Pensiona: Turn Old into Gold

The problem is summed up in one question: where to get the money to support the world’s dwindling retirement and healthcare funds without placing excessive demands on younger populations.  

Economists predict that the combination of aging population and declining birth rates will cause highly dependent societies where an increasing number of retirees depend on the contribution of a decreasing number of younger workers. All over the world, the pension funding gap—the difference between the money people need in retirement and the money being saved—is continuously rising.  

In 1950, the average number of kids for a woman was 4.7; it went down to 2.4 by 2017; and the downward trend is expected to continue and fall to 1.7 by 2100. In contrast, The United Nations reported that people aged 65 and over are growing faster than all of the other age groups in every country. Between now and 2050, one in six people in the world will be over 65, up from one in 11 in 2019[1]. Human life expectancy is expected to continuously increase by about five hours a day[2]. The UK’s Office of National Statistics has calculated that one in three babies born today will live to 100[3]. By 2050 the number of persons aged 80 and above will triple, going from 143 million to 426 million[4]. 

Rising longevity presents considerable challenges for government and private health and social security programs around the world. With the growing population of retirees, people are spending longer not working without sufficient retirement savings to support it. Economists warn that societal aging is a ‘demographic time bomb’ because fewer people will work and contribute to economic growth. And throngs of elderly people collecting pensions and demanding healthcare will bankrupt us all. Aging will bring down economies and younger generations will be burdened by escalating taxes.

The United States Social Security System had 16 workers contributing for each retiree in the 1950s; it is currently unsustainable with just 3 workers for each retiree[5]. The 2021 annual report from the Social Security Trustees indicated that the combined trust funds—retirement and disability—will be depleted in 2033. When it happens, the program will only be able to pay 77% of promised benefits[6]. That means, if retirees are getting $2,000 a month, their payout will dwindle to $1,540.  With the world's rising life expectancy where retirement is expected to last between 20 and 30 years[7, 8, and 9], this funding deficit is tremendously disturbing. 

The US dependency ratio is not much different from that of almost every other country in the world, which are expected to grapple against a pension funding gap in the foreseeable future. The World Economic Forum (WEF) reported that the combined savings gap of the world’s six largest pension savings systems—the US, UK, Japan, Netherlands, Canada, and Australia was in excess of $70 trillion in 2015. And if nothing is done to address the growth rate, the deficit is expected to reach $400 trillion by 2050[10]. 

Many people propose raising retirement age, devoting an increasing proportion of national budgets to funding pension systems, and reducing retirement benefits. But they are not without problems. 

According to a World Bank report, having more workers work longer will not solve the financing dilemma of pension systems in the long run, and in fact may make it worse[11]. Redirecting more national income to paying pensions would entail a higher tax burden or reduced spending on infrastructures, public services, or other welfare benefits. And nobody really wants to receive less than the promised benefits, especially in old age. All these mitigating measures will eventually drag pension systems into deeper trouble.

Much of the debate center on one question: Where to get the money? The choices for every society are difficult. It is practically picking out who should win or who should lose. Who should get adequate healthcare or who should be left out. Meanwhile, refugees, the unemployed, and the informal economy are practically left out to fend for their own.  

The pension time bomb is ticking away for health and retirement systems that are doomed to fail and for excluded sectors that are bound for deprivation in old age. If interventions are not implemented now, the negative outcomes in the near future will prove to be difficult to reverse.

References

1.  United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Population Prospects 2019, Online Edition.

2.  Kirkwood, t. (2006). Too Fast by Mistake. ‘Nature.’ 444 (p1015-1016). 

3.  UK Office for National Statistics. 2016. What are your chances of living to 100? Published online on 14 January 2016. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/articles/whatareyourchancesoflivingto100/2016-01-14. Accessed November 2021.

4.  United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Ageing: Highlights, Online Edition.  

5. Social Security Administration. Social Security Fact Sheet. https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/ObamaFiscal/SocialSecurityProposals.pdf, Page 1. Accessed November 2021. 

6. Moore, S. 2018. How Long Will Your Retirement Really Last?  Published April 24, 2018. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmoore/2018/04/24/how-long-will-your-retirement-last/?sh=38e9a7e74726. Accessed November 2021.   

7. Wade, P. How Long Can Retirees Expect To Live Once They Hit 65? Retirement Researcher. https://retirementresearcher.com/long-can-retirees-expect-live-hit-65/. Accessed November 2021. 

8. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2015: With Special Feature on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Hyattsville, MD. 2016. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus15.pdf#015. Accessed November 2021. 

9. Social Security Administration. Detailed reports on the financial outlook for Social Security's Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/TR/. Accessed November 2021. 

10.  World Economic Forum White Paper. 2017. We’ll Live to 100 – How Can We Afford It? Published online on May 2017. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_White_Paper_We_Will_Live_to_100.pdf. Accessed November 2021.

11.  Schwarz, Anita M., Omar S. Arias. 2014. The Inverting Pyramid: Pension Systems Facing Demographic Challenges in Europe and Central Asia. DOI: 10.1596/978-0- 8213-9908-8. Washington, DC: World Bank. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0.

We propose using blockchain technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to provide an inclusive universal basic income (UBI) for the elderly, including refugees and the informal sector, without using money. It means giving all older individuals around the world a monthly guaranteed digital stipend, no strings attached and no cash required.

UBI paves the way for holistic health care that considers the multidimensional prerequisites of overall wellness. A guaranteed monthly income provides the elderly the purchasing power to participate in the decision-making for a whole person healing process, which encompass the physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of wellness. 

