviation programs and artists. The technology would need to be reliable, secure, and scalable, capable of handling high volumes of transactions and providing transparency and accountability to all stakeholders involved, including the private label credit card issuer.

As Latinx and Asian female founders of a poverty alleviation company, we believe that incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity into our mission and approach is critical to our success in addressing the complex challenges of poverty.

Our approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion starts with our team. We are intentional about building a team that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve, and that is culturally competent and responsive to the needs of our clients. We actively seek out candidates from underrepresented groups and prioritize training and development programs that build cultural awareness and sensitivity.

As women of color, we also recognize the importance of representation and leadership in our company. We strive to create a workplace that values and uplifts diverse perspectives, voices, and experiences. We actively seek out mentorship opportunities and advocate for policies and programs that support diversity and inclusion at all levels of our organization.

In addition, we are committed to being transparent and accountable in our work, sharing data and feedback with our clients and community partners to ensure that our poverty alleviation efforts are equitable and effective. 

Ultimately, our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is grounded in our belief that poverty alleviation is a human rights issue, and that everyone deserves access to the resources and opportunities needed to thrive. 

Key Partners:

• Blockchain technology providers
• Financial institutions for private label credit cards and transaction processing
• Crypto/FIAT Exchange
• Blockchain organizations working to alleviate poverty i.e. Impact Market
• NFT Artists and art communities

Key Activities:

• Developing a private label credit card platform
• Creating partnerships with financial institutions for transaction processing and payment settlement
• Providing financial literacy education to customers
• Collaborating with blockchain organizations to identify and support poverty alleviation initiatives
• Commissioning and partnering with NFT artists and art communities
• Promoting the art and artists through credit card designs and ongoing promotion

Key Resources:

• Private-label credit card expertise
• Blockchain technology expertise
• Financial expertise
• Blockchain poverty alleviation expertise
• Access to capital for financing the business
• Network of partners and collaborators
• Customer data and insights
• Beneficiary data and insights
• NFT Art and artist networks

Value Proposition:

• A private-label credit card platform that leverages blockchain technology for poverty alleviation 
• Financial literacy education to empower customers to make informed socially conscious financial decisions
• Collaboration with blockchain organizations that support poverty alleviation initiatives
• Compensation artists for their NFT art for the credit card through ongoing revenue share and promotion

Customer Segments:

• Individuals and businesses looking for a socially conscious credit card option that brings them benefits of being a part of a larger creative community
• People living on under $2 a day, but have access to smartphones
• Unbanked and underbanked populations
• Art enthusiasts looking to support artists and artist communities

Channels:

• Online platforms and mobile applications for credit card registration and management
• Financial institutions for transaction processing and payment settlement
• Local merchants for promoting their products and services to customers
• Non-profit organizations for collaborating on poverty alleviation initiatives
• Art and artist networks for promotion and distribution of credit card designs

Customer Relationships:

• Personalized financial education and support
• Regular updates on poverty alleviation initiatives and impact (Dynamic NFT)
• Transparent and responsive customer service
• Ongoing promotion of NFT artists and art communities

Revenue Streams:

• Transaction fees from financial institutions and merchants
• Interest and fees from credit card users
• Revenue share with NFT artists and art communities
• Donations and grants from non-profit organizations and government agencies

Cost Structure:

• Technology development and maintenance costs
• Employee salaries and benefits
• Marketing and customer acquisition costs
• Regulatory and compliance costs
• Art and artist compensation and licensing fees

Our goal is to achieve financial sustainability as a private-label credit card company that leverages blockchain technology to tackle poverty and reward NFT artists. To achieve this, we will focus on the following financial strategies:

1. Transaction Fees: The primary source of revenue for the company would come from transaction fees charged to merchants and financial institutions for using the credit card platform. The company can set a competitive fee structure to attract more customers and generate a steady stream of revenue.
2. Interest and Fees: The company can also generate revenue through interest and fees charged to credit card users, such as interest fees, late payment fees, and balance transfer fees. However, it's important to balance these fees with the company's social mission of alleviating poverty.
3. Revenue Sharing with NFT Artists: By compensating NFT artists through an ongoing revenue share, the company can attract more talented artists to create unique designs for the credit cards. The NFTs can also be bought and sold on the platform, generating additional revenue for the company.
4. Partnerships: The company can form partnerships with other organizations, such as non-profits or government agencies, to leverage additional funding sources. These partnerships can help the company expand its reach and impact while also generating additional revenue streams.

Overall, a combination of these strategies can help the company become financially sustainable while also fulfilling its social mission of alleviating poverty and promoting the value of art and artists through NFTs. It's important to balance the company's financial goals with its social impact and values to create a sustainable and successful business model.

We came up with the concept for the ETH Global hackathon in March, and although we made it to the second round, we have not received any grants or future funding yet.