FrenPay - Cardano Native Payment Gateway

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

FrenPay - Cardano Native Payment Gateway

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

100000

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

8

[Proposal Summary] Translation Information

Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated

No

Original Language

en

[Proposal Summary] Problem Statement

What is the problem you want to solve?

Major e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Wix lack native Cardano (ADA) support, creating barriers to online transactions and leaving a $10+ billion market untapped.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://frenpay.frenbot.app

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

https://github.com/IntersectMBO/cardano-node, https://github.com/CardanoSolutions/ogmios, https://github.com/CardanoSolutions/kupo

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

License and Additional Information

MIT License

[Theme Selection] Theme

Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal

E-commerce

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Mention your open source license and describe your open source license rationale.

We chose MIT License for its permissive nature, enabling free use, modification, and distribution in commercial/non-commercial projects. This encourages maximum community participation and reduces legal barriers for businesses implementing our Cardano payment gateway. MIT's compatibility with other open source licenses ensures seamless integration with existing e-commerce tools, accelerating widespread adoption across the Cardano ecosystem.

How do you make sure your source code is accessible to the public from project start, and people are informed?

Our code will be publicly available on GitHub from day one with real-time commits. We'll maintain clear documentation, README files, contribution guidelines, and project roadmaps. Regular updates will be shared through Cardano community channels and social media. Public issue tracking and discussion boards enable community feedback from project inception, ensuring transparency throughout development.

How will you provide high quality documentation?

We'll provide comprehensive documentation including API references, step-by-step integration guides, and practical code examples. Documentation will feature tutorials, troubleshooting guides, technical specifications, and architectural diagrams. Community contributions will be encouraged with regular reviews and user feedback integration.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

Help us create a foundation for cardano's future in e-commerce. In the current landscape of e-commerce, leading platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Wix dominate with millions of active users, yet none provide native support for the Cardano (ADA) cryptocurrency. This lack of integration presents significant barriers to utilizing Cardano in online transactions, resulting in a staggering untapped market exceeding $10 billion.

Key Issues:

1. Absence of Native Cardano Integration: E-commerce platforms do not natively accept ADA payments, preventing businesses from leveraging the benefits of Cardano's unique eUTXO model in executing transactions.
2. Centralized Payment Processing: Payment transactions are routed through third-party custodial services like Coinbase, diluting the benefits of blockchain and increasing reliance on external entities.
3. Zero Native Wallet Integration: Only manual send mode is supported, placing the onus on third-party vendors to validate payment integrity. This introduces potential risks and delays, while popular Cardano wallets like Lace, Vespr, Eternl, and others remain unsupported.
4. Zero Native Token Payment Support: None of the available third-party payment gateways can accommodate Cardano native token payments, further limiting consumer choice and flexibility.
5. High Integration Complexity: Cardano's unique architecture and tooling, although more robust, secure, and industry-leading, present daunting challenges for new developers attempting to integrate node infrastructure, native tooling integration, and wallet support.

These challenges create a critical need for a comprehensive, easy-to-install and user-friendly Cardano payment gateway solution that facilitates seamless transactions across popular e-commerce platforms, ultimately supporting the broader adoption of Cardano in real-world applications. By addressing these barriers, our proposal aims to catalyze the integration of ADA payments into the e-commerce ecosystem, fostering a more inclusive digital economy.

This Catalyst fund request will support the development of a Node.js SDK and payment gateway dashboard with easily configurable settings that interact with cardano-node. This solution enables developers without deep Cardano blockchain knowledge to quickly deploy and set up payment gateway systems to accept ADA payments through popular Cardano native wallets including Lace, Vespr, Eternl, and other leading wallet solutions.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

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

Enable seamless native Cardano payment integration with ADA and native tokens through an intuitive API interface for payment processing and confirmation. Businesses can deploy self-hosted solutions with unified dashboards to manage products, payment options, and fee structures without relying on third-party custodial services, promoting true decentralization in e-commerce payments.

This solution will:

• Accelerate Developer Adoption: Lower technical barriers enable mainstream developers to integrate Cardano payments, expanding the developer ecosystem significantly.

• Unlock Market Potential: Bridge the $10+ billion e-commerce gap by connecting major platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix) with Cardano's payment infrastructure.

• Enhance Real-World Utility: Transform ADA from speculative asset to practical payment method, driving organic transaction volume and ecosystem value.

• Strengthen Decentralization: Eliminate dependency on centralized payment processors, allowing businesses to maintain full control over their payment infrastructure while leveraging Cardano's security.

• Foster Innovation: Provide foundation for future native token commerce, NFT marketplaces, and DeFi-integrated payment solutions.

• Improve User Experience: Enable direct wallet-to-merchant transactions through popular wallets (Lace, Vespr, Eternl), creating familiar payment flows for Cardano users.

[Your Project and Solution] Capabilities & 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?

