Concept Sandsphere offers a trust-ensured data provenance infrastructure and an applications ecosystem that is designed to enhance and connect sustainability Data, cross-referencing impact with SDGs for the monitoring, reporting and validation of impact metrics.

Data Provenance Infrastructure, all activity by all participants in the ecosystem and creates an immutable and verifiable data provenance record. The greater the depth of data, the greater the value of the provenance.

Data Enrichment Services, enables partners and service providers to enrich their sustainability-data value for market participants and promote sustainability-centric value networks.

Data Tools, tools to help participants audit, evaluate, and optimize their sustainability activity.

SANDSphere Core’s mission and data provenance focus makes it an ideal builder of RWA token solutions by focusing on delivery of validation and data provenance embedded in the token offerings. Sandsphere Core is a modular, open-source toolkit that enables the next wave of DeFi on Cardano. Developed by Sandsphere and EMURGO Labs, Sandsphere Core includes:

1. Yield-bearing Fractionalized Investment Contracts (Aiken)

• Reusable modules for pooled lending, liquidation, interest accrual.

2. USDA Integration Wrapper

• Developer SDK (CLI + REST) for managing stablecoin flows in apps.

3. Multisig Controller Module -Aiken-based governance contracts for cooperatives, DAOs, shared custody.

These modules will power both developers and real-world applications, with pilots focused on Africa and MENA, where Sandsphere already supports impact measurements and is on-boarding with a tier-1 consulting firm’s International Sustainability Group for live-reporting on impact sustainability, circularity and performance.

Sandsphere core helps Cardano achieve its mission of programmable, inclusive finance through composable, production-grade infrastructure. The development of a sustainability focused technology RWA platform providing a critically needed resource channel to ensure the capture and scaling of technology with critical human and planetary value. By focusing on alternative financing and access to finance methods for technology growth in the African and MENA regions through DeFi, Stablecoin (USDA) and RWA tokenization, the platform will give everyday Africans and enterprises access to inclusive forms of wealth creation, credit, and investment opportunities previously out of reach. Moreover, by deploying a sustainable technology focused growth plan, the RWA platform will deliver core value infrastructure and solutions into local economies with a web3 progressive growth model versus a web2 siloed wealth extraction model.

The web2 world’s traditional finance has developed a resource allocation system that is simply ill-equipped to understand and support the growth of critical technology both at the early and scaling stages. The value proposition of technology is assessed based on the communication quality provided by the creative minds that drive innovation and ‘check box’ system that does not, and cannot, consider the holistic value of a technology stack nor provide the guard rails to ensure commercially viable scale up.

Broadly speaking, at this stage, in the life cycle of sustainable technology, most solutions are fundamentally in need of access to capex funding in order to deploy and evolve solutions to TRL 9 viable deployments.

Tragically, even in the case of technologies that have crossed the TRL 9 hurdle, if the innovators driving growth do not have the personalities, networks and/or ability to articulate their value proposition to the web2 finance world, these technologies are lost to the annals of time. The idea that technology development requiring access to capex funding is “expensive money” is true from a risk perspective but this is heavily correlated to the idea that these companies are provided money as a resource and then left to “try their best”. The risk to the capital is fundamentally high when the values of interoperability, transparency and decentralized growth are ignored however, when applied, the risk profiles are fundamentally altered to a lower level.

The most common capital forms consider investment based on: • Venture Capital: Designed to provide capital to companies/projects and exit as fast as possible to provide financial returns to their LPs. Venture capital is particularly susceptible to strong communicators due to the short term nature of their capital. This model is inherently unable to consider long term implications nor can it provide a circumstance of tailoring capital access to help grow technology solutions and interconnect them into structurally supportive mechanisms for growth. • Private Equity: Designed to provide growth capital to businesses that are already operating and generating cash flows. If the technology considered in an investment case is new but fully proven and commercially de-risked, it can be considered for growth capital. This capital is not able to consider growth of technology readiness and hence, can support ineffective or net negative impact technologies as long as they generate cash flow. • Banks: Designed for fixed asset lending (including when working capital lines are needed) and hence, require businesses to already be scaled up or for the founders to have significant collateral to pledge against access to funds hence, this form of finance is generally not able to engage in any form of technology scaling.

The web3 world must develop resource allocation systems that are fundamentally different and thus, capable to “right the wrongs” which, the web2 world has left for future generations by allocating resources based on short term views of profit only. Endless technology companies which, could have generated outsized impact curves, have died on the vine of the web2 world’s centralized resource accumulation structure hence, the need for responsible web3 RWA tokenisation solutions has already become a “last line of defense”.

Solution

Development of a Dapp that is a commercial sustainability RWA platform providing a structure for holistic analysis of value technologies/projects (“TargetCo”). The platform should include a view of the short, medium and long term impact value of the TargetCo if it were to be correctly developed, deployed and scaled. The RWA token funding structure for each of these TargetCos, would be designed based on the critical milestones of progress that show the founders/innovators have been able to execute on what they are uniquely capable of achieving through their vision and innovation.

