Roadmap

Avalon Marketplace is a decentralized marketplace built on the Ethereum sidechain, Polygon, that allows Sellers or Originators to tokenize their Real-World receivables into Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and offer these assets to Funders in exchange for finance.

By migrating receivables and trades to a blockchain ecosystem, we can modernize an old-fashioned industry which in turn will increase liquidity, create efficiencies, enable seamless syndication and securitization through a transparent and verifiable digital ledger.

By migrating receivables and trades to a blockchain ecosystem, we can modernize an old-fashioned industry which in turn will increase liquidity, create efficiencies, enable seamless syndication and securitization through a transparent and verifiable digital ledger.

A smart contract is a computer code that executes parts of an agreement and is stored on a blockchain-based network. 

To protect the privacy and commercial confidentiality of the parties to the contract underlying a receivable (the Sellers and the Buyers), its NFTr will only store minimal information on-chain, with most of the metadata being stored on the IPFS network and private databases. Avalon will use private data as part of the onboarding process and for collection and auditing purposes.

NFTs for receivable or NFTrs are based on the ERC-721 standard and include a smart contract that encapsulates information pertaining to the receivable factoring lifecycle. We are using NFTs to represent individual receivables as every NFT is unique, identifiable and non-interchangeable and easily tracked on the blockchain.

The marketplace will eventually run on several different blockchains, though the project will initially only utilize an Ethereum sidechain (Polygon).

Receivables finance presents an opportunity for investors to earn an annualized risk-adjusted return between 10-20%. We believe that access to such alternative assets is socially and economically important, and through the advent of platform marketplaces, such assets can be made available at rates that are fair to the SME.

Legacy technology and processes are hindering the receivables factoring industry. Large financial institutions rely on distributors to source the receivables and assess the risk. Collectively, the system is centralized, opaque, slow, and error-prone. 

Here at Crowdz, we believe that blockchain technology will become mainstream in the near future. Utilizing blockchain will bring scalability and efficiency not only to receivables finance, but to the finance industry as a whole. 

TBC

Purchasers will undergo KYC Accredited Investor checks. Upon approval, they can connect and fund their wallet using their existing stablecoins holdings or fiat. Purchasers will also receive the option to personalize and automate their investment experience by selecting a funding limit and risk profile.

Receivables will be automatically matched by the auto-bidding engine and priced based on the Purchaser’s expected Annual Percentage Rate (APR). Once a transaction is finalized, the NFTr (​​Non-fungible Token) automatically moves from the Seller’s address to the Purchaser’s address, representing on the ledger the change of ownership of the receivable from Seller to Purchaser.

When a receivable is not paid in full or when payment is late, Avalon will undertake the following actions: a) The Seller is reminded of the outstanding payment via our first party collection partner who will send several reminders (emails, phone calls) b) If full repayment still hasn't occurred, Avalon will commence a formal collections process with a debt collection agency, typically to collect from the Obligor.

You can fund in fiat or stablecoins.

You can fund in fiat or stablecoins (coming later in 2023)

Yes

The pricing (discount rate) a Seller receives on their receivables will be determined by the Automated Crowdz Discount Rate Assignment Model. This stems from the Seller’s SuRF (Sustainability, Risk, and Financial) Score and other factors to dynamically calculate and assign, in real-time, a risk-rated discount rate.

1. Seller issues a receivable and uploads it on Crowdz (Crowdz is the Distributor); 2. Validity of the receivable is assessed by Crowdz and a SuRF Score is attached to it; 3. Receivable described by the invoice details is minted as an NFTr and made available on Avalon Marketplace; 4. Receivable is purchased by a Purchaser with either fiat money or stablecoins; 5. NFTr, signifying the receivable’s ownership, is transferred from the wallet of the Seller to the wallet of the Funder.