Fren & RushLabs brings 5-6 years of proven experience within the Cardano community, having successfully developed and deployed frenbot.app, which has become the ecosystem's most popular memecoin trading bot. Our team possesses deep expertise in Cardano tooling, node infrastructure, and wallet integrations, combined with a demonstrated track record of delivering full-stack web platform solutions with rapid turnaround times. We have established relationships throughout the Cardano developer community and maintain active production systems handling significant transaction volumes. To validate our approach's feasibility, we will integrate the first version of our payment gateway system into our existing frenbot platform and Fren merch store, providing real-world testing environments and immediate proof of concept. Additionally, we have identified potential early-stage partners within the Cardano ecosystem who are committed to participating in trial runs, ensuring comprehensive testing across diverse use cases and providing valuable feedback for system refinement before broader community release.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Core infrastructure & wallet integration

Milestone Outputs

• Deploy the core node infrastructure (MVP architecture) and transaction‑monitoring components
• Tooling & network configuration to interact with node infrastructure
• Integrate major Cardano wallets (Nami, Eternl, Vespr, Lace)
• Build the foundation for an eUTXO‑transaction CBOR builder.

Acceptance Criteria

• A Cardano node with required tooling running and reachable by frenpay backend
• Transaction monitor reliably detects and logs on‑chain transactions
• Wallet connectors can sign and submit transactions from at least two wallets
• Basic CBOR builder for eUTXO transactions produces valid transaction bodies.

Evidence of Completion

• Architecture diagrams and deployment scripts
• logs showing stable node connections and transaction monitoring
• demo video of wallet integration
• code repository with CBOR builder functions.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

30000

Progress

20 %

Milestone Title

Backend & transaction management system

Milestone Outputs

• Build the FrenPay backend including RESTful APIs for a core transaction management system (list, detail, monitor)
• store‑management functionality
• authentication/permissions
• database schema, and security hardening.
• Implement & integrate the eUTXO CBOR builder fully
• integrate a price oracle for ADA↔USD conversion, and publish an initial Node.js SDK for testing.

Acceptance Criteria

• API endpoints for creating/listing/monitoring transactions respond correctly and conform to documentation
• Store and user management (CRUD operations) work with proper authentication and role‑based access
• The eUTXO builder generates valid CBOR signed transactions
• Price oracle returns accurate, real‑time ADA prices
• Node.js SDK successfully wraps API calls and handles authentication
• Basic security audit shows no critical vulnerabilities.

Evidence of Completion

• API documentation and open-source code
• sample requests/responses demonstrating transaction management
• unit/integration tests logs & screenshots
• code for price‑oracle integration
• published Node.js SDK with example usage

Delivery Month

2

Cost

25000

Progress

40 %

Milestone Title

UI & dashboard creation

Milestone Outputs

Design and implement the merchant dashboard and user interface:

• dashboard wireframes
• order page with status tracking
• configuration interface for merchants
• reusable payment gateway UI components
• Ensure seamless integration with the backend APIs and optimise the user experience

Acceptance Criteria

• Merchants can log in via the dashboard, view transaction lists/details, and configure payment settings
• UI matches approved wireframes and is responsive across devices
• Order statuses update in real time via backend APIs
• UX testing with pilot users shows the interface is intuitive

Evidence of Completion

Staging version of the dashboard accessible to reviewers

screenshots and a demo video of key user flows

design documents/wireframes

feedback reports from UX tests

source code repository.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

25000

Milestone Title

Testing, documentation & merchant onboarding

Milestone Outputs

• Develop a comprehensive testing suite (unit, integration, end‑to‑end)
• conduct QA processes
• complete user and developer documentation
• finalise the Node.js SDK
• implement the webhook & email notification system
• integrate the price oracle into production flows
• onboard at least one pilot merchant to process real transactions.

Acceptance Criteria

• Documentation (API reference, setup guides, merchant onboarding docs) is complete and publicly available
• Webhook system reliably sends event notifications (e.g., payment received, confirmation) and email alerts
• The Node.js SDK is feature‑complete, published, and used by a test merchant
• At least one merchant processes ADA payments end‑to‑end through FrenPay, demonstrating price conversion and fund receipt

Evidence of Completion

• Test reports and coverage statistics
• published documentation
• logs showing webhook/email notifications
• final SDK package with example integrations
• merchant sign‑off and transaction records from pilot onboarding.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

20000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Core infrastructure & wallet integration - 30% - 30,000A

Backend & transaction management system - 25% - 25,000A

UI & dashboard creation - 25% - 25,000A

Testing, documentation & onboarding - 20% - 20,000A

Total - 100,000A

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?

FrenPay delivers exceptional value to the Cardano ecosystem by enabling native ADA payments without relying on third-party intermediaries.

Merchants and developers will be able to accept ADA directly in their own wallets via secure wallet connectors (Nami, Eternl, Lace, Vespr), backed by a robust transaction-monitoring and eUTXO CBOR-building backend. This native, on-chain approach reduces friction for adoption, eliminates unnecessary off-chain processors, and keeps more transaction volume on Cardano, directly increasing network usage, transaction fees, and long-term utility.

The project’s deliverables include open-source SDKs, fully documented developer APIs, and a merchant dashboard, all designed to lower integration barriers and make it straightforward for developers and businesses to integrate Cardano payments. By providing merchant-friendly tooling, FrenPay can onboard real-world businesses to ADA payments, taking Cardano beyond speculation into everyday commerce.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes