Kult's ILP Open-Source Digital Wallet — Final Grant Report #2

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Project Update

Hello Community! How are you folks doing? :)

You already know that Kult is the best content-sharing platform for culture lovers (movies, TV shows, books, songs, and podcasts). But if you didn't know yet, Kult's team is also developing an ILP-based open-source digital wallet with 1 goal: connecting ILP with PIX through a seamless payment method that will allow people to send and receive money instantly in Brazil (PIX is a free and instant payment method by Brazilian Government).

So for the current ILP financial solution Grant, we committed basically to 2 main deliverables:

1) Technical Documentation of the Digital Wallet

As explained in our mid report, in order to develop the digital wallet connecting ILP and PIX, we first needed to understand (i) the regulatory requirements of digital wallets in Brazil, (ii) technical requirements and technology to be used, (iii) necessary team, (iv) partners and related costs, and (v) userflow when sending/receiving the payment since the UX is paramount to increase participation and accessibility.

We managed to deliver in our mid report the documentation in 4 parts, and we are feeling confident and proud about it!

Although the costs seemed scary at first, we managed to negotiate it with some partners, and reached a viable implementation cost at the end of the day. The thing is: for the money to leave the sender and reach the end user with PIX in a fast manner, we need to involve some partners, each one with a different cost of set-up, and sometimes per transaction as well. We also need partners to comply with the regulatory requirements in Brazil.

The total set-up cost now is about 7.6k USD, and the cost per transaction will vary according to the currency and partner we use. However, we can already say it is viable and possible for the prototyping phase!

The needed time and fees for third parties/consultants must be studied further since it requires a deeper consultation with some of the providers, like AFVP. They have already worked with us through Alfredo Luz to develop the technical document, and they are open to continuing the partnership with special fees.

We will have the complete timeline and budget specifications by the time we apply for phase 2 since it will require a deeper analysis.

2) Kult's Business Plan using the technology

We did a thorough study about Web 3 platforms and new ways to monetize people online. For those who are not familiar with Web 3: basically, it is a new era of the internet, in which decentralization rules. We want to put our Community first, and the business model, of course, is based on that. So our goal is to monetize human curation of content. Amidst endless content, we must reward people who help us discover amazing content online, instead of relying solely on algorithms.

When we implemented the Web Monetization technology during the Grant for the Web program, we realize that, although highly promising, it had too many barriers. This was the spark that originated the idea of the digital wallet with the mission of making the Interledger Protocol more accessible and smooth for every platform and person to use.

The initial strategy, once the digital wallet is ready, is to make it easy for users to: (i) donate/tip to each other, (ii) charge for exclusive galleries, (iii) buy and sell digital content, and (iv) receive money through an ad-revenue sharing system.

It must be said, again, that the goal is not to create a digital wallet for Kult. The goal is to develop an open-source digital wallet that any platform can use, and that makes it easy for any people to send and receive money worldwide.

We know that it is a long way to get there, but we also know we are on the right track!

Progress on Objectives, Key Activities

As said above, we managed to deliver the main objectives of the program (technical document to implement the digital wallet and business plan). However, 1 thing is still missing: we failed to implement the Acessibe.com tool, which gives the website the necessary tools to increase accessibility. The reason is that our website is not compatible with their platform. So we are pivoting to another solution and it is taking more time than we expected :(

Project Impact & Target Audience(s)

Our initial target market is the Brazilian public with the following characteristics:

• Consumers of movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, and music;
• Dissatisfied with current networks;
• Seeking to interact about content and discover new things;
• Cultural producers, creators, and curators;
• Diversity of voices is key.

There is no limitation or segmentation regarding age, gender, social class, etc, although we are targeting first the Brazilian market. We understand that there is no culture without diversity, therefore we are firm in our strategy of communicating to these groups, and having a diverse team on Kult.

As Brazilians, we feel like culture is always under attack, and it got even worse in the last 8 years or so. Many cultural programs and public grants were attacked and shut down during this time. Nonetheless, current social media business model is causing a huge negative impact in Brazil, maybe even irreversible, by spreading misinformation, fake news, hatred, and shaking democracy in a way never seen before.

Actually, our co-founder Patrick wrote his Master's thesis about this exact topic in 2022.

Kult's mission is to leverage culture by creating a safe space, free of misinformation, fake news, hatred, and data exploitation. Instead, we offer a new business model, connecting 2 revolutionary payment technologies (ILP and PIX) to allow people to monetize each other seamlessly.

Policies of Product

Kult has a very strong policy on intolerance of bigots. That is, unlike current social media, we will not be complacent with hate speech, fake news, and manipulation. Nor will we violate people's privacy and sensitive personal data, as competing networks have been doing. We wrote our Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Policy exactly in this sense.

Communications and Marketing

The main marketing strategies we have been carrying out are listed below:

During the Grant for the Web program, we invested some of the budget on these marketing strategies, always focusing on diverse voices that could bring different groups to Kult. They remain with us until nowadays.

We didn't add marketing in our budget this time, but we think it might be important for the next phase.

What’s Next?

The next job to be done is applying for the phase 2 of ILP financial services Grant. We feel prepared and confident about it, and we will start working on our application right away.

Community Support

We had good conversations with @jasperv during the Grant period, looking for ways that AgnostiPay and Kult could work together in the near future. We also see Rafiki as a potential partner for the prototyping phase, but we need to deepen our study.

Additional Comments

That's all, folks! See you in phase 2! (hopefully xD)

Relevant Links/Resources

Reach out directly to us:
patrick@kult.pt

Website:
www.kult.com.br

Social links:
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/kultsocial/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kult_app/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/kult_app/