The present invention provides a system and method for sharing and drawing
funds by enabling a user to directly interact with a network of links, created from
the user's contact list. Further the invention allows a customer to define a custom
social network with editable categories or sub-networks, with editable list o5 f
contacts and to allocate funds to each such category.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Typically, banks aggregate deposits from deposit customers and loan a portion of
10 the aggregated amount thus collected, back to customers who need a larger
amount of funds than what might be available to them. A customer is then liable
to pay an additional fee or interest for the extra funds that have been withdrawn.
The deposit customers may also be paid a certain amount for having participated
in raising the lending deposits.
15
However, in certain communities and in rural areas, especially in the absence of
organized formal financial institution like banks if a certain member needs access
to funds, the person in need of funds has no option but to borrow it from family,
friends and community. However, there are limitations in the traditional way of
20 borrowing, such as accessing individual i.e. one can only scout a limited area.
Other limitations may be the availability of funds. Other factors that deter lenders
in a traditional system are their perception, as there is no documentation therefore
the trust often plays a vital role.
25 In such cases, consideration of usurious interest or intending to earn from their
act of contribution is not usually primary. An adverse experience might at the
least prevent the person helping out once from repeating the act a subsequent
time.
3
Also for the borrower, the social pressure for returning the monies thus collected
is pretty high. Not returning the borrowed funds would usually have dire social
consequences for the person asking for funds.
However, lack of transparency, social bonds and difficulty in enforcing may 5 also
prevent the effective orchestration of these processes and may lead to severed ties
and money not being recovered. Also, such processes would work only within
very closely knit and private groups and can hardly be accepted as a method at
scale. Again, the amount that can thus be raised is of course limited to the
10 resources available in the person’s proximate community.
The present invention is aimed at obviating the above drawbacks through social
collateral where a system and a method to seamlessly, securely and at scale,
facilitate seamless aggregate peer to peer based funding for larger needs of
15 particular members of social networks and communities.
US20100325057 describes the techniques related to leveraging social capital
associated with a user's profile on a website. In some implementations, a
framework can be provided that includes a protected space associated with the
20 user's profile on a social networking website. The protected space can be
configured to allow verified indicia of the social capital to be posted thereon.
US 20100005018 describes a system and method for realizing a peer-to-peer
lending system directed toward equipment based projects related to an identified
25 social goal. The preferred embodiment contemplates an internet web system that
facilitates the funding of pre-approved, small to medium sided “green” energy
projects to encourage alternate energy efforts and related environmentally friendly
projects. The invention utilizes a number of subsystems not found in prior art
peer-to-peer lending systems that facilitate these kinds of projects including, but
30 not limited to, integrating support for secondary loans into the system, allowing
the system to use social friendly equipment as collateral for the loans, and
reporting carbon credits created by realization of the projects, thus allowing
4
lenders to provide loans to facilitate a specified social goal and measure their
effectiveness in furthering a social goal.
In US20120130876, a system, method, and computer program for implementing
a web based solution, allowing members of a social networking website and/5 or
the general public to carry out trust based collective e-money lending/borrowing
circles called ‘PartnerHands’, in which members divide the cost of a larger
amount of e-money, equally between themselves and collectively pay in the
smaller amounts over a mutually agreed period of time. Each member of the
10 group then takes a turn in skipping one payment and receiving the full amount as
an interest free loan. Once everybody within the PartnerHand has received the
collective amount once the PartnerHand agreement ends.
The prior art cited herein provides a particular lending paradigms and are often
15 only useful for relatively uncomplicated deals or they create a new social group or
utilize a particular social group. However, now days there are many social
platforms, each platform may have many common links or some exclusive links.
In a situation where money is provided as loan, the most important factor is trust
and close links, often such links are designated as primary links that constitutes of
20 close friends and family. Therefore there is a need of a platform that can connect
primary contact from all social networks and further provide a method and
system to device repayment and alert these members in case of repayment, further
build trust for the members to lend money by way of making investment into the
group.
