Developing a modern, modular B2B cross-border payment infrastructure & supply-chain management platform

Community Grants Applications
1

Hello Zcash community!

The Autify Network team is developing a revolutionary cross-border payment infrastructure & supply-chain management platform through the power of blockchain and AI.

Problem and Opportunity:

Millions of businesses around the world contribute to the nearly $2 trillion in cross-border payments each year. The most common method for businesses to move funds across borders is SWIFT, which takes a considerable amount of both time and money. We aim to tackle these issues by developing innovative solutions that improve efficiency, reduce losses, and enhance transparency for businesses and their customers globally.

India is a significant player in global trade, with its trade volume steadily increasing over the years. According to the data for January-December 2022, with exports worth $453 billion and imports to the tune of $723 billion, India’s overall international trade reached $1.17 trillion, 21 per cent above the previous year’s.

Autify Network is developing revolutionary digital payment infrastructures (B2B cross-border remittance, INRc stablecoin, P2P payment network) and supply-chain management platforms (End to end supply-chain management, supply-chain traceability, sustainable track and trace, vendor aggregator etc.) through the power of blockchain and AI.

We are already working with 100s of businesses globally to improve their supply chain management and cross-border payment and combining all processes with a few billion dollars in cross-border payments. We aim to process a few million transactions per month and achieve mass adoption in sectors such as retail, commerce, and supply chain management.

Solution: B2B Cross-border payment

Our primary objective is to streamline B2B cross-border payments for businesses globally, making them more secure, cost-effective, and transparent. We plan to achieve this by integrating Zcash into our products as a default digital currency to give businesses the option to send and receive instant, low-cost, and secure cross-border transactions without revealing information about the sender, recipient and transaction amount.​

Furthermore, we aim to develop INRc stablecoin, a P2P payment network and a payment solution for merchants using Zcash infrastructure to further enhance the efficiency and stability of our payment platform.

Supply chain management:

We are building an end-to-end supply chain management platform for businesses to manage the flow of goods and services from the point of origin to the point of consumption. Our platform will provide real-time visibility into the movement of goods and enable businesses to quickly adapt to changes in demand or supply. They can also help reduce costs and improve efficiency by automating routine tasks and streamlining workflows. We will integrate Zcash into the supply chain management platform.

In addition to the B2B cross-border payment & supply chain management platform, we are also building several other innovative products like, Autify Verified Vendors Marketplace, Sustainability track and trace, API Platform for eCommerce platforms etc.

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Achievements:

  • Graduated from India blockchain accelerator by the Government of India, ZilHive, Celo camp and Hatch Web3 Accelerator by Hedera.

  • Onboarded Vijay Pravin (BitsCrunch), Keyur Shah (Ex-CFO Polygon) & Ajeet Khurana (Reflexical) as an advisor with 20+ years of experience in Crypto, tech, business, Legal etc.

  • Autify Network was covered in Forbes, YourStory Media, AP News, Digital Journal and other publications.

  • Autify Network has been named a TOP 25 WEB3 INNOVATOR by YourStory & BuidlersTribe.

  • Working with 100+ fashion & luxury companies from India, South East Asia, Australia and Europe. And onboarding another 100+ businesses for the upcoming beta launch.

  • Launching a cross-border payment pilot between India and Africa.

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Team background:

Our team comprises experienced entrepreneurs, blockchain engineers, and operational and marketing experts with over 15 years of combined experience, having worked with well-established companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, Infosys & Polygon

Nabarun Chakraborty, Founder & CEO: 4X founder, co-founded Newton Vehicles & Ornativa. 12+ years exp in commerce, retail & supply chain management. Graduated and raised $5.5 million in funding for previous startups from Microsoft venture, Silicon Road ventures and others. [LinkedIn]

Deepak Komma, Lead Blockchain Engineer: 5+ years exp in software development, Worked with Jiraaf as a software engineer, Worked with Accelchain as a founding blockchain engineer and Worked with Buildspace and Developer Dao. [LinkedIn] [GitHub]

Supriyo Sarkar, Sr. Backend Engineer: 5+ years of exp in DevOps & full stack development, Worked with AWS & other enterprise applications, Contributor at Monero(XMR) and 4+ yr of exp with Google Assistant Action Developer. [LinkedIn] [GitHub]

