Wolfram Elevating Cardano Dashboard with Enhanced Features

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Jon Woodard

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

jwoodard@wolfram.com

Additional applicants

Steph Macurdy

Gabriela Guerra

[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?

No

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

The Dashboard will ultimately have a permissioned structure.

The backend for ecosystem data collection will also be proprietary software. However, we plan to use an open metadata standard through concepts such as ITSA's token standard system. If the self-registration system proves successful, we'd like to unbundle as much of the token standards as possible.

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

Data tools

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Wolfram Blockchain Labs (WBL) is committed to making blockchain data computational and easily accessible. Currently, exploring the intricacies of the Cardano ecosystem, including its apps, stakepools, developers, dashboards and Project Catalyst itself, requires hours of dedicated research for both users and developers. To address this issue, WBL proposes expanding our existing dashboard and API to provide a comprehensive solution that caters to an even wider range of needs for both users and developers (currently, the dashboard and API are focused on Project Catalyst governance).

Wolfram Cardano Dashboard: Video Presentation

WBL has already made significant progress to provide access to Catalyst data by developing a cutting-edge dashboard with novel visualizations that facilitate understanding of Catalyst. Building upon this foundation, our proposal seeks to expand these visualizations and make a wealth of data available across all relevant areas. By harnessing the power of visual representation, users and developers can navigate the complexities of the Cardano ecosystem.

Expanding Data Availability:

To ensure a more comprehensive exploration of the Cardano ecosystem, we aim to expand the scope of available data beyond governance. This expansion, will cover "off-chain Ecosystem Data," that encompasses various categories:

A. Social media data: 

By incorporating data from popular social media platforms and forums, we aim to provide near real-time insights into user sentiments, trends, and discussions. However, this depends on the evolving API policies and pricing structures set by these platforms.

B. News data: 

Our proposal involves crawling and conducting analytics on top crypto news sources to offer users a well-rounded understanding of the latest developments and news within the Cardano community.

C. Developer data: 

By conducting analytics on public sources like GitHub, we aim to provide valuable information about the developers and their contributions to the Cardano ecosystem.

D. Crypto Financial Data

As WBL adds access to crypto financial data from leading centralized and decentralized exchanges, we'll have the ability to add pricing data and trading pairs with relevant information to the Cardano ecosystem. In our "Exchange Data Infrastructure" proposal, we're providing an open source solution to the difficult problem of aggregating historical price data and expanding to cover real-time data. Real time data will enable certain features of a dashboard that are more relevant to a Cardano user on a daily basis.

E. Self-reported Metadata: 

We propose enabling the Cardano community to contribute metadata on tokens, dApps, stakepools, communities, and community positions such as ambassadors, dReps, and catalyst circle members.

Summary of Project Objectives: 

• Expand off-chain "Ecosystem" data collection
• Social Media Data
• News Data
• Developer data
• Cardano Exchange pricing data
• Self-reported Data and Metadata
• Visualizations
• APIs
• Create self-registration service

Summary of Overall Benefits: 

• Broad data coverage
• Ecosystem data (social, news, devs)
• Historical and Real-Time exchange data
• Community provided data and metadata 
• Visual exploration
• Clean, educational, explanatory
• Enabling clear understanding of the various fields covered
• Developers services
• API services across data, metadata and analytics to make it easier to explore the Cardano ecosystem programmatically and build other visualizations and tools for that exploration
• Explore the creation of a CIP for data and metadata that could be used to help decentralize aspects of the self-reporting data and metadata across the Cardano and UTxO blockchain ecosystems.

Conclusion:

With our team's experience in delivering a dashboard for users, we are confident in our ability to realize this ambitious proposal. By expanding the existing dashboard and API with features, we aim to simplify the Cardano ecosystem, making it more accessible and enabling community members to self-update effectively. Together with community generated inputs and our dashboard expansion, we can continue building Cardano's vision for a transparent, educational and interconnected future.

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

The Wolfram Dashboard addresses the challenge proposed in the "Products & Integrations" category through the improvement of Wolfram Blockchain Labs' Governance Dashboard and integration of Cardano's decentralized exchanges.

The challenge states a focus on the following areas:

• Creation or improvement of different products that provide value to the Cardano community and 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.

