Migration of our SmartContract architecture from Marlowe to Aiken

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Alex Pestchanker

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Co-proposers and additional applicants

Facundo Lopez

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

4

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

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

We've decided to migrate our SC architecture to Aiken, to be able to adopt a more lively language that has more traction in the community and also will allow us more options and flexibility.

[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.”

There is a learning curve to migrate from our existing Marlowe architecture and the new one in Aiken, to mitigate that we have an agreement with TXPIPE that if this proposal is approved, they will be validating our migration strategy, coach as thru the process and finally audit our new SC in Aiken.

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

No

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

We certainly believe in Open Source, and at some point in time, being a DAO we are going to release our code as Open Source, which is the goal to generate the first Venture Capital Permission-less Open Protocol in Cardano.

But now we are focusing in building the core investment platform, expand our insights based on user's experience and feedback and validate our model and hypothesis with the first Funds. Specially our smartcontracts migration to Aiken. So we are having our hands and minds full at the moment, to consider an extra load by open source everything, though we believe is a cornerstone of the decentralization we aim to reach, so we will get there.

[METADATA] Horizons

Financial Services

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Token Allies DAO, the first Decentralized Venture Capital on Cardano, is poised to redefine the venture capital industry. The VC is managed by the Token Allies DAO, this DAO aims to ease capital flow and broaden opportunities by disrupting the traditional VC model by providing a decentralized, transparent and investor-startup aligned model.

It is especially tailored to fuel the expansion of existing Cardano projects and provide those needed resources for those startups who have traction and proven business models.

Thru our innovative blockchain aligned business model, we take the best of the regular VCs, that clearly have fueled innovation and growth in many areas and industries. While we strip the bad and the ugly from it, centralized decision making, non aligned investor-startup interests, lack of transparency that usually brings all sort of problems and disappointments and are the common criticism to the traditional VC industry.

Our purpose at Token Allies is to optimize the inflows of serious money to impact driven and high growth projects in Cardano, in a decentralized way, filling the capital GAP that today stressed out and constrain our ecosystem growing capabilities.

Today, investment in Cardano is limited to starting level investments by Catalyst and some scarce more serious capital from a few investors (mostly coming within the ecosystem itself). Token Allies addresses this imbalance, extending the reach of Cardano's growth and development beyond this limitation, that is hindering great projects with good potential, to be able to reach escape velocity.

Acting as a Catalyst natural continuation in the Cardano ecosystem, Token Allies DAO is a community-driven platform that invites a wide range of investors from the Crypto space, to benefit from higher returns with less risk, without leaving the Crypto space, by investing in startups and companies the proper capital they need to reach sustainable businesses. It adds a unique twist to the investment landscape, pairing a unique decentralized funding model based in Cardano's blockchain technology with investors from all over the world. This fusion empowers high potential, high growth, high impact projects to reach their goals, while providing investors an avenue to optimize their capital while actively engaging in the process, without leaving the crypto space.

WHY MIGRATE?

We have been one of the first projects in Cardano to pioneered into Marlowe DSL, as we judged it as a very solid financial oriented model, that has all the characteristics needed for our services, such as High security, Very restrictive DSL that produced very deterministic type of SmartContracts providing high assurance to our investors, The implementation time was considerable faster than Haskell at its time. And that approach worked very well, we have implemented our platform successfully into Cardano Preprod Net, performed a successful Incentivized Testnet with 0 high or critical severity bugs and good flexibility, performance and costs.

In Q2 of 2024, IOG announced that it stopped Marlowe development and was releasing it as an Open Source project. https://marlowe.iohk.io/faq

And unfortunately their Catalyst F12 proposal was not funded, so the development efforts to maintain and update Marlowe has been compromised.

After CHANG HF, Marlowe stopped working, and no patch has been released up to this date, leaving us with a non working platform, thus the need to evaluate alternative options.

OUR APPROACH

We have researched and consulted with many parties to evaluate our options, and after talking with TXPIPE, one of the TOP development companies in Cardano and the most active company behind AIKEN Language, we learned the many advantages of a migration to Aiken.

A faster learning curve of the language, the availability of libraries such as MESHJS, the wide adoption that Aiken is having within the Cardano ecosystem, the availability of coaching to guide and facilitate our migration path, the availability of auditing services to assure the quality and security of the new Smart Contract architecture, the flexibility to add new functionalities to our platform to further decentralize and automate the whole investment process.

