Cardano-Mendix plugin by the Landano team

[GENERAL] Name and Surname of Main Applicant

Dorus Van Der Kroft

[GENERAL] Email address of Main Applicant

dorus@landano.io

Additional Applicants

Peter Van Garderen

Aaron Moguin

Dan Amankona

Christian Koch

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

6

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

No

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

Yes

[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.” in this field.

This project is dependent on clearly defined Landano.io requirements, functional tests, QA, and documentation to deliver the generic Mendix plugin components to the community at large. The Landano project is strongly motivated to deliver and maintain these resources to meet its own tight project deadlines. All these Landano deliverables will be templated and open-sourced along with the Mendix plugin source code.

The Landano.io project has already developed a Mendix-based MVP for its revolutionary Cardano-based land right records solution. The Landano project is now moving fast to take advantage of the on-the-ground partnership opportunities and expectations that were created during its pilot project phase in Ghana, also funded by Project Catalyst. Landano now needs to supercharge its software development to deliver a fully-featured, enterprise-scale, standards-compliant land record-keeping system within the next 6 months.

As a team with decades of software development experience we know this delivery schedule is only possible by leveraging Mendix, the most battle-tested and commercially successful low-code development platform on the market. Landano would like to share the fruits of this Mendix integration for the benefit and growth of the Cardano community by open-sourcing the plugins we will create.

At the same time, funding for this Mendix plugin will help the Landano project cross its last major development milestone and launch our ground-breaking land rights tenure platform on Cardano mainnet, bringing thousands of new users into our ecosystem.

[GENERAL] Will your project outputs be fully Open Source?

Yes

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

All Mendix-Cardano plugin components and related intellectual property will be fully open-sourced. The Mendix-Cardano plugin will be available as an open-source app in the Mendix app store. The Mendix app source code will also be made available via Landano's Github site.

Mendix is predominately a commercial cloud-based solution so there are some dependencies on the Mendix platform to implement these components but the Mendix free tier is sufficient for most prototyping requirements. The free tier includes access to templates, widgets, apps connectors (including Cardano after this project!), self-paced courses and certifications, as well as discussion groups with 250K community members. See https://signup.mendix.com/link/signup/

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

Dev Tools, API or Library

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG #9 Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

SDG Subgoal 9.1: Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

• Blockfrost API client
• Landano NFTs minted via Mendix plugin
• Archival storage and retrieval 
• Mendix API to interact with Cardano smart contracts that manage Landano NFTs

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

This proposal will address the lack of enterprise-ready, low-code platforms that can easily integrate with Cardano transactions, tokens, and on-chain state/history. 

The purpose of the Fund 10 Development and Infrastructure campaign is to make it easier to develop and scale projects on Cardano by increasing the availability of high quality resources, standards, tools, scripts, libraries and SDKs for developers and operators to use. 

The software engineering community has been undergoing a low-code revolution in the past decade, namely to address the same challenge, how to rapidly develop and scale enterprise-grade applications, particularly for bespoke solutions.

However, a Mendix-Cardano plugin does not currently exist. To fully leverage the power of an established low-code platform with blockchain technology, a Cardano to Mendix bridge needs to be built. This project will deliver Mendix app store solutions that are made available to the thousands of Mendix developers as plug-and-play solutions that allow them to integrate Cardano blockchain transactions and tokens into their apps.

Mendix has been a long-time industry visionary in the low-code space and boasts one of its most commercially successful solutions. Mendix is recognized as a 2023 Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms. See https://www.mendix.com/evaluation-guide/gartner-forrester-mendix/

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

We will measure the success of this project by:

• Number of plugin downloads in Mendix app store
• Number of Github interactions
• clones, commits, PRs, issues, docs with Mendix-Cardano plugin code
• Number of new Cardano users onboarded via Landano.io's implementation of this Mendix plugin
• expected to into the hundreds of thousands based on Landano pilot project agreements
• Number of unique social media accounts interacting with project profiles

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

For daily insights and check-ins on project team progress towards the Mendix-Cardano plugin, we invite the community to join the Landano Discord server and follow the Landano Twitter account. We will also join community Twitterspaces and other AMA platforms to spread the word about the Mendix-Cardano plug-in and updates on its roadmap and milestones. Once we near completion we will post a detailed Medium blog post describing the objectives and results of the Mendix-Cardano plugin project.

The Mendix-Cardano plugins will be used in the ongoing R&D and feature upgrades for the Landano platform. Moreover, we expect the Mendix community to respond with interest and will encourage them to kickstart their own Cardano-based R&D project using the Mendix plugins to get up and running quickly, cheaply with hiqh-quality components and documentation.

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

We have significant management expertise in Cardano and Mendix programming on our team. We can be trusted to deliver on our milestones with high levels of accountability and we can be trusted to manage funds properly based on our team’s track record of responsible project and budget management. The Team has individually negotiated and managed the budget and performance of several high-pressure, strict-deadline, and multimillion-dollar contracts in the past, following contract terms and agreed protocol and principles.

This proposal clearly demonstrates that the Mendix-Cardano plugin project is highly feasible, and the project plan, milestones, and budget are realistic and achievable. Our team has the collective experience and expertise to deliver on our milestones, and these milestones have been carefully defined to be directly achievable within their time frames, budgets, and parameters.

