What is Kindtrust?

KindTrust is a decentralized crowdfunding platform built using a Solidity smart contract that is deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can analyze, donate to, and rate crowdfunding projects. Organizations can create projects and transfer donated funds to registered suppliers. Everything is decentralized, which produces five major benefits over traditional crowdfunding platforms.

• Transparency: Organizations' expenditures are recorded transparently and permanently in the blockchain. There is no other way for the Ether to be released to the supplier.
• Decentralization: Organizations are not dependent on any central authority, so their projects cannot be blocked or delisted.
• Data: All data is public, meaning organizations can easily export their projects and ratings. They can control their data.
• Fees: Fees are significantly less compared to centralized platforms. Only standard Ethereum gas prices are paid.
• Universality: Unbanked people can start projects, expanding the reach of traditional crowdfunding platforms.

Future Roadmap

• Database: The solidity contract fires events. We can set up an Express.js server that will listen to these events from a contract instance. This can be done with—instance.eventName({fromBlock: 0, toBlock: ‘latest’}).watch(callback);—where the callback would record information from the event into a database. It is much easier and cheaper to filter or sort (e.g. by category or time) using a database.
• Machine learning: Along the same lines of which projects to show first, incorporate machine learning. We can use a nearest neighbors classifier to score how likely a donor would donate to a given crowdfunding project based on previous donations. This can help to increase the platform’s impact.
• More ratings: Donors who have donated can rate a project based on the percent of spent funds the donor judges to have been spent effectively (0-100%). We will add more rating systems (organizations rate suppliers, suppliers rate organizations, etc.).
• Arbitration: Use arbitration (similar to eBay) to help prevent fraud. The system is that funds will be sent to an Escrow contract, and then two out of three stakeholders (organization, supplier, arbiter) will have to vote to either release the funds to the supplier (goods were received) or refund the funds to the organization (goods were not received or were damaged).
• Currency conversion: Since this was implemented as a decentralized application (dApp), donors can only donate with Ether. There are many ways to obtain Ether (e.g. with Coinbase), but allowing donors to donate with fiat currencies would increase the platform’s impact.

Design Process

Concepting

Kindtrust was created to address current problems in the crowdfunding space, as well as act complentary to government and nonprofit aid. It is a platform, as well as a vehicle to change how the world gives and receives. Our value proposition is as follows:

• Trust: Alleviates the pain point of *trusting* prior to donating, creates a positive feedback loop for giving, and reduces the risk of fraud and misuse of funds.
• Transparent: Tags all players in the supply chain (donor, buyer, vendor) and establishes due diligence.
• Universal: Helps in real-time, taps into the international community, and reaches the unbanked.
• Scalable: Directly addresses the needs of the individual (needs are independent of identity), captures valuable data, represents a future model for philanthrophic interactions, and evangelizes the use of cryptocurrency for social good.

User Personas

An interview of 20 individuals, both donors and campaign-starters, was conducted to collect data about sentiments concerning crowdfunding. Example questions were as such:

• Do you have an experience using crowdfunding platforms, i.e. Kickstarter, Indiegogo, GoFundMe? Have you funded? Donated?
• Can you walk me through your last experience using a crowdfunding platform?
• What prompts you to donate, (i.e. you know the individual, extensive news coverage, etc.)?
• What do you most enjoy about the crowdfunding process? What do you dislike the most?

Through this information, several user personas were constructed to emobody the key motivations of individuals who have used crowdfunding platforms. Most donors noted the lack of transparency on current platforms with no tools to ensure accountability. Others were shut out completely by the lack of accessibility to crowdfunding as most platforms only operate in ~14 Western countries. Most importantly, users' main motivation was 'ownership', whether they were a donor or campaign-starter. Donors wanted to see the direct impact of their money, and campaign-starters desired immediate relief in time-sensitive situations.

User Scenario Map for Demo

For World Virtual Govhack, a user scenario map was created to outline the steps that best exemplify Kindtrust's value proposition.

• Starting a campaign
• Viewing a campaign wallet with real-time availability
• Purchasing an item
• Viewing a user's public donation ledger

Wireframes

From there, wireframes were constructed to not only lay the baseline for our platform, but also generate new features and better UI for the crowdfunding experience. While wireframes were initially created for desktops, we later decided to showcase our demo on a phone to display the accessibility and real-time application of Kindtrust.

Mockups & Prototyping

Finally, mockups and a working prototype were created to help our users truly visualize the experience of Kindtrust. This prototype was intended for smartphones, but we understand that not everyone in need has access to technology. By creating a browser platform in conjunction to an SMS app, we believe we can reach areas that are already employing mobile banking despite other technological barriers, i.e. Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, etc.