Pensiona is a digital pension platform that grants pensioners (people 60-year-old and over) pension points worth $2,000 that they can use like credit card rewards to obtain healthcare, goods, and various services from providers (people 18 years and above) on its marketplace. Providers use their earned points or redeem them for tradable “blockchain gold” or cryptocurrency. Pensiona fosters inclusion by granting everyone facing “olding” or the needs, challenges, and dangers of aging, guaranteed monthly pension credits without the stringent conditions of social security programs.

The pension points called goldies work like credit card rewards and are used to obtain healthcare, food, clothing, house rental, education, entertainment, and almost anything possible from providers. Goldies are time-sensitive and users must spend them on the marketplace within 30 days. Unused goldies expire and vanish from their digital wallets. This keeps the marketplace active and prevents pension hoarding.  

Providers get fresh 30 days to spend their earned goldies. Upon expiration, all their remaining goldies automatically convert to golders or achievement points. People can use golders for one of two redemption options: 

1. Perks. Redeem golders for platform upgrades, subscriptions, and sponsored products, and a variety of offers that can include everything from entertainment to restaurants from participating establishments and loyalty programs. 
2. Cryptocurrency. Accumulate golders to redeem them for goldings, the platform’s cryptocurrency. Goldings are either used as “electronic cash,” a functional currency for peer-to-peer and cross-platform payments, or traded on crypto exchanges. 

Pensiona enables anyone over 18 years old to be a provider and “mine” cryptocurrency using human capital in the form of skills, expertise, information, products, and time. The platform does not take the typical power-intensive route of crypto mining. It deploys blockchain technology, AI, and machine learning to tokenize human capital and gain digital currency.  

With its innovative blend of technology, universal basic income, and human capital, Pensiona turns olding into “golding.” It builds and leverages an intergenerational community by rewarding people for aging and for contributing products and services that promote inclusion and upholds human welfare. These are considered human capital instrumental in mining blockchain gold.

How it Works

By analogy, Pensiona is a game system that runs on blockchain smart contracts where providers compete for points from pensioners by bringing their products and services and adding value to the platform. The points providers earn have real market value and can be tokenized to be readily tradable. It is comparable to playing a video game to acquire special items or currency that are transferable between users. Since they are transferable, people can sell or buy them on game item markets.

There are six primary elements that build Pensiona’s unique value system: pensioners, older people that receive and spend pension points; providers, providers who share products and services; goldies, time-sensitive pension points; golders, achievement points that create blockchain gold; goldings, tradable blockchain gold/cryptocurrency; and the Marketplace, the platform’s built-in cashless marketplace.     

Pensioners

They get paid for getting old. Pensioners are 60-year-old and over individuals with varied life experiences and are predicted to continue to flourish in their later years. They include refugees, workers in the informal sector, and the unemployed in any country in the world. In the platform, all of them are qualified to receive monthly pension points; all of them are enabled to be a catalyst for creating blockchain gold/cryptocurrency.    

Pensioners receive 2,000 pension points called goldies every month. They are given 30 days to spend them to acquire goods and services from the platform’s providers. All unused goldies expire at the end of 30 days and vanish from users’ digital wallets. They must wait for their next monthly stipend or earn goldies as a provider to regain purchasing power within the marketplace again.    

Providers

Any person aged 18 and up can be a provider in the marketplace. Even pensioners may also sign up as providers to earn more goldies. They offer various products and services—healthcare, food, clothing, house rental, entertainment, novelties, handyman services, knowledge, any help for people in need of assistance, and almost anything possible, except money—that can only be obtained using goldies.  

Providers also get a fresh 30-day period to spend their earned goldies in the marketplace. At the end of 30 days, all their remaining goldies expire, cease to have purchasing  power, and automatically convert to golders, or achievement points. Providers accumulate golders to unlock various milestone rewards, and when they achieve the specified point, to acquire goldings, the platform’s blockchain gold/cryptocurrency.

They compete with other providers in their local community in monthly challenges to fulfill transactions and gain badges and other achievement awards to level up and become the Goldest. The Goldest of the month gets a trophy, premium platform privileges, and special goldit packs.       

Goldies 

These digital points are the marketplace’s mode of payment. Goldies are blockchain-backed pension points that work like credit card points to allow for the cashless exchange of goods and services in the platform. Simply, it is the digital currency with which community members are paid with. 

Goldies have a currency value pegged to the US dollar (1 goldy = 1 US dollar), however, they expire after 30 days. Making goldies time-sensitive keeps the cashless ecosystem active and prevents speculative hoarding of the community currency.

To pay for transactions with a completion period that exceed the 30-day period, the user can subscribe to the platform’s GoldBank, an escrow service that keeps the goldies even after their expiry dates and pays the provider after the fulfillment of the transaction.

Users can gain more goldies by doing any of the following:

1. Invite friends to join Pensiona. Every friend that joins the platform earns users goldies.
2. Create platform content. People may post comments, write articles, make videos, and other content.  
3. Help grow the platform. Share images, videos, and other content on social media.  
4. Participate in sponsored activities. Earn goldies by reading articles, watching videos, taking online surveys, and joining other platform side hustles. 
5. Purchase goldies. Users may use credit and debit cards, PayPal, and other accredited payment systems to buy special edition goldy bundles. Some of them may even have a longer lifespan. 
6. Become a Goldest. Goldy packs are among the Goldest of the month’s rewards.     

Golders

The providers’ unspent goldies automatically convert to golders (1 goldy = 10 golders) upon expiration. Golders are achievement points that recognize community members for the value they add to the platform. They unlock milestones, which come with badges, trophies, and other achievement rewards. 

Golders may be used to obtain membership level-ups, special service subscriptions, sponsored products, and other platform items and perks. They are a reward given to people for contributing their time, skills, and efforts to Pensiona’s cashless economy. The platform also awards providers with golders for every completed delivery of goods or services.