25
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the invention is to provide a system and method for sharing
funds on a customizable social network and to draw funds when required from
30 the social pool thus created.
5
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for sharing
funds on a customizable social network and to draw funds when required from
the social pool thus created wherein a user can allocate funds in the categories
such as ‘For Society fund’, ‘Own fund’, ‘From Society fund’ and ‘To be returned
5 fund’.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for sharing
funds on a customizable social network and to draw funds when required from
the social pool thus created.
10
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for sharing
funds on a customizable social network and to draw funds when required from
the social pool thus created wherein a user can obtain an estimate of the
maximum money that can be borrowed.
15
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for sharing
funds on a customizable social network and to draw funds when required from
the social pool thus created thus obviating the hassles of the organized formal
financial institution like banks.
20
Still another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for sharing
funds on a customizable social network and to draw funds when required from
the social pool thus created seamlessly, securely and at scale. This facilitates
seamless aggregate peer to peer based funding for larger needs of particular
25 members of social networks and communities.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a system and method for sharing funds on a
customizable social network by linking multiple social platforms and linking
30 primary connections to draw funds when required from the social pool thus
created.
6
In the most preferred embodiment a method of withdrawing funds from the social
wallet comprising of following steps creating categories by Linking Social
Networking Sites; allocating funds by the members of the categories to be debited
and credited; raising a query on all the groups and social platforms for 5 fund
sourcing; notifying the initiator on availability of funds; debiting the amount from
the collective social wallet or wallets and one single aggregate payment is made to
the merchant; notifying and displaying the deficit thus funded until cleared; and
blocking the initiator for any further access to the social funds until
10 repayment;wherein: the method provides categories including all social networks
that the customer has subscribed; the method identifies as many first degree links
as possible for the customer; the method allocates funds for the members of the
categories to be debited and/or credited, allowing the members to withdraw
money on approval; the method allows the merchant from availing funds from
15 the allocated fund until the funds are returned in designated time; the method
bars the merchant shall be barred from all categories and all social networks shall
be notified of default payment; and the method regulates maximum availability of
funds from each group one by one until it gets sufficient cash to fund the deficit or
exhausts all the groups, is provided.
20
In the most preferred embodiment a system for withdrawing funds from the social
wallet comprising of a communications module configured to create at least one
group linking all the members in the contact book and/or social network contact;
receive a query, providing information and describing a desired offering; send the
25 query describing a desired offering from the system and send or receive query
from the created contact book groups or social network groups; monitor balances,
allocations, funds, wallets, sources of funds and other business logic required for
the solution to function; filter and stop customers that have already availed
maximum number or maximum amount set by the contact book groups or social
30 network groups for withdrawal and further blocking a portion of the fund
allocated to the social groups until the borrowed money is paid back; provide
consent and enable transaction; and provide a customer rating based on
7
contribution towards social funds and rate of regular repayments; wherein: the
system creates categories including all social networks that the customer has
subscribed; the system identifies as many first degree links as possible for the
customer; the system allocates funds to all the members of the categories to be
debited and/or credited, allowing the members to withdraw money on approv5 al;
the system allows the merchant from availing funds from the allocated fund until
the funds are returned in designated time; the system bars merchant from all
categories and all social networks shall be notified of default payment; and the
system regulates maximum availability of funds from each group one by one until
10 it gets sufficient cash to fund the deficit or exhausts all the groups, is provided.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference
to the accompanying description in which a preferred embodiment of the
15 invention is explained. This invention may, however, be embodied in many
different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiment
set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be
thorough, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the
art.
20 The method of comprising of steps:
Step 1: Creating Categories by Linking Social Networking Sites
In an embodiment of the current invention, the method and system enables a
customer to link all the social networks that the customer may have subscribed to.
