urble by Brick Towers - enable on-chain privacy for retail savings platform

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Ralph Hofacker

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

Entity (Incorporated)

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

5

[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)

Personal data of urble users is kept private when interacting with their savings and other urble users on-chain. Data is only shared on a need-to-know basis. This shall be enabled by Midnight.

[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

No, urble will be distributed as a mobile application and the source of the app will stay proprietary. The smart contract code will be fully open-sourced and audited. Any reusable Midnight libraries developed during the project will be fully open-sourced.

[METADATA] Horizons

Privacy

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

For a general introduction to urble and its use cases, please refer to the proposal https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/132764.

With this proposal, we want to run a feasibility study and derive a concept to implement the urble platform in parts on Midnight. We will focus with this concept study on the following privacy aspects:

1. Storage and usage of personal data, required for using urble and for KYC & AML purposes
2. Sharing of personal data between urble users
3. Wallet and savings plan balances
4. Transactions
5. Savings plan conditions and validations made by nominated individuals

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

One of the key aspects for achieving mass adoption of Cardano and more generally public blockchains as a technology is solving for privacy when it comes to information stored on-chain. Midnight together with Cardano aims to solve this. With urble, we are keen to build out the next-generation global savings solution and require these privacy aspects to be tackled, in order to achieve the required cross-border adoption. With this proposal, we will provide a detailed feasibility study that gives concrete guidance on how to deal with privacy aspects in relation to GDPR, nFDAP technically, so that other market participants can run their projects much quicker using this guidance and increase the appetite to build on Cardano. We will work together with the Midnight team to discuss, conceptualize, and develop the above-mentioned use cases on Midnight testnet, when and where possible. 

[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?

Brick Towers consists of 4 co-founders (2 business/product, 2 full-stack engineers) who have combined expertise in traditional finance and blockchain-based technology and products. Before co-founding Brick Towers, we delivered regulated accumulation, decumulation, one-off, and accumulation-decumulation savings products at Leonteq (first IPOed FinTech in Switzerland) for the Swiss and European insurance and banking market, together with some of the largest Swiss insurance companies and banks (Helvetia, Mobiliar, Raiffeisen, Glarner Kantonalbank).

In the blockchain and Web3 industry, the Co-Founders have worked with and delivered key solutions for Pillar Project, Digital Asset and Noumena Digital. With Brick Towers, we build a global savings platform to access and make digital assets yielding. Our non-custodial staking service is SOC 2 Type II certified. Within this certification, Privacy and Confidentiality are two of the five trust service principles we adhered to. 

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

For this concept study, we have the following milestones with corresponding acceptance criteria and artifacts:

Milestone 1: urble privacy concerns

Outline in detail all privacy concerns urble features and which have to be tackled/resolved

Acceptance Criteria:

• Document which highlights scope and process of the privacy concept study, conducted on Midnight / Cardano

Artifacts:

• Document with above-mentioned structure

Milestone 2: Research with Midnight

Conduct interviews with Midnight experts and study the Midnight platform to understand how privacy concerns can be addressed

Acceptance Criteria:

• Clear identification of potential to address privacy requirements and what cannot be addressed (yet)

Artifacts:

• Updated document that covers the outcome of the interviews conducted and highlights what can be achieved with Midnight and what not

Milestone 3: Implementation of privacy-preserving features

Develop an identified use case for a privacy-preservation on Midnight testnet

Acceptance Criteria:

• Based on the previous milestone, a privacy-preserving method has been established on Midnight testnet

Artifacts:

• Code artifact evidencing privacy preservation
• Video of the product demo

Milestone 4: Finalisation of concept study

Based on previous achieved milestones, conclude the concept study

Acceptance Criteria:

• Document reflects all research and development work from previous milestones

Artifacts:

• Final document with project close-out report

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

Christian Dick - Research Analyst (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-dick/)

Christian will bring his extensive expertise in traditional financial systems, especially in areas such as trading, portfolio management, and long-term savings solutions, to the urble project. His role will focus on analyzing the project’s integration with Midnight privacy technologies, ensuring that the savings and pension solutions offered are both innovative and fully preserve the user’s privacy.

