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Introduction
In a society that is undoubtedly migrating towards a cashless system,
it's often difficult to tip the hard-working artist, waiter and other
service industry professional or even settle a debt with friends. Nearly
10% of Americans no longer carry cash and 49% carry $20 or less on a
daily basis.1 Worldwide, only 2% of adults have a mobile payment
solution.2
Unfortunately, this problem is not unique to the U.S. and in some parts
of the world it’s even more frustrating given limited access to banks.
When available, current solutions typically run on archaic software,3
pose high and constantly increasing fees,4 lack guarantee and trust,5 6
transparency,7 anonymity and are unsafe leading to personal data and
history sharing.8 9 10
There are many well-founded market concerns about online and mobile lack
of privacy and safety. In fact, a recent study revealed that 71% of
Americans are most concerned about online privacy when they are
accessing their financial data.11
Recent data has shown that current non-blockchain payment methods lack
privacy and protections for their users. Data exposed by researcher Hang
Do Thi Duc confirmed the current systems’ weaknesses accessing public
on-line data on 207,984,218 transactions of Venmo users (a Paypal
company) identifying transactions by user, name, behavior and habits.12
13 What is worse, financial and non-financial companies seem to execute
on this insecure behavior on purpose.14
These shortcomings of the traditional banking system gave rise to
Bitcoin and blockchain, which allow people to privately and securely
transact with a currency that maintains value without a central
authority controlling its supply and circulation.15
Bitcoin, a first generation blockchain payment protocol, brought
technology, transparency and trust to the online financial industry. It
proved a brilliant concept and broke ground for other protocols and
tokens with better technologies, rules, latency, stability, trust and
applications beyond payments. Despite the fast evolution, the technology
still lacks the qualities required to attract mass consumers; it has a
fragmented clunky user experience, confusing onboarding, complex keys
that often require a third-party custodian for safety, and lacks a
human-centric design.
At BRAVO, we are solving the slow blockchain adoption paradigm with a
proven human-centric user interface on a robust blockchain
infrastructure.
BRAVO started in 2014 with a grassroots approach and was built from the
ground up with iterative development incorporating user feedback in the
software development lifecycle. This extensive research and development
fast-tracked our product as we created a mobile fiat payment platform.
After a successful proof of concept where millions of dollars in fiat
(USD) were processed using our iOS and Android apps, we are now
launching our next generation platform powered by blockchain.
The Challenge
BRAVO solves various obstacles within the current payments market, user
privacy, the blockchain and cryptocurrency methods of payment. The
technology is robust but there are still significant challenges we aim
to improve and solve.
Globally, we are moving to a cashless society, yet billions of people are
unbanked and must rely on cash to earn a living and to pay for goods and
services.
Cryptocurrency remains largely inaccessible to most people and businesses due
to its complexity.
Mass adoption of existing blockchain payment platforms have been negatively
affected by their design and lack of user-friendly interfaces. They have a
complicated onboarding process and key management system, and fall short in
terms of anonymity and security. Transaction fees can be expensive and the
platforms slow due to high latency.16 16 This complex and at times clunky user
experience forgoes the simplicity and strength of the blockchain technology.
Privacy and security of payments and personal data continues to worry
consumers. Blockchain seems like a solution but implementation is hard and
transactions potentially traceable.17 18
On an ideal platform, the user can sign up and create an account with KYC/AML (know your
customer and anti-money laundering) flawlessly in seconds. The system should be able to
execute a transaction without entering long private / public keys; should be able to keep
payments private, secure and anonymous directly from a mobile app decreasing risk for web
hacking and phishing; and finally, should be able to keep the account encrypted and safe but
never lose access and ownership to tokens.
The Solution
BRAVO is creating a blockchain-powered mobile payments platform that addresses the
technological challenges with the current micropayments market while increasing its usability
and adoption for both consumers and businesses.
After proven success with mobile fiat transactions, our team began developing
our blockchain platform to run the BRAVO mobile payments app and support
enhanced anonymity and security, improved cryptocurrency wallet sign up and
onboarding process, and a simple PIN access code that improves usability. Since
launching our MVP and beta version in U.S., our team focused on improving
onboarding, KYC/AML compliance, data encryption, tokenization and security.