Sellers apply to Avalon and undergo strict KYC/KYB procedures, sanctions, PEP (Politically Exposed Persons), and credit checks. Once a seller is on-boarded, Avalon creates and provides a custodial wallet to the seller where the NFTr will be attached. Approval and Tokenization Upon being approved, Sellers can upload their unpaid receivables to Avalon. Once submitted, receivables go through an invoice validation tool and are risk-assessed using Crowdz’s proprietary algorithm called the SuRF Score. Then all data about the receivable is tokenized as an NFTr. The tokenization process writes the invoice to a smart contract that reflects the entire receivable factoring lifecycle. Metadata associated with the receivable will be hosted on the IPFS and Central Database (see chapter Metadata structure). Crowdz doesn’t store sensitive data on-chain for privacy, scalability, and cost (gas fee) reasons.

You can choose to receive your funds in stablecoins or fiat.

Crowdz Token (CRZ) is the native ERC-20 token on the Avalon platform serving utility for the following: a) Governance; b) Reward mechanisms for all parties; and c) Collateral against outstanding receivables.

CRZ tokens will be distributed from the Community token pool to Purchasers of tokenized receivables, as a reward for being participants in our ecosystem. CRZ tokens will be given from the Community token pool to Sellers as a reward when their receivables are paid on time in full.

We will be launching CRZ Token in 2023.

Sellers will be able to use CRZ tokens as collateral against the risks of receivables they sell as NFTr, and in doing so, will improve the risk rating of their assets, and reduce the discount cost at sale

Holders of CRZ tokens will be entitled to vote on important changes or additions to the Avalon Marketplace ecosystem, such as adding a new receivable source or underwriter. For a proposal to be accepted, 51% of tokens voting must vote in favor, and 4% of all tokens in circulation need to be cast. For being active participants, voters will be rewarded with CRZ from the Community token pool.

A non-fungible token (ERC-721), is a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain. Lately, NFTs have been heavily associated with digital art or game artifacts, which use NFTs as a certificate of ownership. However, with respect to Avalon, Real-World Receivables are tokenized as NFTs and provide a representation of these assets on the blockchain. NFTr is a subtype of NFT, used as a digital representation of an asset (a receivable) on the blockchain as a Non-Fungible token. The NFTr is the token that represents the receivable being traded on the platform.

DAO stands for the decentralized autonomous organization. Usually based on the ERC-20 standard.

Polygon is the leading blockchain development platform, offering scalable, affordable, secure and sustainable blockchains for Web3. Its growing suite of products offers developers easy access to major scaling solutions including L2 (ZK Rollups and Optimistic Rollups), sidechains, hybrid, stand-alone and enterprise chains, and data availability. Polygon’s scaling solutions have seen widespread adoption with 37,000+ decentralized applications hosted, 1.6B+ total transactions processed, 142M+ unique user addresses, and $5B+ in assets secured. Polygon is carbon neutral with the goal of leading the Web3 ecosystem in becoming carbon negative.

It’s a powerful payment-reliability metric that assesses the likelihood and timing of repayments. SuRF Score combines both conventional business risk data with Crowdz’s proprietary payment and repayment data, including repayments of funding within the Crowdz platform.

Stablecoins are a class of cryptocurrencies that draw their stability from being pegged to physical or digital assets, like fiat, or cryptocurrencies, and sometimes, through algorithms that regulate supply and demand to achieve price stability. Typically based on the ERC-20 token standard, stablecoins have proved to be a powerful tool in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. They provide instant on-chain settlement, do not fluctuate in value, and can be adapted to incorporate privacy features. Central Banks across the world are piloting their own versions of stablecoins, known as ‘central bank digital currencies’ or CBDC, noting that these assets would exist on permissioned blockchains and be guaranteed by the government where the central bank operates.

IPFS is a peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol that is upgradeable, resilient, and more open than traditional databases. It efficiently distributes high volumes of data without duplication and powers the creation of diversely resilient networks that enable persistent availability. IPFS enables an efficient transition to a decentralized version of the web for developers and users. It has been the standard for respected platforms to store non-fungible tokens metadata.