Open Source POAP in Cardano

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Matias Falcone

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

matias.falcone@gmail.com

Additional applicants

Sebastien Guillemot & dcSpark.

[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?

No

[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?

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.”

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

NFTs

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

What is Proof of Attendance Protocol?

Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) is a protocol that uses blockchain technology to create badges or collectibles to mark the attendance at an event. It is proven to be of great adoption in the majority of the EVM compatible blockchains, with more than 6.5M POAPs already minted. Believe it or not, this is only 2M less than the ENTIRE NFT ecosystem in Cardano!

How does a POAP work?

When you attend an event or achieve a milestone for which there are POAP badges, you’ll receive one. It’s as simple as that. You can also use it to access a major event or an exclusive online group.

POAPs work a lot like other NFTs, as each of them is unique.

They were first created for official POAP smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. To lower transaction costs, POAPs have since migrated to the Gnosis chain (formerly xDai), a cheaper and faster Ethereum side chain.

Just about anyone can make a POAP to mark a special moment. But there are three conditions for a POAP NFT:

1. It must be minted via the official POAP smart contract
2. It must hold metadata related to a specific date or period for up to a year
3. It must contain an image associated with the specific event

You can only mint one POAP for an event on a single wallet. That’s because each one represents attendance — and you can’t attend the same unique event twice. There aren’t any set rules that dictate which events can have POAP badges, or how big an event needs to be to have one. Some major events can even have multiple POAPs. As long as you can create them and get them approved, you can have POAP NFTs for your virtual or in-person events. You can then invite people to mint them and win gifts.

What problem do we solve and why this is important to Cardano?

As the name suggest, a POAP is a non-fungible token (NFT) that proves you’ve attended an event, either virtual or in-person. The events can be a ceremony, private function, game, concert or something similar. You can consider these as digital badges or stickers for your wallet, as a reward for your attendance in these events. POAPs can also be proof of your achievements, such as your engagement in an online or offline community.

Right now in Cardano, if you wanted to reward all attendees of an in-person event or a Twitter space, you would need to give a new NFT for every single participant. Due to the min ada value protocol parameter in Cardano, you need to give at least 1 ADA to each user along with their NFT. You can partially get around this issue if the user cooperates by having them give back the 1 ADA after they've received the NFT (which you can do by having the user to claim the NFT using a DApp), but this has a few downsides:

1. You need to create a DApp for this which increases complexity of rewarding users with an NFT
2. The user now needs to be involved in the process, which limits usability (you can't just collect a list of user addresses and then drop the NFTs after the fact)
3. If you mint 10,000 NFTs this is still more expensive than just updating existing NFTs

 

As you may see, one of the main blockers for more widespread adoption of commemorative NFTs is the business cost of repeat customers.

 

If you think of commemorative NFTs as a marketing cost, then you want to spend the least amount of money on hardcore fans and maximize the amount spent towards new user acquisition. If you host a Twitter space weekly and you have to spend 1 ADA every week for a hardcore user that joins every time, this drains your marketing budget that otherwise would be better spent on new user conversion. To make commemorative NFTs as a marketing strategy scale, you need the cost of recurring users to be relatively small compared to new user acquisition.

Additionally, it is not possible to make soulbound NFTs directly on the Cardano L1, despite most POAPs being purposefully distributed as soulbound tokens to avoid them being traded on the open market

Another problem we want to address here is the gap that exists between the physical and the crypto worlds, by linking your off-chain (or real-life) physical attendance to your on-chain presence. In a way, POAPs add a touch of humanity to the crypto world — and create a reliable record of your activities in both worlds. We want to show that you are not only a Cardano address!

This problem is important for Cardano adoption as we are seeing that the majority of the protocols adoption POAP are EVM blockchain based. This has to change by showing the world that there are other options for minting POAPs outside the Ethereum ecosystem.

How will we tackle this?

Paima Engine is a framework for creating onchain gamification. It achieves this using a system called Stateful NFTs where user NFTs can evolve over time based on user interactions. This is perfect to solve the problem as it means that new users get a single NFT (a single upfront cost), and recurring users have a lower cost (simply adding new data to their existing NFT).

 

More concretely, users would receive a single Stateful Proof of Attendance NFT (SPOAP NFT) that starts out blank, and every time they participate in an event, they would get a new commemorative NFT embedded inside their SPoA. If they've ever received a single SPoA in their entire lifetime, event organizers will not have to mint them a new one which means the more users participate in the protocol, the cheaper it will get to distribute NFTs.