With the BRAVO app, there is no need for long public or private keys or
third-party custodians of keys or funds. Users have a simple but secure
password recovery protocol to ensure full control and access to their tokens and
funds. BRAVO runs on a proprietary blockchain platform created by our
engineering team to optimize security, integrity and functionality. We created an
Incognito Payments protocol as a solution for enhanced privacy.
Users have full control of privacy, funds and payments which are executed in
seconds without intermediary bank or third party blockchain platforms and no
hidden fees. BRAVO is also designed to integrate with, and power other
applications.19
The BRAVO blockchain is the culmination of years of research, user feedback,
design and engineering. Blockchain technology will allow BRAVO to scale at a
faster rate and accommodate a much larger user base. It not only enhances
user anonymity and transaction transparency, but it also broadens the
applicability and reach by expanding the BRAVO ecosystem globally with a
single platform that is seamless and consistent.
BRAVO (and BVO token) materializes a well-balanced combination of blockchain technology,
user experience, and a successful business model that is ready for large-scale adoption. With
the ability to process payments globally, BRAVO is well positioned to establish a cryptocurrency
platform with a real use-case that truly serves the mass market.
Brief History Of BRAVO
At the end of a hiking trip in Southern Utah, the founders of BRAVO found themselves out of
cash to tip and thank their hiking guide. At that moment, they came up with a simple idea to pay
or get paid anonymously, respecting the privacy of both parties.
The company was founded in 2014 by TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield Alumni, Maria Luna, MBA
and Dr. Hector Rodriguez. Hector is a physician with a background in research20 and technology
(ANN)21 while Maria holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of
Texas in Austin. Together, they have launched several startup businesses in technology,
marketing and the medical field.
BRAVO’s minimum viable product (MVP) was built and launched at TechCrunch Disrupt San
Francisco in September 2015 where it won the Audience Choice Award.22 Since then, BRAVO
has continued to grow well beyond the test market of Arizona and has organically reached over
1,000 cities in the United States.
The BRAVO beta version was recently featured on ABC’s Shark Tank in November 2017 where
BRAVO landed a deal on the show.23
BRAVO’s successful beta test and deployment is due to our community integration into the
feedback process and encouragement of members and users to assist in creating the optimal
payment solution for everyone. The next milestone for BRAVO was to integrate these payments
onto the blockchain to create a truly secure payment solution, the BVO token and ecosystem.
The BRAVO blockchain and BVO token project started in early 2017 driven by our team of
engineers and will be ready for consumer use in Q2-2019.
To get a glimpse at BRAVO, and while we launch our cryptocurrency version, check out our
current BRAVO fiat app and create a BRAVO account (currently available as beta in restricted
markets):
1. Go to https://trybravo.com/ or download the app from the Google Play for Apple App Store.
2. Create an account in seconds with your email address or social accounts.
3. Select your
4-digit pin.
Current and Potential Verticals
Conceptually, BRAVO was created as a simple tool for seamless anonymous tipping or payments
to service professionals and artists without exchanging private information. However, the idea’s
simplicity led to other rapidly-growing verticals and is now positioned to be the platform that
powers day-to-day cryptocurrency micro- and macro-payments.
BRAVO brings utility to cryptocurrency to be used as a tender for any kind of purchase. Current
and other growing potential verticals include:
The Gratuity (tipping) Industry
The magnitude of the gratuity market in the U.S. is significant with reported
revenues over $42.2 billion/yr. according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Millions of workers in the U.S. alone such as valet attendants, hairdressers,
bartenders, baristas, bellhops and tour guides derive most of their income
from gratuities, a situation also common in numerous other countries and
occupations. Overall, we estimate this industry surpasses $1 trillion/yr.
