How users will be protected from possible scammers on the IDEAS Platform?We’ll be applying some measures and actions to expose and prevent scammers from using the platform, those can be resumed as follows:
~The 1st measure is the profile of the user.
Any user seeking to post a project on the platform for funding through investment or donation needs to build his profile and have over 90% completed profile (number applicable to change).
The profile will include essential information about the user, such as the identity, the current position, a selfie video of the user, an ID or passport that is visible only to investors, a link to his LinkedIn profile, and a link to external KYC service if existed.
If the user is serious about funding his project, this step should be easy to complete.
~The 2nd measure is the vesting (dividing) of the invested capital.
In Details :
For each posted project the entrepreneur must specify the number of stages for his project (normally between 5 and 10).
Each stage will have a specified time, budget, and tasks.
The time and the tasks of a stage are to be filled by the entrepreneur.
The tasks of a certain stage must be completed in the specified time of that stage.
The budget of all stages is equivalent and automatically filled.
It can be calculated as follows:
One Stage Budget = (The total budget of the project) divided by (the total number of stages)
The total invested capital gathered by investors will be vested to the entrepreneur based on stages.
So at the start of each stage, the entrepreneur will be given an amount equal to the “One Stage Budget” only.
~The 3rd measure is voting.
At the end of each stage, the investors will vote to evaluate the progress of the work, they will check the completed tasks of the current stage of the project, and vote based on it.
If they vote for the project to continue to the next stage, the entrepreneur will get the next vested payment, and the work will continue in that stage until it is finished, then voting will take place again, and so on.
If they vote for the project to be stopped, it will be stopped,
and the investors will get back the remaining amount of money in the unreached stages.
~The 4th measure is what we call the “Guarantee Payment”
(applicable only in Investment type of funding, not applicable in the Donation type of funding)
This is a payment that should be paid by the entrepreneur before the project is started, and it is calculated as follows:
Guarantee Payment = One Stage Budget (mentioned above)
This payment will go to the investors as a first payment if the project is started and completed.
It will go to the investors if the project is started and then stopped at any stage.
The guarantee payment will not be paid until the project is fully funded and ready to start, but the project will not start without it being paid by the entrepreneur.
So if a user wanted to scam investors, there’s a good possibility that they will notice this in the first stage, and they will vote to stop the project.
In this case, they will get their invested money from the unreached stages + the guarantee payment.
However, if the project stopped in a stage different from the first stage the investors might lose some of their invested money.
That’s why it is recommended to only invest in projects that have a strongly built first stage.
~The 5th measure is the contract.
When posting a project the user should e-sign a contract between him and the investors, this contract legally obligate him to fulfill his duty and return all the due money to the investors in case the project stopped at a stage different than the first stage.
~The 6th and last measure is the rating system.
Each posted project will be subjected to rating and comments from all users on the platform.
It is strongly recommended that you always check the rating and the comments before investing in a certain project.
Always do your own research (DYOR), and check all possible information about the creator and the project before investing in any project on our platform, or anywhere else in general.
Those are the main measures to be taken, more actions could be added later if needed.
