Mobile First Swift Cardano Building Blocks

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

Mobile First Swift Cardano Building Blocks

[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

12

[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?

Cardano open source environment lacks native mobile libraries. As mobile user share grows globally, this limits adoption and hinders building secure and private Mobile apps with full Cardano support.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://github.com/beatt83/jose-swift
,
• https://github.com/beatt83/didcomm-swift
,
• https://github.com/beatt83/didcore-swift
,
• https://www.digitalsilk.com/digital-trends/mobile-vs-desktop-traffic-share/

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

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

Yes

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

Apple already published open sourced frameworks like swift-crypto and swift-nio

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

License and Additional Information

All this proposal outputs will be open-sourced on Apache 2.0 License

[Theme Selection] Theme

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

Developer Tools

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

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

The project will use the Apache 2.0 license, a widely adopted, OSI-approved permissive license. It allows anyone to use, modify, and distribute the libraries freely, with clear patent protection. This ensures compatibility with the broader Cardano ecosystem, lowers barriers for startups and enterprises, and encourages community contributions while keeping the code open, secure, and commercially friendly.

Further upon project completion all the repositories should be moved to a organization that incentivises cooperation like IOG/Cardano Foundation/Hyperledger.

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

From the start, all code will be hosted publicly on GitHub under Apache 2.0 with a clear README, roadmap, and regular updates. Developers can track progress through issues, tags, changelogs, and our GitHub Project board, which gives visibility into current status and tasks. We’ll share milestones on the Cardano Forum, social channels, and Catalyst updates so the community can follow, contribute, and provide feedback at every stage.

How will you provide high quality documentation?

We’ll provide clear, developer-focused documentation hosted alongside the code. This includes getting-started guides, API references, and code examples in Swift. We’ll maintain docs in Markdown using Docc (Apple Documentation software) with automated deployment to GitHub Pages, ensuring they’re always up to date with releases. Tutorials, sample apps, and inline comments will make the libraries easy to adopt, while community feedback will guide improvements.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

Our solution is to create a set of modular, open-source Swift libraries that give developers the building blocks they need to interact with Cardano directly from mobile devices, without wrappers or external dependencies.

The goal is to make Cardano development feel as natural and seamless as any other modern Swift framework. Developers should be able to import a package, write Swift code, and have immediate access to Cardano’s core capabilities.

The project will be organized around several modules:

• a Ledger library to encode/decode the blockchain native data structures from CBOR to Swift data structures
• an Ouroboros networking library implementing the mini-protocols for connecting, syncing with the chain and submitting transactions
• an Addresses library for creating and managing HD and stake addresses
• a dedicated Transactions library for building transactions.

What we want to achieve is simple but powerful:

• The ability to connect with Cardano nodes, follow the blockchain, and retrieve block headers and blocks.
• Support for decoding and encoding Cardano’s native data structures (blocks, block headers, transactions, UTXOs) across all eras.
• The capability to create, sign, and submit transactions directly from a mobile device, without the need of a server.
• Full address management, with modern cryptographic security.

Although the first focus will be on Mobile, we want to design this project with the multiplatform future in mind. The same codebase and continuous integration pipelines will support macOS, watchOS, tvOS and VisionOS but also Linux for testing. We also want to leave the door open to emerging targets like Windows, WebAssembly, Android and Java via JNI.

The libraries will take full advantage of modern Swift capabilities, including async/await and structured concurrency for safety, actors to avoid data races, Codable for reliable serialization, and Swift Package Manager for easy integration. APIs will be designed to feel natural and easy to Swift developers, using declarative patterns where it makes sense.

We will build on Apple’s own open-source foundations to maximize performance and platform reach. swift-crypto will provide audited cryptographic primitives like Ed25519, while swift-nio will power the asynchronous networking layer required for Ouroboros mini-protocols. By aligning with these libraries, we gain both reliability and compatibility across Apple and non-Apple platforms.

Documentation will be a key part of the project. From the start, we will use Apple DocC to generate an Apple-like documentation experience, complete with tutorials, guides, and API references that integrate directly into Xcode. This will be complemented by sample applications and hosted documentation online, making it easy for developers to explore and adopt the libraries.

In short, our solution is about creating the foundations for native Cardano development on mobile, designed with Swift developers in mind but open to a broader multiplatform future. With this approach, building wallets, explorers, and dApps that interact directly with Cardano will become straightforward, secure, and fully mobile-first.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

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

This proposal has the potential to deliver both immediate value to developers and long-term strategic benefits to the Cardano ecosystem.