HOW DOES OUR MODEL WORKS

Token Allies is a DAO that allow its members to become investors in FUNDs that are proposed, reviewed and approved by them. Participation on the FUNDS is optional, but to participate in them, the DAO membership is required.

All the DAO governance are proposed and debated thru our discord channels, while the voting itself will be performed at a DAO platform (1st option is Clarity platform).

The FUNDS once approved by the DAO, currently are coded via our own template Marlowe Smartcontract that has parameters that are set based on the DAO's decision for the fund (Amount to be raised, type of investment, minimum threshold to collect, timeframes, expected returns, expected duration of investments, requirements for companies applying, etc.) These Smartcontracts are uploaded, run and instantiated on chain via Demeter.Run platform, and to provide the best user experience all that logic and blockchain processes are 100% integrated in our own Investment Platform that works with CIP30 wallets both in standard and mobile Browsers. We leverage APIs from Marlowe, Demeter.run, Blockfrost and others.

The Smartcontract architecture are totally autonomous once instantiated in the blockchain and secure the investors and DAO valuables.

OUR CURRENT STATE

The investment platform exists today as a fully functional MVP with the capabilities to register, assign roles, manage preferences, create Funds entities (by Administrators) and allow users with Investor role to interact with those Fund entities. The platform integrates CIP30 wallets, so users can connect them to the platform, to create investment transactions and receive Tokens and returns.

We have run our MVP as an Incentivized Testnet in PREPROD Network to test all the functionalities, with almost 400 valid registered people, that successfully tested all the investment platform with no single High or Critical bug reported, but many UX and better ways to use it from the user perspective.

Here are some screenshots of the actual platform in preprod:

With the information and feedback gathered we have made several updates in preparation to our MAINNET Launch, but we run into the Marlowe issue.

Our MVP can be found here: https://dev.tokenallies.com/

OUR TOKENOMICS

The Token Allies DAO has a three token business model, the DVC, the ALLI and the Investor ID NFT. They work in conjunction, the DVC being the governance utility token to participate in the DAO decision making process (Treasury management, Approval of Fund creation, Oversight of the DAO budget, etc), the ALLI token that works as a dual purpose utility token, first to give investors access to participate in the FUND their invested in decision making (voting which companies receive investment, approval the vesting of funds, approval progress reports from invested companies, etc) and also as a liquidity mechanism if they decide not to participate in the Fund governance, allowing them to sell the token in a secondary market. Finally the Investor ID NFT is the token that gives the investors rights to claim the returns generated by the FUND investments.

The complete details of how this model works can be found in our detailed WhitePaper in https://www.tokenallies.com and some clarifications in our FAQ channel at our Discord: https://discord.gg/RREfkCdT65

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

We are building a Business Solution in the Defi space, that could fill a so much needed GAP many projects in Cardano, specially in LATAM are facing, with lack of serious money to reach their potential, specially with no outside VCs interest in our ecosystem. The impact could be huge, aiming directly to the Challenge Why statement: "Cardano needs innovations and solutions that help the ecosystem reach its potential tand help improve the systems we use across the world."

Aiming mainly (nor exclusively) at the Japanese investor community, we will be causing a huge multiplier impact on two high potential regions in the world, key for the Cardano ecosytem to grow.

Our DAO decentralizes decision-making, ensures expert due diligence, and promotes informed choices, fostering a vibrant, inclusive and transparent ecosystem. ALLI Token, minted as a utility token for investors' trust, offers voting rights in the Token Allies' fund they choose to invest in, thus reinforcing participatory decision-making, adding transparency and lowering the barriers for investment and deal flow.

Taking advantage of Cardano's ecosystem cutting edge technologies, such as the Cardano Blockchain, the Marlowe's financial Domain Specific language and infrastructure; Scaling and efficient solutions such as Demeter.run and DAO processes proven platforms such as Clarity we aim to create a unique set of trusted processes, governance rules and Smartcontracts that facilitate and secures the Funding processes needed for our model to work.

Our journey towards this innovative approach has seen countless hours, extensive expertise and immense passion. Our first platform MVP, testifies our commitment to transform investment via blockchain's potential. With Token Allies, investors and companies will have an empowering platform to drive mutual value creation.

During that journey, we have faced hard pivots to found a unique model that can really produce the world-wide impact we set to achieve, that were not easy to do, but the experiences and learnings we have collected allowed us to reach our current state that after almost two years have resulted in this unique model to approach the issues we want o solve by creating this Decentralized VC.

