Stellar Community Fund

By Pakana.Net

Pakana.net Activation

SCF #21

$45.2K

Legacy v5.0 Activation Award

Awarded

Pakana: A blockchain-driven platform reshaping payment & project management for owners, contractors, creators and fiduciaries.

Products & Services

The Pakana Lockb0x Platform is a decentralized marketplace and peer-to-peer escrow management service, underpinned by Stellar's decentralized blockchain ledger network and technology. It is also designed to transform payment processing, project management, and to instill transparency in financial transactions using Stellar's peer-to-peer operations and the Stellar Disbursement Platform, with future implementations planned for Stellar's Moneygram services, and USDC payments.

A notable use-case is enabling attorneys to manage their clients' trust accounts transparently and accountably. This includes a transparent (to all participants) Construction Control, Custodial Trust Account Ledger Management, IOLTA or Trust Account Ledger Management and Payment Disbursement. To reach a wider market Pakana also offers an escrow-based Software Project Development workflow suitable for various freelancer use-cases. In the future, Pakana will offer a wide range of professional and legal services through advanced automation and AI enhanced processes and our growing professional community.

At its heart, Pakana is a blockchain-driven metadata management platform, implemented as a DotNet Core API with a Razor Pages application. It integrates PostgreSQL, optional Azure Storage and/or IPFS, and other services. Further details are provided in the Technical Architecture document. This versatile platform streamlines work execution and payment, ensuring swift, secure, and cost-effective transactions, with cryptographic documentation of every transaction phase.

Challenges Addressed: - High transaction fees and cumbersome payment processing with weak project management tools and services on traditional Web2 freelancer platforms. - Trust and transparency concerns with current freelancing platforms. - A growing demand for a secure, decentralized platform tailored for fiduciaries, like attorneys, for meticulous audited account management.

Solutions: - Pakana leverages Stellar's multi-signature wallets to facilitate a "peer-to-peer escrow" mechanism for swift, secure, and low-cost payments. - It fosters a transparent setting for work delivery, payment verification, and tailored collaboration. - Pakana's core technology provides a white-label SaaS solution for attorneys, offering IOLTA Account Management Services for Statutory Construction Control and Client Trust Account Payments and Ledger Management. - Collaborations have been established with licensed attorneys across various jurisdictions to develop and offer trust and IOLTA account management services once the core Pakana Lockb0x features are operational. - By utilizing Stellar's blockchain, Pakana tokenizes trust assets, offering immutable transaction ledgers for audit support and full transparency. - Through Stellar's Disbursement Platform or Moneygram implementation, fiduciaries can serve their clients transparently, providing a comprehensive auditable record of all transactions. - Pakana will maintain its own Horizon API Server VM for peak performance.

Target Audience: Pakana appeals to freelance software developers, creators, craftsmen, tradesmen, attorneys, escrow agents, fiduciaries, businesses, and individuals seeking a mechanism to ensure funds are secured before work begins and contract conditions are met prior to fund or asset transfers. Future implementations of Soroban Contracts and configurable bot-based deliverable verification and dispute-resolution processes will further streamline project and payment escrow transactions.

Operational Overview and Integration with Stellar and/or Soroban: - Pakana uses Stellar's multi-signature wallets and the Stellar Disbursement Platform for efficient peer-to-peer transactions. - Its user-friendly interface presents a dashboard to oversee Stellar blockchain accounts and multi-signature wallet-accounts, employing an Account/Organization/Project hierarchy for work and payment management. - Users can curate a template library for emails, documents, invoices, legal notices, and more, activated by specific transaction workflow triggers. - Projects commence with the initiation of a multi-signature account, co-signer invitations, and task setups with clear deliverables and payments. - Once funded, payments can be requested, reviewed, and disbursed from the task's Stellar multi-signature account. - Transactions are tracked using Pakana's Merkle Tree model, culminating in a Zero-Knowledge Proof stored in the transaction memo. This also serves as a pointer to the transaction metadata in Pakana. - Pakana seamlessly integrates traditional "Web2" technologies with blockchain intricacies, employing relational databases, APIs, and cloud-based micro-services. - Prioritizing security and non-custodial protocols, all transactions are executed client-side using the Stellar Horizon JS SDK and verified server-side using the Horizon DotNet SDK. - Pakana emphasizes decentralization, granting users full control over transactions and data, with an export feature available anytime. - Although the initial release omits Soroban features, Pakana plans to integrate specific transaction processes as Soroban Smart Contracts in future phases. - While not in the initial offering, Pakana aims to create an oracle service linked to the Plaid Financial Services API to monitor fiat-currency accounts, tokenize Stellar blockchain transactions, and enable ACH payments to better serve their clients. - One additional benefit of Pakana's Construction Control Approach is that Construction Lien Release and Waiver Documents, which are used to prove there are no lien encumbrances on improved real estate, are tokenized from inception. Which could be an important piece of the real-estate tokenization puzzle.

A personal note from Pakana's founder: I have been wrestling with the freelancer fee platform problem for many years, as a Buyer and Seller on these platforms. With fees often running up to 30% or more for a project's development for little value, other than expensive payment processing and a so-so marketplace. I have spent the last 2 years learning about Stellar then defining Pakana's services which has leaped over my initial goals, thanks to the availability of the Disbursement Platform, and Moneygram. This allowed Josh and I to focus on proof-of-concept tests, gather feedback from future customers, develop a selection of common use-cases. We are excited to finally focus, build-out, and launch the last 30% of the core project. Then get on to the next phase of the journey of building the business and adapting to the market's guidance.

Thank you for your consideration, Steven Tomlinson

Requested Budget

$45.2K

Team

Steven Tomlinson is the founder and architect for Pakana. He brings more than 30 years of software development and entrepreneurial expertise to the team.

Josh Kassabian is co-founder and brings extensive experience in blockchain, UI/UX, and marketing expertise to the team.

Alisa Steinhauer Esq., has more than 20 years experience practicing law in civil and commercial litigation. Although, not a technical contributor, her advice, insight, and assistance with regulatory matters is very important to the success and adoption of the project.