 

Additionally, to enable building soulbound NFTs, these NFTs will be minted on Milkomeda (Cardano sidechain). This has the added benefit that transaction fees are also significantly cheaper than the Cardano L1, allowing for much larger and more regular drops and also bypasses the min UTxO issue. Thanks to the Milkomeda's work on wrapped smart contracts, it's still possible for Cardano users to fully control their SPoA directly from any Cardano wallet (Nami/Eternl/Flint/etc) and will not require any new wallets to be installed for neither event organizers nor regular participants

Who will benefit from our solution and what is unique about it?

AdaSouls is an open platform that any Cardano user or project can use. Whether it is a DAO, a NFT project or a DeFi protocol, anyone is welcome to mint POAPs for their users, so they can start measuring on-chain user base attendance.

In addition to this, we believe that your attendance should not be transferable. This is why, unlike the POAPs offered in Ethereum, we will give our users the option of issuing Soulbound SPOAPs. These are POAPs that are not transferable and are linked to your wallet only. This will unlock a great number of new use cases such as digital IDs and memberships, loyalty programs, marketing campaigns, proof of professional skills, credit history and reputation indicator.

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

The Products & Integrations Challenge focuses on two main points:

• Creation or improvement of different products that provide value to the Cardano community and wider ecosystem: thanks to Wrapped Smart Contracts Milkomeda's feature, we will offer interoperability with Cardano. This will allow us to issue POAPs with very low transaction fees, generating a complete new tool for the wider ecosystem.

• Integrations with other existing services, products and protocols that improve the end user experience. This could mean giving the user more options or making something easier to use that benefits the wider ecosystem: as mentioned before, we will be improving the end user experience by integrating POAP with existing Cardano projects and protocols. This will be achieved by the use of our developer SDK.

What impact will this project have for Cardano?

We have seen very important brands exploring POAPs in the Ethereum ecosystem, such as Adidas, Warner Music and Gary Vaynerchuk. We strongly believe that we can leverage Cardano's game by providing companies, communities, entrepreneurs, developers and end users with tools that have already been proven to be successful in the blockchain space, but are not yet offered in the Cardano space.

POAP has minted 6.5M NFTs alone: that's more than 75% of the WHOLE NFT ECOSYSTEM in Cardano! If that's not huge for Cardano, we don't know what it is!

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

We will measure the following on-chain interactions:

• Number of different events issuing POAPs.
• Number of SPOAPs minted using our smart contracts.
• Number of unique wallets interacting with our protocol (daily, weekly, monthly)
• Number of transactions performed from our platform (daily, weekly, monthly)
• Number of businesses/organisations using our solution.

In addition to this, we will use online polls and forms to get feedback from our users, both from our website and social media platforms such as Discord and Twitter.

We believe that, in the short term, the introduction of SPOAPs to the Cardano ecosystem will bring new ideas and use cases, as our community has always been one of the most creative in the blockchain space.

On the long term, we expect to see companies, communities and projects outside of the Cardano space reaching out to us so they can start using this new tool.

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

The initial timeframe for our project is 6 months. This is the time we need to build and deploy the Paima DApp backend that powers the SPOAPs, the Indexer to easily track the state of all SPOAPs, create the website and the frontend for our platform, wire it up for interaction with the blockchain, build the SDK for other projects to integrate with us, write the documentation and launch in Milkomeda's mainnet with community awareness and support.

We have designed our roadmap so we can provide the community with an output after each month of work. This way, we can get feedback from our users as soon as possible and improve the product as we go along with the development.

We will share all our updates with the Cardano community, so everyone is up to date with what we are doing. We will use our already existing network to promote our project. This includes important projects in Cardano such as:

• Project Catalyst
• Milkomeda
• Flint Wallet
• TangoCrypto
• Game Changer Wallet
• RATS DAO
• ALDEA DAO
• Clarity DAO
• Cardano Timelines
• LATAM Cardano

In addition to this and as 100% of the project deliverables and outputs will be open source, all our research and development activities will be available in GitHub for any community member to consult and use.