In essence, Token Allies is not just another VC player, but a game-changer aiming to democratize investing, making it more accessible, transparent, and beneficial for the Cardano community.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Both Alex and Lucas are known active members of the Cardano ecosystem with a proven track record generating value and delivering projects, as cofounders of the LATAM Cardano Community helping to building impact in and out of the Latin America region and hosts of the LATAM Townhall and Spaces weekly meetings that aim to lower the barriers for adoption of Cardano in Latin America and organizers of the 13 CIP 1694 Cardano Decentralized Workshops held in LATAM and attendees of the Global CIP 1694 workshop in Edinburgh. With Active participation at Intersect and Leading the promotion and articulation of businesses in Latin America, at many levels.

TokenAllies is a pioneer in adopting and implementing Marlowe SmartContracts Technologies and also serverless infrastructure in Demeter.run (by TXPipe), with a current active relationship with both teams in charge of those technologies.

This is an expansion of our current project, so all the developed functionality can be seen in the current MVP, demonstrating our capabilities to both develop great technology, understand our users needs and integrate with the Cardano ecosystem.

As this is a development project, success will be easily measured by the delivery of its proposed Milestones, with clear and tangible verifiable outputs and evidence.

Our proposed KPIs are divided in two, the first set are there to demonstrate and allow the audit of project deliverables and progress, the second set are there to report and track on Outcomes of the project, once it start to operate with external users, they are:

Validation:

• We will add all the feedback provided by testers of our ITN and confirming the need for them to use it in production to invest in our Funds.
• Project delivery Milestones agreed and documented as our project goals and roadmap, to report on the project progress and delivery on our commitments. (Detailed description in the Roadmap section)

Outcome KPIs - Our Impact:

Short-Medium term

• Number of DAO members: Reaching 250 wallets holding at least 1 DVC tokens each within the first two months of operation.
• A FUND1 approved and voted by the DAO members, with a proposed of 1 M USD equivalent target, created within the first semester of operation (that means the Fund's smartcontracts are ready to be used on the Blockchain, via the platform, allowing us to receive investors money).
• Depending on the KPI above, start of the FUND1 Campaign to attract companies willing to apply to funds, based on the FUND1's approved terms voted by the DAO.
• Number and value of the Tokens minted (DVC and ALLI) thru time.

Medium-Long term

• Number of companies invested by the Token Allies Funds, by type series (series A, series B, etc).
• Number of companies invested, per Fund, that generated a successful Exit (reached the growth and scale purpose).
• Number of companies invested, that are using the Cardano Blockchain.
• Average return ratio to investors per Fund (in X amounts from the invested amount).
• Average holding amount of ALLIs on Fund investors' wallets.
• Average voting power of DVCs on DAO members' wallets.
• Number of Governance Actions performed by the DAO members and the Investors of Funds.
• Average number of voters per Governance Action.

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

OUTCOMES:

Migration Strategy and plan finalized and validates by TXPIPE

Contract agreed and signed with TXPIPE for their coaching and audit services.

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA:

A detailed migration strategy and plan document is delivered for the 3 months of implementation with dates, tasks and expected outcomes and validations.

A contract document is delivered that covers TXPIPE coaching and audit services.

OUTCOMES:

Development starts with weekly status reports and a CI/CD in place to our PREPROD site.

Tests are performed and passed for each of the functionalities in our investment process.

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA:

Weekly status reports are delivered.

CI/CD process and automations in place working in our Preprod site.

PREPROD platform Tests are performed and passed in compliance with our investment process.

OUTCOMES:

Development finishes to deliver all the migration steps and tasks to our PREPROD site.

Tests are performed and passed on all the functionalities in our investment process.

Final OK is achieved to send the new SC Aiken architecture to the audit process.

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA:

PREPROD platform tests and performed and passed in compliance with our investment process.

Audit document is generated and sent to TXPIPE for the audit to begin.

OUTCOMES:

Audit results by TXPIPE are received with a list of potential vulnerabilities ordered by severity and with recommendations to mitigate or fix them.

A remediation plan is generated that covers all the major audit findings with a remediation for each major or critical finding.

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA:

A formal Audit results document is presented with full coverage of our Aiken SC platform, and all the findings with potential vulnerabilities ordered by severity and recommendations to mitigate or fix them.

A documented remediation plan that covers every major and critical audit findings with a remediation strategy for each one.

OUTCOMES:

1. Close-Out Report, inlcuding a thorough analysis of the migration, new Aiken architecture and auditing results, focusing on key metrics and overall impact.
2. Close-Out VIdeo that shows the platform working in Preprod with the new Aiken SC working as per requirements, key milestones.

