SIDAN | KnightSafe - Self-custodial Vault for DeFi Trading

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

KnightSafe

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

Entity (Incorporated)

[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)

KnightSafe integrates Cardano to provide a vault for DeFi users to participate and subscribe to custom yield strategies.

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

Materials would be on (an) open-source Github repo(s) with Apache-2.0 license.

[METADATA] Horizons

DeFi

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

KnightSafe integrates Cardano to offer a vault solution for DeFi users to provide liquidity and get yield from self-custodial risk-managed trading strategies. With the Vault, it will empower both DeFi users and trusted traders to collaborate generating yields for each other:

DeFi users: Setup self-custodial User Account on KnightSafe

• DeFi users can create a self-custodial account governed by the smart contract. Users can deposit or withdraw the ADA between the Cardano wallets and the KnightSafe user account. The funds in the user account can subscribe to custom yield strategies by selecting the vaults. 

Trusted Traders: Setup Cardano Trader Vault on KnightSafe

• Traders on KnightSafe create a vault for Cardano DeFi users to stake their ADA to exercise trading strategies with the token whitelist feature.
• The returns earned by the trades will be shared amongst the traders and DeFi users with a pre-defined and aligned pricing schedule.

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

Enhance Liquidity and Capital Efficiency

By onboarding KnightSafe to Cardano, DeFi users will gain access to liquidity solutions, allowing users to subscribe to the custom non-directional trading strategy and earn rewards from it. This will attract more traders and investors to Cardano, improving overall market liquidity and capital efficiency.

Boost DeFi Innovation and Adoption

By integrating KnightSafe’s customizable liquidity strategies, the project will not only demonstrate advanced DeFi use cases on Cardano but also attract a broader base of users, traders, and liquidity providers, ultimately driving ecosystem growth.

Improve Cardano DeFi Inter-operability

KnightSafe’s self-custodial managed accounts enable integrations amongst different DeFi protocols and foster the Cardano DeFi ecosystem growth.

[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?

KnightSafe

Trust and Accountability

KnightSafe has built a strong reputation in the DeFi space, with a proven track record of generating significant trading volume on different DeFi protocols. KnightSafe’s capabilities have been officially recognized through a secured GMX grant, underscoring the value we deliver to the trading community. Our expertise is further validated by the significant Total Value Locked (TVL) on KnightSafe, showcasing our ability to bring substantial liquidity to the Cardano ecosystem. Current TVL reaches $30m and is still growing steadily. By maintaining transparent and secure operations, KnightSafe has become a trusted platform for DeFi users and traders.

Approach Validation

During the GMX's grant period, KnightSafe exceeded $180 million in trading volume, contributing over $100k in trading fees to the GMX protocol. This performance, combined with the additional liquidity KnightSafe provides to the market, has been instrumental in driving ecosystem growth. The volume generated during the grant period speaks to the effectiveness of KnightSafe as a tool, with our trading activities providing direct financial benefits to the GMX protocol and supporting liquidity in the broader market. Furthermore, KnightSafe's strategic partnership with BitBot, a project that recently raised over $3M, reinforces the value and impact of our approach.

Technical Approach Feasibility Research

KnightSafe’s technical approach is not only feasible but has been successfully implemented, as evidenced by the significant trading volume as well as TVL secured by KnightSafe, demonstrates our ability to handle high-frequency trading and liquidity provision. Additionally, the audit conducted by SlowMist underline the feasibility and security of our platform, ensuring KnightSafe’s place as a leading solution in the DeFi space.

KnightSafe is also in partnership with SIDAN Lab and DeltaDeFi team with Cardano experts supporting the implementation.

Track Record: https://gov.gmx.io/t/knightsafe-gmx-grant-final-report/3847

Partnership: https://hackernoon.com/bitbots-presale-passes-$3m-after-ai-development-update

Audit Report: https://github.com/knight-safe/knight-safe-contracts-v2/blob/master/audits/26-7-2024_SlowMist_KnightSafe.pdf/

SIDAN Lab

Trust and Accountability

SIDAN Lab is dedicated to advancing the Cardano ecosystem through active contributions to open-source projects. Our team plays a key role in developing and maintaining projects such as Vodka, Whisky, and MeshJS, ensuring tools are accessible and adaptable for the community. Collaborating with leading projects like Andamio and Maestro, we are deeply committed to fostering transparency, education, and community-driven innovation in blockchain development.

