[Grant Application]: ZK-trade

[toosolid2003]

Project title

ZK-Trade

Link to grant specification

https://github.com/toposware/topos-builders-program/#-current-grants

Time to complete the project

6

Do you agree to open source all work you do for this project under the APACHE2 license?

• I agree to open source all work I do for this project under the APACHE2 license.

Project description

Challenge
International payments are complicated with the current banking system. Eg: as a Chinese buyer, you need a letter of change from your bank to be able to, say, import dairy. Another issue: it is currently impossible to carry your credit score from one supplier to another, creating a lot of friction when you need to switch. Today, going through traditional blockchain solutions is unsafe as all of your competitors can see the trade details, while privacy protocols still fail to support international trade mechanisms like escrow.

Solution
The solution consists in a dApp that allows a buyer and a supplier to safely and anonymously complete a transaction at cost and at speed, cutting down as much as 90% of the transaction costs and delays currently incurred via a traditional bank.

Technical approach.

• ZK-enabled wallets to transfer/receive the funds and sign transactions. Funds will be in stable coins, primarily.
• ZK-enabled smart contracts to lock the funds while the physical transaction is under way. These contracts will need the signature of both buyer's and supplier's wallets to be released to the supplier.
• A token that rewards timely payments and act as a credit score. The more tokens, the more reliable you are. These tokens are locked in the contracts and released whit the funds.
• Viewing keys that can be shared at the discretion of the wallet holder, to expose her/his credit score.

Value for users

• Cut down on transactions cost of international trade, especially between countries with non-standard banking systems.
• Cut down on payment delays. With Toposware performance, payment will seem instantaneous.
• Portable credit scoring, easing the transition between partners.

Value for Toposware

• Proven use case for ZK. This dApp translates the technical benefits of ZK into a real world scenario, significantly increasing the efficiency of current processes.
• Regularity. Opportunity to have recurring transactions on a subnet. B2B transactions tend to be more regular than B2C ones.
• High volume of exchange. The average deal of a B2B trade is significantly higher than a B2C one.

Milestones

Milestone No.	Milestone Summary	Estimated Timeframe	Comments
1	Escrow feature: payments and smart contracts	2 weeks
2	Fiat conversion and ramp up	2 weeks	Assuming integration with a ramp-up partner
3	Credit scoring & token mechanism	2 weeks	Tokenomics of the subnet not in scope.

Documentation, education and community

I suggest the following documentation approach:

• Extensive README.md on the github repo to explain the value of the dApp and installation process
• Series of 3-5 youtube vidoes to display the steps users need to take to complete transactions on a potential UI or CLI.
• More extensive documentation on technical aspects on readthedocs.io

Other deliverables

No response

Maintenance and upgrade plans

Upgrade
Step 1. Following agile delivery principle, the plan consists in releasing a viable product with a series of 5 to 6 users and monitor metrics on their usage. The goal is to identify missing or unused features. Duration: 8 weeks of data collection.
Step 2. Refine the product/market fit by removing/adding features. Duration: 6 weeks (2 sprints). Align with Toposware on features that could benefit the whole ecosystem and prioritize these.
Step3. Perfect usability. Run extensive usability tests to ensure the understand of the dApp and remove any roadblock to its use. Produce a reusable UI kit that any Toposware subnet & projects can customize.
Step 4. With product/market fit demonstrated, start pitching VCs to gather funds for growth.

Maintenance

• Write a comprehensive test suite, covering 90% of the code base
• Set up a CI/CD pipeline, with tests embedded, to ensure the robustness of the releases.