Bounty proposal: integrate gift cards

[sergfeldman]

Background

The Ubiquity card is a part of the Ubiquity rewards platform - the ultimate reward platform on GitHub. The platform can be positioned like “Ubiquity rewards - endless compliments for the Open Source developers”.

The main value of the platform is to stimulate contributions to Open Source projects.

• All popular types of contribution
• All popular types of rewards
• Main scenarios for obtaining rewards

The platform itself should provide the scenarios required for the partners. Possible scenarios:

• The contributor has successfully completed the issue -> he can claim the reward from the GitHub issue comment.
• The issue where the contributor commented was successfully created -> he can claim the reward from the GitHub issue comment.
• The contributor has successfully completed the issue -> the reward is automatically sent to his wallet.
• When the transaction is completed, he is tagged in a comment with a link to the transaction on GnosisScan.
• The contributor successfully completed the issue -> points for the airdrop were associated with his wallet -> when the airdrop is performed the contributor can claim his tokens on the airdrop page.
• The contributor successfully completed the issue -> an NFT became available for him to mint -> when he collected several NFTs, the contributor could claim a reward.

The Ubiquity card can be the contributor's access key to the entire platform. The current vision is that the entire uAD balance in the contributor's wallet is available for purchases using the Ubiquity card. Cards must support such use cases:

• Create a new card
• Make a payment to the card (top up the card)
• Find out the card balance
• Connect the card to Apple Pay/Google Pay
• Pay for your purchase with a card

Risks and potential issues

According to providers' policies, gift cards should be used appropriately otherwise our account can be banned. The violation can include distribution for citizens of sanctioned jurisdictions (we do not track this but when a purchase is performed it can be tracked), massive or too regular payouts (can be assessed as money laundering for own needs), relation to crypto (due to lack of regulations), etc To mitigate risks, we should have at least 2 providers set up and running.

Vision on implementation of the card program

It is worth implementing 2 independent reward options in any case - one option for Web3 and another option for Web2 collaborations.

Collaboration with Web3

For Web3, we should issue crypto cards in the HyFi style - hybrid finance is a smooth combination of DeFi + CeFi. It is recommended to carry out implementation in several stages:

• Use unbranded cards. At this stage, test the basic flows of using cards and resolve major issues. This will help to identify problems that will become the requirements for the functionality of the branded cards API.

• Issue branded cards. When choosing a provider, it is worth assessing the strategic prospects for cooperation in the creation of a Ubiquity digital bank. The prediction of implementation time is based on information from providers. The minimum time from the time signing the contract to the issuance of branded cards is 2 weeks, the maximum is 6 weeks. It is worth allocating time to resolve all legal details in the scope of signing the agreement and transferring funds. In addition to the providers listed above, it is worth checking whether you can use Gnosis Pay since it was promised to open in early 2024. It also cannot be ruled out that some providers will adjust their position and release a new compelling product.

Collaboration with Web2

Since we are building our system based on GitHub, and want to have a partnership with GitHub (or its divisions), we need to take into account Microsoft’s position. Microsoft is a Web2 company that is not a crypto pioneer. There is a chance that Microsoft (or GitHub divisions) will not accept the fact that Ubiquity is using cryptocurrency, and even issuing a stablecoin.

For such a situation, it is desirable to implement an option for rewarding contributors that is acceptable to Web2 and does not use crypto. This option could be traditional gift cards and prepaid cards from a known provider.

Goals

• Integration of Gift cards is the first step of launching Ubiquity cards.

The goals of the first step are --- to define and prototype the main flows of rewarding with cards. --- to test the flows of rewarding with cards and fix problems.

• Implement a reward option for Web2 collaborations.

Tasks

• [x] #32

• [ ] #33

• [x] #34

Preparation for testing

• Account top-up --- Define the top-up method for each provider (consider crypto if it is possible, if not possible then a wire transfer or a card) Looks like Reloadly can be topped up with crypto

--- Top-up amount enough for testing

• Visual part set-up of emails to contributors --- Images (logo, email background) --- Text --- Variable attributes (consider contributor's GitHub handle, reward amount, maybe link to the solved GitHub issue)

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[0x4007]

https://t.me/+2KCmCpeaGGxjMmYx

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[0x4007]

@rndquu perhaps you can provide a plan and update in a new issue? It seems like we are doing a new strategy now and I figured that we can keep track of progress on GitHub.

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# Issue was not closed as completed. Skipping.

[sergfeldman]

@pavlovcik Using Stripe services looks attractive and I'm glad that we have this opportunity. However, you need to understand the risks and limitations of such a solution.

• Global coverage was one of the requirements for the card solution. Stripe does not provide legitimate opportunities to issue cards for contributors from many countries.

• Stripe's cautious attitude towards crypto can result in difficulties in obtaining branded cards or Ubiquity Dollar licensing requirements, or other issues.

• It looks like costs of a solution with Stripe will include not only the cost of Stripe services, but also running companies in several regions. If we focus on top VCs for the A series funding, the absence of regulatory violations may be important for them. In case of active operations with cards, we will need to correctly maintain tax reporting for these companies, which increases costs.

[0x4007]

Global coverage was one of the requirements for the card solution. Stripe does not provide legitimate opportunities to issue cards for contributors from many countries.

I know, but we ran out of time so this will at least allow us to have a prototype for pitches for fundraising.

Stripe's cautious attitude towards crypto can result in difficulties in obtaining branded cards or Ubiquity Dollar licensing requirements, or other issues.

We can get by with just the stock card design for our pitching. I consider this a "proof of concept" that we unfortunately will probably throw out once we get around to a "real" solution.

If we focus on top VCs for the A series funding, the absence of regulatory violations may be important for them. In case of active operations with cards, we will need to correctly maintain tax reporting for these companies, which increases costs.

This is a good point, but, this also is highly speculative. I never got that vibe from Animoca for example, but perhaps they are less traditional than a Sequoia or a16z.

[rndquu]

@rndquu perhaps you can provide a plan and update in a new issue? It seems like we are doing a new strategy now and I figured that we can keep track of progress on GitHub.

Sure, I've already shared my thoughts here https://t.me/c/2050712923/75, I'm preparing an issue for the updated pay.ubq.fi to support virtual cards

[rndquu]

Global coverage was one of the requirements for the card solution. Stripe does not provide legitimate opportunities to issue cards for contributors from many countries.

We will never find a provider with 100% coverage. In the end we will have to use multiple providers for different regions (or even countries).

[0x4007]

@rndquu Where should we keep track of the initiative?

[rndquu]

@rndquu Where should we keep track of the initiative?

https://github.com/ubiquity/pay.ubq.fi/issues/174

I will break it down to smaller issues