The Northern Trade Link – Enhancing Logistics as a Public Good in Somaliland

[Anasyare23]

The Mission

This project will reinstate a vital transport and logistics link that has been utilized by the communities of Borama, hargeisa and Wajale for nearly a decade. For 9 years this service has been the backbone of small traders and residents moving essential goods along a 120km+ economic corridor.

9 years Of Proven Service

I have been running this route for 9 years with an automatic vehicle and you can see from the video documentation I have made. But after nearly ten years of heavy-duty service the automatic transmission could no longer stand up to the rough terrain and the weight of the cargo. This has halted an essential public service.

What We Carry (The Lifeblood of Community)

This service is not only for passengers but also a mobile warehouse for local commerce. We regularly transport:

Household Goods: Furniture, carpets, blankets and kitchenware.

Commerce & Trade: Boxes of shoes (dozens), clothing and small-scale building materials.

Daily Essentials: Cartons of vegetables and food supplies.

The Solution: Manual Gearbox Toyota Hiace

We need to upgrade to a Toyota Hiace Manual Gearbox to give us the next 10 years of service. A manual transmission is a technical necessity in our region to deal with:

Heavy Cargo Loads: Carrying construction materials and furniture safely.

Durability: Managing the steep, unpaved roads between Borama,Hargeisa and Wajale.

Public Impact

By supporting this project you are not only helping an individual, you are restoring a proven trade link in the region. You connect furniture with other all goods makers in Borama, traders in Wajale and families in Hargeisa with affordable and reliable logistics.

[Anasyare23]

Mechanical Status & Engine Challenge (Hiace Auto vs Manual)

Now let’s see the current engine with automatic gearbox on the Hiace. This automated system has been running for 9 years along the 120km economic corridor and can no longer cope with the rough, damaged roads, heavy cargo and passenger weight. This is why our project is asking for a grant to upgrade to a durable Hiace manual gearbox.

Hiace manual is far superior for our local roads and heavy public service demands as it withstands high cargo capacity and rough terrain. Sorry to say the Hiace automatic does not last under heavy loads, continuous community service and difficult road conditions.

[MconnectDAO]

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Hey, thanks for sharing this post and the detailed background.

From what I understand, this is a very real and long-running public good for your local community 9+ years of keeping a key trade route alive is not trivial at all. However, on the Optimism forum, it will help a lot if you can make the connection to the Optimism Collective more explicit:

• How does this project relate to Optimism’s impact = profit vision or the Superchain in any concrete way (even indirectly)?

• Are you planning to use any onchain mechanisms (payments, transparency of operations, community ownership, etc.) built on OP Stack / Optimism, or is this fully offchain?

• What kind of support are you actually seeking from the Optimism community – feedback, partners, technical help, or eventually funding (PGF / Retro Funding etc.)?

Right now, the story is strong from an impact / human angle, but the “why Optimism specifically?” and “why here, versus a general crowdfunding platform?” part is not yet clear. Clarifying that bridge between local impact and the Optimism ecosystem will make it easier for delegates and contributors to engage seriously with your initiative.

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@Anasyare23

[Anasyare23]

Hi Manoj (@MconnectDAO).

We appreciate your thoughtful feedback and for recognising the multi-year impact of our local public good project in Somaliland.

Now, to directly answer your questions and demonstrate how The Northern Trade Link connects with the Optimism ecosystem, here is our roadmap:

1. Profit Vision & Superchain = Connection to the impact of Optimism:

Our project is taking mass adoption to a whole new territory. Our real-world onboarding funnel to the Superchain is our local logistics and trade community (touching thousands of users and merchants daily) who will bring new user growth and awareness to the ecosystem by integrating them to the Optimism network.

2. Onchain Mechanisms (OP Stack vs. Offchain):

At the moment our logistics network is completely offchain. However, we plan to transition to a onchain hybrid model using the OP Stack for two key features:

Onchain Transparency: Blockchain recording of key logistics data and transport verifications for publicly immutable reporting.

Onchain Payments: Adding a digital ticketing and micro-payment system via stablecoins (like USDC) on the Optimism network for the traders using our route. Also, the physical passenger tickets () will feature the Optimism logo and say “Powered by Optimism” to increase mainstream Web3 visibility and branding.

3. Support We Are Looking For:

Early on, we are primarily seeking Feedback, Strategic Partners and Technical Guidance to properly architect our tracking and payment system on the OP Stack. After establishing this onchain connection and showing its traction we will seek to submit an application for Retro Funding (RPGF) to help scale the physical logistics infrastructure.

Looking forward to your guidance and to connect with contributors to build this bridge!