The project team has clearly demonstrated that it has the experience, capacity and skills needed to successfully complete the project as described, including an understanding of risks and possible mitigations. The Team has a combined 39 years planning, scoping, budgeting, troubleshooting, and delivering software development projects, including 25 years of responsible management for their successful delivery. We are extremely confident that we have set up this project’s budget, milestones, and complete proposal for similar success.

We have explained and defined all financial aspects clearly. Our Milestones break down realistic budget expectations for each deliverable arrived at through experience achieving similar products. Current labour rates have been applied, and a conservative valuation for Ada in USD has been used. All of this serves to define the financial aspects of this proposal as accurately as possible using the parameters and limitations.

The project team has the demonstrable skills and capacity needed to properly manage funds. Individually we have started and led companies, managed payrolls, negotiated and managed multimillion-dollar contracts and budgets, all with repeated and consistent success, trust and confidence across all responsible parties.

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

We are a team of seasoned tech industry professionals that are developing a platform to integrate Mendix's low code capabilities with Cardano's blockchain technology.

Our Mendix-Cardano plugin will:

1. Ensure the platform adheres to industry standards and best practices.
2. Enable rapid development and deployment of solutions within the Cardano ecosystem.
3. Test and validate the platform for robustness and scalability.
4. Create comprehensive documentation and resources for developers to utilize the platform effectively.

Our proposal will clearly demonstrates that the Mendix-Cardano plugin project is highly feasible.

Our project plan, milestones, and budget are realistic and achievable,.

The project team has clearly demonstrated that it has the experience, capacity and skills needed to successfully complete the project as described, including an understanding of risks and possible mitigations.

We have explained and defined all financial aspects clearly.

The project team has the demonstrable skills and capacity needed to properly manage funds.

We believe that the Mendix-Cardano plugin project clearly demonstrates high value for the money invested.

[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.

Milestone 1 CARDANO-MENDIX Plugin REQUIREMENTS

Outputs and deliverables:

• User stories 
• Data model
• UI wireframes

Milestone 2 CARDANO-MENDIX-TRANSACTION-BUILDER 

Outputs and deliverables:

• Blockfrost API client
• Landano NFTs minted via Mendix plugin
• Archival storage and retrieval 
• Mendix API to interact with Cardano smart contracts that manage Landano NFTs

Milestone 3 CARDANO-MENDIX-READEr 

Outputs and deliverables:

• Display Landano land right NFTs
• Verified record display
• Mobile interface module (Android & iPhone)

Milestone 4 CARDANO-MENDIX-WALLET

Outputs and deliverables:

• Wallet-based log-in
• Wallet-based transaction signing
• Wallet support for NFT storage and retrieva

Milestone 5 CARDANO-MENDIX INTEGRATION UNIT TESTS

Outputs and deliverables:

• Technical documentation
• Unit tests & results

Milestone 6 Final Acceptance Milestone | MENDIX APP STORE | Cardano-Menix modules

Outputs and deliverables:

• Menidx-Cardano modules available on Mendix app store
• Mendix-Cardano plugins operational on Mainnet

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

Milestone 1 CARDANO-MENDIX Plugin REQUIREMENTS

Outputs and deliverables:

• User stories 
• Data model
• UI wireframes

Milestone 2 CARDANO-MENDIX-TRANSACTION-BUILDER 

Outputs and deliverables:

• Blockfrost API client
• Landano NFTs minted via Mendix plugin
• Archival storage and retrieval 
• Mendix API to interact with Cardano smart contracts that manage Landano NFTs

Milestone 3 CARDANO-MENDIX-READER

Outputs and deliverables:

• Display Landano land right NFTs
• Verified record display
• Mobile interface module (Android & iPhone)

Milestone 4 CARDANO-MENDIX-WALLET

Outputs and deliverables:

• Wallet-based log-in
• Wallet-based transaction signing
• Wallet support for NFT storage and retrieva

Milestone 5 CARDANO-MENDIX INTEGRATION UNIT TESTS

Outputs and deliverables:

• Technical documentation
• Unit tests & results

Milestone 6 Final Acceptance Milestone | MENDIX APP STORE | Cardano-Menix modules

Outputs and deliverables:

• Menidx-Cardano modules available on Mendix app store
• Mendix-Cardano plugins operational on Mainnet

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

Based on the proposed 6-month timeline and the scope of the project, the Landano project requests 4,980.000 ADA to develop and deliver the Mendix-Cardano components over this time period. The budget includes costs associated with personnel, tools and software licenses, infrastructure, and other project-related expenses.

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

The current rate for a senior Mendix Business Engineer lies around $130 per hour (excl. VAT). Based on rates in the Netherlands where our CTO Dorus Van Der Kroft will leverage his professional network to build out our development team.

This proposal clearly demonstrates that the Mendix-Cardano plugin project is highly feasible.

The project plan, milestones, and budget are realistic and achievable.

The project team has clearly demonstrated that it has the experience, capacity and skills needed to successfully complete the project as described, including an understanding of risks and possible mitigations.

We have explained and defined all financial aspects clearly.

The project team has the demonstrable skills and capacity needed to properly manage funds.

The Mendix-Cardano plugin project clearly demonstrates high value for the money invested.

[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.

I Accept