Stellar Community Fund

By Freelii

Make Money Move, Freelii

SCF #32

$72.5K

Build

Awarded

Freelii is a rebranding of our project Strooper Wallet. This project is a noncustodial Stellar wallet leveraging passkeys for enhanced security and ease of use. Freelii was originally built on Telegram and will be built on top of multiple socials as mini-apps to provide localized experiences to end users.

Products & Services

Freelii is a re-branding and exploration on top of our original project - Strooper Wallet:

Strooper Github: https://github.com/JoseCToscano/strooper-wallet

Strooper Youtube Video: https://youtu.be/4faw_02YTBM

Freelii explores anchor integrations and Chatbot UX, but the key feature we want to focus on building prior to testnet is the Passkey login used in Strooper Wallet. We want to continue improving on this to make a "one click" verification.

We will combine the tech from Strooper and Freelii as we progress to mainnet.

Features and Stellar Integration:

PassKeys for Secure Transactions (Strooper Technichal Architecture)
Stellar’s PassKeys enable secure transaction signing, making it easier and safer for users to manage their assets without dealing with private keys. Our main goal with these passkeys is to create a "One Click Verification" to create a frictionless experience.
Peer-to-Peer Transfers (Freelii Technichal Architecture)
Users can scan a user’s address and send Stellar assets instantly within our wallet built on social platforms, offering fast, secure transfers directly in the chat.
Anchor Integrations for On-Off Ramp (Freelii Technichal Architecture)
By integrating Stellar anchors, Strooper Wallet supports wallet top-ups and simple funds withdrawals, making it easier for users to move between crypto and traditional financial systems.

Impact of Improvements:

Security: PassKeys and Soroban smart contracts provide robust security and flexible asset management.

User Experience: Peer-to-peer transfers, customizable flows, and AI chatbot support enhance user convenience and streamline asset management.

Soroban

Yes

Requested Budget

$72.5K

Success Criteria

By the end of our first year, Freelii will aim to transact $250,000 a month. A comparable against an industry competitor. Where we want to win is sustained engagement with 50% active on a monthly basis.

50,000 Users by end of year one. Why? A Fintech Monster like Revolut was able to attract 100,000 users in their first year of operations. For Freelii, 50,000 represents a balance between achievable growth and the need for user adoption in an increasingly competitive market. Coinbase and MetaMask saw significantly larger user growth rates after their first year but benefitted from being among the first in their categories.

75% retention rate on onboarded customers. This benchmark is based on retention rates of successful wallets like MetaMask, which achieved similar retention rates due to strong product engagement.

Impact:

Financial Inclusion: As more fiat users transition to crypto wallets, they gain access to global financial systems that were previously unavailable to them due to high fees, lack of infrastructure, or exclusion by traditional banks. For example, a user in a remote area could access savings, loans, and remittance services through Strooper without the need for a traditional bank account.

Go-To-Market Plan

Target Audience

Primary Market:

Viber Users: Viber is a widely-used messaging platform with millions of active users. In the Philippines it is estimated that 71% of Philippines population uses Viber worldwide. This is the fastest growing social platform - In 2021 the Viber traction was only 7%. We’ll focus on attracting existing Viber users who may have limited exposure to crypto but are interested in easy-to-use financial tools.

Primary Country Market:

Targeting Philippines as our initial rollout country. In 2023, the Philippines received a record-breaking $37.2 billion in personal remittances, marking a 3.0% increase from $36.1 billion in 2022. Remittances account for over 8.5% of the countries GDP.

Secondary Market:

Stellar Community: The existing Stellar community will be a key early adopter group. We will actively engage with users already familiar with the Stellar ecosystem and Stellar-based DeFi tools.

Tertiary Market:

New DeFi Users: With the growing interest in decentralized finance, we will focus on users who are new to crypto and DeFi but are interested in simplified financial products like wallets, P2P transfers, and on-off ramp services.

Overall Market: 1.7 Billion underbanked people send hundreds of billions of dollars a year in unconventional ways, with 75% of payments being from outdated systems.

