SyifaQhollby98: UNION - Blockchain Collaboration that saves ecosystems

WEBSITE - https://www.getunion.io/

What is Union

UNION is a decentralized peer-to-peer lending and savings marketplace platform, which connects borrowers and lenders from all over the world in a trusted, fast and uncomplicated manner leveraging the benefits of Smart Contracts and Blockchain technology. The platform will serve as an ecosystem for banked and unbanked individuals to create and participate in various decentralized financial products.

Union provides holistic and innovative solutions, both to meet the needs of the borrowers and the needs of the lenders, by generating unique Smart Reputation Contracts and creating Smart Compensation Fund Contracts that assists lenders to secure their funds. Members can obtain loans through cryptocurrencies and partake in lender’s’ non-discriminatory tenders are carried out directly through Union’s supported third-party wallets, using the Smart Loan Contract.

Through the power of blockchain technology, Union incorporates trust and social capital into lending and savings process while eliminating the need for the “trusted third party”. This will drastically reduce the interest rate of borrowing and as well make the process of access to capital faster than traditional banking methods. While all the B2C products of the Union platform will be free to use, the enterprise products will be chargeable. The contributors pay in tokens to create a commitment contract to participate in a particular pool for a particular duration. In case, the contributor feels that he/she may be unable to participate in the contributions for the entirety of the pool’s run, they can choose to participate on a pay-per-use basis. The fees charged on the contributors flow to the UnI platform reserves for its upkeep and maintenance.

This Whitepaper provides an overview of the Union platform, its architecture, and roadmap. It also discusses the issues with present lending and savings schemes, and the solution Union envisions to offer with integration of blockchain technology in its saving and lending system.

Union is an Indian company targeting the Indian market, of approximately 400 Million millennials, and market size is around 200 Billion USD. However, given the public ledger system of our blockchain technology, the platform is available for use by lenders all over the globe.

Union has established expertei in offline community lending system and as well in generating online financial services in the lending sector. We want to take our services to another level to give the users of our platform the best possible experience by leveraging the power of blockchain technology and smart contract system to improve the peer-to-peer lending process.

Union first initiative is to put Collective Investment Schemes, also known as trusted lending circle, or Rotating and Savings Credit Association (ROSCA) on blockchain. Collective Investment Schemes is used around the world to lend and save money within communities, to support each other financially.

As the existing Collective Investment Schemes work as silos within the separate communities, traditionally it is very hard to leverage the reputation and trust outside of one’s trusted circle. With Union social capital gained can be utilized across the platform, as the solution is decentralized, transparent, secure and auditable. This will help us in creating an ecosystem of financial products, which users can avail, based on their reputation.

Union second financial product will be Bill discounting, a structured working capital finance solution that includes finance against receivables of a company. It allows a company to convert account receivables into funds, thereby increasing cash generating potential of a company. Most of the proprietors, small and medium business owners participate in the “Collective Investment Schemes” to gain access to working capital for their business. If they miss out on the reverse auction of a particular round, Union will provide an alternative mechanism to capital by discounting their bills/invoice.

This will not only help borrower to get the needed funds but also lenders on our platform an investment opportunity with reduced risks.

OUR GOAL

The Union project aims to provide an alternative decentralized lending solution to individuals and small businesses with the use of the innovative blockchain technology. The Union Blockchain lending platform supports both Cryptocurrency and fiat money. Union is seeking to expand our market to reach global audience. The fundamental goal is to create a large, peer-to-peer financial institution that makes use of machine learning to tackle the high-priced lending issues within conventional financial organizations. Union in this manner, hopes to directly address the needs of the 21st century financial services consumer.

Our goal is to make lending easily accessible for those who need liquidity and have the ability to repay. We achieve this by simplifying the process and enhancing both the scoring process and analytical accuracy. A standard lending model is growing out-of-date and the banks are losing their competitive advantage in the lending market. Innovative technology companies can presently capture as much market share as possible. At Union, we are fully prepared and braced up for the competition and task ahead.

Our vision

Our vision is to create an e-democratic financial ecosystem for banked and unbanked individuals, on blockchain technology while making use of trusts, commitments, and social capital. By social capital, we mean we’ll leverage a form of economic and cultural capital where social networks are key; transaction processes are reciprocal, based on trust, and cooperation; and market agents create goods and services. Social capital is an economic scheme that leverages the economic value of the connections between individuals and organizations. The social network itself, which includes individuals who trust and assist each other, can be an influential asset.

Mission

Our mission is to improve the financial inclusion of the individual by leveraging the blockchain technology. We are going to do this by removing the inefficiencies in the existing system and automating the different processes of lending and borrowing. Union will focus on developing portfolio of financial products that will use social capital and trusts of an individual.

Union Token Crowd Sale Schedule

The Token sale will be a 2-month (60 Days), starti 1st of May until 29th June 2018 or when our targeted funding value of 5,000,000 USD is reached, whichever is the earlier. Token Pre-Sale: There will also be a pre-sale of the UNI tokens before the said launch date, also know as Pre-Sale. People participating the Pre-sale will be entitled to specifics discounts in the form of additional discounts, as per the agreement. This will be a invitation only basis, however there will be minimum number of tokens need to be commitied to be qualify for the pre-sale. Schedule of the token sale is given below.

Union Token Distribution

Eventually a steady state is reached where platform resources will be supported though the fees generated within the platform, a token is needed to secure necessary funding to development and support a robust platform.

160 Million Union coin will be sold to the participants on crowd sale
20 Million Union coin will be reserved for Union team
16 Million Union coin will be reserved for future marketing expenses
2 Million Union coin will be used to testing and bug bounties
2 Million Union coin will be reserved for the initial investors

Planned Use of Proceeds

Platform Development - 40%
Infrastructure and Licenses - 25%
Marketing - 12%
Overheads - 12%
Testing and Bug Bounty – 7%
Contingency – 4%

Platform Development: The proceeds reserved for platform development will be utilized solely for the upkeep and maintenance of the Union platform. It is envisaged that the platform will be upgraded regularly with bug fixes and patches in line with industry best practices and innovations.

Infrastructure and Licenses: This portion of the proceeds will be used towards the development of the lending infrastructure within the Union ecosystem and get licenses from the various regulatory authorities and bodies in the various geographies where Union finds it suitable to set up operations. Overheads: This slice of funds has been earmarked to take care of the costs of a miscellaneous nature and for those costs which must be borne immediately. These are of smaller denominations individually but assume heft on accumulation Marketing: A slice of the proceeds will be reserved for the advertising and the PR needs of the DIPLOMAT platform.

It is expected that judicious use of marketing tactics will drive positively asymmetric traffic towards the plaortfm and aid in its growth. Testing and Bug Bounty: This slice will be used to incentivize the bounty hunters to test the Union platform to the hilt by puting it to grueling hacking attempts. If a Third-party uncovers and informs the Union team of the vulnerabilities that exist on the Union platform, the third-party will be suitably rewarded for their efforts. Contingency: This slice will be utilized to take care of unforeseen expenditures that threaten the operations of the union platform.

Roadmap

Team and Advisors

The management of Union involves group of expert professionals in online micro lending, peer-to-peer lending and conventional bank lending.We have within our team professionals who are skilled in the development of business plans, financial models,and leadership management for capital investment projects at all stages. Some of us have expertise in the creation of projects for a broad variety ofmicrofinance organizations, which differ in scope and complexity.

We also have team members who are serialized entrepreneur who are well experienced in executive management. Our advisory team will work directly with our core team members to ensure smooth operations and optimal outputs. We also have advisory team members who are well experienced in crypto anti-hacking.