Pushpit Bhardwaj, Full Stack Developer: Web3 Technology Lead Musixverse, Blockchain Developer/Security Auditor ImmuneBytes & Polygon Advocate, Backend & Cloud Ops Engineer Fitteo & MrktDB and 7x Web3 hackathon winner. [LinkedIn] [GitHub]

Venkatesh Prasad, Creative Lead: 5+ years of exp in UI/UX Designing, Worked with IBM & Royal Dutch Shell as a Senior UI Designer, 5+ years of exp in graphic designing and video editing and 2+ years of exp in 3D modelling and texturing. [LinkedIn]

Pankaj Arya, Supply Chain & Product Manager: 10+ years exp in supply-chain and management, Logistics, Worked with Infosys as a senior design engineer and Studied in Supply-chain management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [LinkedIn]

Total Request (USD):

$400000.00 USD

The expected budget is roughly $50k per month of work, covering a team of about 6-8 engineers and contributors. We aim to complete the development of the cross-border payment, INRc stablecoin, a P2P payment network for on/off ramping and a payment solution for merchants by 31st December 2023.

Final Deliverable:

  • Zcash Integration into the supply chain management platform.

  • Development of the B2B cross-border payment platform using Zcash infrastructure.

  • Development of INRc stablecoin using Zcash.

  • P2P payment network for easy on/off ramping.

  • A payment solution for merchants.

Providing a grant to our startup would benefit Zcash Ecosystem in several ways. Firstly, We aim to process a few million transactions per month and achieve mass adoption in sectors such as retail, commerce, and supply chain management.

Secondly, our focus on enterprise adoption means that we serve as a valuable partner for other businesses and organizations. Our services can help these organizations streamline their operations, increase efficiency, and reduce costs, which ultimately benefits their customers and stakeholders.

Finally, our market expansion opportunities offer additional benefits to the Zcash Ecosystem. By supporting us as we expand into new industries and regions, the ecosystem can increase its visibility and reach within these markets. This expansion also creates new opportunities for partnerships and collaborations, which can further enhance the value of the ecosystem.

4 Likes
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This project has the potential to significantly boost transaction volumes and drive widespread adoption of ZEC.

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The challenges of cross-border payment and supply chain management are significant and require effective solutions. Zcash offers a perfect solution by facilitating instant, cost-effective, and secure cross-border payments, while also prioritizing privacy to safeguard businesses.

Moreover, this project’s tractions and the team’s expertise are truly commendable.

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Hi @Nabarun - Welcome to the forum, and thank you for submitting your grant proposal! We will review it in the upcoming weeks and reach out if we have any questions.

In the meantime, if you have any questions for us, you can post them to this thread or DM us at @ZcashGrants.

Zcash Community - We want to hear your feedback on this grant! You can post your comments to this thread or DM us at @ZcashGrants if you’d like to provide feedback in private.

Thanks!

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@Steve, Thanks for your response.

We are addressing an extremely complex problem that affects companies worldwide, resulting in losses of a few trillion dollars due to inefficiencies, counterfeiting, and a lack of transparency. We aim to achieve a transaction volume of $200M in the next 8 - 10 months.

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@aquietinvestor, Thanks for the update. Will wait for your response.

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@Web3OG, We highly value the input and perspectives of the community members. Thanks for your feedback and suggestions on our proposal.

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I like this idea, but it seems like an high-level project overview. I can understand that you want to fill in some details later. But I think there are some specific details that will help evaluate the grant.

How much of the projected $200 million turnover will be transferred via Zcash?
What is the expected impact on Zcash network transaction volumes? (Numbers of transactions, rather than amounts)

Is the entire scope of the project is necessary for your first grant? It seems like Zcash integration could be done independently. About how much would that cost as a separate project?

It also seems like you might have missed some risks and consequences of the project:

In your risks section, you only talk about regulatory risks. But there are also:

  • project and platform governance risks,
  • risks around the stability mechanism or financial incentives for your stablecoin,
  • technical risks around project completion, and
  • risks that could impact adoption of your project by users.

