Scrip Ledger - Gift Card System built on the blockchain
Abstract
Use Algorand blockchain to migrate gift cards, airline miles, and hotel points onto an open currency standard. Tokenization of these business currencies can form a parallel payment network to better support the consumer economy.
Algorand is one of the best blockchains for real world use cases, especially in the payment space. However, there is still a gap in understanding for how real world entities besides governments and banks can make use of Algorand’s technology. We designed an award-winning gift card experience (physical and digital) based on blockchain tokenization and DeFi technology. Onboarding retail businesses to tokenize their gift card system on Algorand would be extremely valuable for the rest of the ecosystem as well.
See more details here
Team
Joseph Wu - founder, product development https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-wu-293855106/
Joseph is a Stanford graduate with 7 years of experience in product development across various Technology sectors. He has been an independent developer and investor in the blockchain/crypto space since around 2017.
Marcos Rivera - mobile app development marcorivas06 (Marcos Rivas) · GitHub
Marcos is an experienced software developer, with a focus in mobile app development and UI/UX. Most recently, he is a software developer at Electronic Arts.
Juan Vazquez - API, blockchain development Juan Vazquez - FedEx Dataworks | LinkedIn
Juan is an experienced software developer, with a focus in enterprise API and blockchain development. Most recently, he is a software developer at FedEx, supporting their API infrastructure.
Tony Wang - advisor, business development Tony Wang - Pebble Capital Management | LinkedIn
Tony is a Stanford graduate and former Coinbase product manager. He brings years of industry experience to advise this project, specifically on product and business development.
Hammad Usmani - technical consultant Hammad Usmani - Lockheed Martin | LinkedIn
Hammad is an open source developer who has helped with starting this project. His expertise is more in data science and AI/ML. He helps advise this project from a technical standpoint, with an eye on recent trends in the tech industry at large.
Experience with Algorand
A few years ago, Joseph was a part of the Algorand-Draper accelerator, having built a prototype of a blockchain smart contract for insurance and crowdfunding. He is well versed in Algorand technology (SDK, smart contract, TEAL, DApps) and active on the Developer Forum.
Joseph has been involved in the Algorand ecosystem for a long time and has the Governor NFTs to show for it as well! Extremely knowledgeable about the Algorand ecosystem and passionate about the direction and vision of the ecosystem.
The rest of the team brings a lot of knowledge building on other blockchains such as Solana and Ethereum L2. This is helpful in bringing transferable skills and perspectives in development.
Present Proposal
Gift card balances, airline miles, loyalty points are currencies issued by businesses, backed by their products and services. In the modern era, business currencies have been used for a range of purposes beyond gifting, such as charitable giving, payment of wages, legal settlements. They are important tools to reward brand loyalty, encourage consumption, generate new sales, and even raise capital.
However, gift cards still run on archaic technology like Serial-PIN swipe cards, or siloed databases. It is difficult for consumers to do basic things like track or combine balances, recover lost funds, transfer balance. Secondary market, where secondhand gift cards are re-sold or exchanged, is rife with fraud.
An open, secure, and standardized gift card system on the blockchain can unlock tremendous value for consumers, businesses, and the economy.
Public Pitch Deck here: Pitch Deck
We are requesting 100,000 Algos to cover the cost of finishing the Minimum Viable Product (more details in Deliverable section) and industry education (retail businesses and gift card users) on the consumer use case for Algorand and blockchain technology. There will also be a small part reserved for funding transactions and tokenization (min account balance) for demos and small pilot programs if businesses are interested.
Deliverable
Minimum Viable Product - Mobile App
A completed mobile app for users to redeem gift cards, manage balances, transfer balances, and swap balances via DeFi market. To deploy on App Store (IOS and Android)
Timeline: 3 months (concurrent)
Minimum Viable Product - API service
API framework for businesses to integrate to manage and use the tokenized gift card system
Timeline: 3 months (concurrent)
Community Outreach and Demos
Demo the concept to various potential customers and partners. Raising awareness and creating alignment for Algorand’s consumer use cases.
Timeline: 3 months
Future Blueprint
Requesting one-time grant of 100,000 Algos
Benefits for the community
Algorand is one of the best blockchains for real world use cases, especially in the payment space. However, there is still a gap in understanding for how real world entities besides governments and banks can make use of Algorand’s technology. We designed an award-winning gift card experience (physical and digital) based on blockchain tokenization and DeFi technology. Onboarding retail businesses to tokenize their gift card system on Algorand would be extremely valuable for the rest of the ecosystem as well.
As critical as it is to develop sound infrastructure and keep up with the capabilities of other blockchains, we see equal importance in getting out there and showcasing real world use cases to traditional businesses and consumers. The gift card industry is ripe for disruption and there has been a lot of murmurs about the potential for blockchain technology to impact this. If we (the Scrip Ledger team) can get in front of businesses such as Delta Airlines and Amazon (we already have contacts there) and show a viable prototype, the association with Algorand will do wonders for the ecosystem and community at large.
Additional information
More resources such as architecture diagrams, API documentations available on request.