Value Proposition

Seamless Integration in Viber: No browser extensions, no separate app installations, just seamless access to Stellar's decentralised financial services for Viber users.

Security and Simplicity: Leveraging PassKeys for secure transactions and removing the need for managing private keys will provide users with a safer, more user-friendly wallet experience. Low KYC needs.

Customizable and Automated: Our wallet offers customizable transaction flows through Soroban smart contracts, allowing users to automate asset management, bringing greater convenience to crypto transactions.

On-Off Ramp Services: By providing easy fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat conversions through Stellar anchors, Freelii bridges the gap between traditional financial systems and crypto.

UX Focus: Creating social chatbots to help create familiarity to onboarding. Answer any questions pre-support needs, and help build comfort to any questions related to de-fi.

Acquisition channels:

Community Engagement

Stellar Ecosystem Partnerships: Collaborate with established Stellar-based projects and organizations to promote Strooper Wallet through joint campaigns and feature integrations.

Stellar Forums and Social Media: Engage with the Stellar community through Reddit, Twitter, and Discord, building excitement for the wallet’s launch.

Viber User Base

Viber Ads and Bots: Leverage Viber’s advertising and bot ecosystem to run campaigns directly within the platform. Create demo bots for users to explore Freelii’s features before committing to use.

Influencer Marketing

Crypto Influencers: Engage crypto influencers to demo Freelii to their audiences. This includes both Stellar ecosystem influencers and those in the broader DeFi space.

Community-Led Referrals: Implement a referral program where users get rewards for inviting friends to join and use Freelii.

Tik Tok Micro influencing showing easy UX of telegram instant to Digital Wallet.

Organic Search and Content Marketing

Educational Content: Publish blog posts, explainer videos, and social media content around DeFi, crypto, and Stellar technology.

SEO & Stellar-Related Keywords: Optimize our website and content for keywords related to Stellar, DeFi, and crypto wallets.

Events and Conferences: Continue to attend various conferences and build publicity and demo product to crypto users.

Launch Phases:

Phase 1: Beta Launch:

Launch on Testnet: Begin with a limited launch to select users in the Stellar community and Telegram crypto groups. We’ll gather feedback on usability, performance, and security. Incentivized Beta Testing Outreach: Giving XLM tokens or enrollment bonuses to early testers who provide feedback on the beta version. Also ensuring early users that we will eat any fees based on exclusive invite codes.

Based on product feedback we will enhance the AI chatbot to help with onboarding. Using it as a demo bot with step by step guides and reducing friction for future Production rollout.

We will use product feedback to create feature comparisons to other popular wallets looking to emphasise key differentiators such as Highlight Viber integration, PassKeys security, customizable transaction flows, ease of use, and advanced features such as customizable transaction flows using Soroban smart contracts.

Partnerships and integrations will be key in this stage. Freelii will always be looking to partner with Stellar anchors, DeFi platforms, and even non-Stellar applications to expand its capabilities. For instance, providing seamless fiat on-off ramps and advanced DeFi integration would offer a significant advantage over existing wallets.

Joseph and Jose plan to work in Philippines beginning January. Joseph is well connected with many executives, which can help target the specific country by partnering with local wallets like GCash, or PayMaya, to provide seamless fiat-to-crypto on/off-ramp services. By offering a direct bridge between their wallets and Freelii, users can easily move between fiat (PHP) and crypto. Freelii could be promoted as the crypto extension of these fiat wallets. For instance, GCash and PayMaya already have integrations allowing users to purchase crypto. Freelii can position itself as a partner for Stellar-based remittances and decentralized finance (DeFi) features that these wallets don’t fully offer yet this can easily be done through a local exchange like Coins.PH or larger exchanges globally. Jose is also well connected with a Mexican Forex trader who wants to be one of the first mass adopters of Crypto. This partner has already stated client’s willingness to help bring these projects to mainstream in Mexico. Targeting particular countries will also be our key advantage in releasing our wallet.

Phase 2: Full Mainnet Launch

Target Date: April 2025

Marketing Push: Coordinated promotion through Viber ads, crypto influencer partnerships, and Stellar community announcements.

