CARDENCE COMMUNITY VOTING — KIRKSTONE

obaid ul ahad

5 min readAug 20, 2022

VOTING SCHEDULE

Voting starts : 20TH AUGUST 2022, 5:00 p.m. UTC

Voting ends : 25TH AUGUST 2022, 5:00 p.m. UTC

Information about the project

PROJECT NAME — Kirkstone

WEBSITE — https://kirkstone.io

TELEGRAM — https://t.me/KirkstoneChat

TWITTER- https://twitter.com/Kirkstone_io?s=20&t=osEjWuCpkkjQsRaJJ49HHQ

MEDIUM — https://discord.com/invite/B24mKEddjA

BLOCK CHAIN — Cardano

PROJECT DESCRIPTION — Kirkstone was formed in early 2022 by graduates combining forces with experienced real estate and cryptocurrency professionals to address major challenges in the real estate market and wider society. The Kirkstone ecosystem consists of five linked products, addressing the cost-of-living/homelessness crisis, lowering the barrier to entry for real estate investment and enabling tenants to liberate hidden value within their properties. A brief explanation of each product is given below.

Direct Rentals: The Kirkstone Rental Model (KRM) including a deposit investment scheme

In March 2022, the average price of a UK house increased by 9.8% compared to the previous year. Property price increases are passed onto tenants and with the average salary only increasing ~1.5% p.a., renting is becoming unaffordable, never mind saving for a deposit. How can Kirkstone help? Kirkstone will purchase properties outright, charge discounted rents (compared to the regional average) to tenants who will pay using the $KIRK token. By utilising the $KIRK token for the transaction, buy pressure will be exerted on the market, increasing the value of the token and will offset the original discount. This mechanism, combined with absence of a mortgage from purchasing the properties outright, enables greater profits than traditional rental models in a more ethical manner; ensuring that low income individuals can afford the basic right of calling somewhere home.

Another source of stress and anxiety for tenants is the deposit. Very rarely recouped in full, it reduces in value over the holding period due to inflation placing the tenant in a hopeless situation. Kirkstone will allow tenants to place their deposits in a ‘Deposit Investment Scheme’, allowing them to grow and generate return rather than become a liability. Different options will be available depending on a tenants risk profile including traditional investments such as index funds and bonds alongside crypto investments such as staking pools. Crypto investment will be made through the $KIRK token, further increasing its utility.

Tokenisation & NFT Marketplace

It is not uncommon for the required deposit on a buy-to-let mortgage to be >25%. Alongside the legal fees and management bills from estate agents, this extremely high barrier-to-entry prevents the vast majority benefiting from one of the most consistently appreciating asset classes. At Kirkstone we want to bring property investment into the modern age by tokenising/fractionalising our properties into low cost non-fungible tokens (NFTs), entitling the owner to a portion of the rental income and property sales profit. This mutually beneficial process allows anyone to invest in property without exploitative fees from middlemen, whilst enabling Kirkstone to efficiently raise capital and increase $KIRK buy pressure.

After establishing our tokenization system, Kirkstone will build an NFT marketplace to enable the buying/selling of a range of tokenised products in $KIRK including property, mortgages and housing developments. Eventually, we aim for third parties to be able to tokenise their assets on the marketplace. This could play a significant role in increasing Cardano adoption, unlocking hidden value for landlords who in-turn adopt a blockchain based rental system to stay competitive with Kirkstone.

Vacation Rental: Erdős — Project Catalyst — https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/414220

Erdős is Kirkstone’s answer to AirBnb, but on the blockchain. Similarly to the KRM, lower costs will be offered by utilizing the buy pressure generated from the $KIRK token as the transaction medium. Initially this will be trialed in our student lettings outside of term time before being expanded to the general public. Once trialed, third parties will be given access as in the token marketplace above. Third parties will be able to host their properties on the Erdős dApp for lower fees and guests will be able to rent these properties for lower fees — through the use of the $KIRK token.

We recently submitted a Project Catalyst proposal for the development of the Erdős dApp in Fund 9 (which is currently in the ‘Assess’ phase). Kirkstone, through Erdős, would be looking to take a small market share in a trillion dollar industry.

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/414220

RealFi Launchpad

Innovation within the sector is essential to address current challenges. Kirkstone aims to take advantage of being one of the first movers in blockchain property by establishing a RealFi Launchpad. This will allow the exchange of fungible tokens and NFTs and exciting new real estate business to network and raise capital.

Charity: ‘Ashby’ & Launchpad

Ashby will be a separate entity to Kirkstone (setup as a Charitable Incorporated Organization or CIO) with transactions on the blockchain to enable the transparent dissemination of donations from both Kirkstone and the Cardano community with a high degree of donor control. As this company is distinct its operation will not be discussed here, however more details can be found in our whitepaper. It should be noted, however, that through the entire Kirkstone ecosystem; percentages will be allocated to the charity. Effectively — as Kirkstone grows, Ashby grows.

As with real estate, we will hold a first mover advantage and will look to establish a Launchpad similar to our real estate offering. This launchpad will solely be for the purpose of raising/generating money for the Ashby charity.

TGE — Predicted — 2023 Q1

UNIQUE SELLING POINT — Direct Renting — Lower prices for tenants compared to regional averages, potentially greater deposit value retention and providing a more transparent process for renting using smart contracts trackable on the blockchain. Removing money related stress and anxiety from people’s lives, allowing them to focus on what matters to them.

Tokenisation & NFT Marketplace — Lower minimum order price for fractional property compared to traditional non-blockchain ‘property syndicates’, increasing accessibility of the asset class to lower income individuals. Also the ability for third parties to register property NFTs allowing landlords to raise capital from their properties easier than ever before.

Vacation Rental (Erdős) — Lower prices to hosts and guests using the buy pressure from the $KIRK transaction medium. Reduced reliance on centralised authority when compared to mainstream competitors.

RealFi and Ashby Charity Launchpad — First of their kind, specific launchpads for specific project types — harnessing the RealFi and charitable communities.

TOKENOMICS -