POKET

Leapfrogging the 2B unbanked into the global financial system with the next generation of mobile money, on the blockchain.

Today, there are 2 billion people who remain unbanked, for 4-key reasons:

1) banks are too far away

2) banks fees are too high

3) they lack the minimum amount to open an account

4) they have no formal identification to open an account

This 4th is the largest barrier globally: 1.5 billion people today lack formal identification.

POKET is the first blockchain-based mobile wallet for the emerging world. We use biometrics, location-services and AI to create a completely decentralized, peer-to-peer network for exchanging cash and digital currency, removing the need for a bank or agent. Our goal is to create a digital identity for the 1.5 billion people with no formal identity + allow them to leapfrog the traditional financial system and go straight to the next generation of mobile money on the blockchain. All you need to get started is your face, a smartphone and an internet connection. The way it works is simple:

1) Sign Up - POKET will request you take a few selfies and say some voice phrases – this creates your digital identity on the blockchain, based on a biometric. No ID, No problem. 

2) Deposit - POKET shows you other users nearby. Meet with them, hand them physical cash and in exchange, they will send digital cash (cryptocurrency) to your wallet. Think of it as the Uber of banking, where other users around you are human ATMs that you can meet up with to deposit and withdraw cash. 

3) Send, Receive & Transact - Once you have cash in your mobile wallet, you can send digital cash to any POKET user, anywhere in the world, instantly, with just their phone number/photo.

By using AI to create social credit for users on the network, POKET will become the smart-contact based infrastructure to pay bills, finance assets (like solar) and access micro-financing. POKET will change the world by creating the first database of identity for millions of people who were until now, unidentifiable. With 2B people unbanked, financial inclusion is a key enabler of 8/17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and with 1.5B people lacking formal identity, the UN SDG 16.9 aims to “provide legal identity for all” by 2030. With this in mind, POKET’s larger goal is to allow unbanked people to own a true, self-sovereign identity and leapfrog traditional banking to go straight to mobile banking.

By including the unbanked in the global financial system, POKET will give people greater access to services, protection from risks, incentives to save money, support to start/grow businesses, send/receive remittances and participate fully in the global economy. On a broader level, financial exclusion is responsible for the perpetuation of poverty, poor living standards, exclusion from education and poor health. Our ideal end-state is a service where users can save, protect, transact, invest and borrow, all on their phone. We believe by effect, we will lead cash-dependent countries to ultimately replace their physical cash with digital money.

1) No Documentation Necessary – first mobile wallet where all users need to register is their face, a smartphone and an internet connection.

2) Peer-to-Peer - Since we are creating an ecosystem of users to meet and withdraw/deposit funds, users no longer need an agent/bank.

3) Accountability – creating identity for each user on the ethereum blockchain provides a secure, immutable and transparent overview of all funds and their movement.

4) International Transfers - All existing mobile banking solutions are completely local - with POKET, it makes no difference whether you send money to a neighbor or someone halfway across the world. 

1) Creating + validating user identity via biometric on the blockchain allows us to create self-sovereign identities that cannot be duplicated, deleted, or spoofed.

2) Blockchain technology allows POKET to charge very low (eventually 0) fees for transferring money anywhere in the world.

3) Leveraging machine learning allows us to build powerful models for determining risk assessment of users who seek microfinancing, using untraditional datasets. By combining data on user's biometrics, device behaviour, and app data, we can provide a granular view on the likelihood of loan repayment and charge low interest rates, completely automated by smart contracts.

1. Reach a <2% error rate with biometric facial recognition 

1. Secure a $150,000 grant to support a pilot in Nigeria or Myanmar.
2. Have 10,000 monthly active users on POKET
3. Be revenue-positive
4. Graduate from a blockchain/AI accelerator
5. Be on track to secure seed funding to grow team to 8-12 people

POKET will start by gaining wallet adoption in a target country. Overtime, capturing thousands of data points will create more incentives for users to refer, download and use the app, such as micro-financing and identity management. Low-cost sub-$40 Android-based smartphones have started flooding emerging markets, causing a dramatic rise in both smartphone and internet penetration. We will exploit the fact that we are in the very early stages of this growth curve for digital adoption by being top of mind as an identity/mobile money solution for new smartphone/internet users in the next decade as they are onboarded to the internet.

