Created on 11th February 2022
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Unregistered chitfunds help provide a low interest borrowing scheme for members, but they also are plagued with a plethora of issues. The major problem is the lack of tranparent records in the system. There is no proper system to keep a check of all the actions taking place throughout the chitfund process. Organisers may hide details from members and make changes in return rates/monthly deposits/number of members etc. Paper records can also be destroyed or modified. Participants of the chitfund, especially those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, may not be able to detect these changes and can be cheated. Organising offline monthly chit-fund meetings is tedious, and enhances the risk of Covid spread. To solve all of these issues and introduce new benefits to the system, we came up with the idea of Chitti. Based on the power of smart contracts, Chitti is an android application which provides a platform to carry out all chitfund related tasks. Users can create and join chitfund groups and participate in biddings and transactions through online payment gateways, just like an actual chitfund, but from the comfort of their homes and the security of the blockchain. All actions performed in the chitfund group will be stored and recorded on the blockchain ledger, which is immutable. All members can view the public records, which makes the entire system transparent and just. Since no records can be edited, this ensures that members are not cheated by manipulated data. Local police/government authorities can also be kept as part of the blockchain, so that fradulent actvities can be reported and acted upon immediately. The need for offline gatherings is removed, which decreases the risk of coronavirus spreading, while also providing an easy to use, automated system to the users. To enhace the credibility of users, a credit score is created for each individual user based on an ML model, which will help organsisers judge the truthworthiness of new potential members.
Blockchain and smart contract development was new to us. Learning how to write up a smart contract code within such a short timespan was exhilarating but fun. The layout and UX for the android application was quite complex, but we were able to implement it along with a login page.
Technologies used