Referral Program Activation: Launch a referral program to encourage viral growth, allowing users to earn rewards for bringing in new users.

Stellar Community Airdrop: Airdrop an amount of XLM or other Stellar-based tokens to users who download Strooper and complete basic tasks (such as setting up their wallet or making their first peer-to-peer transfer). This incentivizes adoption and builds immediate engagement within the Stellar community.

Referral-Based Airdrops: Reward users who refer others with airdropped tokens once their referrals onboard and complete specific tasks (like making a transaction). Both the referrer and the referred user receives incentives. This dual-sided approach helps break down psychological barriers to trying a new service and results in organic user acquisition.

Partnerships: Utilise partnerships made in the Beta phase to help support our lunch and collaborate marketing pieces to build traction.

Phase 3: Post-Launch Growth

Stellar DeFi Integration: Continue building partnerships with Stellar-based DeFi projects and anchors to expand Strooper Wallet’s feature set and user base.

Ongoing Product Iteration: Based on user feedback, we’ll release regular updates with new features, such as advanced automation and expanded asset support.

Customer Support and Retention:

AI Chatbot: Based on user feedback continue to enhance our AI chatbot to offer 24/7 in-app support for users, improving user retention and satisfaction.

Customer Feedback Loop: Implement an ongoing feedback system, conducting user surveys and engaging with the community to ensure the wallet evolves with their needs.

Traction Evidence

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KyAneWvA5Fo5OKektQUDfhoVJ2jI-P0oJGulxK3cEGU/edit?gid=0#gid=0

User Engagement: Strooper Wallet, Freelii’s prototype, achieved 47 enrollments within just three days of showcasing, demonstrating a strong initial interest and product-market fit.

Recognition by Stellar: The Stellar Marketing Team has invited Freelii to participate in their "Development Diary Series", showcasing our project as a standout example of innovation on the Stellar network.

Collaborations with Stellar Teams: Actively working with the Stellar Product and Wallet teams to enhance passkey capabilities, positioning Freelii as an early adopter of this wallet technology. (John, Bruno, Jake)

Hackathon Wins: Strooper Wallet/Freelii's foundational technology and concept have been validated through winning two Stellar-sponsored hackathons in a row, further solidifying the project’s potential and technical credibility.

Partnering: Freelii's team working on multiple integrations with big players: Bitso, Circle, Stripe. In discussions with local players in Philippines: Coins.PH, Ripe, Gcash.

Other(s): We have been pro-actively speaking with many de-fi projects, advisors, trad-fi entrepreneurs, and de-fi entrepreneurs. Examples here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/15qIRbF9KvsDKrvTGAuRrYgfKCmsFF5FB?ths=true

Tranche 1 (Deliverable Roadmap) - MVP

Despite finding proof of concept through winning two hackathons and finding users, we still consider ourselves in MVP stage and want to make improvements, debug, and add additional features before official publication on Testnet.

Total Cost Breakdown: $27.5K (December - February)

PassKeys for Secure Transactions (Done in theory [Strooper Wallet Hackathon] - Debugging and improving) ($7.5K)

Costs Breakdown:

Infrastructure costs:

Twilio Services for SMS messaging required to verify users through OTP
Server Hosting through Amazon Web Services
FIle Storage Service (AWS S3)

**Development costs:
**Our main short-term focus is improving this capability to create a "one-click" onboarding experience with Stellar’s PassKeys, which is a complex and resource-intensive process due to the following challenges:

Custom Smart Contracts:
We need to design and deploy custom contracts to manage PassKeys, integrate "C" and "G" addresses, and support our seamless onboarding flow. These contracts will require audits to ensure security, which adds to the cost.
Rigorous Testing:
Extensive unit testing is needed to ensure every part of the system—from PassKey generation to transaction signing—works reliably and securely, especially when handling financial transactions.
Policy Signer Integration:
Developing support for custom policy signers is critical to connect "C" and "G" addresses. This also requires building indexing systems to track and manage accounts efficiently, adding development effort.
WebAuth and MiniApp Limitations:
Current webviews, like those in Telegram MiniApps, don’t natively support PassKeys. We’ll need to create custom flows to manage PassKeys and signing while ensuring a smooth user experience.
PassKey Management:
Managing PassKeys within the MiniApp environment requires developing secure and scalable solutions that align with the platform’s limitations. Stellar’s PassKeys enable secure transaction signing, making it easier and safer for users to manage their assets without dealing with private keys.

