Meta Cartel
Title: Proposal: Soli.xyz - Introducing yield farming to maximize cashback rewards
Description: Soli.xyz invites active crypto investors and those unfamiliar with crypto alike to monetize their transaction data and earn passive income through cashback rewards as they spend. With the rewards they earn, users can choose from the options our automated yield farming process offers and have a risk-free vessel to get involved in the crypto world.
Manifesto/Vision: We believe that for many, Web3 and DeFi are perplexing and challenging to get involved in initially. Soli changes this and edges out its competitors by being accessible to anyone with a bank account recognized by the Teller API. We provide a low-risk framework for them to engage the Web3 world and Meta Cartel community in an informed way. We can attract an extensive range of people from different communities - anyone who enjoys saving and spending is a good target for Soli. We believe that our future initiatives are novel and more financially inclusive than other platforms we’ve seen. Meta Cartel can help to catalyze this project and help us achieve our core mission.
Problem: Many people who are unfamiliar with crypto are wary to begin investing, especially with their own capital. Cryptocurrencies sometimes seem unreliable and unstable and the initial sting is usually the most difficult part of the process which prevents a huge group from participating in these communities.
Solution: When users sign into their bank via our secure Teller API and make everyday purchases at participating locations, they will earn cashback rewards. Since, without Soli, they would not have this money, it is essentially a recovered sunken cost for which they can use to get their foot in the crypto door. This cashback system is already developed and launched, but we are seeking funding, feedback, and support for our implementation of a yield farming feature where users are able to use this capital and select an avenue to maximize the returns of these rewards - simultaneously earning them passive income, solidifying their trust in these markets, and including them in our communities.
Product: We already have an established infrastructure and a fully functioning cashback system launched for use. We will implement the feature on our app to begin yield farming which will begin with investing in a specific lending protocol, automating the process of withdrawal/depositing, and expand to add multiple lending protocols to ensure variety and provide choice for users. We will show users different options to choose, along with introductory and educational materials to inform them if they are new to DeFi and crypto. We will display their earnings and include graphs charting their yields and progress, as well as projections. This will allow us to create a social network where users’ earnings and yield farming portfolios can be ranked.
Validation: We’ve partnered with a number of web3 organizations, including Ocean Protocol, Streamr Network, and Chainlink, and would be interested in raising funds from MetaCartel as well.
Progress: We began in 2020 as Solipay, a mobile application that allowed consumers to contribute their data to our organization and rapidly scaled to over 100,000 people sharing location, search, demographic, and other types of frequently transacted types of consumer information. This initial application is still live, with more details available at https://solipay.tech. It was only recently, however, that we were able to secure a contract with an existing data broker that would like to purchase our data on behalf of some of the largest companies in the US, including brands such as Adidas, Gap, Levis, and thousands more. The particular type of information these organizations are looking to buy are real-time purchase datasets, i.e. bank transaction histories. With the infrastructure from our initial app, we were able to develop new software to collect this exact type of information. The new app is live today, with more details available at https://soli.xyz. Our cashback system is functioning and we are consistently developing, putting out new builds, and working towards the steps for our new initiative, including building the framework for our investment wallet.
Differentiation: Our project aspires to make yield farming crypto accessible to everyone, including those unfamiliar to crypto or more risk-averse than the crypto community. We are in competition with other crypto yield farming platforms, such as Aqru, DeFi Swap, and Coinbase, but our product is differentiated in that it truly lends itself to beginners who have not invested in any crypto and may be unaware of what they can passively earn. Soli.xyz aims to abstract this process for beginners and make it as easy as browsing selections and getting involved with the simple press of a button. Overall, we believe that we have created a new type of system which is both frictionless, inclusive and involves cryptocurrency rewards––a unique combination of innovation that positions us well in this market.
Team: Solipay is a team of eight highly skilled and experienced computer scientists. CEO Alex Nicita has previous start-up experience and an exit to crypto asset management with $50B AUM. Our leadership team is a trio of Columbia University and Yale alumni. Danny Dager, Our CTO, has worked in high-performance computing research after studying math & philosophy at Yale; and the COO, Kwabena Ayim-Aboagye, previously worked at Deutsche Bank before studying music theory & CS at Columbia. These three leaders recruited the remaining five members of the Solipay team from universities including Stanford, UVA, Columbia, Yale, and Carnegie Mellon, who are all CS-based and have experience in software engineering, DeFi investing, and data analysis.
Grant Request: $10K
What the Funds Are For:
40% of the grant will be allocated to software engineering investment wallets into our existing app, specifically the “Balance” page on the right third tab of the existing UI, which will then enable our various DeFi yields to be accessible to our users.
40% of the grant will be allocated to marketing our new product to drive adoption from existing people within Meta Cartel and beyond.
20% of the grant will be to respond to the community as they adopt the new product & we iterate to ensure that we are successful in delivering on our goal.
Help: Our core mission has always been to give people – all people — the ability to monetize their data, reclaim the power their data has, and discover their potential and place in Web3 communities. We cannot achieve our goals without feedback from our users. We need help in responding to our community, but we need to build that community first.