These achievement points encourage users to hurdle challenges and accomplish the biggest achievement of them all: using human capital to generate value-created golding tokens. And then attain the biggest reward of them all: earning profits by trading goldings in crypto markets.

Goldings

Goldings are human capital-generated blockchain gold that can be traded on crypto exchanges. They are also usable tokens that work as functional currency for payments outside the marketplace.

The blockchain gold can only be generated with the right amount of golders. The platform’s AI-powered algorithm determines the necessary golder amount for a particular gold-generation project based on supply, demand, and market movements at any given time.

Users can track their blockchain gold generation project using a digital tracking tool in their dashboard that shows the goals and progress of their activities. It provides the overview of the project, requisite goldbit amount for each token, and milestones for individual users.     

The Marketplace

The cashless marketplace is a multi-leveled e-commerce platform that lets people buy and sell almost any product or services using only goldies. Users can find a wide range of food, sporting goods, jewelry, books, pet supplies, gadgets, and other items. They can also get varied on-demand services like health and medical care, legal, accounting, plumbing, online courses, and even simple neighborhood gigs as lawn mowing and grocery runs.    

Individuals, small companies, and even retailers can directly offer items and services and also build their own mini-marketplaces or satellite sites that link to the Marketplace’s products. These satellite sites send people to the platform when they’re ready to make their purchases. 

The platform builds a connected community by enabling users to find people and friends on the Marketplace and follow and communicate with them to see what they are buying or selling. They can also upvote exemplary providers, leave a product or service review, or leave a message for friends.

Combining blockchain, AI, machine learning, and Big Data empowers Pensiona to get to know its users and customize their platform experience. The Marketplace’s recommendation algorithm points buyers to products and services they might need on-the-fly. The marketplace gets smarter the more people use it. The more they buy or sell, the more it learns the sort of products or services they like, impacting its future recommendations for a more personalized user experience.   

Offering products and services is considered as humanitarian service to help close the retirement funding gap. Its cashless ecosystem provides a way of using community self-help to trade goods without money changing hands. 

It stimulates patterns of sharing that fosters inclusion and neighbor-helping-neighbor spirit of small towns to address the growing threat of old age poverty. Anyone can be a good neighbor to anyone.

For aging societies, the pension time bomb translates into three significant challenges:

1.  Funding elderly necessities, especially holistic health care, if retirement systems can no longer pay the full promised pensions and benefits.

2.  Avoiding decline into old age poverty when most workers don’t have enough savings to enjoy adequate income in retirement.

3.  Helping refugees, the informal sector, the unemployed, and other people excluded from public healthcare and other security schemes deal with the challenges and risks of aging.         

At its most basic, Pensiona is simply a gamified blockchain points system that derives its value from human capital. Its technology allows for these value-created points to be shared, converted to crypto, and traded on markets as tokens. People may use these tokens for peer-to-peer trading or they may save them in anticipation of increasing market value. Either way, they add value to people’s lives.      

Pension credits facilitated by blockchain, Fintech AI, and machine learning technologies, are unconditionally granted every month on an individual basis without means test, work requirement, or the usual pension pre-qualifications—except for being old enough, verified, and registered on the platform. It is a way of adopting universal basic income as a social sharing strategy to help avert old age poverty and address social exclusion. 

Studies have shown that universal basic income is practical solution and philosophically and ethically justified[12, 13, and 14]. Stockton, California conducted a universal income experiment from 2019 to 2020. Independent researchers have determined that it showed success. Full-time employment rose among participants and their financial, health, emotional well-being, and quality of life improved[15]. 

Several basic income experiments have already launched. The city of St, Paul, Minnesota has also started its basic income pilot[16]. Columbia, South Carolina; Los Angeles, California; Madison, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Providence, Rhode Island; and Tacoma, Washington are also kickstarting their own programs. Even Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey donated $15 million to Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a coalition of US mayors who will launch their own basic income pilots[17].      

Other countries that have tried universal basic income in 2022:

1. Macau
2. Namibia
3. Finland
4. Hong Kong
5. Netherlands
6. Canada
7. Kenya
8. Germany
9. Iran
10. Brazil
11. India
12. China 

Pensiona offers a solution to the aforementioned retirement concerns in three ways: 

1. Cashless ecosystem. Pensiona provides an alternative to money-based trading and enables people to obtain health care and items they need without using cash. Pensioners can then use their government or private cash pensions for products and services not available in the marketplace. 
2. Income reallocation. Pensiona's blockchain-powered digital universal basic income practically augments the cash budget of users. It helps them save their cash income for retirement, wellness, and other purposes.    
3. Financial inclusion. Pensiona empowers the elderly around the world--including refugees, informal workers, and the unemployed--to participate in a cashless trading ecosystem using human capital without the usual stringent conditions of social health and security programs. The platform enables them to participate in making wellness-oriented lifestyle choices, which, at the same time, gives them the opportunity to profit in crypto markets.    

The platform leverages its intergenerational community to reward people for living healthier and longer, contributing products, services, and time, and helping “mine” blockchain gold using human capital. All these are equally valuable; all these are considered as human capital. 

Pensiona benefits the following population groups:

1. Pensioners (people aged 60 years and over). This population cohort includes Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) and Traditionalist or Silent Generation (born 1945 and before). In 2020, there were 1 billion individuals aged 60 years and over in the world, outnumbering children younger than 5 years. By 2030, this demographic shift will double to 2.1 billion, making 1 in 6 people in the world aged 60 years or over. Between 2020 and 2050, the number of persons aged 80 years or older will reach 426 million. Many of them are most likely to live to 100[18]. And in 2050, 80% of people aged 60 years and above will be living in low-and middle-income countries[19].
2. Providers (people aged 18 years and over). Although the platform allows all 18 and above individuals to be a provider, it will primarily focus on Millennials (born 1981-1996). Secondary target cohort for goldmakers will be the Gen Xers (born 1965-1980).   