These tasks demand significant development time, expertise, and resources, including the cost of testing, and building new features. This investment is essential to create a seamless onboarding experience that is secure, scalable, and easy to use.

Peer-to-Peer Transfers (Done in theory [Freelii Hackathon] - Debugging and improving) ($10K)

Costs Breakdown:

**Chatbot UX Development and Licensing Fees:
**Developing a seamless chatbot experience requires significant investment in UX design to ensure that users can intuitively navigate the remittance flow. Additionally, if leveraging third-party chatbot platforms and LLMs, further increasing costs.
API Integration Costs:
Integrating with Stellar’s ecosystem requires building robust API connections to support remittance flows. This involves working with SEPs like SEP-10, SEP-12, SEP-6, and SEP-24 for authentication, KYC, deposits, and withdrawals. Each API integration requires development time, testing, and ongoing maintenance to ensure smooth operation. Additionally, integrating with anchors, initially Circle’s USDc and additional partners for fiat on/off-ramping will involve negotiation and potential usage fees, especially for scaling in the Philippines.
Backend Development:
The backend must be robust and scalable to handle transaction generation, PassKey management, and policy signer integration while ensuring high availability and security. Building this infrastructure will require substantial development time, audits, and server hosting costs, as well as ongoing maintenance and updates.

Pivoting to Viber ($2K):
We originally built Freelii on Telegram, but to better reach our first target market, the Philippines, we are pivoting to Viber for the MVP. Viber’s significantly higher adoption in the Philippines aligns with our target customer base, offering greater potential for user engagement and retention. However, this shift comes with added costs:

Viber Integration Costs: Adapting our chatbot and backend infrastructure to work with Viber’s APIs and platform-specific requirements.
Licensing and Operational Fees: Viber’s platform usage may incur recurring fees, particularly for advanced integrations and enterprise features.
Localization: Customizing the chatbot UX for cultural and linguistic relevance to the Philippines, including translations, local regulations, and market preferences.

Despite these additional costs, the move to Viber will allow us to focus directly on our target customers, providing a more impactful and tailored experience. By prioritizing user engagement in a high-potential market, we aim to maximize early adoption and validate our product more effectively.

Anchor Integrations for On-Off Ramp (Want minimum two anchors before publication to Testnet) ($10K)

Costs Breakdown:

Costs for Anchor Integrations for On/Off Ramp (Target: Minimum Two Anchors, $10K)

Business Accounts + Verifications:
Setting up verified business accounts for anchors includes legal fees, registration, and compliance checks like KYC reviews. Estimated cost: $2K-$3K.
Setup & Configuration:
Anchor-specific setup requires account configuration, secure API key management, and testing. Estimated cost: $1K-$2K.
API Integrations:
Developing secure API connections for deposits, withdrawals, and compliance with SEPs (e.g., SEP-6, SEP-24) requires thorough testing and optimization. Estimated cost: $2K-$3K.
Development:
Building backend modules for fiat on/off-ramping and transaction tracking, plus ongoing maintenance. Estimated cost: $3K-$4K.

We have been in discussion with various partners for on/off ramps:

Our initial rollout will include the USDC Access (By Circle), and Stripe Connect for On-Ramps. For Off-Ramps, we are focused on integrating with Coins.PH who will enable digital wallets - GCash and Pay Maya payouts. Our second off-ramp focus will be on Bank deposits VIA InstaPay and PESONet.

Tranche 2 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Testnet

Cost Breakdown: $20K (February - March)

Our TestNet development phase will prioritize features based on user feedback, focusing on delivering key functionalities while addressing technical challenges to ensure scalability and user satisfaction.

