Kora Network: An infrastructure for inclusive, community-owned financial systems
Farmers will be one of the key users of Kora. So we are partnering with a farming aggregator in Nigeria who works with 25,000 farmers to profitably yield crops.
In March 2018, Kora will launch a 3-month Beta with over 300 farmers in Abuja.
We are building a foundation of stability, security, and reliability that will allow us to continue on our goal of delivering value to our users.
By learning from the past, we can build a better future. Summarizing the above, the components required for wide-scale, critical mass, sustainable adoption are:
=> Low cost: Oftentimes the people with the least wealth are those who need financial services the most. No one should be excluded from the Kora Network because of their level of wealth.
=> Universal access: Requiring a user, merchant, or agent to have internet access, a smartphone, or have a sophisticated understanding of technology or finance is a barrier that is implicitly tied to wealth. Everyone should be able to benefit from the Kora Network even if they don't have internet access or extensive education.
=> Engaging with existing communities: Financial services providers have always existed within communities to provide much-needed services. The Kora Network will enable these providers and networks instead of replacing them.
The Kora Network will pull together multiple existing solutions alongside these principles to provide financial inclusion while avoiding many of the shortfalls previous attempts have faced.
We will be starting with four basic building blocks to construct a fully functional financial system. These building blocks are built into the Kora Network as smart contracts and are accessible to any user on the network:
Kora will provide an equal opportunity for everyone to share in and contribute to the enormous wealth that is created globally by lowering the barrier to access by drastically reducing the cost to serve, and by helping individuals retain more of the value they create through radical transparency and access to financial services options.
The use of blockchain technology allows us to streamline these layers into four:
=> Protocol: This fundamental layer defined the basic rules which everyone on the network must abide by. Desirable traits such as immutability, Byzantine fault tolerance, scalability and ACID transactions can be engineered here for higher layers to use.
=> Data: This layer is where the immutable blockchain database resides, as defined by the protocol layer. This includes identities, attestations, transactions, account balances, token contracts, software stored as smart contracts and their state, and anything else that Users choose to store on the blockchain.
=> Applications: This layer is where the data stored on the blockchain comes to life. Transaction processing, data feeds, blockchain monitoring and integrations with outside systems happen here. This is the transition layer between other pieces of software and the blockchain.
=> Access: This layer is how Users access the Network, whether through a full node, smartphone, mobile phone access via a Provider, or anything else. This layer is completely off-chain.
The Kora Network is built on Ethermint, which implements the Ethereum Virtual Machine with Tendermint consensus. We chose Ethermint because it supports the Ethereum development community, which is among the largest in the blockchain space, while also fulfilling each of the below vital network requirements:
=> Scalability: Can process bank-scale transaction volume with reasonable latency.
=> Programmability: The ability to build (mostly) arbitrary programs on top.
=> Resilience: Should continue to function in a Byzantine environment.
=> Decentralized: Network can be run in a decentralized manner.
How To RegisterContribute
20% Reserved for Growth 151,001,468 Locked up for a minimum of one year and released as necessary. Used for establishing partnerships, onboarding users, and expansion into new markets.
20% Reserved for R&D 151,001,468 Locked up for a minimum of two years and released as necessary. Used to develop the protocol and shared infrastructure.
15% Team 113,251,101 Team Token Grants that will be locked up in a two year vesting period with a 6-month cliff.
30% Network Growth: Onboarding users onto the Network, maintaining a positive user experience, compliance with various government regulations and other tasks needed to grow the Network. Will be distributed directly to Providers.
10% Kora Accelerator: Primarily for seed funding of startups that build value-add applications on the Kora Network. Will be distributed directly to startups in exchange for equity.
5% Social Impact Investment: Used for funding of social impact projects that help build out the Kora Ecosystem.
5% Legal & Token Sale Marketing: To cover costs of forming the optimal legal structure for the Token Sale, for marketing the Token Sale, and the final Token Sale audit.
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