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA:

• Closure Report and Video are sent to Catalyst via the POM tool, according to the F13 guidelines.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Our core team, is comprised of 3 partners from Argentina, who are active members in Catalyst and the Cardano ecosystem, looking to leave a footprint in the world. We are passionate about the potential that Cardano can provide to people all over the world. 

  

Lucas Macchiavelli 

Lucas started his journey in the traditional stock markets, and quickly made his road into a passion at 19 years old. After advising several clients to traditional investments he turned his sight into Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology, where he recognized it's life changing potential. Thanks to blockchain technology many doors that were previously closed opened, crowdfunding was one of them. After seeing the difficulties with traditional funding methods, he came up with Token Allies. F8 Proposal Assessor & Cardano Ambassador. F9, F10 and F11 proposer and funded.

F7 Funded Proposer (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/382611) 

F8 Funded Proposer (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/400427) 

F9 Funded Proposer (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/64666)

F10 Funded Proposer (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/107447)

F11 Funded Proposer (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/113748)

 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasmacchiavelli/ 

  

Alex Pestchanker 

Alex has 24+ years of experience building Digital Products and Companies. He has a dual background, on one side a Solutions Architect and Developer (Cloud, Blockchain, C#, .NET, Java, Angular, DevOps) and on the other side a Company Builder and Advisor, building high-performance teams to deliver products that customers love (Customer Development, Agile, Lean, Design Thinking). Alex is also a professor at ITBA (one of the most prestigious engineering universities in LATAM) and a public speaker, helping to build common knowledge around Digital Transformation, Exponential Organizations, and Abundance. 

Within Cardano, Alex is an active community member, performed as Proposal Assessor in F6, F7, F8, F9, F10 and F11 with high ratings on his assessments, and Veteran PA in F7, F8 and F9. He has also been awarded several times for his proposals and successfully completed most of them such as: F6: Proposals Mentors Marketplace ( https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/369749-48088 ), F7: Proposals Mentors Marketplace -cont (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/382926), F8: DCorps - Digital company registry (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/400064), F8:Funding real world Businesses (https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/422489-48088), F9:Bringing Business to Cardano (https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/422416-48088), among others. 

F11: (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/113748)

Alex is also a 1st cohort ATALA-Prism Pioneer a 3rd cohort Plutus pioneer and 1st cohort Marlowe's pioneer. 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apestchanker/ 

Facundo Lopez

His entrepreneurial mindset has led him to develop skills and live experiences throughout his company path that were essential when it came to create, design and execute Token Allies. His ambition, passion, perseverance and abilities, combined with all the knowledge acquired during his academic training, are crucial when carrying out and managing the project, especially when taking care of administrative issues. 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/facundo-l%C3%B3pez-franceschi-b13814184/ 

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

The project main costs are developing costs, which are comprised of the following:

1 PM - ADA 5,885 x 4 months = ADA 23,540

1 UX - ADA 4,412 x 1 month = ADA 4,412

3 DEV - ADA 5,900 x 4 months each (ADA 17,700 per month ) = ADA 70,800

1 Platform ADMIN - ADA 2941 x 4 months = ADA 11,764

TXPIPE (50% of TXPipe's fees are considered here, the rest will be paid by Token Allies DAO)

Coaching Services

TXPIPE SC Audit

ADA 29,415

Infra and Tools ADA x 4 months = ADA 10,000

The total of the project is ADA 149,931

We have rounded it up to ADA 150.000

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

With the Token Allies model we will be able to close the GAP that projects face after initial funding, when they have proven the business model and are getting traction, but they lack the proper funding to escale and growth (also known as the Death Valley).

This DAO, will prove a very innovative model, that will reshape the concept of a VC, from the standpoint of the investor, providing the investors with the ways, tools and rules to be able to participate on the decision making process of the Funds where they invest. The Cardano community will have the unique opportunity to participate into this process and multiply their assets value without leaving the Cardano blockchain.

We will be minting 3 different tokens, natively in Cardano, so we will be collaborating with increased transaction and fess numbers. Provide the ecosystem with a very innovative way to solve the funding problem and create great value on the ecosystem, that will be probably get noticed by other investors so they can come to the Cardano blockchain.

Our FUND1 will be aimed to fund Cardano Latin American projects with a proven business model that can demonstrate 1 year of paying customers and are ready to scale. This FUND1 fund will be of 1,000,000 USD equiv aimed to be raised at the Japanese Cardano Community, so it will be serious money invested in the Cardano most needed projects that are the ones that can scale and deliver real value.