We are expanding the offerings of the governance dashboard to include:

1. The new Catalyst API
2. Financial data (as an open source solution):
3. Historical
4. Real-Time
5. From centralized exchanges and Cardano's decentralized exchanges
6. Social data
7. News data
8. Developer data
9. Ecosystem registered data (user generated)

These expansions improve the dashboard which created a large inventory of governance visualizations for Project Catalyst. Furthermore, the integration of Cardano decentralized exchanges in an open source solution makes the dashboard more relevant to understanding the ecosystem of tokens within Cardano.

For these reasons, we believe this proposed solution directly addresses the category of "Products & Integrations".

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

We have categorized our evaluation metrics into two main groups: 1) KPIs and 2) qualitative feedback. The KPIs are objective metrics based on usage and the qualitative feedback is subjective based on general meetings and user insights.

To track the progress of our project, we will focus on the following:

KPIs: We will carefully balance the collection of usage statistics while maintaining privacy consideration

   a. Website Traffic: This metric tracks the number of visitors to our company's website.

• Baseline indicator (amount of traffic prior to project kickoff)
• Launch indicator (amount of traffic after project completion - shared in close out report)

   b. API Requests: We will monitor the number of requests made to the API (shared in close out report).

In addition to quantitative measurements, we will also gather qualitative feedback through general conversations and after town hall breakout rooms. This will help us assess the satisfaction of our users and implement changes from their feedback.

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

The Cardano Dashboard is readily accessible to users and developers for exploration. To enhance the user experience, WBL will provide documentation on the API, allowing users and developers to delve deeper into the data.

WBL will create a step-by-step tutorial on how to use the Dashboard in a YouTube video, as well as crafting newsletter articles that explain the dashboard in a manner that encourages thorough exploration of the available data.

In addition, WBL frequently participates in Twitter spaces within the Cardano community, where the team will advocate for the use of the dashboard and API as valuable resources for learning and building within the Cardano ecosystem.

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

We possess the necessary expertise and resources to ensure the successful delivery of your project with a strong emphasis on trust and accountability. Here are the key factors that demonstrate our capability:

Experience:

We have a proven track record of delivering our dashboard solution. We have successfully developed a dashboard from the ground up, starting from the conceptualization stage and bringing it to it's current stage of public completion. This experience provides us with the knowledge and insights needed to handle the project effectively. We are building upon this previous success to expand and enhance our existing dashboard solution with already existing proof-of-concepts in social, news, developer and exchange pricing components.

Visuals:

To provide a preview, we have created sample user interfaces that demonstrate how the data will be visually presented. These visuals represent the various data types, including social data, news data, developer data, informational pages, and pricing data. These screenshots aim to demonstrate that we've put in development time and that our goals are aligned to the expected outcomes of the project.

Milestones and Specifications:

We have meticulously designed a project plan that details milestones and specifications for each component of the project. These milestones serve as clear checkpoints to monitor progress, ensure accountability, and maintain a high level of transparency throughout the project lifecycle.

With our experience in delivering dashboards, visual samples, and a well-defined project plan, we are equipped to deliver the project with exceptional trust and accountability.

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

The main goals for the project are as follows:

Update Catalyst data sources:

• Update our dashboards data sources from Catalyst API
• This includes an active section for the current Catalyst funding round

Expand off-chain ecosystem data collection:

• Collect and display social media data relevant to the project
• Collect and display crypto/web3/blockchain news data
• Collect and display developer data to gain insights into developer activity
• Develop a self-registration service to improve data and metadata collection. 
• Improve API coverage

To validate the feasibility of our approach, we have undertaken the following steps:

• Developed functional prototypes to demonstrate the effectiveness of data collection
• Designed simple user experience for visuals
• Deployed the existing dashboard for public exploration and inspection

Having implemented these validation steps above, we believe we have shown the feasibility of WBL completing the proposed project. 

[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.