In your “unintended consequences” section, you talk about needing experts to onboard users and scale the platform. But there could also be:

  • centralisation risks if you become one of the larger Zcash transfer platforms,
  • a centralised stablecoin mechanism, which has reliability risks,
  • privacy or legal risks if you’re holding that much user data, and
  • user lock-in to your platform, making it hard for users to switch.

You don’t need to fully fix any of these problems, but it’s important to consider them, and work out how to reduce their impact as part of your design.

We required some marketing support from ZF to reach more potential customers.

Has the Zcash Foundation confirmed they will provide this marketing support? Or did you mean that you need marketing support from the Zcash community in general?

(Full disclosure: I work for the Zcash Foundation as an engineer, so these are my personal views and questions. I do not make marketing decisions for the Foundation, and funding decisions are made by an independent grants committee.)

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I’m curious about this particular deliverable. Can you provide examples of how INR stablecoins have been used in India? Also, what is your plan in regards to developing a stablecoin on Zcash? Does it depend on the ZSA development or do you have different idea on how to implement this?

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Love the stablecoin idea! Could we hear a bit more on the technical spec of such a development?

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@teor, Thanks for your response and asking some great questions.

Zcash will be the native chain for our payment platform and stablecoin. We aim to process the $200 million in transactions completely on the Zcash network. We will integrate other chains and payment methods as volume increases.

Let me explain this with an example.

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If you see the above supply chain flow. A medium size fashion brand/company works with 100s of suppliers and vendors. Technically these suppliers and vendors are also independent brands operating their own companies and they buy raw materials, pay for operations, pay salaries etc.

Similar to a brand/company, these vendors are also associated with 100s of other brands, suppliers and vendors. So, the amount they transact will vary from a few thousand to a few million dollars. The transaction volumes on the Zcash network will be at least a few million and will growth over time.

Over the past few months, we have been engaged in ongoing discussions with various brands, suppliers, and vendors. It has become evident that a significant number of them are actively seeking a more efficient, expedient, and cost-effective payment solution.

Our goal is to provide an improved payment method to each stakeholder within the supply chain network, addressing their specific needs and enhancing overall efficiency.

We are going to offer the payment services as a feature to our existing customers initially. We are actively expanding and onboarding customers from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Germany etc. and aim to have 1000 brands on the platform by Q2 2024.

We have two major products, the supply chain management and the payment platform and both of these are interconnected. Zcash integration can be done independently into the existing platform but that might not drive a lot of transaction volume alone.

Our main focus is to develop the payment infra and the stablecoin under this grant proposal. The P2P payment network for easy on/off ramping and a payment solution for merchants can be built independently outside of this proposal.

There are various expenses associated with developing a comprehensive product like this, including legal fees, licensing costs, and research expenditures. We are making substantial investments in these areas to ensure that the grant amount can be fully allocated towards the development, testing, and successful launch of our product.

We are aware of these risks and actively working on the mitigation plan.

  • As part of our strategic initiatives, we are establishing a specialized team of experts to oversee key aspects such as governance risks, stability mechanisms, pegging mechanisms etc. In parallel, we are actively engaging with our advisors and financial experts to proactively address and mitigate potential risks.
  • Adoption is not a big risk for us as we already have customers. We are going to offer the payment services as a feature to our existing customers initially. Also, We are actively expanding and onboarding customers from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Germany etc. and aim to have 1000 brands on the platform by Q2 2024.

I am not a big fan of centralisation either. We are actively working on this to mitigate the centralisation risks.

  • We will integrate other chains and payment methods as volume increase.
  • We are in favour of an over-collateralized, decentralized stablecoin backed by a reserve of other cryptocurrencies. (We are actively discussing with our legal and financial advisors to check the feasibility).
  • We use decentralized storage like IPFS, and Sia storage to store most of our data and will continue to do this.
  • Partnering with fintech, banks, NBFC etc for easy on/off ramp in different countries.
  • Expanding our business to more untapped crypto-friendly countries like Africa, Southeast Asia, Middle East.
  • Applying for money transfer, Non-financial banking licences in different countries.

With great opportunities come inherent risks, and we acknowledge that. Our team comprises experienced serial entrepreneurs who are fully dedicated to the ongoing development of our products.

No, we haven’t had any discussions with the foundation regarding marketing support. While it is not a mandatory requirement for us, if the foundation can facilitate connections with other ecosystem projects, it could provide valuable benefits in multiple aspects.