Millennials. There are 1.8 billion Millennials in 2021 and they are now the largest adult cohort on earth[20]. Currently between 25 and 40 years old, this generation grew up alongside rapidly growing disruptive tech industry. Millennials are often the early adopters of new technologies and they easily learn new systems. They are creative, innovative, ambitious, and generally single-minded about making the world a better place. This cohort can be a perfect pair for pensioners for they are always willing to help people who struggle with technological advancements. Many Millennials are children of early Gen Xers.     

Breakdown by Region

Asia 1.1B

Africa 278M

Latin America/Caribbean 155M 

Europe 148M

North America 76M

Oceania 9M

Gen Xers. They grew up during the transition from analog to digital technology. Gen Xers can adapt to technology changes quickly. They are mostly highly educated, self-sufficient, and resourceful. This cohort lived through the challenging economic times in the 1980s and they developed excellent problem-solving skills. They offer a wealth of knowledge and experience and they possess a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Now aged between 41 and 56 years old, Gen Xers can easily deal with older people on the platform for they are most likely their retiring baby boomer parents and relatives.     

Pensiona builds and leverages a sharing community around its value-created cryptocurrency. The community rewards people for adding value to the platform. It helps combat poverty and financial exclusion by granting the elderly regular digital pension while also providing everyone an opportunity to acquire and trade cryptocurrency.  

References

12.  Raventós, D. 2007. Basic Income: The Material Conditions of Freedom. London: Pluto Press. 

13.  Van Parijs, P. 1995. Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

14.  Van Parijs, P. 2004. Basic Income: A Simple and Powerful Idea for the Twenty-First Century, Politics and Society 32 (1), pp. 7–39.

15.  West, S., Castro Baker, A., Samra S., Coltrera, E., et. al. 2021. Preliminary Analysis: SEED’s First Year. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6039d612b17d055cac14070f/t/6050294a1212aa40fdaf773a/1615866187890/SEED_Preliminary+Analysis-SEEDs+First+Year_Final+Report_Individual+Pages+.pdf. Accessed November 2021.  

16.  Bendix, A. 2020. A Minnesota city will give some residents $500 per month for 18 months in a seminal basic-income pilot — no strings attached. https://www.businessinsider.com/saint-paul-minnesota-basic-income-pilot-500-stipend-2020-9. Published: September 18, 2020. Business Insider. Accessed November 2021.  

17.  Bendix, A. 2020. Twitter billionaire Jack Dorsey just donated $15 million to fund basic-income pilot projects in at least 9 US cities. https://www.businessinsider.co... Published: December 9, 2020. Business Insider. Accessed November 2021.  

18.  Sonya Collins. (2018). ‘Is 100 the New 80? What's It Take to Live Longer? COMPASS by Web MD.’ https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20180920/is-100-the-new-80-whats-it-take-to-live-longer. Accessed November 2021.

19. World Health Organization. 2021. Fact Sheets/Aging and Health. Published 4 October 2021. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health. Accessed December 2021. 

20.  Neufeld, D. 2021. There are 1.8 billion millennials on earth. Here's where they live. Wold Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/millennials-world-regional-breakdown/. Accessed December 2021.

In 2012, I teamed up with Caritas Manila, the lead social services and development ministry of the Catholic Church of the Philippines, to use my video game WordTrotter to help raise funds to send more than 10,000 poor children to school. For more information, please see the following references:

https://www.caritasmanila.org....

https://web.facebook.com/WORDT...         

https://business.inquirer.net/...

As I support Caritas Manila’s other programs through the years, I get firsthand experience and knowledge of the plight of the elderly, especially among victims and evacuees and refugees from natural and man-made calamities and the marginalized sector, in Metro Manila and in different parts of the country. Majority of them live below the poverty threshold estimated at PhP 12,082 (US $241.64) on the average, for a family of five per month. 

For most of them, income is not enough to meet even the basic food needs, much less essential health care. Lack of financial stability has led to malnutrition, toxic stress, mental health problems, and other negative health outcomes. 

The Philippines has a high rate of income inequality, which has become more pronounced in the era of COVID-19 pandemic. The number of underprivileged elderly continues to increase every year along with the growing need for socio-economic interventions, better healthcare, and inclusive social safety nets. And for social welfare organizations, the need for more donors and supporters continues to rise with it. 

Donations Alone Can't Cut It

However, on the ground experiences point out that donations alone are not enough to solve the problem. Effective human development and poverty alleviation for the elderly must involve not only aid institutions but also the government, stakeholders, and the community working together to combat income disparity. 

For an effective socio-economic intervention, there must be a symbiotic relationship between givers and receivers that benefits everyone involved. A robust system of collaboration that makes the solution achievable, sustainable, and accessible to all.

Technology in Healthcare

Technology has tremendous potential for health interventions. One of these technologies is mobile health (mHealth) systems. At the moment, there are hundreds of mHealth apps in the market. Many of them have great digital offerings that create a lot of value for society. Even my mHealth nurse bot app project LARA (Language Access Rheumatologist Assistant) was one of the winners of the 2020 international health solution challenge sponsored by pharmaceutical company Novartis.

What is currently being done to address the healthcare challenges of the elderly? On the app stores, there are apps that help older people match foods to their health needs; apps that make sure that they don’t forget their medication; apps that monitor blood pressure; and apps that connect patients and health care providers. There are also several fitness apps. They just keep on coming.  