1. Enhance Dashboard sources with the new Catalyst API (1.5 months)
2. Develop a robust data processing pipeline to efficiently structure incoming data from the Catalyst API.
3. Implement data verification mechanisms to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the obtained data.
4. Integrate the data into the governance database tables for easy access and retrieval.
5. Introduce additional analytics features that leverage the new data.
6. Ecosystem Data Integration (Social/News/Developers) (1.5 months)
7. Populate the ecosystem database tables with relevant information.
8. Implement ecosystem analytics capabilities to extract valuable insights from the gathered data.
9. Integrate Crypto Financial Data (1 month)
10. Perform data exploration and develop mock-ups.
11. Design and implement a crypto financial data and analytics section in the dashboard.
12. Project Registration (2 months)
13. Develop a sign-in system with authentication and authorization mechanisms.
14. Create a user-friendly web page for seamless login and subscription management.
15. Refactor the existing dashboard modules to ensure their efficiency.

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

1. Enhance Dashboard sources with the new Catalyst API 
2. Deliverable: Dashboard with updated data source (Catalyst API)
3. Output: Dashboard upgrade with data source update (Catalyst API)
4. Outcome: Improved accuracy and reliability of data displayed on the dashboard.
5. Ecosystem Data Integration (Social/News/Development)
6. Deliverable: Ecosystem data analytics views available in the dashboard.
7. Output: Dashboard upgrade with ecosystem analytics.
8. Outcome: Users will be able to visualize ecosystem data and development activities surrounding the Cardano ecosystem.
9. Integrate Crypto Financial Data 
10. Deliverable: Dashboard section where Crypto financial data relevant to the Cardano ecosystem are displayed.
11. Output: Dashboard upgrade with crypto financial data section.
12. Outcome: Users will be able to view relevant financial data relevant to the Cardano ecosystem.
13. Project Registration
14. Deliverable: Dashboard section where Cardano Projects are displayed with the relevant information to their sites and social media. Also new projects will be able to register to be integrated to this new section.
15. Output: Dashboard upgrade where Cardano Projects are displayed and new projects can register.
16. Outcome: Users will be able to browse through the Cardano projects. Project will be able to register to be listed on the site.

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

1. Enhance Dashboard sources with the new Catalyst API (1.5 months) - ₳89,200
2. Develop a robust data processing pipeline to efficiently structure incoming data from the Catalyst API.
3. Implement data verification mechanisms to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the obtained data.
4. Integrate the data into the governance database tables for easy access and retrieval.
5. Introduce additional analytics features that leverage the new data.
6. Ecosystem Data Integration (Social/News/Developers) (1.5 months) - ₳107,000
7. Populate the ecosystem database tables with relevant information.
8. Implement ecosystem analytics capabilities to extract valuable insights from the gathered data.
9. Integrate Crypto Financial Data (1 month) - ₳64,200
10. Perform data exploration and develop mock-ups.
11. Design and implement a crypto financial data and analytics section in the dashboard.
12. Project Registration (2 months) - ₳139,200
13. Develop a sign-in system with authentication and authorization mechanisms.
14. Create a user-friendly web page for seamless login and subscription management.
15. Refactor the existing dashboard modules to ensure their efficiency.

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

Wolfram Blockchain Labs is making significant improvements in visualizing and aggregating Cardano's ecosystem data and expanding the category coverage through our dashboard.

The new data will include:

1. Updated data source for Catalyst
2. The current dashboard has a wide variety of governance visualizations
3. Source data is static relative to the new Catalyst API
4. New visualization potential with updated connection
5. Cardano financial ecosystem data
6. Displaying crypto financial data relevant to Cardano
7. Both centralized and decentralized exchange data
8. DEXs: Sundae, Museli, WingRiders, MinSwap, Indigo
9. Crypto financial data allows WBL to cover a whole new range of visualizations
10. Social, News and Developer data
11. Display social media news regarding key Cardano topics
12. Display Cardano insights from the top 20 crypto news sites
13. Display developer data to understand relevant Cardano developments
14. Providing access to data via API
15. Project registration and user-generated inputs
16. User generated inputs open a new category of ecosystem insights
17. We're creating a system to highlight Cardano based projects
18. This enables a more better way to deliver insights (via podcast, research articles, and newsletters) to the community

The first time we requested a proposal to launch the dashboard, it took 11 months for completion. Now, with an extended amount of new visualizations, data, expansions and enhancements, we're targeting completion of this project in half that time. We believe this data will be incredibly helpful to the Cardano ecosystem and we're excited to deliver it!

[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