DAO Controlled Staking Baskets - Multi-delegation Smart-contract governed by DAO holders

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Peyton Winget

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

Entity (Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

300000

[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)

Develop a DAO framework for Atrium's Staking Baskets, enabling stake pool operators/delegates to collaboratively govern rewards distribution.

[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.”

We work directly with Mlabs specifically for our Staking Basket smart-contract, however we also have relationships with two other smart-contract firms.

[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 underlying smart-contract will be open-sourced, and this portion will be able to be used by anyone directly in our app.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

Staking Baskets are a smart contract on the Cardano blockchain that takes the user’s ADA and delegates it across multiple pools in the ecosystem. For depositing the ADA, users will receive basket tokens that can be used to withdraw their initial ADA deposit + their rewards. These basket tokens are liquid and can be sent to other wallets. They can also be swapped on a DEX, given that there’s a liquidity pool. Diffusion, our first Staking Basket has been built and is now in the later stages of testing and integrating without our front end. 

In the innovative domain of decentralized finance (DeFi), Atrium's Staking Baskets represent a significant advancement for ADA holders, allowing diversified staking across various pools within the Cardano ecosystem. However, the current model highlights a central governance challenge: the reliance on administrators for critical functions like basket initialization, administration, and managing exchange rate updates and rebalancing. This centralized approach, while effective in some respects, poses risks related to security, transparency, and potential mismanagement.

The proposed integration of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) aims to address these challenges by shifting the governance from a central administrator to a collective decision-making process involving staking validators. This transition, however, introduces a complex engineering problem – the creation of robust on-chain and off-chain code that can seamlessly facilitate DAO operations within the Cardano ecosystem.

On-Chain Challenges:

• Smart Contract Complexity: Developing smart contracts that can effectively manage the nuanced operations of a DAO, such as voting mechanisms and execution of collective decisions, especially in the context of staking basket administration.
• Security and Safety: Ensuring the highest standards of security in the smart contracts to prevent vulnerabilities, particularly considering the DAO’s control over critical staking operations.
• Interoperability with Existing Protocols: Integrating DAO functionality with the existing Atrium Staking Baskets’ protocols, ensuring seamless interaction without disrupting current staking processes.

Off-Chain Challenges:

• Scalable and Efficient Infrastructure: Building a robust off-chain infrastructure that supports the DAO's operations, including voting systems, proposal management, and consensus mechanisms.
• Data Integrity and Synchronization: Ensuring real-time data integrity and synchronization between the on-chain and off-chain components, crucial for accurate decision-making and execution within the DAO.
• User Interface and Accessibility: Developing a user-friendly interface that allows stakeholders to interact with the DAO efficiently, promoting widespread participation and inclusivity.

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

With this proposal completed, any user or SPO could create a DAO governed Basket to incentivize delegation to multiple stakepool operators in the ecosystem. SPOs that are struggling to receive delegation could join together to market one Basket governed by their DAO token. This will allow them to fairly spit the reward, and attract more delegation while remaining single pool operators.

[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 team has significant experience in all areas needed to complete the Staking Basket bot. Mlabs is one of the most well respected development firms operating in the Cardano ecosystem, and have developed smart contracts for IOG, Sundae Labs, SingularityNet, Liquid Finance, and many more companies/projects. 

Our core team consists of multiple decades of front-end, back-end and full-stack experience, security experts and award winning designers with experience working for some of the largest most recognized brands in the world. Our founder Peyton, is the operator behind Bloom, one of the largest stake pools in the ecosystem responsible for minting the 8th block on the Cardano blockchain. All team members are Cardano community natives, with a love for the community and a united vision in building products that serve the ecosystem.

We've already created the Staking Basket smart-contract.

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

Submit a spec for how Staking Baskets DAO will work.

Submit an early design for Staking Basket governance in app.

Submit an MVP with Staking Basket voting on a testnet.

Submit a video of Staking Basket voting through a stylized front-end on Cardano's preview network with voting data to verify the video is real data.

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

Peyton: trium Lab - Co-founder

Ben: trium Lab - Co-founder and Creative Director

Brian: trium Lab - Lead Developer

Nick: trium Lab - Backend developer

Angelo: trium Lab - Full Stack Developer

Cheyenne: trium Lab - Community management

MLabs - Smart Contract developer

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

75k ADA - Smart-contract development

75k ADA - Off-chain code development

25k ADA - Front-end design

75k ADA - Front-end & backend code creation

50k ADA - Front-end & backend integration with smart-contract & voting system

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

Smart contract and tooling development can be very costly. We have invested a significant amount of our time and resources in building the underlying contract and it’s bot. It is near completion, and when it is delivered, it will help enhance decentralization and spread stake further across the network. In our opinion, this is an extremely valuable proposition for the Cardano ecosystem. There’s no risk we won’t ship the Staking Basket DAO framework.

[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