Through the use of the existing experience/capabilities and infrastructure within the RWA sustainability platform and its partner networks, access/application of know-how and benchmarking would be assigned through the milestone progression process to ensure the development track to TRL9 and viable scaling of use of the technology stack.

It is important to emphasize, that this is NOT meant to behave like a web2 “incubator” which fundamentally does the minimal possible work to ensure some growth, to justify capturing a share of the TargetCos equity. This approach is focused on building a rapid scaling engine through using the flexibility of RWA token finance to enable development and accompany the process with established capability partners to drive scaling.

Technology interoperability options are made available through transparency from innovation networks captured through web3 solutions and hence, mutually beneficial growth solutions can be achieved.

Moreover, the uniqueness of the sustainable technology approach, is that the types of RWA tokenisation solutions that can be established cross the classic RWA ideas of tokenized real estate, commodities and loan financing and make them interoperably valuable when connected through a cash generating unit (“CGU”) represented by applied technology solutions. Therefore, the scale of utility of the RWA tokens can be for technology enabling and scaling finance as well as a driver for the scale of adoption of classical RWA token assets.

The “trust” management in all TargetCos will include continuous human and IoT based data feeds that will be structured to provide token holders with continuous performance metrics of their investment and therefore, establish confidence in the token holders and buyers. The SANDSpehre approach to traceability at an operating level will be linked to token holder information rights to ensure minimal gaps in understanding of investment impact.

The platform will require the development of a project funnel strategy, a network scaling partnership strategy and RWA token solution structuring strategy in order to “launch” solid TargetCo tokens. It will subsequently, require integration with the broader Cardano and multi-chain integration networks to ensure maximised interoperability between technology, scaling support structures and token buying markets.

Example Projects

TargetCo 1: Bio-stimulant/ Soil Amendment technology All natural bio-stimulant / soil amendment hybrid solution providing food security by regenerating soil whilst recovering the food yield lost to climate change, lack of water and over fertilization with 3rd party tested results superseding industry competitor products results very significantly. The performance of the solution represents an evolution in the approach to regenerative farming and returning farmers to profitability despite endless environmental and regulatory challenges.

The technology inventor self-funded the development of the technology including, pilot testing, 3rd party testing and EU certification. The solution has been designed to have production on-shored in any major agricultural market to ensure shortened supply chains for minimized environmental impact of production. The TargetCo is ready to scale-up distribution in multiple markets.

The company proposes an RWA tokenization solution whereby, the RWA tokens are issued with a revenue share agreement along side the IP license for each operating territory. The token holders provide the capital for local supply and distribution to be established and have a right to 15% of all revenue generated from the product therefore, having an uncapped upside on a debt yield instrument, with no limitations of waiting for dividend payments or equity exits. Equally, the instrument can be valued based on a DCF as cashflow from sales growth and hence, the token remains a very attractive buy back target for the issuing company and/or investors looking for growing debt yield instruments hence, the token holders can achieve equity exit style returns in addition to debt yield performance.

TargetCo 2: Algae Production Company TRL-9 indoor algae production company with fully circular technology solutions and the highest indoor yields available on the market. Algae represents a sustainable solution across the health, food security, medical and beauty industries with a large demand gap due to insufficient global production both for indoor and outdoor algae. The TargetCo has fully flexible production solutions allowing them to produce any algae strain demanded by the market.

This TargetCo became a distressed asset because they did not have the skill set to present to finance providers in an adequate manner. Moreover, the advisors that they were able to attract were equally ill-equipped to reach and/or engage with VC or PE capital providers.

The capital requirement of the business, having cash flows established from the product, would have been $50M in Capex to build an expanded production facility in 18 months with a rolling startup plan through 22 production cells in the building. The EBITDA potential of the business within 12 months of operation was $120M ie. The facility payback would have been in the first year of operation.

RWA tokenisation solutions could be applied to tokenize current and future production of algae such that token holders buy production as “discounted futures contracts” to provide the capex funding required by the company. Independently, the land and facilities that the process is installed in, could be launched as RWA tokens to segregate the risk and ensure the rights of the real estate token holders irrespective of performance of the production business (ie. Token holders could buy real estate tokens as a hedge to the product future tokens).

Cardano currently lacks standardized, modular infrastructure for building real-world DeFi applications, such as fractionalized yield-bearing fractionalized equity ownership, lending protocols, stablecoin integrations, and fiat gateways. Developers are forced to build from scratch, with no reusable smart contracts, SDKs, or governance modules available within the ecosystem.

The project seeks to address the fundamental gap between sustainable technology and the web2 centralised approach to finance through the development of a sustainability RWA tokenisation platform focused on technology development, scale-up and commercial viability - in-line with the Cardano Commercial Roadmap.

The web2 traditional routes of finance are fundamentally designed for centralised profit generation and are hence, ill-equipped to assess holistic value of critical technology and define capital access and scaling pathways to drive sustainable solutions to maximise their global impact and achieve commercial viability. A web3 approach using RWA tokenisation to develop more flexible funding and network resource access structures aligned to strategic scale up and management and growth pathways, is critically needed if sustainable technology is to scale successfully at the pace required by an ailing planet and society.