Hope I was able to clarify your questions. If you need more details please let me know.

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@tokidoki, Thanks for your response.

A Rupee pegged stablecoin has never been used in the mainstream. But the Indian government’s inclusion of crypto businesses under money laundering rules has given crypto in India “more legitimacy” and will help adoption faster than we think.

Cross-border remittances play an important role in the economy and the lives of many of the world’s regions and people, especially in developing nations across Asia, Africa and Latin America. We believe the next crypto mass adoption will come from Asia and India will play a huge role.

Zcash will be the native chain for our payment platform and stablecoin. We will develop a decentralized stablecoin backed by a reserve of other cryptocurrencies and pegged with INR. By using INRc to bridge local fiat currencies we will be able to provide a fast, cost-effective, reliable and user-friendly way to settle cross-border payments in real-time.

Initially, we can commence operations without ZSA development; however, as we onboard more customers and increase transaction volume, it will be necessary to implement it.

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Thanks for your responses!

What is the biggest technical risk for your project, and how will you mitigate it?

Is that millions of ZEC?
What will the number of Zcash transactions be per day?

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So you will issue stablecoins on Zcash? Great! Can you elaborate on how you plan to achieve this technically without using the ZSA protocol?

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We intend to utilize the ZSA from the inception of development but I believe the protocol is still under development and won’t be available on the Zcash mainnet for several months.

We require 4 - 6 months to complete the development of the payment platform and go live. Therefore, we plan to integrate the ZSA into our system as soon as it’s deployed in the mainnet.

Initially, we will integrate Zcash (ZEC) with our supply chain management platform and use a direct wallet-to-wallet transfer method for the first few pilots. We are exploring Zecwallet Lite, Nighthawk and a few other wallets.

Also, we are planning to connect with the QEDIT team for more info about ZSAs development.

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The biggest technical risks we have identified are the scalability, Interoperability and security of the underlying smart contracts. Security risks like smart contract vulnerabilities, code exploits and attacks can happen given that we will be processing a large amount of transfer. Also, developing a large payment platform often involves interacting with multiple networks or legacy financial systems. Ensuring seamless interoperability between different systems can be technically complex and risky.

To mitigate these risks we are already working with experienced security audits professionals to help us identify vulnerabilities and code weaknesses in smart contracts and system architecture from the beginning. We are exploring transaction routing optimization, transaction batching techniques, cross-chain protocols etc. to improve efficiency. We recently integrated Account Abstraction & Diamond standards to ensure that the interface provides a seamless and intuitive user experience.

Our team is committed to addressing these challenges head-on and developing a robust, secure, and user-friendly payment platform that will greatly accelerate the Zcash adoption.

In the beginning, we will be using ZEC for the transfer of funds and then switch to stablecoin issued on Zcash as soon as the development is completed.

The estimated transactions will be between 4000 - 5000 per day and will increase by 20% - 30% every quarter (These transactions will be mixed of small, medium & large amounts). We are building a complete ecosystem and a native/default stable currency will play a huge role to achieve mass adoption.

Also, we will integrate ZEC/INRc into the customer interface (B2C), not only they will be able to verify the product authenticity, track the product’s supply chain details, register the warranty etc. they will be able to pay directly to the merchants.

Given the market size and the opportunities, we aim to achieve a few billion dollars in transactions within the next 2-3 years.

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Taking into consideration the current market conditions, we have decided to adjust the startup funding to $100K. We will proceed with milestone-based payments for the remaining amount, ensuring alignment with project progress and objectives.

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A project that offers tangible utility will ultimately prevail and contribute to the growth of the ecosystem. Asian market possesses the immense potential to accelerate, globalize and decentralize the adoption of Zcash.

I like the idea of cross-border payment and stablecoin built on the Zcash network.

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I find it suspicious that “Steve” has joined for the sole purpose of responding positively to this application.

So my question is do @Steve and @Web3OG have any relationship to the grant applicants?

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@covfefe, We have no affiliation or connection with @Steve and @Web3OG.

However, since we shared the grant proposal URL with our community members, it’s possible that someone from the community may have joined to support us.

Grant Committee can evaluate our project based on the overall details we have submitted.