**Soroban Smart Contracts ($10K):
**Developing Soroban Smart Contracts will enable customizable transaction flows and automation, providing greater flexibility in asset management. However, Smart Contracts on Stellar do not inherently track balances for any asset. Instead, we must specify which assets to monitor and perform inverse searches for each asset, requiring indexing solutions to gather and display data effectively. Implementing this indexing system adds significant complexity and development costs.
**Asset Management ($5K):
**Providing users with the ability to view and manage their Stellar assets will involve building intuitive interfaces and backend support. Offering decentralized savings accounts through tools like (Script3) Blend introduces additional value, allowing users to earn interest. However, these features require compliance with decentralized finance protocols, as well as development efforts to ensure seamless integration and user experience.

Key Technical Considerations and Costs:

Indexing Challenges: Building or integrating an indexing system for asset tracking is critical. Without it, Smart Contracts cannot natively display balances, requiring expensive backend development or third-party indexing services to handle this.
Smart Contracts: Ensuring the security and reliability of Soroban Smart Contracts adds further costs through audits and rigorous testing.
Custom Integrations: Both DEX and Oracle integrations require tailored development, testing, and maintenance.

Audit (Free): Will use Stellar Launchkit and apply for credits for Audit. Already in contact with Andreas Mantzoutas, who is already looking to help us start on the technical side and future audit.

Legal Incorporation ($2K): Setting up Delaware LLC, state fees, registered agent services for the first year, virtual address in the US, and operating agreement. Legal adjustments to operating agreement for our specific business such as: Non-Custodial Wallets: Clearly state that Freelii is a technology provider and does not hold or manage user funds, avoiding regulatory misclassification.Crypto Transactions: Include clauses limiting liability and emphasizing compliance to address regulatory grey areas. Cross-Border Transfers: Define how disputes across jurisdictions are handled and ensure compliance with international regulations.

Tranche 3 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Mainnet

Support and Maintenance ($10K):

Set up user support infrastructure, including ticketing systems. Ongoing maintenance to platform.

Monitoring and Analytics Tools ($1K/Month + $1K Development Fees): Deploy real-time monitoring for transactions and user behavior (e.g., DataDog, Grafana).

Operational Liquidity ($5-10K Reserve Based on Volume):

As non-Custodial, fund flows will need to hold “collateral”. This will allow negative revenue accounts so payouts can be authenticated before the pay-in is captured so we never hold the customer’s cash. Establish liquidity pools to handle transaction mismatches (e.g., refunds, chargebacks).

Infrastructure and Hosting ($1K/Month + $1K Development Fees):

Ensure reliable hosting for mainnet operations, including full nodes, APIs, and failover systems.

Stellar Transaction Fees Reserve ($1-5K Based on Volume):

Maintain reserves to cover operational fees for a defined number of transactions.

Team

Jose and Joseph are excited to announce they have handed in their notices and left their full-time jobs to focus on Freelii full-time, operating from the Philippines starting December 2024.

Jose is the founding engineer at Atrato, a leading BNPL solution backed by Y Combinator and Accel. Since its founding in 2019, Atrato has rapidly grown by leveraging advanced technology developed by Jose to underwrite loans in real time, offering fast, affordable financing options for physical and online stores. A three-time Stellar Hackathon winner, Jose is now the CTO of Freelii.

Joseph brings extensive experience in traditional finance, including investment banking, wealth management, and hedge funds. Seeking greater excitement, he transitioned to fintech in London, working at Cashflows before being recruited by Checkout.com as their youngest Account Manager. At Checkout.com, he manages over $350M in monthly transactions and generated $1M in ARR within his first year. Joseph also contributed to the GTM strategy for Southeast Asia's largest microfinancing company and is now focused on using his nonprofit and financial expertise to support underbanked markets.

Jose and Joseph met at the Stellar x EasyA Meridian London Hackathon, bonding over their shared passion for DeFi. Joseph driven by real-world applications and Jose by the underlying technology. Both were seeking to transition to DeFi full-time, a topic that naturally arose during post-hackathon and post conference discussions.

Following the event, they spent five intensive days together and decided to partner on Freelii. Their first product sprint at the "Funding the Commons Hackathon" resulted in Freelii winning first place.