8x Protocol - Recurring Payments for DAOs (payroll, fundraising, accounts payable/receivable)

[kermankohli]

Preamble

The world of business is changing once again. We are currently experiencing the birth of decentralized finance.

In the last 15 years, 52% of the Fortune 500 have disappeared with many of the 'winners' integrating a subscription business model - most notably Apple, Amazon, and IBM. The subscription e-commerce market itself has grown by more than 100% a year over the past five years with as many as 46% of consumers subscribing to at least one online media-streaming service such as Netflix or Spotify. This can attribute to the fall of the traditional brick and mortar media stores such as Blockbuster.

McKinsey forecasts the subscription economy to be worth more than $500 billion by 2020 with large companies capitalizing on a subscription model's capacity to maximize revenue and sustain an ongoing business-consumer relationship.

It is not a matter of if, but when will dAPPs and DAO’s embrace the subscription economy.

Abstract

There currently is no way for anyone to make recurring cryptocurrency payments.

8x Protocol removes the friction of overhead and administration in decentralized autonomous organizations.

8x is creating infrastructure to enable repeatable payments on the blockchain that removes external restrictions and minimises hefty overhead/admin costs such as transfer fees.

DAO’s and consumers will be able to utilize 8x Protocol to create and interact with their subscriptions seamlessly. Furthermore, 8x’s off-chain relayers remove the need for manually triggered subscriptions, hereby aligning with Aragon’s strategic vision and reducing the friction in a DAO’s core administrative functions - such as: payroll, fundraising, and accounts payable/receivable.

Not only are we building an infrastructure, but a stronger and more reliable Ethereum ecosystem. 8x is able to make DAO’s more accountable through recurring payments during token generation - reducing the probability of the misuse of funds or an exit scam.

The integration of cryptocurrencies into a traditional business model such as subscriptions is inevitable. 8x Protocol will:

• Bridge the digital consumer market with the digital currency market.
• Increase access to services are improved as the unbanked individuals become banked.
• Allow consumers to experience outstanding customer experience across different services and utilities through on-going relationships in B2C transactions.
• Allow businesses begin new revenue models with the power of programmable money. Flexibility in paying for their service with their ideal currencies, tokens or assets.

8x Protocol is to become the infrastructure that unlocks the subscription economy for more reliable, decentralized world.

Deliverables

With the funds raised, 8x Protocol will finalize and build the technical infrastructure, and launch a UX friendly product that allows for the creation, management, and cancellation of subscriptions.

Milestone 1

• Screenshots of high-resolution UX flow.
• Front-end implemented as a prototype (payment gateway and manage screens).

Milestone 2

• Service node back-end completed (able to process a subscription).
• Launch rebrand of website and re-theming to convey a clearer message.
• Service node front-end high-resolution UX.

Milestone 3

• Oracle for setting the multiplier low-level design.
• MVP completed.

Grant size

Funding: $80,000 in ETH, split into chunks paid out over achieved deliverables.

• 30% ($24,000) to be disbursed upon completion of Milestone 1.
• 40% ($32,000) to be disbursed upon completion of Milestone 2.
• 30% ($24,000) to be disbursed upon completion of Milestone 3.

Success Reward: $50,000 in ANT given when all deliverables are ready.

Proof of Concept:

GitHub Repo Whitepaper Explainer Video

Estimated Burn Rate

Our team has a burn rate of $12,000 a month. This burn rate has been calculated to include: four team members, advisory fees, legal and compliance costs, accounting costs, and marketing costs.

Legal structure

Australian Proprietary Limited company for now. Plans to create off-shore foundation once we can pay for legal expenses.

[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[mariapao]

Hi @kermankohli thank you for submitting your application. Can let me know to what proposal does this request for funding refers to?

[kermankohli]

The funding refers to enabling better governance through the use of recurring payments. Organisations can commit to a plan and backers can fund them by setting up recurring payments as long as the commit and deliver on the plan. It's also a more broader open source incentive (on going payments vs one off).

[mariapao]

I see. then in this case you need to first submit a proposal. See the instructions here . The application process has 3 steps outlined there. There is no existing proposal for something similar to your idea or project (point 1) so you have to move to point 2: create a new proposal according to this guide. Feel free to ask any questions you may have about the application process :)

[kermankohli]

@mariapao done! let me know if that if we're missing anything.

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[mariapao]

@kermankohli great! I'll close this for now.