Collective
White Paper
Introduction
Unveiling “Fledge Fractals”: A Paradigm Shift in Community Empowerment and Real Estate
At The Fledge, an incubator of radical inclusivity and boundless innovation, we are excited to introduce “Fledge Fractals.” This initiative stands at the forefront of an uncharted domain, blending real estate with the transformative power of blockchain technology and the foundational principles of cooperative values.
Fledge Fractals is not just a project; it’s a movement towards reimagining ownership and community investment. Built on the bedrock of cooperative values such as self-help, democracy, and solidarity, it endeavors to create a sustainable economic ecosystem. This white paper delves into how Fledge Fractals intertwines these timeless principles with the cutting-edge possibilities of blockchain, resulting in an unparalleled approach to property ownership and community empowerment.
Key Benefits of Fledge Fractals:
- Community-Centric Ownership: Ensuring that property ownership remains within the community, fostering long-term stability and collective prosperity.
- Philanthropic Drive Over Profit: Our focus extends beyond profit, aligning more closely with philanthropic objectives to serve and uplift the community.
- Local Economic Reinforcement: By capturing and recycling financial resources within the community, we strengthen our local economy, creating a cycle of mutual support and growth.
- Democratic Governance: Embracing direct democracy, we empower every member with a voice in decision-making processes, reflecting true equality and collective governance.
- Tangible Asset Connection: Rooted in real-world assets, this project offers a stable and tangible foundation for community investment.
- Conscious Economic Impact: Mindful of the potential lost opportunities for investors, we strive to create an economic model that benefits both the individual and the collective, balancing personal gain with community welfare.
In this white paper, we unfold the vision, mechanics, and transformative potential of Fledge Fractals. It’s an invitation to journey with us as we redefine the essence of community-driven real estate and blockchain synergy.
Background
A Journey from Community Roots to Innovative Heights
Rooted in the heart of Lansing, MI, The Fledge has carved a distinctive niche in uplifting diverse communities, sparking innovation, and confronting societal challenges head-on. The initiation of the Fledge Fractals project marks a pivotal moment in our journey, as we boldly bridge the realms of decentralized finance and real estate, venturing into the domain of social housing.
Embarking on the Path of Social Housing
Fledge Fractals is not just a project; it’s a vision turned into reality. It represents our maiden venture into the realm of social housing, aiming to democratize property ownership. Our goal is to open the doors to real estate equity for more individuals, providing a viable alternative to traditional homeownership pathways fraught with financial barriers. This initiative is built upon a cooperative ownership model, uniquely leveraging blockchain technology and smart contracts to ensure transparent and equitable governance.
Addressing the Escalating Housing Crisis
The national housing landscape is reaching a critical juncture. We are witnessing a worrying trend where housing stocks are increasingly falling into the hands of large corporations, turning what should be communal shelters into instruments for profit maximization. This shift poses a substantial risk to our underserved and disadvantaged communities, creating an urgent need for change.
Fledge Fractals is our response to this growing crisis. By introducing a cooperative, blockchain-based model of housing ownership, we aim to counteract the commodification of housing and recenter it as a community resource. We seek to provide a sustainable, equitable alternative that prioritizes people over profit, ensuring that the essence of housing as a basic human right is preserved and honored.
What Problems are We Solving?
The Fledge Fractals project is addressing several significant problems, each intertwined with the broader issues of housing, community development, and economic empowerment:
- Lack of Affordable Housing: With housing prices soaring, many individuals find it increasingly difficult to access affordable housing. Your project offers a novel solution by enabling cooperative ownership of property, making it more accessible to a broader segment of the population.
- Wealth Inequality and Access to Real Estate Investment: Traditional routes to real estate investment and homeownership are often out of reach for many, exacerbating wealth inequality. By fractionalizing property into NFTs, the Fledge Fractals project lowers the barrier to entry, allowing more people to invest in and benefit from real estate, potentially improving generational wealth.
- Centralization of Property Ownership: The trend of large corporations acquiring extensive housing stocks can lead to a lack of community control and investment. Your project counters this by ensuring property ownership remains within the local community, fostering communal investment and control.
- Inequitable Governance in Housing: Traditional housing governance models often lack transparency and community involvement. The Fledge Fractals project introduces a DAO-based governance model, promoting direct democracy and equitable decision-making among stakeholders.
- Economic Leakage in Communities: Often, financial resources flow out of communities, particularly underserved ones. By trapping dollars within the community and ensuring they are spent on local initiatives and needs, your project helps to reinforce and uplift the local economy.
- Barriers to Homeownership: Conventional pathways to homeownership, like mortgages, are not feasible for everyone, especially those facing financial constraints. By offering an alternative means of owning a stake in property, the Fledge Fractals project creates new avenues for homeownership.
- Lack of Integration Between Technology and Social Good: The project bridges this gap by utilizing blockchain and smart contract technologies for social benefit, particularly in the realm of property ownership and community governance.
- Social and Community Disengagement: By fostering a model of cooperative ownership and community participation, the project aims to strengthen community ties and engagement, counteracting trends of isolation and disconnection in society.
Each of these problems represents a facet of the larger challenges in housing and community development. The Fledge Fractals project’s innovative approach offers a multifaceted solution, rooted in technological innovation, cooperative principles, and a deep commitment to community empowerment and inclusivity.
Why BlockChain?
The decision to utilize blockchain and smart contracts in the Fledge Fractals project is strategic and multifaceted, aligning with the initiative’s overarching goals of democratizing property ownership, ensuring transparency, and fostering community engagement. Here’s why these technologies are particularly beneficial:
- Transparency and Trust: Blockchain’s inherent transparency ensures that all transactions and changes in ownership are recorded on a public ledger. This level of openness builds trust among community members and stakeholders, as it allows for easy verification of transactions and ownership records without relying on a central authority.