So far, I haven’t seen a digital health application that offers a solution to an essential prerequisite of holistic health care: financial stability. How will older people, especially those who don’t have insurance coverage, the refugees, the unemployed, and the informal workers pay for the things they need to fully benefit from mHealth apps? Matching foods to health needs requires one to have food. Medication reminders need medicine to be available. Maintaining the right blood pressure is often expensive. Doctors and other healthcare providers need to be paid. 

Who will Pay for it?

Very few digital health solutions succeed and most of them fail. Monetization in healthcare is extremely regulated, difficult, and complex. Reimbursement from insurance companies, social security systems, and health institutions (if app entrepreneurs even manage to partner with them) takes time and significant capital, and in the long run, not sustainable. Asking doctors to pay for the service is at best a hard sell. Selling data to pharma companies (both ethically and legally questionable) is not a very feasible business model, especially for startups struggling to gain traction. So the ultimate question is: Who will pay for it?  

When it comes to digital healthcare, people who would benefit the most from the service are often the ones who are least able to afford it. Health tech impact will be limited if it can only serve those who have the money to engage with it. And that excludes about 1 out of 10 people in the world who live below the international poverty line, or roughly 689 million people who live on $1.90 a day. And most likely exclude 26.2 percent of the world’s population, or around 2 billion people who live on less than $3.20 a day.  

Considering all that, I came up with Pensiona. The idea is simple: grant the elderly digital pension and tools to enable them to engage with healthcare services without using money. Provide an inclusive cashless ecosystem for participants to communicate, benefit, and thrive. Make it fun and profitable for all. And repeat. 

Once again, I intend to partner with Caritas Manila and also with other international humanitarian organizations to use Pensiona to provide a solution to the challenges of the elderly around the world. My team will work closely with all stakeholders to come up with the most effective implementation of the idea. An inclusive solution that restores dignity, improves well-being and health outcomes, and establishes a sense of financial security for all.   

Gil De Palma, Founder and Creator of Pensiona

We intend to launch an initial coin offering (ICO) to raise funds for the Pensiona project's full implementation. But first, the team must build and deploy a Minimum Marketable Product (MMP). The MMP is a condensed yet scalable Web application version of the platform that provides approximate user experience both for Web and mobile users. Its limited number of relevant features will be just enough to gather and document feedback, gain early adopters, and get the first proof of success from real users. The web app will also be the project’s official website.

At the same time, we are already creating the ICO white paper that accompanies the Pensiona MMP. If funding is available, the MMP development will also include the creation of limited-edition golding tokens for the ICO. Once adequately funded, we will further develop the Web app into the complete platform version (including Web app, Apple and Android apps) and go full blast with global marketing efforts.

We hope that Solve can help us find project partners to launch the ICO, pitch to investors, optimize public relations, and help with global marketing. We also wish to partner with organizations that can help us invite pensioner and provider beta testers and gain early adopters, especially in the United States. To better serve refugees and the informal sector, we also seek to establish partnerships with organizations and influencers that advocate relevant causes. And of course, additional project funding, especially at this stage, will be tremendously appreciated. 

Unique Value Proposition 

A gamified blockchain solution that pays the elderly unconditional monthly pension, which enables value creation and tokenization of human capital to deter old age poverty and financial exclusion and cope with the challenges and dangers of aging. 

High Level Concept

Social security system meets online marketplace with no money required. 

Unfair Advantage

Blockchain technology that provides universal basic retirement income for anyone anywhere in the world without using money as it creates tradable blockchain gold/cryptocurrency.

Pensiona builds an alternative cashless ecosystem for the elderly. Aging has an impressive 100% batting average so far and as long as people continue to get old, there will always be retirement needs that Pensiona can fill.

Pensiona connects with existing UBI initiatives and pension systems around the world to enhance their delivery of benefits to the elderly. Likewise, it also partners with governments and private organizations that intend to launch their own UBI initiatives to provide an innovative solution to their common problem: where to get the money?    

The platform also aims to establish strategic partnerships with e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Ebay to encourage more product and service providers to try its cashless trading ecosystem. Freelancing platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and LInkedIn will also be tapped as sources of providers.    

If Pensiona is successful, people will have a go-to platform to address the challenges and threats of aging. A place where people get paid for getting old; a place where sharing products and services is considered humanitarian service; and a place that fosters intergenerational cooperation, inclusion, and neighbor-helping-neighbor spirit.

Based on international studies, we assume that an unconditional universal basic income is both practical and ethical for combatting financial poverty of the elderly and that Pensiona can help in its inclusive implementation anywhere in the world. We aim to measurably impact the users’ financial stability, social inclusion, and health and overall well-being.

Making it Happen

1.  We will position Pensiona as a social pension solution offering financial sustainability with a cashless ecosystem that provides the elderly a platform to obtain health care and other necessities. It will help free up their cash pensions and personal savings for other needs that might not be offered yet on the platform.

2.  Pensiona will also supplement the cash income of all users (pensioners and providers and everyone living on the financial edge) by offering free-lance job prospects in the platform, which also gives them business opportunities in the crypto trading markets otherwise unattainable for many of them under the current circumstances. It seeks to improve people’s financial, physical, and emotional health. 

3.  As an inclusive platform, Pensiona will provide refugees, the informal sector, the unemployed, and people usually overlooked by social pension programs a guaranteed monthly digital stipend. It is directed toward giving them the purchasing power to participate in the cashless ecosystem that helps restore their sense of dignity and gives them incentives for self-improvement, for spending time to be with their families, and for becoming an active and productive part of their communities.    

