ABSTRACT
One of the major hurdles facing mass adoption in cryptocurrency is the user experience. Dancero is setting out to improve that. The sheer volume of information required to feel confident beginning a journey into crypto is beyond most people's willingness to absorb. In short, crypto is still daunting to new users. Is that a coin or a token? What’s the difference? Can I send my bitcoin to my Terra wallet? Do I need a wallet for every blockchain? What's the difference between approving, signing & confirming? If I make a mistake, who should I call? Instead of trying to bring people to crypto, Dancero is bringing crypto to people via integration through interests (aka a trojan horse). Dancero will introduce people to cryptocurrency & DeFi, by integrating it with things they enjoy and are passionate about. As passionate as we are about crypto.
Dancero is the convergence of a 4 year old decentralized dance academy in Colombia, and the rapidly growing crypto, NFT and DeFi space. Our NFT launch is the beginning of a holistic platform designed to engage new crypto users and spread DeFi through Dance. Dancero begins with our NFT launch in Jan 2022. The NFTs are designed to engage the crypto community and provide value for early supporters through multiple sources. Unlike many existing projects, we are planning multiple launches from the get go. Rather than the typical 1 of 1’s with subjective rarities, the Dancero will have clearly defined rarity levels, along with clearly defined benefits. The NFT’s will provide utility, access, direct & indirect value, along with the opportunity to earn passive income through our growing dance community.
SCC was formed in 2017 as a decentralized platform to connect students with instructors of a variety of dance styles in Medellín, Colombia. The aim was to offer more opportunities for professional dancers & instructors to connect with travelers and foriegn dance enthusiasts. To this end, we built partnerships with many instructors & studios, along with a website & decentralized platform to attract students & connect them to teachers who matched their needs. Over the past 4 years, the community spread from Medellín, to Cali, Bogotá and Cartagena, and now boasts over 100 instructors who have worked with over 5000 students since its inception. During the Covid-19 pandemic, our team saw the need to grow our virtual & online offering, and started setting our sites on creating a virtual platform & dance academy, so that anyone, anywhere could access professional dance instruction in the style of their choice, and what better place to create an interactive, online community than the Metaverse?
THE LATAM OPPORTUNITY
Colombia
The Dancero opportunity begins in Colombia, a country of 50 million people who all love to dance. More importantly, Colombia’s minimum wage is currently under $200 USD/ month & close to 30% of the country lives in poverty (with 7.5% considered to be living in extreme poverty). Colombia ranks in the top 10 unbanked countries in the world, but nearly 80% of the population have a cell phone, making it a fertile location for crypto adoption. It is the home of a strict and relatively closed banking system, which has been slow to modernize, but Colombia’s government is crypto-agnostic leaning towards crypto-friendly. All of this, coupled with our existing infrastructure in Colombia, make it the perfect starting point for a project that will bring crypto & DeFi opportunities to the people, through dance.
“Colombia also boasts the highest number of bitcoin ATMs in a Latin American country, according to Coin ATM Radar. The country has 59 bitcoin ATMs and tellers, with 33 in Bogota, the capital, alone. In contrast, Panama has only 17 bitcoin ATMs, the second-largest number in the region.”
*(Coindesk, Jan. 2021)
https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/worlds-most-unbanked-countries
Latin America
At Dancero we see Colombia as a perfect kick off point, but our vision doesn’t stop there. Like music, dance is universal, almost as universal as the desire for opportunity. Which is why we have plans for our web3 application & future NFT launches across Latin America, the world, and of course, the Metaverse.
While Colombia may be our perfect launchpad, Latin America is adopting crypto at an incredible rate, with El Salvador being the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, and crypto only beach towns cropping up on the Brazilian coast. At Dancero we will leverage the Latin swing, through Salsa in Colombia, Bachata in the Dominican, Samba Brazil, Reggaeton in Puerto Rico, Tango in Argentina and all these and more, across the world and into the metaverse. Our vision is to simplify crypto and bring it to the masses through a medium they enjoy.
THE WEB3 APPLICATION
Transacting
Payments for lessons, bootcamps, events, gear and more will be processed on the platform, with discounts and incentives for holding a Dancero NFT & for transactions using the Dancero $DCO token. $UST will also be available to transact but discounts will not apply. All users learn-to-earn rewards will be paid out in $DCO. The platform will integrate on-ramps from various sources through integration with partner platforms ie.Kado Money, Alice, so that earners can easily withdraw their money to a card or bank.
Staking & earning
Users of the Dancero app will be incentivized to stake earnings for yield in a variety of pools and protocols, beginning with Anchor protocol on the Terra blockchain. This will allow both instructors and students to leave idle assets on-ramped from outside sources or earned in $DCO earning yields within the platform. These yielding assets will provide advantageous savings opportunities for the user, with a small commission returning to the platform and DAO.
Renting
A second staking option will involve the staking of the NFT for rent. NFT owners who stake their NFT on the platform, will receive a cut of fees earned from NFT renters who wish to leverage the utility of an NFT (access, discounts etc.) but are unable or unwilling to acquire an NFT themselves.
Contributing
The Dancero platform will integrate a social aspect where both instructors and students can upload content for DCO rewards. These can be practice videos, tutorials, new moves or other creative content that will be rewarded based on community engagement, quality, quantity and overall value to the platform. Similar to what Loop Finance is doing with written content, Dancero will do with interactive dance content, allowing users an additional way to increase their DCO income, which can be staked for yield, used within the platform or withdrawn to a card or bank.
Voting
DCO will also be the medium through which the community can vote on propositions and have a say in the future of the platform. Staked DCO will not only give yields through investment in protocols such as Anchor, but will also be the mechanism to submit proposals. The creation of the Dancero DAO will be a fundamental part of our roadmap as we have always built our community to benefit its members.
Metaverse
As part of the growth of our online platform Dancero will launch our growing library of digital content onto an academy we plan to establish in the metaverse. Dancero NFTs will provide access to virtual classes in the metaverse, both group and private. The academy will double as an event venue to bring Latin musicians to the metaverse, host parties and exclusive online events for NFT holders, and let the community interact, learn, earn and share.
CONCLUSION
The Dancero NFT, the web3 platform, and the DCO token are about more than just dance. They are about bringing financial opportunity to developing communities, by interacting with them through something they already love and participate in. Dance is the Trojan Horse to greater financial independence for millions of potential UST & Crypto users in Latin America and around the world. By integrating the NFTs and DCO token with the existing Salsa Classes Colombia community, we will be building upon a proven model and expanding community. This will provide the opportunity for investors and dance enthusiasts alike to expand the pie and help bring new users into the space. As cryptocurrency and the metaverse continue to expand, the need to integrate users from different population bases will grow with it. We have identified Latin America as one of the regions of the world that is primed for crypto adoption and we have developed a system that will allow for a variety of partner integrations, and network effects to generate word of mouth growth through a strong sense of community. Dancero will be the Spanish voice for Terra through podcasts, youtube, twitter and other social media to help onboard as many people as possible in a way that is fun, exciting and simple.
Just like Play to Earn has done in 2021, we believe that Learn to Earn will explode as platforms find ways to incentivize users to interact while gaining new skills and having fun. From children's education platforms, to coding games to schools & universities in the metaverse, there is an enormous opportunity for early adopters to pave the way and create legacy applications and communities
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.worlddata.info/america/colombia/tourism.php
https://www.statista.com/statistics/912224/population-bank-account-type-colombia/
https://medium.com/p/d71b1edfe69d
https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/worlds-most-unbanked-countries