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

dcSpark and Paima Studios are well renowned companies in the Cardano ecosystem that have a long history of delivering on Catalyst proposals. You can find progress on grants we have previously received at https://dcspark.io/grants

In addition to this, our Project Lead has demonstrated in the past that can be trusted and that is capable of managing funds properly, as we have successfully delivered 3 proposals from Fund5 and Fund7:

• Fund5 / Project ID 500003: ALDEA Catalyst
• Fund5 / Project ID 500004: ALDEA WIKI
• Fund7 / Project ID 700019: ALDEA NFT - Community Marketplace

We count with Full Stack Engineers (well versed in Javascript and TypeScript) and Senior Solidity Developers (with 5 years experience with EVM blockchains). These skills make our team best suited to deliver this project.

For more information, please check personal websites and portfolio in the "Project Team" section.

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

Building POAP in Cardano has 4 major objectives:

Create a User-Friendly Platform

The goal is to develop a user-friendly platform where users can easily mint, distribute and manage POAPs. The platform should have a simple and intuitive interface, making it accessible to a wide range of users, mainly non-developers.

We will conduct user testing and feedback surveys to evaluate the ease of use and user satisfaction with the platform. Analyzing user engagement metrics, such as the time taken to perform key tasks or the number of support requests received, can provide insights into the platform's usability.

Foster Cardano Community Engagement

We focus in creating a vibrant and active community around POAPs, where users can showcase their token collections, participate in challenges or contests and engage in discussions with other token holders in Discord and Twitter.

Monitoring user activity within the community, such as the number of POAPs minted, participation in challenges, or contributions to discussions and pull requests, can gauge the level of community engagement. Gathering feedback from users on their experience with community features can also provide insights into the effectiveness of fostering engagement.

Ensure Scalability and Security

The goal is to build a robust and scalable infrastructure that can handle a growing user base and ensure the security of the POAPs and the user data. This includes implementing appropriate security measures, conducting regular audits, and optimizing the platform's performance.

While the current budget will not allow us to perform a security audit by a third-party expert in the first place, we will have this in mind for our next iteration, as this can help identify vulnerabilities and ensure the platform's security. Monitoring system performance metrics, such as response times and uptime, can indicate the platform's scalability. Conducting periodic user satisfaction surveys on security and performance can also provide valuable insights.

Enhance Event Organizers' Experience

The aim is to provide event organizers with an efficient and streamlined process for creating and managing POAPs for their events. This includes features such as event registration, token customization, attendee verification and analytics.

Feedback from event organizers can be gathered through surveys or interviews to assess their satisfaction with the platform's features and functionality. Tracking the number of events hosted, POAPs generated, and overall organizer engagement can also indicate the platform's success in enhancing their experience.

Implementation Plan

To implement the goals mentioned above, the project will follow an iterative and agile development approach. This involves breaking down the development process into smaller sprints (of 2 weeks each - 10 working days), each focused on specific features or enhancements. Regular feedback from users, event organizers, and the community can guide the iterative development process and ensure that the project aligns with their needs and expectations. Continuous testing, quality assurance, and bug fixing will be integral parts of the development process to ensure a stable and reliable platform.

Overall, the success of the project will be measured by the achievement of the project goals, user satisfaction, increased adoption of POAP tokens, and the growth of an active and engaged community around the platform.

[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: Open Source Paima DApp Backend

• Develop and test smart contracts for POAP creation, transfer and verification on the Milkomeda blockchain using Paima Engine.
• Implement necessary security measures and conduct thorough testing (automated testing using Mocha/Chai libraries).
• Deploy the smart contracts to the Milkomeda mainnet.

Timeline: 2 months (4 sprints)

Success/Acceptance Criteria: Smart contracts are successfully deployed on the Milkomeda mainnet and pass comprehensive testing. Interoperability with Cardano is working as expected and users can interact no matter what chain they are connected to.

Milestone Cost: USD 48,000

Milestone 2: Website Development and Indexer Integration

• Design and develop a user-friendly website for the AdaSouls platform.
• Integrate the front end with the Indexer to easily track the state of each SPOAP.

Timeline: 1.5 months (3 sprints)

Success/Acceptance Criteria: AdaSouls website is visually appealing, intuitive and seamlessly shows the state of each SPOAP a user holds. Key features are fully functional and thoroughly tested.

Milestone Cost: USD 26,000

Milestone 3: Portal Development and Documentation

• Develop a web portal for the AdaSouls platform, providing a comprehensive and user-friendly interface for event organizers, attendees, and administrators.
• Design and implement the necessary features, including event creation and management, attendee registration, and event analytics.
• Integrate the portal with the Milkomeda and Cardano blockchains to enable seamless interaction with the smart contracts and access to event-related data.
• Ensure the portal is visually appealing, responsive, and accessible across different devices and browsers.
• Create thorough documentation outlining the functionality, usage guidelines, and technical details of the portal for both end-users and developers.

