Paideia - Building Blocks for Complex Treasury Management

[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)

This proposal will enable DAOs to facilitate robust governance activity in an automated, decentralized, transparent, and completely trustless manner.

Test prototype: https://app.paideia.im

[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.”

The smart contract designs require some level of on-chain data persistence. Paideia utilizes AVL trees for data persistence on Ergo, while our Cardano implementation will employ Merkle Trees, whereby we store hashed data in contracts to allow state to pass from block to block. https://github.com/cardano-foundation/merkle-tree-java

Based on our research, we expect the Paideia platform/model will be successfully implemented using the Merkle Tree method above, which is well documented and open-source. Any additional research will be shared with the project to contribute further to open-source technology on Cardano.

[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

Project will be fully open source under the GPL license. This means that any derivative software must also be open source. We look forward to others using our code for future projects in the Cardano ecosystem.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

The problem Paideia is addressing is the lack of fully decentralized, transparent, and automated treasury management systems for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) on the Cardano blockchain. Current solutions on Cardano, while offering some elements of decentralized governance, do not allow for on-chain treasury management that is completely automated and decentralized, thus not fully embodying the core principles of DAOs.

Paideia aims to solve this problem by providing simple-to-use DAO tooling that will allow members to manage on-chain governance in a truly decentralized manner. Unlike existing solutions, our platform will ensure that DAO treasuries can be locked on-chain and votes will be required to spend those treasuries, thereby eliminating the need for trust or control by a select few individuals.

Users can make proposals and these proposals can include an automated action, such as a treasury expenditure. These votes could be accessed directly on-chain without using any Web2 section to ensure decentralization and automation take place.

Our solution is geared towards any project launching on Cardano that has a governance token. We expect these projects to benefit from our tooling, as it will free up their developers' time to focus on their core functionalities instead of building their own governance tools.

Please test our proof-of-concept here: https://app.paideia.im

bPaideia test tokens available here: https://ergofaucet.org/

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

We believe this project is essential to Cardano because it not only brings in much-needed functionality but also supports the broader vision of Cardano for a truly decentralized and autonomous blockchain ecosystem. If projects can advertise that they are operating as DAO's, with decentralization, transparency, and automated governance, they will be able to generate trust in their community and focus more on building for the Cardano ecosystem.

[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?

The project will be managed by Marty, who has experience managing Coinecta Finance, Ergopad, Paideia, and Crux Finance, which are all in different stages of development, and also experience as a freelance web developer with a small team of contractors that help complete projects. The team that created Paideia on Ergo will be part of the Cardano production, and developers with Cardano experience will be hired to fill in any gaps in our team.

Our main goal is to develop advanced governance features for Cardano, offering a comprehensive tool for managing on-chain governance in a decentralized, transparent, and trustless way.

To validate our approach, we will:

• Develop the contracts and conduct rigorous testing to ensure its functionality and security.
• Track our project success metrics, such as ecosystem usage, to ensure we are reaching our goals.

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

Milestone 1 Deliverables: Functional smart contracts.

Milestone 1 Outputs: Enable Cardano DAO’s to have advanced governance capabilities.

Milestone 1 Outcomes: Development completion, ready for contract audit.

Milestone 2 Deliverables: Community tested open source Paideia contracts.

Milestone 2 Outputs: Increased community awareness

Milestone 2 Outcomes: Wide usage of these new robust features.

Final Milestone: Community adoption.

Outputs: Increase in number of DAOs operating on Cardano.

Outcomes: Increased activity of existing Cardano DAOs.

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

Marty

Founder, Front-end developer

https://github.com/esot321c/ 

https://twitter.com/esot321c 

Marty has been a blockchain enthusiast since 2013. In the earlier years of Bitcoin, he was hosting primers to introduce and explain the technology to newcomers. He has been a freelance developer for a number of years, recently transferring that experience into project management for Ergopad and Paideia on the Ergo blockchain.

Marty believes that cryptocurrency and DeFi allow people to have more freedom to use their money how they see fit, and provide tools to prevent government overreach, when used correctly. Part of his motivation for getting into blockchain app development was to produce software that takes advantage of the decentralized and immutable nature of blockchain, allowing average people to benefit from that. 

Marty also takes on the role of front-end developer when needed, and will continue to do so with Paideia. He will assist with connecting the Paideia front-end to the new back-end and off-chain code designed for Cardano. 

Luivatra

Backend and Smart-Contract Developer

https://github.com/Luivatra/ 

https://twitter.com/Luivatra

Luivatra has many years experience in fintech software development. He has been a member of this team since pre-funding, and designed and built the on- and off-chain functionality for Paideia on Ergo. 

Lui has an Msc. in Computer Science and Games & Media Technology, and worked in TradFi as a Software Engineer and Software Architect for 10+ years.

Noob77777

Full stack developer

https://github.com/noob77777 

https://twitter.com/abhishekpc3po 

Noob joined the Paideia team pre-funding, and has been instrumental in building the backend services needed to run both the Ergopad launchpad and Paideia. He designed a general purpose blockchain notification system, and will continue to provide innovative solutions on the Coinecta platform.

Noob has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and enjoys learning about Distributed Systems and Databases. He will continue to help design optimized back-end solutions for Paideia and future platforms.

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

• Smart Contracts: ₳145,000
• Testing and Quality Assurance ₳20,000
• Project Management: ₳20,000
• Documentation: ₳10,000

All developers will be contracted and are accounted for within the budget.

For project management, we will utilize tools like GitHub for code management, Trello or Github Issues for project management, and Discord for team communication, none of which require additional expenditure. We are fully committed to managing these funds responsibly to deliver the project as per the proposal.

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

The proposal cost is ₳195,000. The costs have been calculated based on the average wages for the respective roles, and considering the complexity and the expected duration of the project.

This investment represents significant value for money for the Cardano ecosystem. The planned solution aims to integrate DAO technology in a novel way. This will potentially drive more users and developers to the Cardano ecosystem. Many projects launch their token with touted governance utility and Paideia can provide the tools to actually manage it.

Paideia will also serve as a foundational piece that could be leveraged for numerous further developments, thereby enhancing the overall potential of the Cardano platform. The advancements required in Merkle Tree research for on-chain data persistence will be useful to many other projects in the ecosystem, and anything we build for Paideia will be open-source and documented. 

In addition, our team is composed of highly experienced professionals who have a proven track record in delivering quality work. This not only increases the likelihood of successful project completion but also ensures efficient use of funds. The knowledge and expertise we will gather during the project execution will also feed back into the Cardano ecosystem, as we plan to share our learnings with the community, further enhancing its value.