With a solid background in building financial products with banks and insurance companies, as well as his experience in tokenization and governance processes, Christian is well-positioned to analyze the key elements of decentralized finance. His leadership in innovative crypto solutions and DAOs provides him with a unique perspective to assess the feasibility of privacy-preserving and self-custodial frameworks, adding significant value to the project.

Sergey Kisel - Senior Full-stack Engineer and Solution Architect (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kisel/)

Sergey brings a wealth of expertise to the urble project, drawing on his extensive experience in developing DLT-based solutions and banking-grade investment platforms designed for long-term savings. Leveraging his recent work in wallet integration, he will ensure a smooth incorporation of wallet functionality and fiat on-ramps into the platform, improving both the user experience and the underlying technical framework.

With a strong background in building digital asset platforms and leading pension solutions, Sergey is well-equipped to address the challenges of developing self-custodial wallet systems and personalized savings plans. His deep focus on software architecture and blockchain-based savings mechanisms makes him a key contributor to designing systems that align with urble’s vision of offering alternative private savings solutions.

Imants Firsts - Senior Full-stack Engineer and Smart Contract Developer (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firsts/)

Imants will bring to the urble project deep expertise in building decentralized, scalable solutions. His role will focus on designing and implementing the smart contract framework that underpins the digital savings plans within urble. Leveraging his knowledge of blockchain technology, particularly with Cardano and Midnight, Imants will ensure that the platform is secure, efficient, and capable of supporting personalized, multi-party savings interactions. His contributions will be vital to achieving key milestones, such as the creation of the urble wallet, savings plan smart contracts, and integration with on-/off-ramps.

With over 20 years of experience in software engineering, Imants has worked on large-scale cloud solutions, leveraging functional programming languages like Scala to deliver high-quality, secure applications. His background includes developing stable coin issuance and digital savings platforms as well as automating complex financial processes, which align perfectly with the core goals of urble. Imants' expertise in cloud architecture, security, and blockchain technology makes him a valuable asset to the team, as he applies his first-principles approach to solving the technical challenges of decentralized financial systems.

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

Milestone 1: urble privacy concerns

Total Duration: 30 Days

• Privacy Solution Design Document: 20,000 ADA

Total: 20,000 ADA

Milestone 2: Research with Midnight

Total Duration: 30 Days

• Research and Interviews: 15,000 ADA
• Privacy Solution Design Document: 15,000 ADA

Total: 30,000 ADA

Milestone 3: Implementation of privacy-preserving features

Total Duration: 60 Days

• Solution Architect: 15,000 ADA
• Smart Contract Developer: 35,000 ADA

Total: 50,000 ADA

Milestone 4: Finalisation of concept study

Total Duration: 30 Days

• Privacy Solution Design Document: 15,000 ADA
• Solution Architect: 5,000 ADA0

Total: 20,000 ADA

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

The urble privacy project creates value for money to the Cardano ecosystem by addressing a fundamental issue: enabling privacy in on-chain transactions. This proposal aims to implement a privacy-preserving mechanism, leveraging Midnight and Cardano’s infrastructure to ensure users’ personal and financial data remains confidential. This is crucial for promoting the mass adoption of blockchain technology, as privacy concerns are often cited as barriers.

Enhanced User Privacy and Security on Cardano: By integrating Midnight to handle sensitive personal data, urble ensures that users' savings and interactions remain private. This provides a much-needed feature for a global audience, addressing both regulatory and personal concerns around privacy, especially in regions with strict data protection laws like GDPR in Europe. This integration reinforces Cardano as a blockchain platform that takes privacy seriously.

Collaborative Ecosystem Development: The project will work closely with Midnight, the privacy-focused sidechain, and tap into developer resources of the Cardano ecosystem to test and implement privacy-preserving solutions. This collaboration strengthens the overall ecosystem, creating new use cases and possibilities for privacy-enabled applications on Cardano, thereby making Cardano more attractive for privacy-conscious developers and users.

Foundational Infrastructure for Privacy-Conscious Financial Solutions: The feasibility study, interviews, and implementation tests conducted in this proposal will not only serve urble but also create a privacy-preserving blueprint for the entire Cardano ecosystem. This framework could be applied to other financial applications, including those in DeFi, expanding the utility and competitiveness of Cardano as a blockchain network.