MLabs - Browser-based Wallet for Developers & Testers

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

Additional applicants

Vladimir Kalnitsky (@klntsky)

Dzmitry Shuiski

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Problem

Testing Cardano web apps utilizing light wallets presents unique challenges due to the complexity of CIP-30 wallet interfaces, the difficulties in automating or mocking them, and the lack of wallet state reproducibility.

For example:

• It's impossible to test CIP-30-powered dApps on a private testnet in the browser because existing wallets simply do not provide this feature
• It's not clear what state the wallet has and there is no way to inspect or modify its responses or view its logs
• Wallet UIs are often inconvenient for testing purposes because of the need to use passwords to backup mnemonic phrases and to click through pop-up windows

Solution

The proposed solution is to create a light wallet targeted at developers and testers, that will provide the following features:

• Manually overwriting CIP-30 responses to provide made-up data to the app
• Saving the wallet state (to make it reproducible)
• Faking different wallet states (presence of collateral, UTxO distribution)
• Faking different wallet modes (single-address vs. multi-address mode (Eternl))
• Starting local Cardano testnets with pre-funded wallets to connect to (using Plutip, a tool for automatic Cardano network setup). This would allow making not only faking wallet state but actually reproducing it on a private Cardano testnet (with several limitations, most notably the inability to save and restore tokens)
• CIP-30 call logging to simplify dApps debugging
• UI that simplifies development: no recovery phrase re-entering, instant confirmation of all operations

For the implementation, we can use cardano-transaction-library (CTL for short, https://github.com/Plutonomicon/cardano-transaction-lib/) - a tool that has been developed in the past thanks to Cardano Catalyst funds 8 and 9. CTL already has most of the components needed to create a light wallet, including:

• Interaction with Cardano query layers (Blockfrost, Kupo, Ogmios)
• Private key management, address derivation
• Derivation of private keys from mnemonic passphrases
• CIP-30 method implementation - CTL already has a special module called Cip30Mock which is basically a complete implementation of the CIP-30 interface (https://github.com/Plutonomicon/cardano-transaction-lib/blob/develop/src/Internal/Wallet/Cip30Mock.purs)

The features above can be built on top of existing CTL functionality.

The main missing parts are, sorted by descending complexity:

• Graphical user interface design, development, and integration into a WebExtension
• multi-address mode support (CTL only provides single-address wallet mode in its Cip30Mock)
• Plutip interaction for Cardano cluster startup (parts of existing code can be reused)
• CIP-30 call logging
• Implementation of wallet state saving, viewing and modification

Market

The target audience of this project consists of:

• dApps developers
• dApp testers
• Cardano power users.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

Challenge statement: Development Ecosystem - The Evolution. How do we equip and support developers with tools and working infrastructure? How do we make Cardano their first choice when it comes to building dApps, innovating and collaborating?

The proposal, if implemented, will provide a useful testing tool for dApp developers, which may influence their preference towards Cardano.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

Success can be measured by the number of users. Since the potential user audience is tiny (but very impactful!) in comparison to production wallets, we can target just 1000+ installs and consider it a success.

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

MLabs maintains a social presence on Twitter and in the Plutonomicon Discord, where updates could be posted. Additionally, the release could be announced on IOG technical Discord.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

MLabs has proven itself as a company employing dozens of Haskell and PureScript software developers and delivering a number of Catalyst-funded projects in the past.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal is to deliver a working WebExtension with all of the proposed features. The feasibility of our approach to achieve the goal will be evaluated by project managers and technical leadership of the project, based on time and budget constraints.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

1st month

• Constructing a basic WebExtension with cardano-transaction-library bundled in
• Creating a test suite that we can use to automate workflows using headless browsers
• Building a simple interface that allows pasting a mnemonic phrase or a private key and getting a set of addresses listed on the screen

2nd month

• Making it possible to connect to a query layer (either Blockfrost or the query layer used in CTL, which is a combination of Ogmios and Kupo)
• Implementing CIP-30 interface by extending Cip30Mock module from cardano-transaction-library

3rd month

• Extending the wallet with multi-address support
• Adding the ability to mock and save/load the wallet state, overwriting "true" on-chain state with fixed values
• Implementing manual collateral selection

4th month

• Implementing CIP-30 call logging feature, including payloads for easy debugging
• Implementing Plutip integration (ability to start local Cardano testnet clusters with the help of plutip-server running on a user's PC). It will be possible to specify the amount and distribution of ADA the wallet should be funded with initially

5th month

• Creating user documentation (user guide)
• Releasing the first public version
• Announcing the release on social media

6th-8th months

• Collecting user feedback, addressing discovered problems

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Months 1-4

The deliverable at each stage is a repository containing the source code of a WebExtension implementing requested features. The intended outcome for each stage is to be able for us to proceed with the following milestone.

Months 5-6

The deliverable is a public release of a WebExtension available for download from Chrome Web Store and Firefox Browser Addons, implementing all the features of the previous milestones. The intended outcome is to attract attention to the project and convince the users that we provide a useful tool.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

• 30 hours - Constructing a basic WebExtension with cardano-transaction-library bundled in
• 30 hours - Creating a test suite that we can use to automate testing workflows using headless browsers
• 20 hours - CI setup
• 10 hours - Building a simple interface that allows to paste a mnemonic phrase or a private key and get a set of addresses listed on the screen
• 60 hours - interface design
• 30 hours - Making it possible to connect to a query layer (either Blockfrost or the query layer used in CTL, which is a combination of Ogmios and Kupo)
• 30 hours - Implementing CIP-30 interface by extending Cip30Mock module from cardano-transaction-library
• 30 hours Extending the wallet with multi-address support
• 20 hours Adding ability to mock and save/load the wallet state, overwriting “true” on-chain state with fixed values
• 30 hours Implementing manual collateral selection
• 10 hours Implementing CIP-30 call logging feature, including payloads for easy debugging
• 40 hours Implementing Plutip integration (ability to start local Cardano testnet clusters with the help of plutip-server running on a user's PC). It will be possible to specify the amount and distribution of ADA the wallet should be funded with initially.
• 10 hours Releasing the first public version
• 40 hours Creating user documentation (user guide)
• 5 hours Announcing the release on social media
• 160 hours Collecting user feedback, addressing discovered problems

Subtotal: 555 hours @95/hour = $52,725 USD

Total (@ rate $0.21 USD / ADA): 251070 ADA

**In the interest of full transparency, please note we have applied a conservative USD/ADA exchange rate in pricing this proposal. This is to ensure our operations remain stable regardless of market conditions. Although we firmly believe the future of Cardano is bright, we recognize the price of ADA and all cryptocurrencies is inherently volatile. Our financial obligations are denominated in fiat. Most importantly, this includes the salary of our engineers whose hard work makes projects like this possible. 

In the unlikely scenario of severe negative price movement beyond our forecasted rate, it is possible that MLabs may need to temporarily suspend work on this proposal until the market recovers. Rest assured, this decision would be made solely to protect our business's long-term viability and never taken lightly. 

We appreciate your understanding and support, and we are excited to see what we can achieve together.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Making dApp developers more productive would save costs for the teams and therefore may positively affect the number of successful Cardano projects.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.