Satchel is a decentralized application that uplifts underbanked school communities by facilitating locally-governed projects and capital growth via DeFi-powered donations and financial primitives.
Description
Satchel’s core features include savings accounts and loans for underbanked school communities via key DeFi protocols, splitting yield between individuals and schools for individual and local socioeconomic mobility, community governance over Satchel-wide decisions and locally-funded school projects, and tax-deductible contributions to school communities in need around the world.
Manifesto/Vision
We believe in a world where global communities have agency in their finances, governance, and infrastructure. Today, 1.7 billion adults are unbanked but 1.1 billion of them own a mobile phone. There is no reason why these statistics should coexist in a web3 world, and there is no better time to change this narrative than the DeFi boom of the present.
Problem
Communities around the world lack trusted financial primitives and governance models. As such, these communities lack agency (the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices) on three levels. On the individual scale, a lack of trusted banks and hyperinflation restrict individual financial agency. Locally, governments limit people’s agency in community decision-making. Globally, bureaucratic financial and educational infrastructure deny users agency.
Solution
Individual Agency via Bootstrapping Capital
Four stakeholders contribute the capital flowing through the Satchel ecosystem: schools in developing regions, donors, community members (users directly associated with a school), and non-community lenders (users disconnected from the community). Beneficiary capital is generated through three primary flows:
- Donor Flow: A donor donates funds to Satchel and Satchel directs the entire contribution directly to the school.
- Community Member Flow: A community member (e.g. a parent of a student at a school) provides a principal amount to Satchel. Satchel then lends the principal amount to DeFi service(s). Once the community member withdraws, the principal amount and a portion of the yield goes back to the community member, while the remaining portion goes to the community member’s school.
- Non-Community Lender Flow: A non-community lender (e.g. a DeFi whale simply seeking to have a chunk of their yield to be used charitably) provides a principal amount to Satchel. Satchel then lends the principal amount to DeFi service(s). Once the non-community lender withdraws, the principal amount and a portion of the yield goes back to the non-community lender, while the remaining portion goes to a school indicated by the non-community lender.
Local & Global Agency via Governance
$SATCH is a token allocated to stakeholders of the Satchel network. Donors receive an initial allocation of $SATCH upon donating, while community members and non-community lenders receive an initial allocation of $SATCH upon lending. $SATCH designates voting power, which subsequently instills local and global agency.
On the local level, community members can use $SATCH to vote on school projects in their community. For instance, community members can now have a say in whether school funds generated by Satchel are directed towards school textbooks or healthy lunch options. In this way, residents inch towards self-governance — carving the direction of their communities and reclaiming agency from largescale institutions that have long been making these decisions for them.
On the global level, all stakeholders can use $SATCH to vote on Satchel-wide decisions (such as whether Satchel should expand to schools within a new developing economy or which yield-bearing DeFi protocol to integrate) and parameters (such as the initial allocation amount of $SATCH). In this way, Satchel’s users help curate its future, defining core facets of their financial infrastructure.
Financial resources and governance paired together allow Satchel to leverage schools as a proxy for rerouting financial and governmental agency to communities on the individual, local, and global levels.
Product
Mobile-optimized web dApp
Differentation
Most other crypto for social good platforms provide people in developing economies with “the fish,” or the initial stimulus. Satchel does this and so much more. We provide unbanked communities with “the fish” via large sums of capital from external sources. The community lender flow (in conjunction with the ability to take out loans) provides “the fishing rod,” the tooling and infrastructure necessary for accessible financial autonomy. Voting functionality on the local and Satchel-wide levels further enable community-guided financial infrastructure and self-governance.
Progress
We have built savings account functionality, loans, multi-asset functionality, and school project creation and management. We are currently working on a UI revamp, smart contract gas and scalability optimizations, integrating with DeFi protocols, finalizing partnerships with school organizations, and developing our governance token.
Team
Founded by 3 UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Science students, Satchel began as a collab between Blockchain at Berkeley and UNICEF. We are currently a team of 5 developers, including the core team. The co-founders are Darya Kaviani (CEO), Ritik Batra (Head of Product), and Timothy Guo (CTO).
Grant Request ($)
Amount Requested: $10,000
Primary Funding Needs:
- Smart Contract Audit
- Legal Setup Costs
- Legal Fees
- Employee Payment
Help
We may need some help with intros to DeFi protocols and potential partners down the line.
Additional Resources
We truly believe that Satchel can redefine financial agency on the global scale and would love for MetaCartel to play a role in our journey.