Timeline: 1.5 months (3 sprints)

Success/Acceptance Criteria: The AdaSouls web portal is successfully developed and deployed. It provides a user-friendly interface for event management and user NFT claim. The portal integrates seamlessly with the Milkomeda/Cardano blockchains, enabling users to interact with the smart contracts and access event-related data. The documentation is comprehensive, well-structured, and easily understandable for both end-users and developers.

Milestone Cost: USD 26,000

Milestone 4: E2E Testing Using Real Event

• Conduct end-to-end (E2E) testing of the AdaSouls platform by simulating and executing real events with actual users.
• Organize a test event and invite a diverse group of participants to register, receive SPOAP tokens, and interact with the platform's features.
• Monitor and evaluate the performance, usability, and reliability of the platform during the test event.
• Identify and address any issues or bugs encountered during the testing process to ensure a seamless user experience.
• Perform comprehensive testing of the platform's security measures, including verification and transfer of SPOAP tokens.

Timeline: 1 month (2 sprints)

Success/Acceptance Criteria: The AdaSouls platform successfully undergoes end-to-end testing using a real event. The platform demonstrates stable performance, reliable functionality, and smooth user experience throughout the test event. Any issues or bugs discovered during testing are addressed promptly and effectively. The security measures, particularly SPOAP token verification and transfer, are thoroughly tested and proven to be secure and robust.

Milestone Cost: USD 4,000

Project Management Approach:

To ensure efficient project implementation, an agile project management approach will be adopted. The project will be divided into sprints, each focusing on specific deliverables aligned with the milestones. The team will conduct regular meetings to review progress, address any challenges, and prioritize tasks. We will use Linear as our project management tool to track tasks, assign responsibilities, and monitor progress. Regular communication and collaboration among team members will be essential for successful implementation.

Additionally, regular feedback from users, event organizers, and the community will be gathered and incorporated into the development process. This iterative approach allows for flexibility, adaptation, and continuous improvement throughout the project.

A more detailed budget is provided in the "Detailed Budget Breakdown" section.

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

Milestone 1: Open Source Paima DApp Backend

Deliverables:

• Open source code on GitHub
• Smart contracts source code for POAP creation, transfer (if applicable for the POAP type) and verification on the Milkomeda/Cardano blockchains.
• Automated tests written in Mocha/Chai for the smart contracts.
• Deployed the smart contracts to the Milkomeda mainnet.

Intended Outcomes:

• Smart contracts deployed on the Milkomeda mainnet and functioning as expected.
• Interoperability with Cardano established through Wrapped Smart Contract feature.
• Users can interact with the smart contracts on both Milkomeda and Cardano blockchains.

Measurement and Tracking:

• Successful deployment of smart contracts on the Milkomeda mainnet.
• Verification of interoperability with Cardano.
• Testing completion and confirmation of functionality.

Milestone 2: Website Development and Indexer Integration

Deliverables:

• Open source website on GitHub
• User-friendly front-end interface for the AdaSouls platform.
• Integration of the front end with the Milkomeda and Cardano blockchains.
• Implemented features such as event registration, token minting, customization, and user account management.
• Updated smart contract features based on user interaction with the front end.

Intended Outcomes:

• Visually appealing and intuitive front-end interface.
• Seamless integration of the front end with Milkomeda and Cardano blockchains.
• Fully functional features for event registration, token minting, customization, and user account management.

Measurement and Tracking:

• Completion and functionality testing of the front-end interface.
• Successful integration of the front end with Milkomeda and Cardano blockchains.
• User acceptance and satisfaction with the implemented features.

Milestone 3: Portal Development and Documentation

Deliverables:

• Open source code on GitHub (features added to Website from Milestone 2)
• Detailed test plan for end-to-end testing using a real event.
• Comprehensive report documenting findings, including issues and their resolutions.
• Updated platform with resolved issues and enhanced functionality based on testing insights.

Intended Outcomes:

• Validate platform performance, usability, and reliability in a real event setting.
• Identify and resolve any issues or bugs affecting user experience and functionality.
• Confirm secure and robust SPOAP token verification and transfer measures.

