By utilizing blockchain technology to monetize previously moribund assets, a South African based project known as Project UBU is attempting to provide a universal basic income to the world’s 800 million impoverished citizens.
Project UBU presents a new method of wealth creation that offers an answer to the plight of the world’s impoverished by providing a universal basic income by monetizing assets using an Ethereum blockchain token.
The project, founded in 2016 with plans to go public in April of 2018, creates an exchange token for what it calls the Universal Basic Unit initiative.
Project UBU is designed to unlock moribund assets buried throughout the economic system by assigning these assets value in a crypto token that it distributes, at no cost, to every individual wishing to receive them. Recipients will be able to exchange the tokens for goods and services with other participants in the ecosystem.
The project founders believe the token will increase in value as it gains traction across market segments and geographic areas. The project aims to create an independent, self-sustaining ecosystem free from government control.
The UBU token, the system’s primary token of exchange, acquires value based on its ability to allocate resources. Its value is based on the dividend that accrues to the UBU ecosystem, a triangular economic structure that uses the UBU token to facilitate trade among citizens, vendors and the UBU treasury.
How It Works
Vendors will receive UBUs from citizens either remotely or at the point-of-sale. Vendors will then use UBUs to provide incentives for advertised discounts, excess inventory, minimally spoiled or moribund stock, donor aid, dead loyalty points, close-to-expiry goods, or for donated value for services.
The UBU “Sphere” will issue citizens e-wallets on a continuous basis. Unspent UBUs will automatically dissipate from the wallets on a consistent basis to stabilize token value and ensure continuous transactions as opposed to hoarding.
Citizens participating in the ecosystem will need to verify identity using a combination of identity number/social security/passport number and a 10-digit mobile number. They will have to register via the e-wallet application.
The more citizens that register, the greater the acceptance of UBUs as a value of exchange.
Citizens will use UBU tokens to purchase UBU denominated items from participating vendors and from each other.
A central idea of the project is to monetize positive externalities such as donations, moribund goods, rewards and specials that vendors are willing to allocate to attract customers.
Such products are typically removed from conventional economies, branded as “lost value.” Examples include unused reward points, empty restaurant tables and incorrectly purchased stock. Project UBU allocates such items as UBU denominated property rights.
Regulating The Token’s Value
As an anti-inflationary mechanism, the system is designed to automatically recycle tokens to the treasury as a way to regulate the token’s value.
The common method to maintain cryptocurrency token value is to maintain a fixed number of tokens or issue tokens to miners in exchange for creating the tokens. Project UBU, by contrast, issues tokens to a central treasury and automatically dissipates the value from users’ wallets back to the treasury daily, thereby regulating the supply of UBUs.
The assignment of value and property rights by vendors to the project is designed to provide long-term fungibility with conventional fiat currency.
In the 30 months prior to September of 2017, UBU Core, the project’s founding entity, spent $1.79 million to deliver the “Minimum Viable Product,” of which $538,000 (30%) has been in cash. The remainder has been spent in unpaid services or contractual services in which staff and contractors will be paid in UBX.
Token Sale
UBU is also offering a UBX token, a derivative product that represents a set number of UBUs in the future.
The UBX token sale began on Sept. 29, 2017 and lasts until Nov. 3, 2017. There will be 9.3 million tokens available, which can be purchased in Ether and bitcoin from the secure token sale site. Investors not familiar with cryptocurrency will be able to purchase tokens in USD and ZAR.
If the 4.5 million cap in phase 2 is reached before Oct. 20, 2017, the sale will close early, providing that the tokens from an earlier sale remain unsold. A third phase of 4.8 million tokens commences on Oct. 21 and closes on Nov. 3, 2017.
To follow Project UBU on Twitter, go to https://twitter.com/projectubu.