These would imply existing applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+,
25 Linked In, Pinterest, WhatsApp and the phone address/ contact book or any
such similar applications
The mobile application tries to find out as many first degree links as possible for
the customer. Then it categorizes them into the following initial buckets:
8
Close Family
Extended Family
Colleagues
School friends
College friend5 s
Others
Further additional categories may be created or existing categories may be edited
or removed. Each such category shall contain a set of people identified by their
ID's (identification such as mobile numbers or any other social ID's). Once the
10 customer reviews and confirms, each uniquely identifiable person in these lists is
sent a personal invitation on behalf of the customer to be a part of the social
collateral system using existing messaging applications like Facebook
message/post, Twitter message/ post, WhatsApp, Email or SMS or any other
form/ mode of communication that may be developed in the future. Each group
15 contains at least one member though there is no upper limit prescribed for the
number of members. Also, any particular person could be enlisted in multiple
lists, again with no limits. For example, a particular person could figure out both
in the ‘friend’ category as well as a ‘colleague’ category. A person will enjoy more
benefits for being a part of multiple lists, that person also has to reciprocate by
20 allocating some contribution to each of these lists he is a member of.
Step 2: Funds Allocation
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the method, and system
allows fund allocation. There needs to be underlying source of fund(s) that could
be debited and credited based on API (Application program interface) calls for the
25 same. Therefore, at least there is one source of fund. The system further allows a
customer to allocate or access the funds in the following buckets:
A. For Society Fund
9
This is the portion of a customer’s money that is allocated for the society. The
society is being defined as people participating in the explicit social circles/
categories as defined in the previous section.
For example if a customer has loaded Rs. 100 in the wallet. The customer ma5 y
now designate a certain portion (either as a percentage or an absolute amount),
say Rs. 10 towards the ‘For Society Fund’. It must be noted that the funds
allocated for society will not be available for the customer’s own use and the
customer must explicitly accept the risk of even losing all of the funds thus
10 allocated.
B. Own Fund
This is the portion of a customer’s money that is allocated for the customers use.
15 This fund can be calculated as the remaining funds after deducting the "For
Society Fund".
For example, if a customer has loaded Rs. 100 in the wallet of the loaded Rs. 100,
example if a customer has loaded Rs. 100. The customer may now designate a
20 certain portion (either as a percentage or an absolute amount), say Rs. 10 towards
the ‘For Society Fund the amount remaining is Rs. 90. This portion of the fund is
called ‘own fund’.
C. From Society Fund
25
This fund is an aggregate amount of funds that may be availed by the customer at
the given point in time exclusively from the shared ‘To Social Fund’ that all
others in the network have collectively allocated.
30 This aggregate amount may not simply be the sum total, but be a portion of it
following a certain algorithmic allocation of the sum total. The algorithm ensures
that the distribution, while favoring first comers, maintains as equitable a
distribution of funds as possible. The algorithm also ensures that unless a
10
customer has contributed a minimum amount to a particular community through
the ‘To Social Fund’, the customer cannot enjoy any benefit of funds that may be
a part of that particular community in the ‘From Social Fund’.
D. To be Returned 5 Fund
In case a customer explicitly avails (sends/ spends) any funds from the "From
Society Fund", the funds are liable to be returned back to the "From Society
Fund" referred to as the ‘To be Returned Fund’. In case any fresh funds are
10 loaded to the customer’s wallet, the first preference shall negate the ‘To be
Returned Fund’. Further, certain ratio of funds in the ‘For Society Fund’ for the
customer will be blocked, in the sense that it cannot be further moved back as
‘Own Fund’ as long as the customer owes money back to the society.
15 A customer may make only "X" numbers of such draws at any point of time. The
default value of "X" being one, thus, a customer has to return any outstanding ‘To
Be Returned Fund’ amount back to the community before attempting to
withdraw another amount from the social fund group.
20 Also, each such draw is expected to be returned within "N" number of days. The
number "N" is initially system decided and would typically be 5 days for every
INR 100 drawn. Each community could put this number up for a vote and based
on a majority consensus, this number could be changed up or down to a
maximum of "M" number of weeks per voting session. Only one voting session
25 would be allowed for every "N" number of days.