worldwide and these figures do not include artists.24
The Entertainment Industry
BRAVO has a strong presence in the current music industry with many
supporting artist around and outside U.S. and continues to expand its
presence with tools tailored for the entertainment industry. BRAVO has
recognized the opportunity to become a payment leader in facilitating
transactions for buskers tipping, video streaming tipping, small event tickets,
private concert merchandise sales, and other payment transactions related to
the entertainment industry; all on your mobile device. The size of this industry
is harder to measure, mostly because of the independent nature of the
business. To provide a glimpse of the magnitude of this market, let’s explore
the industry of watching people play video games which is quantifiable and
continues on the rise. In 2017 around 666 million people around the globe
tuned in to gaming video content made by fans and publishers, and that
number is expected to grow to over 740 million by 2019.25 According to
Statista, there were nearly 22.6 million occurrences of tipping on Twitch in the
first quarter of 2017. It is also noticeable that estimates of Statista, show that
this monetization method has become more popular in the past years. For
example, the increment of tipping instances recorded on the Streamlabs
platform went from 43.6 million to 101 million between 2015 and 2017.26
Micro-Merchants Industry
In a recent report from the World Bank Group and the World Economic Forum,
the value of micro-transactions processed globally is estimated at $34 trillion,
of which $19 trillion are cash or check-based transactions.27 In U.S., the
micro-merchant potential market size is estimated to be about 25 million
users. Over 55% of those small businesses do not accept cards for several
reasons, including cost and lack of trust creating a lost opportunity cost of
$100m/yr.28 29 BRAVO’s micro-merchants include gardeners, dog walkers,
babysitters, yoga teachers, makeup artists, street vendors and farmer’s
market vendors amongst other users who trust the transparency, low cost,
simplicity, and anonymity of the BRAVO payment solution.
Global Boundless Payments and Unbanked Population
According to the International Monetary Fund, more than two billion people
worldwide are without bank accounts, including about 7% of the U.S.
population.30 31 BRAVO represents a seamless local and global cross platform
payment alternative to traditional banks. Our team has already designed a
solution for end users to effectively utilize their funds with and without
institutional banking support.
BRAVO has the potential to assist the unbanked and underbanked by allowing
them to create their own financial alternatives efficiently with an immutable
trusted platform. These unbanked individuals constitute a large market ready
to adopt disruptive financial solutions outside of the traditional banking
system. The BRAVO app provides a secure, scalable tool to serve and meet
the needs of these individuals.
BRAVO’s Competitive Advantage
BRAVO’s technology is a market pioneer for mobile anonymous, private and secure payments
executed seamlessly by finding the person you want to pay nearby or via search of username or
alias without exchanging personal information, just a payment.
BRAVO’s foundation and strengths are based on our ability to translate the blockchain
integration into a simple user experience and our fundamental understanding of privacy and
security. We rely on our community of active users, our team and innovative technology.
Unique Proposition
• First in market: First ICO with a fiat currency payments beta product already
in the market with a community of tens of thousands active users.
• First hybrid blockchain mobile payments application with global reach.
Traction
• Established FinTech Company since 2014 with financial product in the
market and significant traction.
• Successful beta for anonymous payments to pay or be paid amongst
“strangers” without sharing personal information.
• Tens of thousands of active daily users (in test market).
• Millions of dollars in transactions processed (in test market).
Technology, User Experience and Security
• Seamless sign up, short PIN to login, no need for private/public key to pay
or get paid.
• Simple and secure password recovery (prevents loss of access and funds).
• Hybrid blockchain platform facilitates anonymous, fast and inexpensive
payment.
• Incognito protocol for enhanced anonymity.
• High user security with encryption and tokenization.
• Plug and Play interface to integrate with other apps.
• BRAVO is currently PCI DSS compliant (for fiat payments in US) by Security
Standards Council;30
BRAVO’s technology is a market pioneer for mobile private and secure payments executed
seamlessly without exchanging personal information.
BRAVO BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
Building a Better Payment System
One of the main goals of BRAVO is to make tipping and paying for goods and services easy for
customers and vendors while offering unparalleled security and privacy. BRAVO already has
success in local markets with their currently available BRAVO App. To expand their reach
globally while still providing a cost-effective solution to payments and sending funds, BRAVO
will be augmenting and evolving their existing P2P platform to include blockchain technologies
to create a next generation peer-to-peer payment platform that will provide faster transfer
times, lower costs and strong anonymity with incognito transactions.
