Fundrs Capital Raise Feature Goes Live on Testnet — Browse and Provide Capital in Sample Projects, Exchange Funding NFTs and More
The rollout of our peer-to-peer funding protocol continues! Feature by feature, we realize our vision for a truly-decentralized participatory economy with a trustless, DAO-governed platform based on reputation and merit, which opens up new avenues of funding for innovative projects at all stages of development. So far, we have deployed the MVP of the protocol on Testnets of five major blockchains and released the ALBT staking feature on the Mainnets of Ethereum and Avalanche. Since we released the ALBT Staking feature, we’ve seen up to 9.62M ALBT staked across the Avalanche and Ethereum networks! Users have also been able to claim 1.4M iou-rALBT from the actions performed both on Testnet and Mainnet networks.
Fundrs opens doors for more people participating in the protocol’s governance and makes it easier to access financial activities like venture capital, fundraising, lending and borrowing, short-term financing backed by collateral, etc., which are difficult to participate in current markets. Given this, we’re excited to announce that we are launching today the Project Capital Raise Feature to the Fundrs Testnet. Our community can now use their t-rALBT (Test rALBT) to invest in sample projects and give feedback on the end-to-end process (signify interest, join the decentralized lottery, and exchange funding NFTs). This means that users can finally test the full end-to-end process for using Fundrs for both Seekers and Funders.
This Testnet release also marks the final release before we deploy the full protocol on Mainnet. There will be future updates to the protocol — including a brand new UI that is still in development through our partnership with Clay, a San Francisco-based UI/UX Branding agency, coming early next year. The full protocol Mainnet release will however let our community check out the first project that will be launching on Fundrs, and participate in the capital-raising round. More news will be shared soon — so stay tuned!
For more information, read below to know more about the Seeker Project Capital RaiseProcess, or you can go straight to the feature on the Fundrs Testnet MVP. You should be able to see all the projects immediately by scrolling down the homepage or by checking out the projects in the DAO section.
Getting Started
Basic Definitions
Before participating in this Testnet release, here are some basic definitions for some of the terms you’ll be reading. Keep this in mind as you participate in the testing process:
- Seekers — Seekers are individuals, organizations, or institutions who have applied for funding or borrowing through the platform.
- Funders — Funders are investors or lenders participating in the capital-raising rounds of approved Seeker Projects.
- Project Phases — Seeker Projects on Fundrs undergo the following phases. These phases will be discussed further in the following sections: Pre-Qualification and Project Application, DAO Voting, Approved, Lottery Phase / Funding Round, Successful Raise
- Tickets — Seeker Projects provide the protocol with limited partitions/shares. The protocol will run a fair, decentralized on-chain lottery to assign the winners. Funders will purchase lottery tickets with a stablecoin (USDC in the testing phase) and some rALBT. At the end of the Lottery Phase, the Seeker will be able to claim the raised funds (in the requested stablecoin), and the rALBT used will be burned.
- Immediate Winning Ticket — Immediate Winning Tickets enable potential Funders with a high enough reputation to win a Funding NFT automatically in exchange for the burning of a considerable amount of rALBT and USDC.
- Lottery Ticket — Lottery Tickets cost less rALBT than Immediate Winning Tickets and enable potential Funders to participate in the decentralized on-chain lottery to win and exchange for Funding NFTs.
- Funding NFTs — Funding NFTs represent the capital raise partitions/shares of Project Tokens, owned by a winning Funder after a successful lottery phase (or Immediate Winning Ticket purchase). The Project Token balance they represent is stored in an escrow contract and is redeemable at any time. In future versions of the protocol, Funders will be able to bridge, transfer this NFT, and even use it as collateral.
- Project Tokens — Project tokens are the tokens of the Seeker projects looking to raise funds.
Claiming Test Tokens from the Fundrs Faucet
To participate in the testing, please remember to add t-ALBT, t-rALBT, and t-USDC to your wallet before starting. You can add these test tokens to your MetaMask wallet by clicking on ‘Faucet’ and adding the respective tokens.