The ‘To be Returned funds’ will prominently show a timeline that shall displays
the number of days left along with the amount to be returned. The customer may
of course return the ‘To be Returned’ amount in full or in as many parts as she
30 may deem fit. However, until the entire amount is returned, it will keep showing
up in the ‘To be Returned funds’ view.
11
Only in case a customer fails to repay her ‘To be Returned’ funds within the
prescribed time limit will the app explicitly post the amount outstanding and the
delay for the customer through the app and possibly other social media as well.
In another exemplary example of working of the present invention, suppose a
customer has to pay Rs. 1200 towards a lender/merchant while the funds in he5 r
‘own’ wallet are just Rs. 800. The system will now fire a fund request in the
‘From Society fund’ for the customer for the deficit amount of Rs. 400 to the
solution server. This will query all the groups which the customer is a member of,
for the maximum available funds from each group one by one starting from the
10 first one in the list until the algorithm gets sufficient cash to fund the deficit or
exhausts all the groups. At this point of time, all groups from whose social funds
the amount has been drawn, will get an indication that the customer has drawn
funds but the transactional details may not visible to all.
Only in case a customer fails to return her ‘To be Returned’ funds within the
15 prescribed time limit will the app explicitly post the amount outstanding and the
delay for the customer through the app and possibly other social media as well.
The invention relies on the fact that the social funds are an aggregation of a large
number of small allocations made by individual community members.
EXAMPLE 1
20 Assume a customer has:
10 family members, each allocating an average of Rs. 100 towards family;
50 colleagues, each allocating an average of Rs. 50 towards colleagues; and
100 friends each allocated an average of Rs. 10 towards friends.
The available corpus now in this fund is
25 100 x 10 + 50 x 50 +100 x 10 = Rs. 4,500
Thus, with an individual contribution of Rs. 160 (100+50+10), the customer has
access to a portion of (say, 30% of) Rs. 4,500 from her society.
12
The solution makes this available to a large set of customers, applies rules that
prevent exploitation, allow as many people as possible to benefit, keep track of
fund movement and manage fund allocations.
5
In yet another embodiment the system would allow a customer to directly source
funds from another person from the linked contact list and the funds thus received
will first be added to Owned Funds Wallet. This P2P funds transfer is an explicit
fund movement mechanism and is separate from the social funds that the
10 customers may enjoy by being a part of the Social Network funds they may both
be members.
In the most preferred embodiment a method of withdrawing funds from the social
wallet comprising of following steps creating categories by Linking Social
15 Networking Sites; allocating funds by the members of the categories to be debited
and credited; raising a query on all the groups and social platforms for fund
sourcing; notifying the initiator on availability of funds; debiting the amount from
the collective social wallet or wallets and one single aggregate payment is made to
the merchant; notifying and displaying the deficit thus funded until cleared; and
20 blocking the initiator for any further access to the social funds until
repayment;wherein: the method provides categories including all social networks
that the customer has subscribed; the method identifies as many first degree links
as possible for the customer; the method allocates funds for the members of the
categories to be debited and/or credited, allowing the members to withdraw
25 money on approval; the method allows the merchant from availing funds from
the allocated fund until the funds are returned in designated time; the method
bars the merchant shall be barred from all categories and all social networks shall
be notified of default payment; and the method regulates maximum availability of
funds from each group one by one until it gets sufficient cash to fund the deficit or
30 exhausts all the groups, is provided.