Approach Validation

Our contributions to Vodka and Whisky, used across Cardano, validate our approach to building reliable, community-oriented tools. These projects demonstrate our commitment to creating robust and scalable open-source solutions.

Technical Approach Feasibility Research

SIDAN Lab’s technical feasibility is grounded in its open-source ethos, with all major projects being publicly available for review, testing, and collaboration. This ensures continuous improvement and security, backed by transparency and public audits.

Open Source Project Contribution:

https://github.com/sidan-lab/vodka

https://github.com/sidan-lab/whisky

https://github.com/MeshJS/mesh

https://x.com/HinsonSIDAN/status/1829091343186178293

https://x.com/AndamioPlatform/status/1827010443346399423

https://x.com/GoMaestroOrg/status/1770853383559106806

Apart from open source contribution, we organise educational workshops and networking events below:

Cardano Summit 2024 - Cardano Community Events Organiser

https://x.com/Cardano_CF/status/1830996737093431760

Workshop:

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1832435052892057756

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1843283766162415690

https://x.com/HinsonSIDAN/status/1835544062465884523

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1834428644158320887

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1833882298711945280

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1829148308163686807

https://x.com/Waffle_Capital/status/1839140102163018208

https://x.com/Waffle_Capital/status/1762664453911216621

https://x.com/Waffle_Capital/status/1778647348010508759

Community meetup:

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1803831962878251360

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1777377206274249038

https://x.com/cwpaulm/status/1786026712880304437

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1829148308163686807

https://x.com/SIDANWhatever/status/1768592384185811205

Builder meetup:

https://x.com/HinsonSIDAN/status/1838258467423035643

https://x.com/jinglescode/status/1835974464879972526

Interviews:

https://x.com/astroboysoup/status/1753419416275124324

https://x.com/astroboysoup/status/1802673542485712951

https://x.com/cwpaulm/status/1788962110656971173

https://x.com/dapp_central/status/1754504114321436829

https://x.com/_MrHunt_/status/1777370848673902929

https://x.com/_MrHunt_/status/1783875170718925187/photo/1

https://x.com/_MrHunt_/status/1788228931591540959

IdeaFest:

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1808817394514866510

AMA:

https://x.com/sidan_lab/status/1810361746797801919

https://x.com/SociousDAO/status/1808305281694327019

https://x.com/monsterblockhk/status/1787733450528530752

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

Milestone 1: Preparation and Organization Setup (1 Month)

Objective: Establish a solid foundation for the project by setting up the necessary infrastructure, assembling the team, and defining project management practices.

Activities:

• Set up legal and administrative frameworks.
• Confirm core team members and advisors.
• Establish project management tools.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Legal entity established and operational.
• Public announcement on core team members and advisors.
• Project management tools and systems set up.

Milestone 2: Conceptual Architecture Design (1 month)

Objective: Develop the initial architectural framework to guide the development of the solution

Activities:

• Define user interaction workflows
• Prepare initial architectural diagrams

Acceptance Criteria & Evidence:

• Architecture design documents completed
• User workflow diagrams and system interaction flows completed

Milestone 3: Smart Contract Development (1 month)

Objective: Design and develop smart contracts at a prototype level

Activities:

• Develop smart contract source code with documentation
• Overview of the smart contracts and script specification

Acceptance Criteria & Evidence:

• Functional source code with comments and documentation.
• The document provides an overview of smart contracts and script specification

Acceptance Criteria & Evidence:

• Relevant Github links will be provided

Final Milestone (Milestone 4) : Deployment & Closeout (1 month)

Objective: Deploy the solution on the Cardano and complete final reporting

Activities:

• Deploy smart contracts and frontend on Cardano preproduction testnet
• Ensure the frontend website is functional and interacts correctly with the backend and smart contracts.
• Final close-out report
• Final closeout video

Acceptance Criteria & Evidence:

• Smart contracts are deployed and operational on the Cardano preproduction testnet. Github link will be provided for smart contract deployment
• Users can perform necessary actions through the website
• Close-out report submission
• Close-out video submission

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

The collaboration between SIDAN Lab and KnightSafe forms a team with expertise in full-stack development, finance, trading, and cybersecurity. With 14 full-time developers, the team excels in the smart contract and open-source project contributions on Cardano. In addition, the team benefits from KnightSafe’s experience in managing over $100 million in crypto assets and high-frequency trading (HFT), along with market-making strategies.

