Csign: Feature Development and Improvements

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Jon Bauer

[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

251843

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

10

[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)

Csign will expand its feature set and improve user experience in 4 key categories: Certification, Encrypted Storage, KYC, and Infrastructure.

[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.”

Csign is built on Hyperledger Identus, an open-source Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) framework that is part of the Hyperledger suite of blockchain and identity projects. Hyperledger Identus, formerly known as Atala PRISM, provides components to develop decentralized identity solutions adhering to widely recognized SSI standards.

Csign has been working with Identus since its private version 2 beta and has become an active participant in its developer and contributor community.

The Csign Engineering team will be presenting at this year's Hyperledger Maintainer Days Summit in San Francisco and have two proposals in Fund 13 to contribute directly to it's core development.

[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

Csign is not currently open source.

Our engineers, Roberto Carvajal and Jon Bauer are currently writing a developer-centric book about creating applications with Identus (Atala PRISM), funded by Catalyst Fund 11. “Mastering Identus: A Developer’s Handbook” contains advice, workarounds and tricks we learned by building the Csign proof of concept. We are choosing to give back to the community in the form of a book rather than make Csign open source for now. The book describes most of what’s required to build something similar to Csign, including open source example apps.

[METADATA] Horizons

Privacy

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Csign currently lets users sign and certify any digital file in a privacy-preserving way.

With the support of Catalyst Fund 13, we will improve the Csign experience in four key areas:

Certification:

• We will enhance the document signing user experience. Currently users sign agreements digitally via Verifiable Credential. Fund 13 work will allow signers to add a natural looking signature to a PDF document itself.
• We will make it easier for users to find their agreement transaction on chain. When a Csign agreement is certified, an DID for the agreement is issued on Cardano. We will improve the experience of finding that transaction and displaying transaction information on Csign.

Encrypted Storage:

• All files uploaded to Csign are encrypted with the user’s keys and can never be read by Csign. Those files are stored on our server and are completely private between a document Creator and its Signers. We know users may want to store these files in other places. BYOS (Bring Your Own Storage) will allow users to pick from remote storage platforms and upload encrypted files to locations in their own control. We will ask the community which services they would like support for and we add support for the most popular option (Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, etc)

KYC:

• Csign does not require KYC for Creators or Signers, but for certain agreements, there is additional value in knowing who the participants are. We will integrate optional KYC into the Agreement flow, allowing users to be verified via a KYC Verifiable Credential.  

Infrastructure:

• All digital products on the internet require servers, bandwidth, and maintenance, and Csign is no different. Our team has two decades of experience scaling web applications. Fund 13 funds will help us scale our Self-Sovereign Identity architecture and ensure Csign will be available to the community for the next 12 months.

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

The success of Csign will bring significant value to the Cardano community by providing a secure, privacy-preserving solution for certifying agreements between parties.

This impact can be measured and shared in several ways:

Ecosystem Enhancement

Csign addresses a critical need in the maturing Cardano ecosystem by offering a native, blockchain-based platform for document signing and agreement certification.

This solution will:

• Strengthen trust and legitimacy in inter-business agreements within the Cardano ecosystem
• Enhance privacy and security for all users, from individuals to large organizations
• Showcase the practical applications of Cardano technologies, particularly Self-Sovereign Identity (Identus/Atala PRISM)

By providing a secure, privacy-focused agreement certification platform, Csign will not only serve the immediate needs of the Cardano community but also demonstrate the ecosystem's capability to deliver practical, enterprise-grade solutions. This will attract more users and developers to the Cardano ecosystem, driving adoption and innovation.

[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?

Csign is functional and available now for testing and feedback: https://www.csign.io

We have been active in the Identus (Atala PRISM) developer and contributor community and thanks to a Fund 11 Catalyst grant, Jon Bauer and Roberto Carvajal are writing “Mastering Identus: A Developer’s Handbook”, which is a developer-centric technical reference for developing with Identus ( Atala PRISM ). Csign was built with early versions of Identus, before it was open sourced and we have helped the project by reporting bugs and contributing fixes and workarounds.

Beyond Atala PRISM, our team is made up of highly experienced digital product designers and engineers. We have created applications for the world’s most famous brands, and are excited to be working together on cutting edge digital identity product ideas.

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

Duration: 1 Month

Certification:

• We will design the improved signing experience. Users will be able to add a natural looking signature directly to a PDF document similar to other existing platforms.
• We will evaluate multiple solutions for reading transactions from Cardano. Csign already does this but we can integrate the results in the Csign UI more directly. We will determine our approach during this Milestone.

Encrypted Storage:

• We will create an online survey, so the community can vote for their favorite 3rd party storage platform. Proof will be the publicly available Survey
• We will design BYOS UX, how users can connect to your own storage, and all flows related to storing files on other services. Proof will be screenshots from a Figma design file

KYC:

• We will design our KYC integration UX. We will show how users display as “verified” and how other users will view their KYC status. We will design how KYC flow will look.
• We will select a KYC vendor based on research and pricing negotiation.