13
In the most preferred embodiment a system for withdrawing funds from the social
wallet comprising of a communications module configured to create at least one
group linking all the members in the contact book and/or social network contact;
receive a query, providing information and describing a desired offering; send the
query describing a desired offering from the system and send or receive quer5 y
from the created contact book groups or social network groups; monitor balances,
allocations, funds, wallets, sources of funds and other business logic required for
the solution to function; filter and stop customers that have already availed
maximum number or maximum amount set by the contact book groups or social
10 network groups for withdrawal and further blocking a portion of the fund
allocated to the social groups until the borrowed money is paid back; provide
consent and enable transaction; and provide a customer rating based on
contribution towards social funds and rate of regular repayments; wherein: the
system creates categories including all social networks that the customer has
15 subscribed; the system identifies as many first degree links as possible for the
customer; the system allocates funds to all the members of the categories to be
debited and/or credited, allowing the members to withdraw money on approval;
the system allows the merchant from availing funds from the allocated fund until
the funds are returned in designated time; the system bars merchant from all
20 categories and all social networks shall be notified of default payment; and the
system regulates maximum availability of funds from each group one by one until
it gets sufficient cash to fund the deficit or exhausts all the groups, is provided.
Although the invention has been illustrated and described with respect to one or
25 more implementations, equivalent alterations and modifications will occur to
others skilled in the art upon the reading and understanding of this specification.
In addition, while a particular feature of the invention may have been disclosed
with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be
combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may
30 be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. The names
are purely indicative and are provided just to best describe the nature of the fund
allocation.
14
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the
invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur
to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact
construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable
modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of th5 e
invention.

CLAIMS
We Claim:
1. A system for withdrawing funds from the social wallet comprising of a
communications module configured to:
5
create at least one group linking all the members in the contact book and/or social
network contact;
receive a query, providing information and describing a desired offering;
10
send the query describing a desired offering from the system and send or receive
query from the created contact book groups or social network groups;
monitor balances, allocations, funds, wallets, sources of funds and other business
15 logic required for the solution to function;
filter and stop customers that have already availed maximum number or maximum
amount set by the contact book groups or social network groups for withdrawal and
further blocking a portion of the fund allocated to the social groups until the
20 borrowed money is paid back;
provide consent and enable transaction; and
provide a customer rating based on contribution towards social funds and rate of
25 regular repayments;
wherein:
16
the system creates categories including all social networks that the customer has
subscribed;
the system identifies as many first degree links as possible for the customer;
5
the system allocates funds to all the members of the categories to be debited and/or
credited, allowing the members to withdraw money on approval;
the system allows the merchant from availing funds from the allocated fund until the
10 funds are returned in designated time;
the system bars merchant from all categories and all social networks shall be notified
of default payment; and
15 the system regulates maximum availability of funds from each group one by one
until it gets sufficient cash to fund the deficit or exhausts all the groups.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system favours the first comers.
20 3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein equitable distribution of funds is
maintained among the merchants.
4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a merchant is a member with minimum
contribution.
25
5. A method of withdrawing funds from the social wallet comprising of following
steps:
creating categories by Linking Social Networking Sites;
17
allocating funds by the members of the categories to be debited and credited;
raising a query on all the groups and social platforms for fund sourcing;
notifying the initiator on availability of fund5 s;
debiting the amount from the collective social wallet or wallets and one single
aggregate payment is made to the merchant;
10 notifying and displaying the deficit thus funded until cleared; and
blocking the initiator for any further access to the social funds until repayment;
wherein:
15
the method provides categories including all social networks that the customer has
subscribed;
the method identifies as many first degree links as possible for the customer;
20
the method allocates funds for the members of the categories to be debited and/or
credited, allowing the members to withdraw money on approval;
the method allows the merchant from availing funds from the allocated fund until
the funds are returned in designated time;
25
the method bars the merchant shall be barred from all categories and all social
networks shall be notified of default payment; and
18
the method regulates maximum availability of funds from each group one by one
until it gets sufficient cash to fund the deficit or exhausts all the groups.
6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein social networks implies to all the
existing applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linked In, Pintere5 st,
WhatsApp and the phone address/ contact book or any such similar applications.
7. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein first degree links are created from
Close Family, Extended Family, Colleagues, School friends, College friends and
10 similar Other similar links.
8. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein additional categories may be created
or existing categories may be edited or removed.
15 9. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the merchants may designate money
to be returned, that may be deducted as instructed.
10. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein a merchant is a member with
minimum contribution.