The web3 world must develop resource allocation systems for sustainable technology that are constructed differently at a fundamental level to the web2 world. The web3 tenants of transparency, interoperability and decentralisation are positioned to “right the wrongs” which, the web2 world has left for future generations by allocating resources based on short term views of profit only.

We view the Africa and MENA regions as the primary growth markets to focus on technology development through RWA and to create fundamental economic inclusive solutions by allowing asset owners to tokenise ownership, distribute returns, enable secondary markets and deliver returns to their local economies with transparent reporting and governance. Africa is 12% of the world’s population today, it will be 34% of the global population by 2050. The opportunity to provide a new structural solution for access to capital that enables positive sustainable growth into the fastest growth demographic in the world, will allow a paradigm shift in with regards to, addressing the fundamental gap between sustainable technology and the web2 centralized approach to finance, through the development of a sustainability RWA tokenization platform focused on technology development, scale-up and commercial viability addressing SDGs with relevance to agriculture, water scarcity and financial inclusion.

Sandsphere Core provides open-source infrastructure that helps the entire Cardano community: Fractionalized yield-bearing investment contracts (Aiken) to accelerate protocol development

USDA integration wrapper to support stablecoin adoption across dApps

Multisig controller module to power pooling, cooperatives, and DAOs

Real-world deployment in Africa and MENA to validate global use This empowers builders, strengthens Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem, and fulfills the network’s mission of programmable, inclusive financial access, in line with the Cardano Commercial Roadmap.

Additional benefits include:

1.⁠ ⁠Asset-backed adoption: Brings real-world value to the Cardano Blockchain, positioning it as a global asset registry, increasing TVL, liquidity pools and cross-chain investment. 2.⁠ ⁠Institutional adoption: Private equity and sustainability funds are far more comfortable on regulated-friendly blockchains with energy efficiency such as Cardano, especially inline with Cardano’s Commercial Roadmap. 3.⁠ ⁠Recurring transaction volume: Stablecoin liquidity on Cardano, impact reporting, dividends and governance actions.

Key Impact Areas: Stablecoin Expansion, Market Maker & Exchange Growth, DeFi Incentives & TVL Growth, Cross-Chain Expansion, Institutional DeFi & RWA

-Lending contracts written in Aiken or Plutus

-USDA SDK (REST + CLI) with integration documentation

• Multisig controller with governance configs

• Sample frontend interfaces (for investment flows)

-Smart contract audits and compliance checklists

• Deployment-ready testnet suite

• Pilot-ready in Africa & MENA

• Community developer guide, tutorials, and GitHub repo

• Fiat on and offramps especially in the frontier markets

Key system milestones:

• Project Funnel Process: Completion of the project application and primary criteria funnel for technology assessment, including governance controls. This platform section will include the application portal, creation of company DID and delegation of authority for company level approvers, structured application and technology introduction process, confirmation of sustainable technology potential and governance controls for transition to full diligence analysis.
• Project Assessment Process: Completion of the technology development, scale up strategy and commercial viability assessment. This process will include design of milestones based RWA token raises, definition of network based resource access for scale up and SANDSphere systematic reporting systems to ensure continuous transparency to token holders on project progress.
• RWA Token Launch Process: Regulatory compliance partner selection and token launch partner selection including institutional and RWA exchange markets.

Key business milestones:

• Regulatory compliance and token launch partner selections -RWA token “productisation” to allow companies and understanding of the means by which, SandSphere RWA could provide funding and resources. -Launch of first 5 projects on SANDSphere RWA with active performance tracing linked to the investor tokens to allow real-time trust.

Platform & Protocol Development Full-stack development (backend, frontend, smart contracts, APIs, infrastructure) $650,000

Tokenization & Interop Design On-chain RWA models, Cardano integration, bridge setup, token lifecycle logic $200,000

Regulatory & Compliance Jurisdiction structuring, token legal design, governance contract $100,000

Business Development & Ops partner onboarding, project sourcing $110,000

Marketing & Education Branding, community-facing materials, ecosystem engagement $52,400

Contingency / Audits Third-party security audit, reserve for overruns $90,000

Total $1,202,400

SANDSphere Core System Technology Team: Inhouse 9pe and Out Source 5-8pe

6-9 months

The SANDSphere team includes expertise from entrepreneurial to large corporate scales in: Engineering - sustainability, circularity, energy, water and remediation Technology assessment, development and scale up Full EPC processes Development and management of technology and process operations teams Digital systems, product and platform development (full stack) Finance Operations and Corporate Finance Investment and M&A Business operations Business development

-Maintained by the EMURGO Labs engineering team.

• Modular repos with continuous integrations and documentation.

• Supported by a public roadmap, community feedback, and long-term use in production deployments.

This project would be revenue generating from an early stage hence, it will quickly self-fund. In the event of additional capital requirements, an RWA token raise for the platform at the topco level based on revenue and “project token treasury” sharing will be launched.

Incoming Liquidity Developer/User Experience Programmable Assets L2 Expansion (via future integrations) SPO Core Marketing and Innovation Product Committee Open Source Committee Marketing Committee

-USDA stablecoin integration

-Smart contract audits

-Cardano node and wallet interface access