To accomplish this, BRAVO will release BVO Coin with a blockchain network to support the
token. Anyone can join and participate in the BRAVO Blockchain and will be able to send funds
from one party to another using BVO Coin regardless of location. Transactions will complete
quickly and will cost a fraction of a cent. Using a blockchain token has proven to be difficult for
most people, requiring access to lengthy keys through a non-user-friendly interface. BRAVO has
addressed this difficulty by integrating the BVO Coin into the BRAVO app and providing hosted
wallets that allow users to easily interact with the BVO Coin. Hosted wallets allow BRAVO to
make the user experience seamless and intuitive while allowing users to take control of their
BVO Coins through a personal wallet. Typically, sending funds to another party via blockchain is
a perilous process requiring users to know the destination wallet address, a jumble of
incomprehensible numbers and letters. By integrating BRAVO Blockchain in the BRAVO app, it
will be easy to find friends and vendors without the intricacies of complex keys and addresses,
yet still maintain the safety of blockchain technology. Finally, current blockchain technologies
make recovering a lost password near impossible with a potential risk of losing cryptocurrency
and assets. BRAVO has made the process seamless with a secure and simple access code.
BRAVO Blockchain Consortium
BRAVO exists because of its users: everyday people that include your friends, neighbors, and
people you pass on the street; and everyday vendors that include your taxi driver, your favorite
band and your local grocer. With the incorporation of blockchain, it is only natural for BRAVO to
invite its users to participate in the operation of its network to ensure smooth and secure
operations while avoiding the concentration of power in the hands of a few. Collectively, users
who materially participate in the operations of the BRAVO Blockchain will be known as the
BRAVO Blockchain Consortium (BBC). Members of the Consortium are select merchants who
provide computing resources through existing or new computing infrastructure to keep the
BRAVO Blockchain running. For example, a restaurant that joins as a member can use the
computers running their point-of-sale system (POS) to lend some of their computing power to
the BRAVO Blockchain.
The BRAVO Blockchain network is a decentralized system that will require members of the
Consortium to validate and process transactions. This differs from Proof-of-Work (PoW)
blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum where each transaction is validated by every node on the
network which results in high transaction costs and latency (i.e. slow transactions). BRAVO
Blockchain uses a modified BFT consensus algorithm where members of the Consortium review
transactions, allowing BRAVO to avoid the problems associated with PoW. In addition, BRAVO
cannot be compromised by what is known as 51% attack since each validator is vetted and
approved by BRAVO. Each member of the Consortium is, in essence, a partner of BRAVO with a
vested interest in keeping the network from being compromised while benefiting by taking a
portion of the transaction fees for services rendered.
Anyone can still buy and sell BVO Coin without having become a part of the Consortium. The
difference is that each buy and sell transaction is verified by a trusted BRAVO partner instead of
by everyone on network.
Incognito Payments™
BRAVO Blockchain will support two different ways of transferring funds: public transfers and
incognito transfers. Public transfers are coin transactions that are logged and viewable on the
blockchain. Like Bitcoin and Ethereum, it is possible to trace funds going from one wallet to
another. For transactions that do not need anonymity and untraceability, public transfers using
the BRAVO blockchain provide a fast, low-cost method of sending coins.
However, BRAVO understands that people value their privacy and wish to send funds
anonymously when needed. To support this, BRAVO Blockchain will offer anonymous transfers
of BVO Coin on-demand through what is known as "Incognito Transfers". This is achieved with
the use of BRAVO Private Coin (BVO-P) through an algorithm that utilizes anonymizing
technology, making it impossible to determine where funds came from and where they are sent
to.
BVO-P will be integrated into the BRAVO mobile app and support an incognito mode for
payments and transfers while still maintaining the intuitive, easy-to-use interface of a public
transaction. When a user wishes to send payment anonymously, BRAVO's incognito transfers
work by performing the following steps automatically:
Incognito transfers require more computation resources and have higher transaction fees. Since
incognito transfers are performed on-demand, users have the choice of instantly switching
between the fast, low-cost public transfers and the anonymous incognito transfers.
Hybrid Blockchain
BRAVO is creating an innovative hybrid blockchain technology that consists of a public and
private blockchain. The public blockchain is based on the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA)
consensus algorithm while BRAVO's private, Incognito blockchain is based on an anonymizing
Proof-of-Stake algorithm. The BRAVO blockchain integrates these two technologies together,
which allows them to interoperate seamlessly, and gives the end-users control over transaction
speed, privacy and cost.
