Project Name:
Where – A Crowd-Powered Location Insight and Safety Rating App
Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal:
Aryan Ghosh
Describe your project.
Where is a mobile app that gives users a holistic, community-driven outlook on specific locations—especially streets, areas, and neighborhoods—by enabling real-time safety ratings and geo-tagged content sharing. With an interface built on top of Google Maps and a frictionless UX allowing both anonymous and registered participation, Where provides deep insights on categories such as Security, Live updates, Quality of Life, Street Food, and more.
Users can upload or contribute to location posts (from travel experience etc…) with photos/videos, assign numeric ratings (1–10 scale), and verify places by physically being there. To encourage participation and maintain data quality, the app features an in-app point system that rewards contributions and engagement. While most of the app is already built, we aim to decentralize and preserve user-generated content through integration with S5 and Sia decentralized storage.
How does the projected outcome serve the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data?
The core of Where aligns with the Sia Foundation’s mission to support user-owned, censorship-resistant, and decentralized data by:
- Empowering users to own and manage their geo-tagged uploads (photos, videos, comments) without relying on centralized cloud services.
- Ensuring all contributed location data is stored in a tamper-proof and durable way via Sia and S5, so that valuable community insights are preserved long-term.
- Reducing reliance on centralized platforms that could alter, censor, or delete crowdsourced location data.
- Integrating S5’s public API to allow users to view content directly from decentralized links, keeping them in control of their data trace and transparency.
We cannot provide grants to residents of jurisdictions under increased FATF monitoring, those that have active OFAC sanctions, or those that fail our bank compliance tests. We also cannot provide grants if your payment bank account is located in those same locations.
Are you a resident of any jurisdiction on that list? No
Will your payment bank account be located in any jurisdiction on that list? No
Grant Specifics
Amount of money requested: $5,000 USD
Breakdown of Expenses:
| Item | Amount (USD) | Justification |
|---|---|---|
| Salary (engineering) | $3000 | Backend setup, upload logic, S5 integration |
| Platform maintenance, Dev account fees (Apple & Google), one year of Sia storage | $2000 | Estimated for 100,000 media files |
What are the goals of this small grant? Please provide a general timeline for completion.
Goals:
- Integrate S5 and Sia decentralized storage into the Where app.
- Migrate all image and video uploads to Sia via S5.
- Implement contributor attribution and linking via upload metadata.
- Enable decentralized content verification for location posts.
- Document and open-source all integration logic.
Timeline:
| Month | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Sept-02-2025 | Setup of S5 infrastructure |
| Oct-02-2025 | Full Sia/S5 integration |
| Nov-02-2025 | Testing, Publish on App stores, Full Launch |
Potential risks that will affect the outcome of the project:
- Mobile upload latency on slow networks (we will optimize uploads and fall back to temporary local caching).
- Data misuse or spam (mitigated via contributor reputation scoring).
- New contributors misunderstanding verification flow (we will design guided in-app education prompts).
Development Information
Will all of your project’s code be open-source?
Yes. All code will be open-source,
Link where code will be accessible:
Do you agree to submit monthly progress reports?
Yes, we will submit reports monthly via the Sia Foundation forum, as required.