When claiming from the Faucet for the first time, you will be receiving 20,000 t-USDC, 20,000 t-ALBT, and 10,000 t-rALBT. The next time you claim, you would be receiving 4,500 t-USDC and t-ALBT per day, and 10,000 t-rALBT per week. Note that you can only claim t-USDC and t-ALBT once every 24 hours, t-rALBT per week.
If you experience any errors in adding the test tokens or claiming from the Faucet, please refresh your browser and try again. For users who have already these test tokens, please note that you still need to add t-rALBT again to your wallet.
Adding Testnet Networks and Tokens
You can add the Testnet Networks to your MetaMask by using Chainlist.org. We currently support Fuji (Avalanche), Mumbai (Polygon), Binance Chain Testnet (BSC), Rinkeby (Ethereum) and Moonbase Alpha (Polkadot’s Moonbeam).
To add the native Testnet tokens for the networks, you can visit their official Testnet Faucets through these links: Fuji (Avalanche), Mumbai (Polygon), Binance Chain Testnet (BSC), Rinkeby (Ethereum) and Moonbase Alpha (Polkadot’s Moonbeam).
Earning t-rALBT on Fundrs Testnet
Remember that you can already start minting t-rALBT or iou-rALBT that will be eligible for conversion to rALBT once Fundrs launches on Mainnet:
- Testnet (testnet.fundrs.app) — Earn t-rALBT by performing actions as you test out the platform. For example, by signing in, discussing, commenting, rating projects, and broadcasting actions, you can earn t-rALBT. For more information, you can read our first Testnet announcement here. Note that only t-rALBT earned by performing Actions will be redeemable for rALBT upon release.
- Staking on Mainnet (fundrs.app) — Earn iou-rALBT by staking in one of the Fundrs Tiers on Ethereum or Avalanche. For more information, you can check our Staking on Mainnet announcement here.
By performing actions now and earning t-rALBT on the Testnet or staking in Fundrs Tiers on Mainnet and earning iou-rALBT, you have a great headstart for being able to use your rALBT for signifying interest in projects on Fundrs once the full protocol is on Mainnet. Note however that the t-rALBT that you claim from the Faucet are only for testing purposes — and won’t be eligible for conversion to rALBT.
A Note for Users from Regions with Cryptocurrency Restrictions
In compliance with local rules and regulations regarding cryptocurrency and funding, users from certain regions won’t be able to participate in Fundrs. This may be because there is either an absolute or implicit ban on using cryptocurrencies.
Countries with absolute bans: Algeria, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Iraq, Morroco, Nepal, Qatar, and Tunisia
Countries with implicit bans: Bahrain, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Georgia, Guyana, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Macao, Maldives, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe
As of the moment, users from the United States of America would also not be able to use Fundrs to participate in capital-raising rounds. We are working with our lawyers to explore all possibilities, and to do so compliantly. We thank you for your patience, we’ll update you when we have more to share.
Creating Seeker Projects
Pre-Qualification and Project Application
Seekers can apply to get their project listed on the platform by starting on the homepage, or by clicking on “Seeker” on the main website navigation. They would have to fill out a pre-qualification form, and if they qualify, they can proceed to fill out the project application form.
Here they’ll provide key information about their project, the team behind it, the vision they have, token information, and provide the price of their tickets for the lottery.
A video of the Seeker Project Application process will be provided soon, and this article will be updated once it is live.
Browsing, Rating, and Discussing Capital Raising Opportunities on Fundrs Testnet
We aim to gradually develop a DAO in Fundrs and hand over the approval of the project applications by the Seekers to the community. The DAO will be composed of Delegators (voted for by DAO Members) and Members, which are users who have staked a certain amount of ALBT. You can read more about the DAO and rALBT here.
Once the projects get approved by the DAO Delegators, they become eligible for funding via Fundrs. Their status will go from ‘Awaiting DAO Approval’ to ‘Approved’ and become listed in the platform. With this release, we’re enabling our users to feel what the capital-raising feature will look like in the Fundrs protocol.
Users can check out the projects either on the homepage by scrolling down or through the DAO section on the website. Users can now see approved projects and signify their interest in joining the capital-raising round by providing t-rALBT and t-USDC. Users can also filter projects by network.