KnightSafe's team consists of eight full-time developers proficient in front-end, back-end, and smart contract development. Our tech management team, who used to manage a team of 200, equipped with over ten years’ experience in general-purpose programming languages as well as in solidity, is the perfect candidate to lead the development of KnightSafe.

Ethan Tong - Co-founder

• Managed over USD100m+ crypto AUM with 10+ years experience in HFT, market-making and arbitrage (3+ sharpe)
• Serial entrepreneur previously backed by top investors including Alan Howard, Dragonfly Capital, HashKey Capital & RIT Capital Partners
• Ex-UBS, Block.one, Macquarie, and Credit Suisse
• BEng (Computer Science) with First Class Honors from the University of Hong Kong
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethantong/

Richard Li - Co-founder

• Ex-software engineer at Harmonic (HLIT:NASDAQ) and held dual positions at a top Asia-based digital asset management platform as a portfolio manager and head of structured products
• Trading system architect with 10+ years experience leading development of pricing, system architecture and automation
• Scholar and US patents holder in data processing and encoding
• MPhil & BEng in Computer Engineering with First Class Honors from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-li-9b5b73240/

Philip Lam - Co-founder

• Director/Responsible Officer (RO) in multi-family offices/hedge funds with USD400m+ AUM
• CFA charterholder, Ex-Ernst & Young
• BBA (Accounting and Finance) from the University of Hong Kong with full scholarship
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-lam-84893398

SIDAN Lab consists of six full-time developers, proficient in front-end, back-end, and smart contract development within the Cardano ecosystem. Our team has extensive experience in decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain development. SIDAN Lab has successfully contributed to major open-source projects like Vodka, Whisky, and MeshJS.

Hinson Wong - Software Engineer

• Co-founder of DeltaDeFi - https://x.com/deltadefi
• Co-founder of SIDAN Lab - https://x.com/sidan_lab
• Team member of Gimbalabs, driving Hong Kong community
• Key contributor to MeshJS, a Cardano SDK for DApp development
• Ex-Citi, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hinsonwong/
• Github: https://github.com/hinsonsidan
• Twitter: https://x.com/hinsonsidan

Jackal Leung - Software Engineer

• Over 5 years in full-stack development in creating comprehensive software solutions that encompass both front-end and back-end components
• Extensive experience in high-frequency system architecture design and infrastructure development.
• Worked and contributed to a leading FinTech unicorn (Welab Bank) in HK
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackalleung/

Anson Chui - Cybersecurity Engineer

• Cybersecurity engineering work experience at Huobi, Hex Trust, and Deloitte
• Extensive experience in implementing and monitoring security controls to ensure system hardening, resilience, and integrity of mission-critical systems
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) & Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) & AWS Certified Solutions Architect
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anson-chui-219816158/ 

Neal Lam - UIUX & Media Designer

• Digital & Virtual Banking UIUX design experience at Livi bank
• Branding design experience
• Animation designer of a Hong Kong Key Opinion Leader (KOL) - mingjai (653K subscriber, Top 5 KOL in Hong Kong)
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neallam/

Kinson Cheung - Cardano Ecosystem & HFT Advisor

• Head of Incubation at Adaverse
• Experience in product marketing
• Extensive network with institutional traders in UK
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kinson-cheung-166979103/

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

Milestone 1: Preparation and Organization Setup

Activities budget:

• ADA 17,000 - Set up legal and administrative frameworks.
• ADA 15,000 - Confirm core team members and advisors.
• ADA 5,500 - Establish project management tools.

Total budget: ADA 37,500

Milestone 2: Conceptual Architecture Design

Activities:

• ADA 22,000 - Define user interaction workflows 
• ADA 15,500 - Prepare initial architectural diagrams

Total budget: ADA 37,500

Milestone 3: Smart Contract Development

Activities:

• ADA 17,000 - Design smart contracts
• ADA 20,500 - Develop smart contracts

Total budget: ADA 37,500

Milestone 4: Mainnet Deployment & Closeout

Activities:

• ADA 37,500 - Smart contracts and frontend operational on the mainnet
• Final project report submitted
• Closing video documenting project success uploaded

Total budget: ADA 37,500

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

This project delivers value by integrating KnightSafe’s proven liquidity strategies with the Cardano ecosystem. With over $30 million in Total Value Locked (TVL) and a strong track record of generating over $180 million in trading volume, KnightSafe’s integration will drive substantial liquidity to Cardano at a minimal cost. The project allows users to earn sustainable yields while maintaining control over their assets.