For the fist year of operation, we set our sights on benefiting at least 100,000 users in each participating country. We will endeavor to gain further traction and increase the number of beneficiaries every year for the next five years and the foreseeable future.

Pensiona aims to create a cross-side success cycle where both the pensioner-side and provider-side bring in more users. Pensioners show off the service and persuade others not only to join and become pensioners but also to convert into providers. 

Likewise, high-quality providers bring in more pensioners, and the growing user base, in turn, attracts more providers. In this buyer-seller overlap, growth on either the pensioner side or provider side fuels the growth of the platform.  

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to track to identify if this ideal dynamic is happening:

1. Usage Metrics. Know how many people visit the platform and how they spend their time there. The three key usage metrics are monthly active users (MAU), bounce rate, and time spent on the platform. 

• • Monthly Active Users (MAU). The number of unique users who visit the platform every month.
  • Bounce rate. The percentage of visitors who “bounce” or leave right away instead of engaging with the platform.
  • Time Spent. Measure of how much time people spend on the platform.

2.  Transaction Metrics. Track if platform mechanics are working by focusing on three important metrics: liquidity, provider-to-pensioner ratio, and repeat purchase ratio.

• • Liquidity. The product-demand ratio or the percentage of listings that lead to transactions within a given period.
  • Provider-to-pensioner ratio. The number of providers that can serve one goldster.  
  • Repeat purchase ratio. The number of repeat purchase transactions.

3.  Business Metrics. Monitor revenue, profitability, and customer acquisition using three important figures: Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), User Acquisition Cost (UAC), and User Lifetime Value. 

• • Gross merchandise volume (GMV). The total sales value of products and services offered on the platform.
  • User Acquisition Cost (UAC). The money spent for each new user.
  • User Lifetime Value (ULV). The total amount of revenue expected from each user.

4.  Visitor Conversion Funnel. Track the path that new visitors take before becoming a pensioner or a provider.

5.  User Satisfaction. Understand why things are happening in the platform by putting user feedback data in quantifiable and actionable form. 

A universal basic income (UBI) can change the lives of the elderly throughout the world. We believe that UBI unconditionally granted to older people—including refugees, the unemployed, informal workers, and the homeless—on an individual basis can help avert old age poverty, health disparities, and social exclusion. 

This is based on studies and social experiments that favor UBI as philosophically and ethically justified, as argued by by Raventós[12] and Van Parijs [13]. This also follows the positive results of the guaranteed income initiatives launched by the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration[15] and the guaranteed income pilot of Minnesota[16], and a similar pilot project by the city of Minnesota[18]. Even Canada has passed a new bill for the creation of a national UBI[19].   

While poverty persists even in highly developed countries, the elderly remain a population group at particularly high risk in all countries. In our aging world, the challenges and uncertainties currently faced by health and social security systems worsen the elderly predicament. 

As proven by studies, granting the elderly unconditional UBI is a viable solution. However, not all countries can afford to roll it out. Just like almost every other proposed solution the recurring question is: where to get the money?

This is where Pensiona makes a difference.

We propose a blockchain UBI system for the elderly with a built-in cashless marketplace as a scheme to combat financial poverty, health inequalities, and social exclusion. Pensiona offers not only digital pension that gives the elderly purchasing power but also the robust cashless marketplace that provides a wide array of health and lifestyle products and services that make them a key player in a supportive intergenerational global community. The platform offers a holistic approach to UBI that looks at the whole person and not only specific health concerns.

In its 2013 paper Five Hours A Day, UK’s innovation foundation Nesta declares that there’s a yawning gap between existing innovations for an aging society and what older people say they want. Pensiona aligns with Nesta’s proposed vision for older people in a successfully aging society: 

• Pensiona helps older people find a a purpose. Purpose is the elderly’s driver. A sense of purpose motivates them to stay active, be useful, and achieve what matters most to them. It makes older people feel valued as a worker, entrepreneur, mentor, or any formal or informal role in the community, bridging the potentially tragic gap between retiring at 60 and living to 85. 
• Pensiona helps the elderly achieve a sense of well–being. Older people need a positive appreciation of life to be happy. A person’s well-being comprises an elaborate blend of physical, psychological, social, and relational aspects that help them live as well as possible.  
• Pensiona helps older people feel at home and connected to others. The elderly need to be an active part of a community to feel home wherever they may live. They desire to live where they want to live, to be as independent as possible, yet still connected to a supportive network of friends, family, or colleagues.

By offering unconditional digital pension and intergenerational cashless marketplace, Pensiona achieves the aforementioned goals through its three interconnected systems: 

• People support. Pensiona fosters a culture of collaboration that helps people get a sense of purpose. It provides a way of using community self-help to encourage volunteerism and make people feel valued at any age. 
• Reciprocal giving. Pensiona’s give-and-take ecosystem supports the engagement of young people and the elderly in mutual altruism. It gives them opportunities to teach and learn from each other, and to care for each other’s well-being. On the platform, older people can always find people that will help them do things they want to do. It empowers users to flourish at any age, which stimulates happiness and a positive judgment of life. 
• Community-building. Pensiona creates supportive social networks—family members, neighbors, friends, even other users outside of their immediate circles—that help fulfill altruistic motivations and expand friendships. It’s like a user’s personal “small town” where people know, trust, and help each other. 

Using Pensiona’s basic income system, anyone can be a good neighbor to anyone. No one is so old he has no help to give; and no one is so young she has no help to receive. 

And yes, it’s not all about the money.

References 

12. Raventós, D. 2007. Basic Income: The Material Conditions of Freedom. London: Pluto Press. 

13. Van Parijs, P. 1995. Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

14. Van Parijs, P. 2004. Basic Income: A Simple and Powerful Idea for the Twenty-First Century, Politics and Society 32 (1), pp. 7–39.