Infrastructure:

• We will set up dedicated development servers for Csign, using the Infrastructure budget from Milestone 1. Proof will be receipts of payment from our server vendors

Duration: 1 Month

Certification:

• We will begin work on the new signing experience. This work will be Frontend Engineering work, displaying PDF files and allowing someone to add a signature.
•  We will begin work on integrating transaction data directly into Csign

Encrypted Storage:

• We will set up API Keys and development accounts for the most popular BYOS platform selected in Milestone 1. We will create an authenticated connection with the platform.

KYC:

• We will integrate the basic KYC flow using our vendor’s SDK. 
• This experience will not be modified yet and may be incomplete at this stage

Infrastructure:

• We will continue to use a dedicated development environment for Csign, using the Infrastructure budget from Milestone 2. Proof will be receipts of payment from our server vendors

Duration: 2 Months

Certification:

• We will continue work on the new signing experience. This work will be Frontend Engineering work, displaying PDF files and allowing someone to add a signature.
• We will continue work on integrating transaction data directly into Csign

Encrypted Storage:

• We will integrate platform SDK or API store encrypted files on the selected platform. 

KYC:

• We will continue to modify and streamline our KYC vendor’s SDK integration.  

Infrastructure:

• We will continue to use a dedicated development environment for Csign, using the Infrastructure budget from Milestone 3. Proof will be receipts of payment from our server vendors

Duration: 2 Months

Certification:

• We will continue work on the new signing experience. This work will be Frontend Engineering work, displaying PDF files and allowing someone to add a signature
• We will continue work on integrating transaction data directly into Csign

Encrypted Storage:

• We will continue to integrate platform SDK or API store encrypted files on the selected platform. Users will be able to download encrypted files and decrypt them securely

KYC:

• We will continue to modify, customize our KYC vendor’s SDK integration and skin the user experience to match the Csign look and feel.

Infrastructure:

• We will continue to use a dedicated development environment for Csign, using the Infrastructure budget from Milestone 4. Proof will be receipts of payment from our server vendors

Duration: 3 Months

Certification:

• We will begin testing the new signing experience in our staging environment 
• We will have transaction data displaying directly in the CSign user interface in our staging environment.

Encrypted Storage:

• We will begin testing BYOS in our staging environment. Users will be able to display their files after decrypting them. We will add Platform account configuration in the Csign User Profile screen so users can maintain their BYOS Storage credentials like API Key or authentication tokens (Specifics depend on each platform’s requirements)

KYC:

• We will do final testing of our KYC flow in our staging environment.

Infrastructure:

• We will continue to use a dedicated development environment for Csign, using the Infrastructure budget from Milestone 5. Proof will be receipts of payment from our server vendors

Duration: 1 Month

Certification:

• We will perform testing of the new document signing flow on our production environment.
• We will perform testing of the transaction data displaying in the Csign UI in our production enviornment.

Encrypted Storage:

• We will perform testing of the BYOS selected platform, using multiple production accounts

KYC:

• We will flip our KYC vendor’s SDK into production mode and run final testing in production.

Infrastructure:

• We will continue to use a dedicated development environment for Csign, using the Infrastructure budget from Milestone 6. Proof will be receipts of payment from our server vendors.
• We will set up and begin to use the Production instances of Csign, allowing for a 12 month runway Infrastructure runway. Proof will be a screenshot of the money in a dedicated account, to be drafted from our server hosting vendors on a monthly basis going forward.

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

Matthew Merino - CEO

x: https://x.com/matthewbmerino

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

Jon Bauer - Product Lead

x: https://x.com/coveloper

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

Roberto Carvajal - Lead Engineer

x: https://x.com/netkrash

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

Mal Som - Product Design

x: https://x.com/errthangisalive

linkedin:

We have worked together on Csign for well over a year and have been present at both Rare Bloom 2023 in Denver and Rare Evo 2024 in Las Vegas.

Matthew graduated from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 2020, where he earned a double major in Finance and Data Science. In addition to co-founding and investing in Csign, he actively manages his investment portfolio.

Jon is an iOS developer that has been building software products since 1995, from the early days of the web, through the e-commerce revolution, and to modern day mobile and large-scale platform deployments. Jon has worked on number one app store titles like Pandora Music, and built applications for major brands such as Visa, Gatorade, and the Grammys.

Roberto is a full stack developer with a background in security and encryption. He has crafted advanced SSI applications and is currently co-authoring a definitive resource for identity software developers with Jon, titled, “Mastering Identus: A Developer’s Handbook”.

Mal has lead the design efforts for major companies like Zalando, Edmunds, and BlockFi.

