The GoodDollar Wallet to Deliver Universal Basic Income Worldwide
Learn how GoodDollar aims to combat wealth inequality by establishing transparent and fair money distribution on top of the blockchain technology.
Wealth inequality
Charity organizations worldwide call for action, as the inequality gap between the rich and the poor is growing. The annual report by Oxfam, a charity organization focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, states that 42 richest people on Earth hold more wealth assets than the poorest 3.7 billion.
According to Transparency International, the corruption index shows that many countries still fail to establish proper control over corruption in the public sector, contributing to the democracy crisis and social exclusion around the world, which leads to inefficient funds management and distribution. Therefore, the resources allocated to humanitarian aid do not usually reach final beneficiaries, causing those in need to live in extreme conditions of wealth inequality.
In this regard, there is an undeniable necessity to craft a solution that will enable fair money distribution across different social groups. Here, blockchain comes to the rescue, as the technology promotes a secure, verifiable, and immutable way of making transactions, ensuring that resources reach their destination directly.
Moreover, the technology has the capacity to provide universal basic income (UBI) on a global level via a cryptowallet.
Data security at stake
Since the goal is to provide UBI to any person willing to claim it, there is a need to discern individual identities in a blockchain-based paradigm through. Due to the decentralized nature of DApps, user public and private data is stored in a distributed database, which works peer-to-peer and can be accessed directly from the client. In this regard, a sufficient level of data security should be ensured.
To make a transaction via a cryptowallet, a user needs ether, a prior investment, and some basic knowledge of how blockchain works. All these things may come as an obstacle to the mass adoption of such a DApp. So, making it possible to use a cryptowallet with the only requirement of registration would significantly ease the learning curve.
What GoodDollar brings to the table
GoodDollar is a cryptowallet with the ultimate purpose of reducing wealth inequality using the blockchain technology. The project’s mission is to build a new, global, open-source cryptocurrency to distribute money based on the principles of UBI.
Developed with the joint efforts of Protofire and the GoodDollar’s team, this cryptowallet provides users with daily tokens as a way of distributing UBI. This is what distinguishes GoodDollar from other digital token wallets, which allow for new tokens to be acquired only by transfer or network participation. With GoodDollar, a user of any employment status and income can access tokens without a technical background or prior investment. The solution does not employ a proof of work or any validation mechanism in contrast to the majority of cryptowallets.
Built with React, GoodDollar features multiple communication channels to send and receive information. The app state is centralized on the Undux store, which is a simpler and typesafe alternative to Redux.
In order to track the user’s identity, face recognition was implemented. This step is essential to make transactions, such as UBI withdrawal or a GoodDollar transfer. The user’s token data is to match the user stored in a database. This way, the solution helps to determine if a user is already registered with a different account or verify it is a unique account.
The Gun database was implemented to ensure fast and easy data synchronization with a distributed storage. The user data is encrypted end-to-end. The Gun database can be run on any client, and the Protofire team deployed a node server that connects the peers with each other and backups all the data in case there is no online node to hold it.
To save the need for a user to buy additional ether, the topWallet method was developed on the server side, which allows to top a wallet with a daily maximum and make transactions.
Since the goal was to create a fully distributed experience, the server needed to be as simple as possible. So, its core functionality is responsible for:
topping a user wallet to make transactions without the need to buy ether and validate unicity
sending a mobile code to verify a user mobile number
sending notifications to verify a user e-mail address
keeping track of user mobile number and e-mail address, as well as avoiding duplicates
The GoodDollar contract system is an implementation of a decentralized autonomous organization developed by the GoodDollar team. The system is an iterative policy framework through which users can engage in collective decision making on the allocation and inflation schedule of a new asset class.
Making UBI accessible on a global scale
The GoodDollar’s focus is placed on making UBI work globally. Currently, the main research area of the project is how to leverage blockchain to foster social identity, governance, and interest.
With the growing threat of personal data being compromised through network services, it’s crucial to establish reliable control over social identity. GoodDollar aims to defend against Sybil attacks and to determine new cryptoeconomic approaches to making transactions as an alternative to traditional KYC solutions.
The GoodDollar project also focuses on designing new economic policies, where communities of any size can use the money in a decentralized autonomous organization, which enables self-governance in a secure and transparent way.
To facilitate social interest, the solution aims to firm up a cryptocurrency that is neither inflationary nor speculative, as well as provide a mechanism for money distribution using smart contracts, encouraging community participation.
GoodDollar runs across multiple platforms and operating environments, which means that nearly 45% of the world population can have immediate access to the wallet. After a sign-up process, which is truly straightforward and simple, users are able to start claiming their UBI, as well as send and receive the GoodDollar tokens to other users.
The cryptowallet is open-source, and the community behind the project welcomes anyone willing to collaborate.
