A new decentralized funding and reputation platform called Fundonomy is set to launch in public alpha in the coming weeks. The new service will allow users to launch project funding campaigns on the Ethereum Classic (ETC) blockchain, with no technical experience required.

According to Dr. Avtar Sehra, one of the project leaders, the aim was to establish a secure, simple and fully decentralized platform for users to market projects, raise funding and build reputation.

“We have tried to do this so that users require zero knowledge of how the blockchain works or even how to write and or modify a smart contract to launch a project,” Sehra told CoinJournal.

A roadmap released in September shared some of the technical details of Fundonomy: a blockchain layer will be used to store and manage value, notably regarding funds collection, holding, distribution, but also reputation scores; and a web application layer will allow users to access project marketing, communication and group management tools for efficient promotion.

More specifically, Sehra said that the team has been focused on decentralizing the following components:

Management of funding processes by using smart contract payments and escrow management for funds;

Reputation system that is based on project deliverables and community contributions that can be utilized for other services on and off the Fundonomy platform;

Users social/community connections that are established and nurtured on the platform will be easily accessible outside the platform.

The idea of Fundonomy has been largely driven by the desire for decentralization and greater transparency in the crowdfunding space. It also seeks to provide users with greater control over their data.

“We have approached this with the view that Fundonomy should not control and lock in users just because it has a user’s data history. It is usually the case with most centralized platform solutions,” Sehra said.

He continued:

“The reason a user should stay on a platform is because it offers UX, social and communications services that are better than anyone else, and if not they should be free to easily switch to a competing service without the fear of losing all their data and history. “In this light, an underlying blockchain infrastructure, or immutable smart contracts more specifically, will drive client-facing platform providers to be much more user-focused on a deeper level and not just at a superficial UX level.”

“This is the approach we are talking with Fundonomy, and why we feel this solution will be different from anything else out there today,” Sehra said.

The team expects to have the platform fully ready by January 2017. Then, the next step will be to gain appropriate regulatory approvals by the UK financial markets watchdog, and eventually start focusing on extending the infrastructure for commercial use.