Topic: Sfero: Bridging the gap between traditional and future payment technologies (Read 16 times)

Context

The biggest barrier to crypto adoption in everyday transactions is the chicken-and-egg problem. Transactional convenience of crypto is gated by complexities of getting and holding tokens, and a near-complete lack of options to use crypto in everyday life.

Product
Your money is in your hands. Sfero is everyone’s gateway into web3: walk into a store, pay with a palm print, tap the screen to buy, move, or deploy crypto. We build a decentralized network (DePIN) of biometric POS terminals to unlock the crypto world for the consumer and the merchant.

* Biometric cloud wallet. A user can access her wallet through any terminal: biometric verification unlocks private keys stored in the decentralized cloud to sign any message or transaction.

* Last mile for crypto onboarding. Anybody can become a crypto holder in minutes: walk into a shop, press the palm to a terminal, buy tokens with a card payment.

* Crypto spending option. Pay in the store with a palm print or from a phone wallet via QR code.

* Platform for consumer apps. Users can access DeFi in seconds: tap into financial apps through personal bookmarks and a recommendation feed through the terminal.

* App platform for the store. Merchants have granular control of their liquidity: make yield on funds received, connect the store to loyalty networks, offer cashback to customers. Any developer can make an app for the stores to plug into.

* Grassroots infra. Anybody can become a co-owner of the network by getting a device and providing it at a public location. Retailers can buy Sfero to install in their shops. Ambassadors can buy Sfero and lease or rent it out to stores. Every new device empowers the network by enabling crypto access at a new location, reaching new users and allowing existing crypto holders to use their tokens.

* Referral economics. Device owners and renters can charge fees on all transactions going through the device (limited by decentralized governance).

Implementation

The core component of the solution is a network of physical devices (biometric POS terminals) and full blockchain nodes together forming a decentralized cloud.

* Terminals. Each device is a full POS terminal with card payments, biometric sensors, and a blockchain node. The terminal serves in three capacities:

- Payment facilitator. Accept card payments, accept and route crypto transactions.

- Biometric identification endpoint. Read user’s biometrics and authenticate the user with the decentralized cloud, unlocking their crypto wallet.

- DApp gateway. Once a user (or a merchant) authenticates with the device, they get access to applications listed with the network. Terminal provides an access point to interact with the apps: access DeFi (for customers) or manage payment routing (for store owner and terminal owner).

* Noncustodial key management. Private keys are encrypted at rest in the decentralized cloud and are only decrypted inside Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) Enclaves after a successful biometric verification for the purpose of signing transactions. Each user has a hierarchical set of keys, with higher tier keys requiring MPC between multiple Enclaves to unlock and use.

- Users with smartphones can opt-in to increase security by using threshold signatures between the network and the user’s phone app.

* Smart wallets. The network deploys contract wallets for users with the network-managed keys as first owner. Users can add their own keys as co-owners or withdraw into self-custody at any time by adding self-custodied keys and removing the network-held keys.

* Sfero chain. All devices run a Proof-of-Stake blockchain network using EVM for the following purposes:

- Device registry. The network keeps track of all terminals and all TEEs, serving as the source-of-truth for device authenticity and discovery.

- Network governance. All network parameters (such as network economics, limits on fees, security measures, and dApp curation) are decided by governance votes anchored on the chain.

- DApp marketplace. Applications accessible and discoverable through the terminals are sourced from the DAO-curated registry held on-chain.

Economics

* User-owned devices. All terminals are built for the option of grassroots ownership: roles of device owner and the store owner are separated, referral benefits can be customized in three different layers:

- Distributors may set up to receive a fraction of fees from the devices they supplied;

- Device owners may set up to receive fees from the stores they install their device in;

- Stores may set up to receive a fraction of fees from the users who onboarded into crypto using their devices.

* Fees and cashback. The network charges a small fee on all facilitated transactions and charges a bigger fee on transactions made through the DApps used on the terminals from the DApp marketplace. Users receive cashback from the network and may receive additional cashback from the store if the store provides it through a store DApp.

* Proof-of-Stake network. All network validators (validating terminals and TEE Enclave nodes) stake the network token to provide economic security for the network. Validators receive PoS rewards from the limited inflation of the network token.

* DApp governance. Applications accessible on terminals (both from the customer side and the merchant side) are curated by the decentralized community of network co-owners. Curation includes whitelisting DApps to be seen by terminals, app categories, and recommendation rankings. DApps can stake to have a limited increase in their marketplace visibility.

* Network governance. The network is run by a decentralized governing body that sets up all critical network parameters, including limits on fees, governance structure, network upgrades, economic decisions, etc.

Website: https://sfero.io/
X: https://twitter.com/Sfero_io
Telegram Official Community: https://t.me/sfero_chat
Telegram news: https://t.me/sfero_news
Gitbook: https://sfero.gitbook.io/concept-paper