Cambiatus

Project Name

Cambiatus

Country

Costa Rica

Project's Website
https://www.cambiatus.com
Overview

Cambiatus facilitates the creation of digital communities (DACs or Decentralized Autonomous Communities, also known as DAOs) seeking to achieve their common social and environmental objectives.Cambiatus offers the technological platform for communities to connect, interact, make decisions and achieve their objectives in a decentralized and resilient way, using social currencies on blockchain as economic incentives.

SDGs
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 1: No Poverty
SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 10: Reducing Inequality
Category

Community Development

Targeted Impact

Developing Communities

Stage

Pilot

Registered Entity

Yes

No

Impact Areas

"Cambiatus was born from our shared values, our goal is to facilitate the creation of digital communities (DACs or Decentralized Autonomous Communities, also known as DAOs) seeking to achieve their common social and environmental objectives. We provide the technological platform for these communities to connect, interact, make decisions and achieve their objectives in a decentralized and resilient way, using social currencies on blockchain as economic incentives. Each of the communities on Cambiatus has its own set of objectives and actions they want to promote. Until now we have communities in Costa Rica, Brazil and Spain: PULS - Entre Redes (Costa Rica): PULS is a system to connect and strengthen the network of small and medium sized local shops know as “Pulperias”, improving the social fabric of local communities, and allowing these small business to thrive even when facing the menace of big retail corporations. Each time a Pulpero or Pulpera completes a lesson on EntreRedes elearning app, they earn x amount of PULS, that can be used to interchange within the community. In partnership with Fundes Latinoamerica. Puls has already 500 users and more than 200 transactions happening in its pilot phase, and soon it will be implemented also in Chile, Peru and Mexico. Coop (Barcelona): this is a system in partnership with La Coopmunitat Blockchain and the City Government of Barcelona, to incentivize coop entrepreneurs to integrate blockchain technology in their projects. This community is starting in October and aims to reach around 200 entrepreneurs. Borboins and Organicoins (Costa Rica): these are two communities being co-designed in partnership with a coop and a local association of consumers, producers and distributors of organic products. Their objective is to promote organic consumption, improve the health of the region and strengthen the network and exchanges between members of the community. NatusCoin (Brazil): this is a cryptoasset system designed to foster private forest conservation in Brazil (and the world) connecting private landowners with social investors and people/companies looking for more responsible offsetting alternatives.

Quantifiable Impact?

"Our initial target for our pilot phase is to co-design and launch 5 communities that will reach at least 1000 users during their first months of implementation. With our first community in Costa Rica we are already set to achieve more than 5000 users in 4 different countries. Once these first initial communities are up and running, the sky's the limit! We are targeting partner organizations or community starters like Fundes Latinoamerica (our partners in PULS), organizations that have access to strong networks. Our scaling comes from these partnerships. Each new community expands the reach of our project to new areas, new regions and new objectives, in an exponential way. All of our pilot communities are focused on non-traditional blockchain users. We are working with small shop owners, local farmers, coop members and social organizations.

Problem - Gap

"Each evolutive phase of humanity has brought a different type of organization. Now that we are in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution and living in the Anthropocene, our Planet desperately need the emergence of a new type of evolved organization: one that has the power to gather people from different backgrounds and contexts, allowing them to collaborate and solve issues in a more decentralized and impactful way. Those organizations are already emerging, and they need the best tools and ideas to thrive. Our aim is to create a nurturing ecosystem for these organizations to emerge and to collaboratively create the tools needed for decision making, governance and economic incentives.

Use Case: Why use blockchain or other technologies?

Blockchain is at the heart of our project. Decentralized Autonomous Communities or Organizations (DAC-DAO) wouldn’t be possible without DLTs and Smart Contracts. The possibility for people to be connected digitally, being able to make decentralized decisions and trust people they don’t personally know, it is a total game changer in the way we collaborate to achieve our objectives as society. In the same way, cryptocurrencies, and more specifically, social currencies on blockchain, are the main economic incentive mechanism for this communities to connect and flourish.

Team Members

"Co-Founders (full time contribution): In this link you can find all our team members (full time) and also our advisors (volunteer support): https://www.cambiatus.com/team We are a distributed team working together from Costa Rica, Brazil, USA, Canada, and South Africa. " "M.Sc. Karla Córdoba Brenes (Costa Rica) Karla is a happy Costa Rican living in Brazil, passionate about communications, sustainability, new types of money, community development and new organizational models, including DAC design and social currencies. Masters in Community Development. Co-Founder of Sustainability School and Satisfied Vagabonds LLC, and co-Author of New Money for Sustainability. Singularity University Alumni and Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow. " PhD Ranulfo Paiva Sobrinho (Brazil) Ranulfo from Brazil has 10 years analyzing and working with blockchain technology, 20 years of experience in economy, sustainability, local currencies and Decentralized Autonomous Communities (DAC) design. PhD in Economics and postdoc in Environmental Cryptoassets for Sustainability. Co-Founder of Sustainability School and Satisfied Vagabonds LLC. Co-Author of New Money for Sustainability. In this link you can find all our team members (full time) and also our advisors (volunteer support): https://www.cambiatus.com/team

Application
Applicant's Name

Karla Córdoba-Brenes, Co-Founder

Protocol

Undecided

Open Source

Yes

No

Concept Definition

An open source platform to empower the creation of new DACs, creating tools for governance, decision making and innovative economic incentives through Social Currencies.

Support of B4H Goals

"We are perfectly aligned with B4H goals. We are developing and looking for new communities that share our values, and that aim to achieve social and environmental objectives related with forest conservation, healthier food, organic production, local resilience and development, and overall, fostering change that emerges directly from the people and for them. Community Driven Development as its best! We believe DLTs and blockchain are powerful tools to align people’s objectives and to achieve together a better future.

External Funding If Any

"Our project is being funded by Shuttleworth Foundation, a social investor focused on open source projects. So far, we have raised half a million dollars for our project.

Development Stage and Next Steps

"We have a working prototype being tested in pilot communities in Costa Rica, Spain and Brazil, thanks to the support from Shuttleworth Foundation. We have already managed to raise half a million dollar for our project. We have a team of 8 people working in 4 different countries (Brazil, Costa Rica, USA, South Africa). The next stage of Cambiatus will be the realease of our beta version, in 2020, available to everyone to test it and launch their own communities. We are working now in the governance and rules for it, because our aim is to launch it as Cambiatus DAC.

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