cPoker Development

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Patrik Suzzi

[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

Randall

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

295000

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

Develop cPoker, a decentralized poker solution with UI, smart contract integration, and real-time protocol, providing a full working game

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

The project is divided into several repositories on GitHub. Most of them are fully open-source, MIT dual-licensed. One of the repositories contains algorithms closely related to our core business, which we cannot disclose at this time, in order to maintain a competitive advantage. 

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

We are developing cPoker, a decentralized poker game on the Cardano blockchain. This solution addresses the lack of decentralized poker options, providing a fair, transparent, and trustless gaming experience.Our project engages present and future Cardano community members by providing a new, exciting way to use the ADA token and the wider gaming community by offering a fair and secure poker platform.

This project reuses two of our previous projects: "Cardano After Dark - Hold’em poker", and "DRED - Decentralized REDis State Channel", along with the output of our submission for the Emurgo hackathon: "zk-poker", as a base for a PoC, simulating three decentralized poker agents interacting through a state channel: executing a three-players poker hand.

PoCs

As PoC, we first developed a Command Line application and then a WebApp.

The WebApp PoC is accessible here: https://tinyurl.com/cpoker-poc

(Open the link on your browser, hit F12 to open developer tools, show Javascript console to check the interactions between dAgents)

For clarity, we have added a video explaining how the PoC works, and what information is most relevant to understanding the poker protocol and the basics of interaction with dAgents:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk4mnFuO4dM

Solution

Starting from the above PoCs, we're building an interactive, real-time, decentralized app, which will allow to play non-custodial poker through the Cardano blockchain.

Once the project is finished, we will present the product both to the Cardano community and to the general public. The impact will be demonstrated by the number of users using the application and on the total value of ADA or test-ADA played on the contract.

Another relevant impact factor for the team is the reuse of public code / infrastructure to create other real-time applications on Cardano, which will be measured by the number of interactions with other teams, and by the number of applications using the state channel infrastructure.

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

Impact:

Poker is a very easy way to increase the user base on the Cardano community. Increasing engagement will increase the TVL in the Cardano blockchain and increase the utility of Cardano for the general population.

Our Solution is a unique application, a first of its kind not only for the Cardano blockchain - but for the blockchain in general.

• For the Cardano community represents both an opportunity to tap into the online poker market, and a concrete example of real-time interactive application that can be replicated by other proposers who want to build similar interactive dApps
• For our team represents the opportunity to build a real-world product, and transform this into a viable business, which will not be limited to poker only, but to decentralized solutions, like online games and other real-time dApps, and therefore benefit the community.
• For poker players represents an improvement, compared to the rake-based game offered by online casinos. In fact, using blockchain it is possible to decentralize poker and avoid centralized exploitation. And, assuming the numbers are enough, this represents a benefit for the community which will see its figures increasing.

Measuring Success:

The success of the project will be measured by:

• Completing the working application
• The number of active users
• the volume of transactions within the game
• Sustainable revenue for Cardano After Dark treasury and contributors
• community feedback and engagements
• and growth in value locked on the Cardano blockchain

As the users will be onboarded only at project completion, we plan to host onboarding sessions to gather user feedback, which will provide insights into the project’s impact and help refine the game for optimal UX. 

A strong indicator of success will be having a working cPoker application, with a growing number of users for the dApp.

Outputs:

The outputs and results of the project will be shared through multiple channels, updating the community via twitter, discord, and ATHs for regular community engagement. When done, the project will be publicly available on GitHub, except for core business modules. Additionally, we will collaborate with Cardano’s developer community, organizing workshops and webinars to share knowledge, discuss our solutions, and encourage further R&D activities related to decentralized multi-player games and similar interactions.

Regarding the project's impact on further R&D, the output of this project will serve as foundation for future endeavours. We have already identified potential applications that can benefit of improved interaction, particularly within the gaming and decentralized governance domains. By leveraging the output and the knowledge gained from this project, we aim to drive innovation and explore new possibilities.

[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?