Reach:

1. Registration reward: users awarded with money in wallet upon successful biometric activation
2. Referall bonus: users awarded with money in wallet for successfully referring other users

3. Local merchant partnerships: incenting merchants to charge 15% less for milk to customers who pay via POKET

Retention:

1. Reward badges/points redeemable for currency for consistent daily/weekly use
2. Reward most trusted users (measured by user rating) at the end of each month
3. Advertise low-interest microfinancing to consistent users

Since we are still in a protoype phase, we do not have formal users (yet). However, we have already put the product in the hands of an unbanked Syrian refugee community in Toronto. We received great praise from this small pilot, where refugees told us they want a decentralized form of identity that will follow them all over the world, and not be bound by a single country. They urgently want to use the service to send money to friends/family locally and back home, given it allows them to manage/send money on their phone without accessing formal banking.

12-months: 10,000 users on beta product in Myanmar. beta = simple identity and mobile wallet for undocumented and unbanked users, using biometrics.

3-years: 1M users, identities created for each of them, AI/smart-contract-powered micro-financing enabled

Effects:

• Users will gain safe, verifiable, persistent, immutable and portable form of self-sovereign identity for the very first time, immediately, providing widespread access to services like never before.
• Users will be able to send/receive money internationally, immediately.
• Users will be able to qualify for affordable microfinancing to start and grow businesses, based on accumulated data within 2-3 months of regular wallet use

Kamil raised $40,000 for his previous venture, in which he led the launch of an m-health solution alongside Facebook's Internet.org initiative in Pakistan. He also has 3 years of experiencing managing P&L of $100M+ and has completed 4 business accelerator programs. Our other team members (technical) are Blockchain dev instructors in Toronto, have worked in AI in global companies like IBM, and have won Canada's Top 30 Under 30 Developer Awards. Most importantly, we all have a deep desire to solve the identity and financial inclusion problem in places similar to where we are from, such as Nigeria and Pakistan.

Like many other mobile money services, we will start by charging fees for transferring funds and for withdrawls/deposits. This model has already been proven internationally, where traditional mobile money services' monthly ARPU is ~$1.50 USD .  However, since we incur lower costs by using blockchain technology, we can pass these on to the user, allowing us to charge ~75% less than competitors. Eventually, we will make transfers, deposits and withdrawls free. As we increase our wallet penetration, we will add a smart-contract-based micro-financing service. Here, we will be using AI models to charge the most competitive interest rate on the market. 

 However, the most interesting revenue opportunity for us is with the data and social credit score we will be creating. POKET will create the first database of identity for millions of people who were until now, unidentifiable. As time progresses and these users exhibit certain behaviours, this will become a database of accumulated identity which we can leverage in many different ways. Most interestingly, we see substantial revenue opportunity acting as a broker of trust for third parties who wish to know more about a user, such as a government, NGO or financial services company.

Living in Toronto, Canada, the social impact sector alone is incredibly small, and even smaller when it comes to potential partners who can understand the potential of AI/blockchain on emerging economies. Connecting with thought-leaders for rapid testing, feedback and iteration via SOLVE will have massive impact on our success. Outside of the provision of financial and intellectual resources and insights, we are most excited about the network and visibility SOLVE can provide to accelerate our growth and get our product in the hands of as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. 

• Lack of resources: There are few partners we have met with locally who are able to offer funding for an AI/blockchain-based endeavor like ours. Securing funding from SOLVE will drastically speed up our dev time and allow us to get quick feedback through a strategic pilot informed by SOLVE mentors.
• Blockchain scalability: We are always experimenting with alternative, low-cost blockchains for our platform, but have deep-rooted questions about scalability that thought-leaders at SOLVE may help us answer.
• Local Insights: Past SOLVE initiatives can offer deep insights for target markets, barriers and insights for localized growth