Cardano Node Pre-Built AWS Machine Image (AMI)

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Thaddeus Diamond (Wild Tangz)

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

support@wildtangz.com

Additional applicants

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

3

[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.” .

The AWS machine image listing service would have to approve our AMI for any reasonable distribution/usage (see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/marketplace/latest/userguide/best-practices-for-building-your-amis.html).

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s 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.”

Projects will be fully open sourced.

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

Node

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The goal of this project is straightforward: create a publicly accessible Amazon Web Services Machine Image (AMI) to enable 1-click deployments of the cardano-node package(s). This is extremely useful for new operators and hobbyists to:

• Get started with the cardano-cli tools
• Have an efficient, easy way to spin up a relay node or block producing node
• Give an air of professionalism to the Cardano developer community, putting it on par with the other blockchains

Included as part of this project, the AMI would be open sourced and released on the Amazon marketplace for easy discovery.

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

We have submitted this solution under the OSDE challenge because we think it meets the following goals:

• Developing common tools, frameworks, core infrastructures, or proof of concepts
• Common audited repositories & overviews of existing solutions
• Collaboration to improve interoperability within the ecosystem

We strongly believe this will help the needs of this challenge by putting Cardano on par with major blockchains like Bitcoin that have single-click installations.

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

We intend to measure the success of this project by number of downloads of the AMI from the Amazon marketplace: https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/search/

Some non-numerical indicators will be general Twitter and Discord discussion among developers of using the Cardano node as an easier way to onboard. In addition, as a participant in the Cardano Guild Operators ecosystem, seeing increased discussion of the usage of the AMI there will be a measure of success.

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

All of the results generated from the project (development timelines, software usage) will be shared on both the Wild Tangz Twitter (@WildTangz) and the Wild Tangz Discord (discord.gg/wildtangz). In addition, we will be publishing to the Guild Operators’ GitHub repository to help newly onboarded node operators (https://cardano-community.github.io/guild-operators/) as well as the Cardano Developers’ Portal (https://developers.cardano.org/)

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

The project owner has already successfully stood up Cardano nodes on AWS and used to work at Amazon, managing cloud infrastructure for the Amazon Alexa. The risk to a successful delivery of this project is very low.

In addition, Thaddeus Diamond (the project lead and artist/developer at Wild Tangz) has shown the ability to successfully deliver many open-source packages (e.g., NFT Sweeper) that help Cardano creators and developers. To date, this software have been delivered using funds from the Wild Tangz NFT sale that occurred in June 2022. Catalyst would be used to augment those funds and accelerate delivery.  

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

The main goal of this project is to increase the speed with which individuals are able to spin up instances of the Cardano Node software. We will measure this by:

• Number of individual downloads of the AMI listed in the marketplace
• Number of mentions on Twitter/Discord/Telegram of the Cardano Node AMI

[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.

Note that we use a developer rate of $150 USD / hour (see “value for money” sections for further analysis of this cost).

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

See the milestone timeline above for each key activity performed and acceptance criteria. Unless otherwise specified, each key activity will include:

• Publishing all documentation or code changes to GitHub via Gists or pull requests to the Cardano Guild Operators’ documentation (https://cardano-community.github.io/guild-operators/) as well as the Cardano Developers’ Portal (https://developers.cardano.org/) 

• Accompanying Twitter thread describing how the feature works

Note that we also provide general support and guidance for our open source software in the Wild Tangz Discord (discord.gg/wildtangz) for any community member who is attempting to use our open source packages.

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

The only use of funds here will be to compensate the developer for his time architecting, implementing, testing, and documenting the features. We have defined the costs here on an hourly basis by using the project lead’s prior salary pricing (can be confirmed at https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Amazon-Senior-Software-Engineer-Salaries-E6036_D_KO7,31.htm) and dividing it by 2,000 effective working hours. We feel this is a very competitive rate, and the project developer charges 20-40% more for private development efforts.

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

We have defined the costs here on an hourly basis by using the project lead’s prior salary pricing (can be confirmed at https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Amazon-Senior-Software-Engineer-Salaries-E6036_D_KO7,31.htm) and dividing it by 2,000 effective working hours. Additionally, we have modeled the desired overall funding request and project scoping to match other successful Catalyst proposals (e.g., Lucid). Ultimately, we believe this represents an extremely valuable addition to Cardano and a great value for the ecosystem to fund through Catalyst.

[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