Measurement and Tracking:

• Monitor platform performance metrics such as response times, error rates, and user feedback.
• Track identified issues, their resolutions, and evaluate user experience through feedback and surveys.
• Monitor successful issuance, transfer, and verification of SPOAP tokens to ensure security measures function properly.

Milestone 4: E2E Testing Using Real Event

Deliverables:

• A real SPOAP distributed to users by a real project
• Test plan outlining scenarios and test cases for end-to-end testing with a real event.
• Test event organized with diverse participants, including registration and interaction with platform features.
• Comprehensive report documenting findings, including identified issues and their resolutions.
• Updated platform with resolved issues and improved functionality based on testing insights.

Intended Outcomes:

• Validate platform performance, usability, and reliability in a real event environment.
• Identify and address any issues or bugs encountered during testing for a seamless user experience.
• Thoroughly test SPOAP token verification and transfer measures to ensure security and functionality.

Measurement and Tracking:

• Monitor platform performance metrics, such as response times, error rates, and user feedback during the test event.
• Track identified issues, their resolutions, and evaluate user experience through participant feedback and surveys.
• Verify successful issuance, transfer, and verification of SPOAP tokens to ensure the effectiveness of security measures.

The intended outcomes and deliverables of each milestone will be used to track the project's progress and measure its success. Completion and functionality testing of deliverables, user adoption metrics, user feedback, and engagement levels will be used as indicators of progress and success.

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

Milestone 1: Open Source Paima DApp Backend

• Backend development using Paima Engine: USD 10,000
• Smart contract development: USD 20,000
• Smart contract testing: USD 10,000
• Project Management: USD 8,000

Milestone Total: USD 48,000

Milestone 2: Website Development and Indexer Integration

• Front-end design and development: USD 5,000
• Indexer development: USD 5,000
• Integration with Milkomeda and Cardano blockchains (using Indexer): USD 5,000
• Event registration and token minting features: USD 2,500
• Customization and user account management: USD 2,500
• Project Management: USD 6,000

Milestone Total: USD 26,000

Milestone 3: Portal Development and Documentation

• Portal development: USD 15,000
• Documentation and guides creation: USD 2,500
• Examples and code snippets with repos: USD 2,500
• Project Management: USD 6,000

Milestone Total: USD 26,000

Milestone 4: E2E Testing Using Real Event

• Reaching out to projects to let them know about our platform
• Comprehensive testing
• Bug fixing
• Performance optimization
• Project Management: USD 4,000

Milestone Total: USD 4,000

Total Project Budget: USD 104,000 (considering ADA price = USD 0.2882) / 360,860 ADA

The budget breakdown includes costs for each milestone, such as development, testing, deployment, and marketing activities. It also covers essential elements like project management, documentation, and community engagement. The proposed funding request of $104,000 will cover all the necessary expenses for the successful implementation of the project. It is the responsibility of the project team to manage the allocated funds effectively and efficiently.

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

NFTs have been one of the largest drivers of volume in the Cardano ecosystem, and this could be elevated even more by unlocking proof-of-attendance use-cases. By being able to easily and cheaply create commemorative NFTs, it will be able to increase user retention in the Cardano ecosystem. Additionally, this system will be more efficient than many alternatives in the market which could bring web2 companies looking to do commemorative NFT drops to the Cardano ecosystem.

The cost of the project represents value for money for the Cardano ecosystem through a combination of factors that justify the proposed budget:

• Expertise and Experience: The project team possesses the necessary expertise and experience in blockchain development, Cardano ecosystem, and smart contract deployment

• Deliverables and Milestones: The proposed milestones and deliverables are aligned with the project objectives and are essential for the successful development and deployment of the AdaSouls platform on Cardan

• Reasonable Budget Allocation: The budget breakdown takes into account the required resources, including development time, project management, documentation, and community engagement

• Value Creation for Cardano Ecosystem: The AdaSouls platform, once developed and launched, will contribute to the Cardano ecosystem by providing a user-friendly interface for event registration, token minting, and community engagement, where anyone can mint tokens with no technical knowledge required

The proposed costs are based on industry standards in Melbourne, Australia (where our team is based). You can find the average salary of a Project Manager in Melbourne, Australia here, which is AUD 120,000 a year, or USD 6,600 a month more or less. Even taking all this into consideration, we have decided to apply a monthly salary of USD 4,000 (USD 2,600 deduction per month) to our budget calculation, so this can represent more value for money for the Cardano community.

[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