Anas(@Anasyare23)

[MconnectDAO]

Thank you for the structured response this makes the Optimism connection much clearer than the original post.

On the Superchain onboarding funnel: The concept of using an existing local trade community as a real-world user funnel is genuinely interesting. However, the community will likely ask: what is the concrete wallet onboarding mechanism for merchants and passengers? Who handles the UX for first-time Web3 users? Adding even a rough answer to this will strengthen your proposal significantly.

On the Onchain Hybrid Plan: The two pillars logistics transparency and stablecoin micropayments are solid starting points. One practical challenge to address: What is the smartphone and internet penetration rate among your route’s merchants and passengers? Reviewers familiar with the Horn of Africa context will raise this question.

On the Retro Funding path: Seeking feedback and technical guidance before applying for RPGF is actually the right sequencing. I would also suggest reviewing the Season 9 Mission Requests to see if any align with your infrastructure work that could open another pathway.

One honest note: printing the Optimism logo on physical tickets is a creative branding idea, but the Collective will ultimately want to see onchain usage metrics and active addresses more than physical visibility. Keep that in mind when defining your pilot KPIs.

A short, concrete pilot plan even for a small corridor would attract much more serious engagement from contributors and technical volunteers.

[Anasyare23]

Thanks Manoj for these structural questions. I believe in 100% honesty and real world logic not some surface level web3 integration that will fail on the ground. We have provided our detailed response on the 4 points based entirely on the reality of Somaliland:

1. Onboarding, UX & Hybrid Approach (Reply For Point 1)

In Somaliland, local merchants, traders and passengers depend entirely on seamless mobile money systems such as ZAAD and e-Dahab. It’s the lifeblood of our local economies. If we require a first-time Web3 user to open Metamask or Coinbase Wallet, secure seed phrases, and complex transactions for just transporting their cargo, or just taking a ride, massive friction will be created. They will view Web3 as a burden that hurts their daily survival, not helping it.

Our strategy is to bring in Web3 by value first and tech later. We build trust by providing them with a great, reliable transport service and they pay through their familiar ZAAD/e-Dahab systems.

As they experience the efficiency over time, we’ll organically educate them on how Optimism powers the background and naturally spark their curiosity to adopt Web3. We need to give them time and build some real interest and not force instant friction.

2. Smartphone and Internet Penetration (Response to 2)

Yes, internet connectivity and smartphone penetration are very strong along the Borama-Hargeisa transit route. The local community has high-speed mobile internet, which is more than enough to interact with our platform. The digital infrastructure is already fully deployed on the ground, the only thing holding it back is the crypto-UX, which our hybrid approach elegantly solves.

3. Receiving Technical Guidance & Ecosystem Alignment (Re: Point 3)

Oh yes, absolutely. I am looking for structural feedback, technical guidance and ecosystem partners before we go for any financial grants or funding pathways. My goal is not to get a donation but become a long term, active block member of the Optimism Collective.

My number one thing is getting the technical architecture right, with the help of the community.

4. Onchain Data, Operations and Pilot Scope (Response to Point 4)

The end-user front-end payments will remain on mobile money for now but the whole operational backbone of our project will be running on Optimism:

* Logistics & GPRS Tracking: Vehicle transit distances, route logs and GPRS tracking metrics will be securely anchored on-chain.

* Financial Transparency: The OP Stack will be used for storing all operational data, including the company’s internal revenue ledger, cargo logs and capital tracking to ensure full transparency.

Our Proposed Pilot Milestone Plan:

Our main operational vehicle as become broken for good and is at the end of its mechanical life, to be perfectly honest. Additionally, we cannot use or engage other active vehicles on the local network for this pilot. If I tried to take or use the vehicles of other drivers to test my Optimism project, they would see this as a direct disruption to their daily livelihood because they use these vehicles to provide sustenance and food for their children and families. Also the passengers are always in a rush due to their busy jobs and they will see it as a major disturbance if we force an unfamiliar Web3 onboarding on them during their commute.

Therefore, the most practical and effective solution is to secure ecosystem grant funding to purchase our first independent, dedicated vehicle (1 manual gear box asset) to launch a controlled 3-month prototype on Borama-Hargeisa Corridor.

Once we have a first asset secured through a structured milestone grant we will have 100% operational control to run the pilot independently, capture all live transit data and bridge the passenger metrics directly onto the Optimism backend. That will deliver the real on-chain usage metrics and active addresses the Collective expects to see before scaling the fleet.

We are all ready and open on any technical ideas, developer support or community volunteers to help us bridge local mobile money infrastructure with the Superchain!