Pitch Competition · Part 2/2 | Crypto Futurism & Legal Engineering 2023 Conference in Próspera
In the Crypto Futurism & Legal Engineering 2023 Conference in Próspera, innovators presented groundbreaking pitches that aim to reshape the future of cryptocurrency.
From decentralized finance to cutting-edge legal frameworks, these presentations showcase the transformative potential at the intersection of technology and law.
Let's dive into the highlights of this spirited pitch competition.
– Winner announced here in Part #2!
📑 Check out the Recap Conference post.
Luis Gonzáles - Shredding Glass Waste Into Sand
A solution to the environmental challenge of glass waste aiming to reduce pollution and create business opportunities.
“My experience in these conferences is great each time. It’s always a pleasure and very humbling to see the great talent that is in Honduras. Meeting the blockchain innovators in our country is motivating, there’s more than I would have imagined. These events are good for creating connections and exploring opportunities. I hope more young talent gets interested in the space, that we can make the educational resources available for them and that we can give places like Próspera a real chance to build and prosper.”
– Luis Gonzáles
Problem:
Growing glass waste, especially from single-use items like bottles, poses environmental risks—accumulating in landfills, beaches, and oceans, causing harm to ecosystems and human/animal life. Recycling is hindered by collection difficulties, sorting challenges, and glass contamination.
Solution:
Innovatively, shredding glass waste into sand diverts it from landfills, reducing pollution. This approach creates business opportunities, initially for decorative uses and keychain vials, with potential expansion into more sophisticated markets, offering a financial incentive to tackle the urgent glass waste problem.
Ramona Tudorancea - ReiZen
Intelligent communities.
“Overall, what I really liked about the conference was that it gathered such a diverse group of people with different perspectives, but united in their interest and ability to make a change and follow their vision. It allowed for deeper conversations and more time to build connection, and for me personally it meant that I could pitch my ideas in a very authentic way - not like I was raising funds for something but more like "this is my Vision, this is what I am building". Refreshing and energizing from my perspective, really grateful I got to participate! It gave me the impetus to evolve my ReiZen project from pure tokenization to something more meaningful to me, and also announce the pythAGORA workshops.”
– Ramona Tudorancea
Problem:
Tokenization offers a catalyst for evolving business models, ushering in new ideas and innovation to address real-world problems. The shift in business models is significant, requiring a heightened awareness of our role as co-creators in shaping our lives.
Solution:
ReiZen is a collaborative platform that empowers communities through shared knowledge and resources, leveraging tokenization, open-source systems, blockchain, and a seamless web2 to web3 user experience. The vision project, "The Temple of Creative Healing," integrates heritage, art, culture, science, and entrepreneurship, providing a collaborative space to honor nature and unite individuals across diverse cultures and activities.
Adam Miller - Próspera Banking Coalition
Help web3 organizations to be able to get banking services to support their operations.
“The conference was great, I made some lasting connections and friends, and I will have at least one business opportunity that comes out of it. This time was definitely mentally stimulating and adventurous! I learned about things like Próspera for the first time and I had no idea any of that was going on and, now that I know, I’m really excited about contributing to it in some way.”
– Adam Miller
Problem:
Accessing banking in web3, crypto, and network states is challenging, as the traditional banking landscape is increasingly resistant, making it difficult to obtain correspondent banking licenses.
Solution:
The Próspera Banking Coalition efficiently ensures traditional financial (TradFi) banking access for DAOs, web3, and crypto entities by leveraging collective knowledge and resources. Success is defined by providing readily available banking services for these diverse organizations.
John Mackay - Cultural Blocks On-Chain
How to change human behavior for improvement, based on block systems.
Problem:
In the startup realm, the typical success rate is 10:1—expecting one success for every nine failures. However, in Latin America, this ratio can range from 100:1 to 1,000:1, making success exceedingly rare in comparison.
Solution:
To combat high project failure rates, especially in Latin America, the solution involves creating adaptive systems driven by interconnected elements—where "Culture" shapes "Values," which in turn influence "Behaviors." This approach supports human nature by accommodating failure, experimentation, and problem-solving, emphasizing the importance of integrating these aspects into every system over time.
Mark Zubov - Umma Finance
Offering a global, interest-free financial alternative to over two billion people facing persistent high inflation, with a vision of becoming a self-funded distributed country.
“I’ve been excited about Próspera for years but spending time on-the-ground has made it much more real. In many ways, Próspera is a glimpse into the future. As CEO Erick Brimen said, governance and law are what enable human civilization, yet that has historically been monopolized by the governments. The idea of shifting governance from a legal monopoly to polycentric law is quite powerful, especially for tech entrepreneurs like me who have been held back by the flawed regulatory paradigms. At conferences like this one, I get to collaborate with other builders and legal engineers, learn from various existing regulatory frameworks, and propose practical solutions to turn my ambitious vision into reality.”
– Mark Zubov
Problem:
Over two billion people reside in countries facing persistent 20%+ inflation, exacerbated by an interest-based fiat system where money is generated out of nothing.
Solution:
Umma aims to revolutionize finance by creating a global, interest-free financial system, countering perceived injustices of traditional models. Their mission is to democratize access to fair, transparent, and sustainable inflation-resistant financial products, fostering a community working towards an interest-free network state. If successful, Umma envisions a self-funded, distributed country with its own infrastructure and a network based on both bitcoin and flatcoin.
Max Borders - Harmony Temples
Envisioning the construction of global temples fostering human harmony, tourism, and connection to the sacred, run by DAOs.
Project Proposal:
Build permanent temples of human harmony around the world.
Value Proposition:
This experience economy destinations will be where people can expect to be inspired, it’s about tourism and a sense of place and a connection to the sacred. It’s meant to evoke beauty, wonder, transcendence, connection, and dedication, in other words, commitment.
Mission:
Establishing temples governed by DAOs embodies the core principles of human harmony, morality, and openness to interfaith dialogue. The DAO facilitates the continual creation of new templates, fostering meaningful discussions on morality, mutualism, and the essence of human existence.
🏆 Pitch Competition Winner | Ahmed Castro - Anon Sensus
Eliminating the vulnerabilities of centralized government censuses withholding too much information.
The Problem:
As of January 2022, more than 80% of government organizations had begun to use data analytics to inform their decision-making processes. However, the data-collection process is centralized and not verifiable.
The Solution:
To enable data-driven governance while preserving privacy, providing a decentralized, tamper-proof, and privacy-preserving alternative.
Why now?
There are growing concerns about privacy
Advancements in blockchain and ZK
Government surveillance and data collection
Shift towards decentralization
Demand for secure, verifiable data
Regulatory changes
Winning Decision:
“Taking census is a fundamental activity of nation states and should be a fundamental activity of network states as well. Without census, states are blind. Census on the Scroll blockchain is an exciting opportunity for states to fulfil this fundamental activity in a zero knowledge capacity, upgrading the due process right to privacy without blinding the state, and therefore finally transcending a harsh tradeoff baked into modern civics. Though we made the decision based on his engineering chops, we're also impressed with Ahmed's community work as an ETH Honduras steward.” – Kyle Smith