Federated Byzantine Agreement
Understanding the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA) consensus algorithm requires
understanding its predecessor, the traditional Byzantine agreement. The Byzantine agreement
ensures consensus even if you have some misbehaving members in your network. This has two
advantages. First, consensus can be fast and efficient. Second, trust is entirely decoupled from
resource ownership. This means that a small vendor has as much power as a wealthy, large
organization which helps keep them both honest. On the downside, all parties must agree on the
exact list of participants. Generally, membership in Byzantine agreement systems is set by a
central authority or closed negotiation.
In practice, traditional non-federated Byzantine agreements require every node to be involved
with every transaction to reach quorum. This is akin to letting every city mayor in the state know
you're about to plant a tree in your yard and getting most of them to agree to it. This is
unnecessary and a waste of everyone’s time and resources. In BRAVO's FBA system, each node
can decide whom to trust and be part of their decision-making group, which we are referring to
as a quorum slice. Following the earlier example, you only have to let your neighbors know (your
quorum slice) that you want to plant a tree in your yard and get them to agree to it. Furthermore,
the system-wide agreement is reached when overlapping quorum slices communicate the
transactions. To continue with the tree planting example, after you and your neighbors agree to
plant the tree in your yard, you bring it up to your local city council, who in turn legitimizes the
action for the rest of the city.
FBAS Definition
Formally speaking, we can define a federated Byzantine agreement system (FBAS) is a pair compromising a set of nodes V and a quorum specifying one or more
quorum slices for each node, where a node belongs to all of its own quorum slices.
Specifically,
Incognito Blockchain and Coin™
BRAVO's Incognito Coin (BVO-P) is powered by the Incognito Blockchain which is based on a
Proof-of-Stake algorithm. Proof-of-Stake has a number of differences and advantages over
Proof-of-Work which you can see in the following table:
Since BVO-P is going to be used as a way to transfer funds and not used as an asset,
Proof-of-Stake was chosen to support the needs of its users.
In terms of vulnerability, BRAVO's main concern is to reduce the risk of a Sybil attack. In a Sybil
attack, a malicious attacker creates multiple fake identities and get those identities accepted as
peers. After they are accepted as peers, they then begin to corrupt the network and its
transactions.
BRAVO will combat this by making the Incognito blockchain private and by only allowing vetted
organizations to stake. The sole purpose of the BVO-P is to facilitate the private transmissions
of BVO which would not require it to be public. BVO-P will not be on a public exchange, cannot
be bought and cannot be speculated on. Its existence is entirely utilitarian. However, BRAVO will
not wield absolute power over BVO-P since the select members who join the blockchain will aid
in running the network while keeping everyone honest.
Zerocoin Protocol
BRAVO Incognito blockchain will anonymize transactions on the BVO-P PoS blockchain by
utilizing the zerocoin protocol. The zerocoin protocol basically pools all BVO-P into
predetermined denominations and sends sets of these denominations when a transfer is
initiated.
For an analogy, let's use water as a currency. Water is heavy, hard to transport and takes up
space so instead of storing and transporting water on your own, you exchange your water for
water tokens which have different tokens that represent cups, pints, quarts and gallons. You
give 10.5 gallons of water to the water exchanger; the exchanger pours the water in a large pool
and gives you newly minted tokens (2 gallon tokens and 2 quart tokens). If you want to send 2
gallons of water to a friend, you give the exchanger 2-gallon tokens and the address of the
friend. The exchanger then delivers 2 gallons of water to your friend from the common pool.
Minting & Converting
When converting or sending BVO privately, BVO will be converted to BVO-P using the following
algorithm to automatically determine the denominations used:
Auto-Converting BVO-P
The privacy of BVO-P becomes more effective when more of each denomination is converted
from many different sources. To that end, a percentage of BVO will be automatically converted
to BVO-P for every wallet. This will guarantee that there will be a sizable pool of BVO-P for
operations to go smoothly and to anonymize transactions.
With each incoming new block, it does the following:
If the percentage is below the target percentage, it:
ICO and Redemption
Bravo will initially release an ERC-20 token for those who wish to pre-purchase BVO Coin. Those
who purchase the ERC-20 tokens will benefit from reduced prices and will be able redeem their
ERC-20 tokens for BVO Coin to use in the Bravo App. ERC-20 tokens that are redeemed will be
taken out of circulation.
Team
Advisors