15. West, S., Castro Baker, A., Samra S., Coltrera, E., et. al. 2021. Preliminary Analysis: SEED’s First Year. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6039d612b17d055cac14070f/t/6050294a1212aa40fdaf773a/1615866187890/SEED_Preliminary+Analysis-SEEDs+First+Year_Final+Report_Individual+Pages+.pdf. Accessed November 2021.  

16. Bendix, A. 2020. A Minnesota city will give some residents $500 per month for 18 months in a seminal basic-income pilot — no strings attached. https://www.businessinsider.com/saint-paul-minnesota-basic-income-pilot-500-stipend-2020-9. Published: September 18, 2020. Business Insider. Accessed November 2021.  

17. Bendix, A. 2020. Twitter billionaire Jack Dorsey just donated $15 million to fund basic-income pilot projects in at least 9 US cities. https://www.businessinsider.co... Published: December 9, 2020. Business Insider. Accessed November 2021.  

18. Minneapolis Government Programs. Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot. https://www.minneapolismn.gov/... Accessed January 2020.      

19. Bills C-223 & S-233: The next step for Unconditional Basic Income. (2022). https://www.ubiworks.ca/guaranteed-livable-basic-income.  Accessed March 2020.

Pensiona deploys AI-powered learning algorithms supported by a blockchain system that can use historical and real-time data to predict the immediate and future activities of individual users in the platform. It uses gathered data to personalize suggestions and help pensioners easily find what they might need and help providers find people who might need their products and services. 

The system automates the entire on-demand operation in a way that gives people a chance to engage with providers of their choice for the things they need with an added feature of payment using digital currency. And it enables all participants to earn cryptocurrency and profit from the system.

The Blockchain System

The platform’s blockchain system supports the AI and machine learning algorithms by enabling the tokenization of human capital. It empowers users to buy, sell, and use digital currency—and earn profits accordingly—without relying on fiat money controlled by governments and financial institutions. And it provides functional interoperability that allows peer-to-peer and even platform-to-platform exchange. 

One of the advantages of its blockchain ecosystem is the robust layer of security it adds to the platform. With the blockchain comes smart contracts that handle all trust-related issues of the cashless ecosystem. Smart contracts bind bloomsters and providers and even the platform itself in a deal through a digitally signed and automated contract. 

Payments in goldies, golders, and goldlings are released only when the contract is consummated. The platform also delivers promised benefits once the transaction terms and conditions are fulfilled. This combination of blockchain, smart contracts, and AI gives everyone involved protection from unscrupulous users and frauds.

Contract Signing Protocol

Pensiona considers the contract signing protocol proposed by researchers from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Balearic Islands (UIB) in Spain[21]. It does not require a conventional trusted third party (TTP) to provide security to the signing of the contract, but satisfies the necessary security requirements: fairness, timeliness, and non-repudiation. 

The proposed protocol improves on prevailing contract signing solutions through a unique way of using blockchain in a more efficient, more cost-effective, and more secure manner. If necessary, it can also integrate Ethereum. 

In a nutshell, it involves two parties wanting to sign a contract by exchanging their respective non-repudiation evidence: NRR or non-repudiation of receipt and NRO, non-repudiation of origin. The contract will be signed if a goldster has the provider’s NRR, and the provider has the goldster’s NRO, and there is evidence that both parties possess both the NRR and the NRO. To finish the contract signing, the goldster must publish the acknowledged evidence (AE) in the blockchain network within a definite time, and it must be authenticated by the blockchain address set in the contract agreements. The goldster, who starts the protocol, pays for the publication using goldies, goldits, or goldings.

Pensiona keeps records of all platform smart contracts and transactions in the main network of its blockchain. Each agreement has a unique hash that does not disclose the details of the contract but represents a unique agreement number, which is uploaded on the blockchain. 

The system allows users to verify the agreement and transaction data directly from their wallet to create a combined entry on the blockchain. But only the authorized user, the creator of the contract, can decrypt contract details using the user’s private key. 

Reference

21.  Ferrer-Gomila, J.-L., Hinarejos, M.F., and Isern-Deyà, A.-P.  2019. A fair contract signing protocol with blockchain support. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), Spain. Published online on 14 June 2019. https://doi-org.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2019.100869. Accessed December 2021.     

Pensiona will have an inclusive team and workplace that maximizes diversity across four generations and many cultures. It also fosters the development of an international pool of female leaders and talents. 

Although platform development, customer service, and tech support will be based primarily in Asia, the global team will be composed of talents from different parts of the world.

Pensiona generates value by providing unconditional monthly digital pension and other resources that generate purchasing power and leveraging network effects to enable interactions between pensioners, providers, groups, and other people. Then it rewards participants with tradable cryptocurrency to give them an opportunity to profit outside of the platform, specifically, crypto exchanges. Stimulating the interactions among users is one of the key elements of the platform’s success.    

Purchasing Power Enables Interactions

Delivery of free digital pension allows for the creation of a cashless ecosystem that enables those interactions to take place. In this business model, Pensiona grants users the purchasing power to procure the things that they need from the right sources, which are as local as possible and as international as necessary, without using money. 

This symbiotic trading system doesn’t require capital or physical inventory for these interactions are on-demand. Simply put, Pensiona offers a wide variety of products and services around the world, but its doesn’t own any of them. The platform only provides the digital currency, access, and tools for pensioners and providers to find each other, connect, and transact. 