- Decentralization: Blockchain operates on a decentralized network, which aligns with the Fledge’s philosophy of promoting community-centric operations and decision-making. This decentralization means that no single entity has control over the entire system, fostering a more democratic and equitable approach to property management and ownership.
- Security and Immutability: Once a transaction is recorded on a blockchain, it cannot be altered or deleted. This immutability ensures the security of ownership records, providing a robust defense against fraud and unauthorized manipulation.
- Efficiency in Transactions: Blockchain technology can significantly streamline transaction processes. In real estate, this means quicker and more efficient transfer of property stakes (NFTs), reducing the need for intermediaries such as brokers or legal services, and thereby lowering transaction costs.
- Smart Contract Functionality: Smart contracts automate the execution of agreements when predetermined conditions are met, without the need for intermediaries. In the context of Fledge Fractals, they can be used to manage rental agreements, property maintenance contracts, and even the distribution of funds within the DAO, ensuring efficiency and adherence to agreed-upon rules.
- Enhanced Accessibility and Inclusivity: By fractionalizing property into NFTs, blockchain technology makes real estate investment more accessible to a broader group of people. It lowers the barrier to entry by allowing for smaller, more affordable investments, which is particularly beneficial for those traditionally excluded from the real estate market.
- Governance and Voting: Using blockchain for governance, especially within the DAO framework, allows for transparent and tamper-proof voting processes. This ensures that every member’s vote is securely counted and the results are indisputable, reinforcing the democratic principles of the project.
- Integration with Broader Ecosystems: Blockchain’s compatibility with various digital and financial ecosystems means that the Fledge Fractals project can potentially integrate with other decentralized finance (DeFi) initiatives, expanding its impact and utility.
In summary, the integration of blockchain and smart contracts in the Fledge Fractals project is not just a technological choice, but a strategic one that aligns with the values of transparency, decentralization, security, and community empowerment. It paves the way for a more inclusive, efficient, and democratic approach to property ownership and management.
The Fledge Fractals Project
Real Estate Fractionalization
Properties, starting with a house rented to a fledgling, are acquired and fractionalized into 1,000 units, represented as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Each NFT symbolizes a stake in the property.
Funding Model
For the pilot property, the acquisition was facilitated through a dual approach: a direct purchase of NFTs and compensating the prior property owner in NFTs.
The Fledge Community Token (fldg coin)
Earning Mechanism
Community members can earn ‘fldg coin’ by undertaking specific tasks, such as property repairs. This fosters community engagement and rewards contributions to communal betterment.
Rent Payment System
Renters have the flexibility to pay their monthly rent using both traditional currency and up to 20% in ‘fldg coin’.
Other Payment Systems
FLDG can also be used for recording in the studio, coming to paid shows, meals at some shows, bounties for projects, paying for commission when using the Fledge space.
Allocation of Rent
Rental income is judiciously distributed towards:
- Property taxes
- Insurance
- Maintenance
- Repairs
- Contingency
- Treasury (whatever is left over)
Any surplus flows into a treasury, poised to be a financial reservoir for the community.
All invoices, bills, receipts and other financial documents will be uploaded to the IPFS.
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Governance
Membership
To participate in the DAO, one must possess at least one house NFT. However, the democratic ethos is preserved by ensuring each member has an equal voice, symbolized by a single vote, regardless of the number of NFTs owned.
Proposal Mechanism
All members are empowered to draft and submit proposals regarding the utilization of the treasury funds, ensuring collective decision-making.
Conclusion
The Fledge Fractals project signifies more than just a foray into decentralized finance. It embodies the Fledge’s unwavering commitment to community empowerment, innovation, and radical inclusivity. As this model takes root, it holds the potential to reshape not just the real estate sector but also how communities envision ownership, collaboration, and shared growth.
Appendix
House 1: Sunshine House
SMART Contract
Real Estate Fractionalization
- NFT Minting: Logic to mint non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing fractional ownership of properties.
- Ownership Transfer: Rules for transferring NFTs between wallets.
- Property Details: Metadata associated with each NFT, such as the address of the property, total number of fractions, etc.
Funding Model
- Initial Funding: Procedures for how initial funds are collected to purchase a property, potentially involving multiple types of assets like traditional currency and cryptocurrencies.
- NFT Purchase: Mechanisms for directly purchasing NFTs or acquiring them as compensation for property owners.
FLDG Coin
- Earning Mechanism: Functions to allocate ‘fldg coin’ based on specific community tasks, perhaps tied to an oracle or other external data sources to verify task completion.
- Spending and Conversion: Rules and functions to allow for the spending of ‘fldg coin’ within the community and potentially converting it to other types of assets.
Rent Payment
- Rent Calculation: Automated calculations for rent based on predefined rules.
- Rent Collection: Functions for collecting rent in both traditional currency and ‘fldg coin.’
- Rent Distribution: Logic to distribute rent income for property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, and into the treasury.
DAO Governance
- Membership: Rules defining who qualifies for DAO membership based on NFT ownership.
- Voting Mechanisms: Procedures for proposal submissions and voting, including how votes are counted and what quorum is needed for different types of decisions.
- Treasury Management: Functions to handle the allocation of treasury funds based on community decisions.
Security and Compliance
- Access Controls: Functions to ensure that only authorized individuals can execute certain operations.
- Auditability: Logging and event emissions for key actions for future audits.
- Compliance Checks: Potential checks for regulatory compliance, including AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and KYC (Know Your Customer) where relevant.
Miscellaneous
- Upgradability: Mechanisms to upgrade the contract without losing state.
- Error Handling: Proper error messages and failure modes for invalid actions.