Our capability can be demonstrated by what we have already done, what we are doing, how we are working together, and by the reputation of the team members:

• we developed DRED, a foundational library at the core of this proposal. The DRED project was managed and successfully delivered by this same team.
• we are developing a commercial gaming application using DRED, of which we have a working PoC. The example that we create with this proposal is simpler version of our application.
• the team is capable, meets regularly, and has a good track record of github commits, and of published documentation and videos for the current projects
• several team members are well-known in the community

The feasibility of our approach is validated according to

• Scientific approach: We started from Kaleidoscope and Royale(Cardano Papers), and we proceeded by steps that we can reproduce, understand, explain, and innovate beyond the limits of the papers.
• Incremental progress: we broke down the problem in subproblems, which makes it easier to solve different aspects: Cardano After Dark for Poker UI ; DRED to implement a State channel, zkpoker: to enable zk-proof of validity, and our latest PoC demonstrating we can perform a TEG-Shuffle and run a poker protocol with encrypted cards.
• Pragmatic approach: incremental testing during development, incremental assessment of the deliverables for the project milestones
• Feedback loop from community sessions and from users.

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

M1 (1 mo): 

Acceptance Criteria:

• prove integration of Elgamal threshold encryption

• Deliverable: test of Elgamal threshold encryption
• Outcome: group-cryptography is enabled

M2 (1 mo):

Acceptance Criteria:

• connect poker game context with UI
• partial implementation of smart contract features

• Outcome: connect poker game context with UI
• Outcome: partial implementation of smart contract features
• Deliverable: video demonstration of the results
• Deliverable: show the requirements of the smart contract

M3 (2 mo):

Acceptance Criteria:

• development on cPoker application: all poker rules implemented in the dApp
• outlining our risks for building and continuing to build a decentralized open source poker platform after publishing it

• Outcome: progressive development on cPoker application
• Output: Document risks for building and operating a decentralized poker platform after publishing it.
• Deliverable: Source code (dApp), Demo video.

M4 (2 mo):

Acceptance Criteria:

• complete cPoker MVP with smart contract, poker protocol, real-time communications
• integrate in-game bets
• integrate smart contract
• onboard users
• bug fixes (if applicable)

• Outcome: completed cPoker development with integrated in-game bets 
• Outcome: Open an alpha version on testnet
• Deliverable: Source code (dApp, SmartContract), demo video

N/A

For the Final Milestone, we present the results of M4:

Acceptance Criteria:

• Outcome: completed cPoker development with integrated in-game bets 
• Outcome: Open an alpha version on testnet
• Deliverable: Source code (dApp, SmartContract), demo video

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

P.Suzzi, Developer, SW Engineer - www.linkedin.com/in/psuzzi

Jake G. - Developer, SW Engineer - www.linkedin.com/in/jake...

Randall - Software architect, 20+ years exposure to cryptography, accounting, and application development - www.linkedin.com/in/randall...

Seomon - Project Manager, IT Consultant, Experienced Cardano Contributor

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

Overall, we did compute the total expenditure based on the team size, location, and using a market rate well below average in our locations.

The core team is made of four members, all software professionals living in the U.S. and E.U.

After careful evaluation based on past experiences, ~50%FTE worked, and possible risks, we determined that the team needs around 75 k₳ per month (~ 18.5 k$/mo) to work properly.

It is worth to note that, with such an amount, we can cater for unforeseen circumstances, like team member replacements, or market volatility, but we can hardly afford an extra developer or smart contract developer in case this might be needed in order to complete the project quicker.

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

The project represents significant value for money, considering the potential volume of players that this application can bring in Cardano, and the potential effect that the application can be used as an example to replicate dApp real-time interactivity.

Besides, the team cost is significantly competitive and below the market rate, giving team member locations, roles, and skills required for this project. As an example, for the American team members, the average wages for contracting software engineers (in CA or TX) are well above the 10 k$/month, while for the European team members (DE, AT) the average wages are around 7 k€/month.

[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.

I Accept