Background

Why is this Challenge needed?

• Tribalism & maximalism are harmful.
• We are in the multi-chain future.
• Interoperability is the key.
• We need initiatives to increase communication, coordination and collaboration between chains.
• We have common challenges. Let’s solve those together.

Common challenges for all blockchain communities

You could buddy up with someone from outside Cardano ecosystem and address one or more of these common challenges:

• Awareness & Understanding
• Organisation & Governance
• Culture, Diversity & Inclusion
• Innovation & Decision-making
• Collaboration Tools & Platforms
• Incentivized Participation
• Cost & Efficiency
• Regulation & Compliance
• Security & Privacy

Examples of proposals you can submit to this challenge

This is an open-ended challenge that welcomes any proposal geared for cross-chain collaboration, co-innovation and interoperability. These can be any community-led projects, initiatives, solutions, tools or services. These could be, for instance:

• New technical implementations connecting Cardano to other blockchains and vice versa (SDKs, APIs, bridges etc)
• Governance ideas from other chains implemented as part of the Voltaire road map
• Already successful projects expanding from other chains to Cardano
• Expansion of Cardano-based projects into other chains
• Oracles and other tools to interpret and interact with cross-chain data
• Catalyst-created solutions adopted by other chains and communities
• Common research, education, outreach and innovation projects with other chains and communities (e.g. podcasts, hackathons, webinars, communication hubs, educational resources)

Who to collaborate with?

Any chains and their communities are welcome but here are some ideas:

• Algorand https://www.algorand.com/
• Avalanche https://www.avax.network/
• Arweave https://www.arweave.org/
• Casper https://casper.network/en/network
• Celo https://celo.org/
• Cosmos https://cosmos.network/
• Dfinity https://dfinity.org/
• Elrond https://elrond.com/
• Ergo https://ergoplatform.org/
• Fantom https://fantom.foundation/
• Harmony https://www.harmony.one/
• Holochain https://www.holochain.org/
• ICON https://iconrepublic.org/
• IOTA https://www.iota.org/
• IoTeX https://iotex.io/
• NEAR https://near.org/
• Nervos https://www.nervos.org/
• Polkadot https://polkadot.network/
• Polygon https://polygon.technology/
• SingularityNET https://singularitynet.io/
• Zilliqa https://www.zilliqa.com/

The Challenge Team welcomes fresh eyes both from inside and outside Catalyst. If you wish to join, comment below or contact one of the originators:

Filip Blagojević

• Email: filip.blagojevic12@gmail.com
• Discord: #Filip2852
• Telegram: @filip_blagojevic

Tomi Astikainen

• Email: astikainentomi@gmail.com
• Discord: #TomiAstikainen6249
• Telegram: @T0MPPELI

Felix Weber

• Email: felix4swarm@gmail.com
• Discord: #Felix [SWARM]#9839
• Telegram: @FelixfromSwarm

The end goal

Let’s create an enriching, open and safe environment, where people from different communities can find common ground and share knowledge, resources, skills, ideas and visions with one another.

Alignment with strategic goals for Fund9

• Prepare a group of people willing and able to make contributions to the ecosystem.
• Opening the doors to other communities can increase the number of Catalyst members and broaden their perspectives and knowhow.
• Turn Cardano into an open source project.
• Learning from other open source communities can help Cardano become an open source project, too.
• Accelerate the growth and evolution of developer & app ecosystem.
• The biggest contribution of this Challenge is exactly in the developer and app ecosystem, increasing the number of interoperable dApps and bringing in curious developers from outside of the Cardano community.

Accompanying slides

To present the Challenge outside of Catalyst, you can use these helpful slides:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bhQAEwUay1743G7ZEur6DRuuWKOjep6-HeDro8GGH2A/edit?usp=sharing

Why is it important?

We can be a catalyst for multi-chain awareness and interoperability of blockchains which guarantees shared success in the cryptoeconomy.

How does success looks like?

Collaborative value creation between Project Catalyst and other communities, through both technical and non-technical initiatives alike.

Key Metrics to measure

To evaluate the success of the challenge, we can track:

• On-chain activity growth due to new cross-chain implementations
• Number of proposals including participants from other blockchain communities
• Number of technical implementations connecting Cardano to other blockchains
• Ideas from other chains implemented by Catalyst
• Projects and dApps from other chains implemented on Cardano
• Catalyst-created solutions adopted by other chains/communities
• Number of events / workshops / sessions arranged with other communities
• Number of permanent initiatives with cross-chain teams (members from different blockchain communities together)

Stand out with complete, well-rounded and focused proposals

In your proposal, make sure you consider the aspects of impact, feasibility and clarity/auditability.

IMPACT: How well does the proposal contribute to increasing collaboration, coordination and communication between various blockchain ecosystems?

• The proposal identifies a problem within the challenge which needs to be solved.
• The proposal clearly articulates how it will add value to the Cardano ecosystem.
• The key metrics and goals of the proposal align with the outlined challenge settings.
• The proposal is able to scale to address future challenges.

FEASIBILITY: How likely is it that the team is able to successfully implement the proposal?

• Evidence of relevant skills and experience.
• The type and number of team members required.
• Clear budget, enough to achieve the set goals.
• Verifiable plan for other funding (if needed).
• Realistic timetable to complete the work.
• Solid plan of action describing needed resources.
• Explanation of technical aspects (if needed).
• Challenges and risks considered.

AUDITABILITY: Is the information enough to audit progress and success of the proposal? What can the community expect?

• A roadmap with milestones and a time horizon for achievement.
• Metrics/KPIs that define the success of the proposal.
• Clear understandable description of the targeted problem.
• Clear understandable solution that addresses the problem.