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

*Budget Calculated in ADA at today’s ADA price of $0.34 USD

Milestone 1: 37,175 ADA / ~$12,640 USD

Certification:

• Design Enhanced Signing Flow UX: 9,411 ADA
• Tx Reading Research/Evaluation: 9,411 ADA

Encrypted Storage:

• Create/Publish Survey: Free
• Design BYOS: 7,059 ADA

KYC:

• Design KYC UX: 6,118 ADA
• Evaluate KYC Vendors: 2,353 ADA

Infrastructure:

• Milestone 1: 2,823 ADA

Milestone 2: 35,762 ADA / ~$12,160 USD

Certification:

• Frontend Engineering for enhanced signing experience: 18,823 ADA
• Project Management for Enhanced Frontend Experience: 2,352 ADA
• Backend Engineering for reading transaction data into Csign: 3,764 ADA

Encrypted Storage:

• Backend Engineering for setting up 3rd party storage platform: 1,882 ADA

KYC:

• Frontend Engineering for KYC integration (UI): 7,059 ADA

Infrastructure:

• - Milestone 2: 1,882 ADA

Milestone 3: 40,937 ADA / ~$13919 USD

Certification:

• Frontend Engineering for enhanced signing experience: 18,823 ADA
• Project Management for Enhanced Frontend Experience: 2,352 ADA
• Backend Engineering for reading transaction data into Csign: 3,764 ADA

Encrypted Storage:

• Backend Engineering for setting up 3rd party storage platform: 1,882 ADA
• Frontend Engineering for setting up 3rd party storage platform: 1,882 ADA

KYC:

• Frontend Engineering for KYC integration: 4,705 ADA
• Backend Engineering for KYC integration: 5,647 ADA

Infrastructure:

• Milestone 3: 1,882 ADA

Milestone 4: 47,995 ADA / ~$16,318 USD

Certification:

• Design Enhanced Signing Experience UX Revisions: 3,764 ADA
• Frontend Engineering for enhanced signing experience: 18,823 ADA
• Project Management for Enhanced Frontend Experience: 2,352 ADA
• Backend Engineering for reading transaction data into Csign: 3,764 ADA

Encrypted Storage:

• Backend Engineering for setting up 3rd party storage platform: 1,882 ADA
• Frontend Engineering for setting up 3rd party storage platform: 1,882 ADA

KYC:

• Design KYC UX Revisions: 3,764 ADA
• Frontend Engineering for KYC integration: 5,647 ADA
• Backend Engineering for KYC integration: 4,235 ADA

Infrastructure:

• Milestone 3: 1,882 ADA

Milestone 5: 42,082 ADA / ~$14,308 USD

Certification:

• QA for enhanced signing experience: 3,764 ADA
• Project Management for enhanced signing experience QA/Revisions/Bugs: 3,764 ADA
• Frontend Engineering for enhanced signing experience (fixing bugs/revisions): 7,058 ADA
• Frontend Engineering for displaying transaction data in Csign UI: 1,882 ADA

Encrypted Storage:

• QA for BYOS: 3,764 ADA / ~$1280
• Project Management for BYOS QA/Revisions/Bugs: 3,764 ADA
• Frontend Engineering for BYOS (User Profile BYOS Credentials admin): 4,705 ADA
• Frontend Engineering for BYOS (fixing bugs/revisions): 4,705 ADA

KYC:

• QA for KYC flow: $1280
• Project Management for KYC QA/Revisions/Bugs: 2,352 ADA
• Frontend Engineering for KYC (fixing bugs/revisions): 4,705 ADA
• Backend Engineering for KYC (fixing bugs/revisions): 4,705 ADA

Infrastructure:

• Phase 5: 1,882 ADA

Final Milestone: 47,892 ADA / ~$16,283 USD

Certification:

• QA for Enhanced Signing Flow: 2,352 ADA
• QA for Transaction Data integration: 914 ADA

Encrypted Storage:

• QA for BYOS: 2,352 ADA

KYC:

• Turn on KYC in production: 470 ADA

Infrastructure:

• Phase 6: 14,117 ADA

Misc: 27,687 ADA / ~$9413.45 USD

Total: 251,843 ADA / ~$85,627

Budget Breakdown:

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

Identus (Atala PRISM) Infrastructure is too complex and expensive for companies to run in-house.

Unlike traditional “web2” applications, Self-Sovereign Identity applications require multiple servers and services interacting as Issuers, Holders and Verifiers, as well as dedicated servers for Horizontally scaled Mediators which negotiate secure messages between peers. 

By abstracting the complexity away into Csign and Csign API, the Cardano community will be able to leverage the power and privacy of SSI at a much lower cost, on a per agreement or subscription cost.

We hope making this technology accessible to everyone will add tremendous value to a variety of Cardano-based applications.

We believe in the future of the Cardano Ecosystem and we want to partner with you all!

Thank you for your consideration!