Flora App

Poor access to financial services means that many farmers in the developing world are unable to obtain funds to invest in yield-increasing upgrades.

We set out to solve this problem by creating Flora, which is a mobile app for the growing economies who do not have access to computers but instead use their phones as an extension of themselves. Flora lets a farmer to apply for a short term micro loan and provide their credibility as proof. A regional NGO or DAO can act as attestation partner and be a guarantor on their behalf, enabling them to be applicable for a loan without collateral. A ZK proof ensures that the farmer’s land information is not made public as well as a private dispersion mechanism ensures that the transfer information is kept secret.

Flora enables farmers to carry out financial transactions by providing a blockchain-based payment infrastructure and affordable micro-loans, offering an alternative to traditional cash-based systems. All without having any knowledge of what a blockchain is.

Essential Flora is a jigsaw puzzle of components all working together to ensure that the borrower does not need to know what a blockchain is. These pieces fit together as follows:

• Polygon ID provides attestation for the borrower. Polygon is also our platform of choice to deploy on.
• Biconomy SDK: Social authentication and gas-less transactions for a frictionless experience.
• Chainlink CCIP to ensure transfer is carried to the chain that is most accessible to the borrower
• WalletConnect for the Attestator to view and approve the proposal right on their device
• XMTP is our communication channel of choice so there is a dialog of negotiation between the two parties
• Aragon for the DAO tools for approving and dispersing the funds
• ZKBOB to ensure the borrower's information stays private
• Gnosis being the final part of the puzzle, acting as the offramp and completing the loop.

The concept can be applied for not only NGOs but also to DAOs to take upon social responsibility outside their ecosystem, for example the ApeCoin DAO 🦍 or Nouns DAO ⌐◨-◨