Cardano and the real world: A Blockchain-meets-the-Internet-of-Things-Starterkit

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

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

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

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

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

A multi-course web-app to build fun physical projects combining available Cardano APIs with IoT microcontrollers, attract builders from the Arduino / IoT community and teach Cardano in the process.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

[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.”

This project relies on APIs in the Cardano ecosystem such as Blockfrost, NMKR, Koios and others and will utilize the Arduino IDE. It will also seek active partnerships and collaborations with educational entities in the Cardano space.

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

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

All code examples including the Svelte-based web-app will be published under GNU GPLv3

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

Cardano has come a long way from the command line and the dark ages of Daedalus, we have openly available APIs, light/mobile wallets and other things to to easily interact with the blockchain now and still Cardano lacks wide-spread adoption.

This multi-course starterkit aims to build the bridge between Cardano and the real world in form of a web-app by fun and hands on examples connecting Cardano APIs such as Koios, Blockfrost, NMKR or others and Arduino based microcontrollers (D1 Mini, ESP32, etc.) and teach about Cardano in the process.

The target group for these courses reaches from general coding beginners or teachers interested in IoT or Blockchain to more experienced people from either the Cardano or the IoT/Arduino space who want to build fun stuff and learn about Cardano along the way.

Want to build your own physical Epoch clock? Light up the Christmas Tree every time your stake pool gets a new delegator or a transaction hits your wallet? Put real world sensor data directly on chain from a lowcost microcontroller? These courses will get you started.

Content will include full write ups of the required APIs, the needed Arduino code, hardware shopping lists and basic information to get you started on Cardano and Arduino microcontrollers.

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

The Cardano community will discover new fun ways to interact with their blockchain, build usecases nobody thought of until now and attract new builders in the process. From experience in the Arduino community, these projects can easily go viral and attract a lot of attention. Something Cardano urgently needs.

Collaborations with other educational entities in the space such as Gimbalabs, Lidonation or Adosia will be actively pursued and users are encouraged to send in their builds to be featured on the project website to prove impact.

[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?

I have been a freelance full stack web developer since Netscape Navigator was a thing and worked for companies like Deutsche Telekom, the Christo foundation, Samsung and others and have started out building physical objects that interact with data in the past years. I studied graphic and media design, and so my interest in making tech more accessible and bring code into reality has come along with it.

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

Concept and map out the five courses in detail, gather all needed information, write up the tutorials, gather and photograph the hardware parts. Design a user-friendly and tablet optimised web-app.

This part will be documented in form of a PDF including all drafts, layouts, etc.

Coding of the actual web-app with five tutorials, code examples, general introduction into Cardano / Blockchain / Arduino. Acceptance criteria will be the web-app itself.

Collaborate with other educational entities in the Cardano and Arduino community. Build out the web-app to allow user submissions to show impact and gather usecases people come up with in the process.

Gather statistical information (website visits, user entries, etc.) to show impact and build a final project report.

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

Dirk M. Kraft - Dev and Designer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmkraft/

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

Workshop Concept, Design and Layout Web-App

8500 ADA

Content Creation & Research

5000 ADA

Web-App Coding, Front and Backend

12000 ADA

Infrastructure: Domain and Server for 36 Months

1000 ADA

Hardware costs (microcontrollers, sensors, power supply, etc.)

500 ADA

Marketing, promotion and community management

3000 ADA

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

Costs were calculated based on a ADA price of 0,35 Euros and industry freelances rates in Berlin, Germany.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund 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.