Users may also start or add to the discussion on projects, ask the team questions and clarifications, or provide constructive feedback and even commendation! They can do this by clicking on the “Collaboration and Discussion” (1) section in the project listing.
Users can also rate the projects according to the information that has been provided in the listing. To rate a project, click on ‘Yes’ (Upvote) or ‘No’ (Downvote) and select the category. Users can rate the Team, Product, Value Proposition, and Tokenomics presented in the listing.
Ratings help DAO Delegators gauge the community sentiment around projects and prioritize and curate the best projects for the Fundrs participants to engage with.
Please note: the projects currently visible on the Testnet versions are only examples, simulating a list of Seekers that a fictional group has approved of DAO Delegators to be eligible for funding via Fundrs. We’re currently working with several startups due to launch their projects via Fundrs in 2022, and we can’t wait to share them with you!
Make sure to start earning t-rALBT or iou-rALBT as early as possible so that when Fundrs fully launches on Mainnet, you can immediately begin using your rALBT to signify your interest in projects that will be launching!
Showing Interest, Providing Capital, Lotteries and NFTs on Fundrs Testnet
Aside from getting a feel of how to navigate the capital provision aspect of Fundrs, our users are now able to test the end-to-end process by showing interest, investing, and managing their capital provision certificates. Below you can find the process in detail.
DAO Voting
Seekers can apply to list their projects on the platform. There are pre-qualification requirements, and if approved, they can proceed to fill out a questionnaire for more details about their project. Once submitted, they will be listed in the Featured Projects section on the Fundrs homepage, “DAO Voting” status. You can learn more about this by watching this video:
Approved
We have uploaded new sample projects across all the currently supported test networks (Rinkeby, BSC Testnet, Moonbase Alpha, Avalanche Fuji, Polygon Mumbai), half already ‘Approved,’ and half still in ‘DAO Voting’ status. In the future, the DAO Delegators will approve the projects to proceed with the funding round. Approved projects will have a status of ‘Approved,’ and potential Funders can inspect the details of their unique capital provision opportunities. If projects are not approved, they would have a status of “Rejected by DAO.”
Each Seeker project will have tickets available for sale to participate in a funding round. Each ticket is a potential partition of the capital needed to be raised by the project. The Seekers define the number of tickets for sale.
If Funders like a Seeker project’s pitch, white paper, and the ongoing discussion around it, they can signify interest to participate in their funding round by purchasing tickets with rALBT and USDC.
They have two options to do this: purchasing immediate winning tickets or purchasing a lottery ticket. Immediate Winning Tickets guarantee a Funding NFT, which Funders can get at the end of the Lottery Phase. In the Testnet MVP version of Fundrs, users can purchase tickets by getting t-USDC from the Faucet, and earning t-rALBT by performing actions within the platform.
Lottery Phase / Funding Round
The decentralized lottery occurs when enough Funders signify interest, and enough stablecoin was raised to cover the Seeker’s request. DAO Delegators start the Lottery Phase, and potential Funders who purchased tickets can initiate the decentralized on-chain lottery in their dashboards.
At this point, the Seeker project will have a status of “Lottery Phase.” Funders who purchased Immediate Winning Tickets automatically guarantee their Funding NFTs, and the remaining partitions are then put in the lotteries.
In each lottery round, a certain allocation of tickets can be won by Funders who signified interest and committed rALBT and USDC to the project. When the DAO Delegators approve the start of the Lottery Phase, Funders with Lottery Tickets can see when it started, and they can start the lottery round from their Funder Portfolio. When a Funder starts a lottery, they automatically win a Ticket for spending the gas fees to start the round. This means that for a Funder to run a lottery round, they must have purchased a lottery ticket. This acts as an incentive for Funders to pay the gas cost of running the lottery.
The Lottery Phase ends when all Funding NFTs or capital raise partitions/shares have been allocated.
Note that when Funders lose in the lottery, they will only be able to claim their USDC back, as the rALBT used in purchasing tickets gets burned at the end of the lottery phase. However, if other potential Funders bought out every partition with Immediate Winning Tickets, then the Lottery Phase does not begin, and those who purchased Lottery Tickets will get both their USDC and rALBT back.