Connections Enable Transactions

The platform’s tools and algorithm intuitively connect pensioners to the right providers as needed and makes it easy for them to transact. For instance, if a pensioner needs health care, the platform will show several possible providers nearest them. Even their immediate families, relatives, friends, and neighbors can be their providers. 

The care need might be as simple as doing a one-time drug store run or as complex as a post-operation private nursing services. They communicate using Pensiona’s multi-messaging tools, built-in digital payment, and products-services tracking system for a smooth completion of the health care transaction. And this also works for a variety of goods and services offered in the platform.       

Transactions Enable Network Effects

The network effect phenomenon occurs when more people join and benefit from the platform, improving the value and service offered by it for those who join afterward.     

As a two-sided marketplace, Pensiona’s business growth is based on pensioner-provider network effects. For each additional pensioner joining, Pensiona gets better for future providers looking for customers. Each provider joining makes it better for pensioners looking for qualified local or international providers. All this make the platform’s unique offer of mining tradable cryptocurrency using human capital more valuable.

The more pensioners and providers join Pensiona, the more the platform becomes valuable to all users. It’s the platform’s target success cycle.   

The project will launch an initial coin offering (ICO) to raise funds for its full implementation. But first, the team must build and deploy a Minimum Marketable Product (MMP). The MMP is a scalable adaptive Web application version of the platform that can also be accessed using a smartphone. It will only have a limited number of relevant features marketable enough to gain early adopters.

The Web app is a condensed version of the platform that enables the team to launch sooner and at a lower cost than a full version. It will offer the six basic features—pensioners, providers, goldies, golders, goldings, and the marketplace that encompass a complete user experience and make a real difference to the first adopters. Although it is not as efficient as an iPhone or Android app, it can provide an approximate user experience for smartphone users.

This version aims to gather and document market feedback, gain early adopters, and get the first proof of success from real users. Validated feedback will allow faster and cost-effective implementation into the development and marketing environments, which minimizes business risks as opposed to building full app versions for a longer period of time. 

Building the Web app lends well to raising project funding. It accompanies the ICO white paper and demonstrates the platform’s functionalities to potential participants and investors. 

If funding is available, the MMP development will also include the creation of limited-edition golding tokens for the ICO. Once adequately funded, the team will further develop the Web app into the complete platform version and go full blast in its marketing efforts.

Sustainability 

Aging has an impressive 100% batting average so far and as long as people continue to age, there will always be a retirement funding need that Pensiona can fill. As long as people believe that everyone will get old and retire, there will always be a motivation to participate in filling that need. And the platform will be there to facilitate community interaction.  

Here’s how to make the platform active and sustainable:

1. Community Sustainability

• • Networked engagement. Create a secure, engaged, and cohesive community centered on a pensioner in need of products and services that is as local as possible and as international as necessary. Present opportunities, tools, and features to make it easy for individuals, families, friends, neighbors, and other possible providers to connect with the goldster and offer goods and services.  
  • Self-promotion and compensation. The platform acts as a self-promoting engine where users are acknowledged and rewarded for bringing new users into the ecosystem. Launch mini-challenges to stimulate and perpetuate the cross-side success cycle. Give each account a unique referral link and code that compensates them with a percentage of goldies spent and goldits earned by their referees on the platform.  
  • Gamification. Integrate leaderboards, rewards, and other gaming elements and hook up with social media to make the cashless exchange of goods fun, engaging, and rewarding, which will keep users coming back.
  • Relationships. Build relationships with relevant stakeholders and organizations for the well-being of the elderly. If possible, include them in the planning and implementation stages. Appoint prominent individuals and influencers as project ambassadors.
  • Advertising. Use organic channels, social media, and paid advertising to increase user base and keep them active.          

2.  Financial Sustainability 

• • Initial Coin Offering. Launch an initial coin offering (ICO) to raise funds to create the full Pensiona platform and apps. Offer goldling tokens.        
  • Freemium Model. Use the Freemium business model to generate revenue. Offer free ad-supported basic version of the platform and paid full-featured premium membership. Leverage the free version for lead generation, trigger for upsells, and as a virality tool.
  • Goldy bundles. Make special edition goldy bundles available to people through credit and debit cards, PayPal, and other accepted payment systems. 
  • Grants and investors. Explore grant opportunities, investor rounds, and other sources of financing.

3.  Organizational Sustainability

• • Operate with an inclusive team and workplace that maximizes diversity across four generations and many cultures. 
  • Development an international pool of multicultural leaders and talents. 
  • Although platform development, customer service, and tech support will be based primarily in Asia, the global team will be composed of talents from different parts of the world.       

Scalability 

Pensiona’s proposed pilot location for the full platform version is California, USA. Once the pilot has been successfully implemented, the platform will build upon this success and replicate in new areas. 

Five resources that need to be in place to ensure the success of scaling up:

1. Business model proven by repeatable sales. Pensiona business idea validated by user traction, early adoption, and sales processes that can be successfully deployed again and again at a growing scale.     
2. System capability. A stable system that has the ability to grow and manage increased demand of users backed by in-house knowledge and organizational skills to handle expansion.
3. Virtual and physical capital. The availability of affordable and controllable information technology infrastructure and physical resources necessary for the platform’s replication in a new area.  
4. Scalable team. The availability of in-house people with the skills and aptitude to manage the technical and organizational changes necessary for expanded operation.   
5. Brand character. Pensiona’s brand reputation as a trustworthy, useful, and engaging platform measured by KPI.         

Channels 

The following are the platform’s paths to end users:

1. Search engine optimization
2. Search engine marketing
3. Social media
4. User-generated item list
5. Virtual assistant bot
6. Direct mail
7. Live chat
8. Self-serve knowledge base
9. On-page support widget
10. Partner channels