Scholarship for Polkadot Blockchain Academy Founder's Track

Good day, community. I am Edgar Salinas, founder and CEO of Peranto, an identity platform built on the KILT Protocol. We have won two hackathons throughout the year; however, personally, I have been working on Peranto for 2 and a half years, enduring and embracing the challenges of being a founder.

The community that knows me is aware that I have not had any other source of income apart from the prizes from hackathons. We have invested these resources in continuous development, operational expenses, living costs, legal matters, equipment upgrades, and everything required to bring Peranto to your computers.

I am making this request because I have been accepted into the Founders track of the Polkadot Blockchain Academy. If I use Peranto's resources to attend, we would be sacrificing two months of operations and development, which are crucial for advancing this dApp.

As the community knows, the Polkadot treasury has been a general target for proposals related to marketing or projects aiming to promote the Polkadot name in other areas. However, that is not my focus. I will explain my reasons for requesting 4,000 USD.

I started Peranto with the following hypothesis: If internet users can control their digital identity, we can also control the digital identity of the objects we use and own. If this is possible, we can start developing businesses around the circular economy.

My goals for participating in the PBA are as follows:

• Researching a token economy focused on the circular economy and laying the groundwork for building a parachain.
• Building a parachain based on the circular economy using our current development of Peranto with KILT as a Decentralized Identity Provider, which can help build these circular businesses and possibly a Universal Basic Income based on these two constants.
• As a tech-focused founder, my strengths lie in Mexico and Europe. Attending the Academy in Hong Kong will allow me to expand my knowledge regarding regulations and how they relate to the token economy I aim to research and develop.
• Peranto is a strong team, and meeting other founders and developers can be very beneficial for the ecosystem as a whole, not just for Peranto. My experience can be valuable to someone else, just as their experience can be valuable to me.
• The founders' track is specially designed to complete a project fundable in 4 weeks. Working with digital identities, I believe this is a great opportunity to tackle that 4-week challenge and propose beyond our implementation with the KILT Protocol.
• Attending implies expanding my network of contacts, including founders, developers, investors, and mentors like Dr. Gavin Wood. These are contacts that would otherwise take me several months, and as the community knows, in web3, a month is a significant amount of time.
• Finally, as a Mexican founder, I aim to make the ecosystem turn its attention to Latin America as a window of opportunities, especially in Mexico, where crypto regulations have a high likelihood of being adopted in the next 5 years.

Undoubtedly, going to the PBA aims to continue developing a Peranto vertical that I consider necessary for our world, not just in web3.

For those unfamiliar with Peranto, visit https://peranto.xyz, and if you are in Mexico, you can join the beta through this link https://forms.gle/PuY72ugGAxDaNhDb8, starting on December 15, 2023.

Expense Breakdown:

• $2000: Roundtrip Flight
• $500: Traveler's Insurance
• $1000: Emergency Fund, which, if unused, will support the stay in Hong Kong or future flight expenses
• $500: Miscellaneous and Weekend Expenses