Successful Raise
Once the Lottery Phase has ended, Seekers and Funders can then proceed to the next step of the capital-raising round.
Seekers: At the end of the Lottery Phase, Seekers can withdraw their requested funding amount, and the project status would change from “Lottery Phase” to “Settled.” This concludes the capital-raising round for the Seeker.
Funders: At the end of the Lottery Phase, Funders can exchange their Winning Tickets for Funding NFTs. Funders can lock Funding NFTs to earn more rALBT. In the future, Funders who lock could also receive additional bonuses and perks as determined by the Seeker projects. Funders can also Exchange their Funding NFTs for the project tokens.
Testing of Project Phases
Our goal is to let our users be able to test the end-to-end process of using Fundrs, for both Seekers and Funders. To recap, we have included the specific things that need to be tested in each phase — your input is highly valuable at each stage of testing:
Pre-Qualification and Project Application—Testers should be able to create new Seeker Project applications and go through the process without having to provide all of the information in the Project Application form. Please note that to provide the token address for the project, testers will be able to deploy a new contract and copy the sample token address generated and paste it into the form.
DAO Voting — We will be keeping multiple sample projects active at any point so that testers can check out the projects, as well as participate in the testing capital-raising rounds. There are currently ten projects across the five Testnet networks, both in “DAO Voting” and “Approved” Phases. For projects in the “DAO Voting” phase, testers should be able to go over the information provided by the projects listed. We are asking for feedback on whether or not additional information should be included to better assess the project’s viability and fundamentals. To earn t-rALBT, testers can create new discussions, comment on existing ones, or rate the projects.
Approved — Testers can check out Seeker projects with the “Approved” status and signify their interest by purchasing either Immediate Winning or Lottery Tickets. Testers are able to claim t-USDC and t-rALBT from the Faucet for use in purchasing Tickets. We are asking for feedback on the user interface and user experience of purchasing Tickets.
Lottery Phase — In the Testnet release, we are going to operate as the functional DAO Delegators and move projects with significant interest to the “Lottery Phase”. As noted, testers should be able to see if the lottery has started already. We are inviting testers to start the Lottery on their end, check to see if they win the Funding NFTs (as the one who spent the gas fees for that round). Alternatively, they can just check whether they won Tickets or not and if their USDC is refunded at the end of the Lottery Phase from the Tickets that didn’t win.
Successful Raise (Locking or Exchanging Funding NFTs) — Funders that won Funding NFTs can Lock (or Withdraw) or Exchange their Funding NFTs for Project Tokens. We are asking for feedback on the user interface and user experience on these processes.
Fundrs walkthroughs (and more) are available on our YouTube
To get the full picture of the functionalities described above, you can also watch this walkthrough video:
We will be uploading updated videos soon, so you would get specific walkthroughs across all the phases.
Feel free to check out other product walkthroughs and don’t forget to subscribe for more!
What’s Next for Fundrs
So what’s next? This is the final Testnet release before we deploy on Mainnet. Soon, you will be able to use the full Fundrs protocol, check out the first project launching, and join in the capital-raising round. Coming early next year, the UI being developed by clay will also be implemented into the platform. In the meantime, there is more news coming up, so make sure to stay tuned on our channels to be updated!
We encourage our community to continue testing the Fundrs Staking feature on Mainnet here, as well as the Fundrs MVP here. To make issue-reporting more seamless for our users, we have introduced a new in-app feedback widget inside Fundrs, you can find out more here under the heading ‘Bug bounty for Fundrs continues with a new method of reporting issues.’
About AllianceBlock
AllianceBlock is bridging the gap between decentralized finance and traditional finance, by remedying issues that exist in both spheres and linking them more closely together. They see the future of finance as an integrated system in which the best of both worlds can work together to increase capital flows and technological innovation.
Building this future by bridging traditional finance with compliant, data-driven access to new decentralized markets, DeFi projects, and ecosystem-scaling tools such as funding and interoperability. As such, they are building a next-generation financial infrastructure that aims to provide regulated financial entities around the world with the tools they need to seamlessly access the DeFi space.
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