Direct impact comes from enabling native Swift developers to build Cardano applications directly on Mobile without wrappers or server dependencies. This makes it possible to create secure wallets, dApps, and tools that interact directly with the blockchain while keeping keys and sensitive data on the device. It improves both developer productivity, user security and privacy, aligning with Cardano’s vision of decentralization.

For the ecosystem, these libraries become foundational. Instead of every Catalyst team re-implementing address handling, transaction encoding, or node connectivity, this project provides a shared, audited codebase. That lowers barriers to entry, accelerates project delivery, and ensures consistency across applications. Having a canonical Ledger module (data structures + CBOR codecs) will also reduce fragmentation and strengthen developer trust.

This project is a significant step toward bringing Verifiable Digital Records (VDR) to the mobile world. Today, most Cardano VDR implementations rely on servers as intermediaries. With this proposal, we enable implementation that will be able to verify credentials natively on mobile devices without routing through centralized services. This keeps the trust model fully decentralized and user-controlled.

In the long term, these libraries also serve as the building blocks of a future Light Node that can run on any device. By implementing the network protocols, data structures, and transaction handling natively in Swift, we set the stage for a fully functional Cardano light client that works on mobile, desktop, and even emerging platforms like WebAssembly. This unlocks mainstream blockchain use cases where resource-constrained devices can still fully participate in the network.

Strategically, this project also positions Cardano to leap ahead: by focusing on security, privacy, and a mobile-first but multiplatform-ready design, we can make Cardano development a natural fit for Apple’s ecosystem of developers and users.

In short, this proposal creates the foundations for secure, performant, and accessible Cardano development on mobile. It will accelerate Catalyst projects, enable new consumer and enterprise apps, bring VDR directly to mobile without servers, and pave the way for a true Cardano Light Node that can run anywhere.

[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?

I have already validated the feasibility of this approach through a private proof-of-concept project. In that POC, I was able to connect to a Cardano node, fetch the chain and blocks, decode the full blockchain, and successfully build and submit a transaction. This demonstrates that the technical path is sound. The goal of this proposal is to evolve that prototype into a production-ready, open-source development toolkit. Adding stronger architecture, modular design, comprehensive testing, logging, documentation, and CI pipelines.

I bring over 17 years of experience in Apple development (Objective-C and Swift), working across the full spectrum of companies from small startups to large enterprises such as HSBC and several fintechs. Over the past four years, I have been an engineer at IOHK/IOG, where I worked with Atala (now Identus). I was the main architect of the SDKs and the sole developer of the Swift SDK, gaining deep experience in cryptography, decentralized identity, and blockchain tooling.

In addition to professional work, I actively contribute to the open-source ecosystem. I maintain several Swift libraries with Apache 2.0 license designed to drive Web3 adoption, including (links as part of the proposal):

• A DIDComm library fully written in Swift.
• A DID Core library implementing decentralized identifiers.
• jose-swift, a complete implementation of JOSE standards (JWS, JWE, JWT), supporting all cryptographic specifications and running on Apple platforms, Linux, Windows, and Android.

This track record shows both my technical expertise and my commitment to building tools that are open, standards-based, and usable across multiple platforms.

With this background, I am confident in my ability to deliver this project with a high degree of trust and accountability. The community can expect transparent development (public GitHub, CI, roadmap, milestones) and proven engineering practices from someone who has already delivered production-grade SDKs and open-source cryptographic libraries at scale.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Swift Ledger Module

Milestone Outputs

The Ledger module provides the data structure for all existing eras of the Cardano blockchain.

This module scope is responsible for:

• Declaring the data structure for each era
• Encode/Decode in CBOR each type correctly for each era
• Tests that fully cover the coding of the data structures in each era
• Document fully how to encode/decode, the structures and members with docuentation already avaiable in cardano

Acceptance Criteria

The acceptance criteria for this module is:

• Github public repository created and Apache 2.0 license setup.
• Setup github project for task tracking.
• CI setup to successfully test on all Apple platforms and Linux.
• CI setup to automaically create a github release using semantic version and publish the documentation on github pages.
• All eras have encoding and decoding test data running and passing with more than 90% coverage.
• First github release published.

Evidence of Completion

The github repository created, with a github release published and the documentation published on github pages, in addition the Tests should be green and the tasks for Milestone 1 should be all marked as Done.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

20000

Progress

20 %

Milestone Title

Swift Ouroboros Module

Milestone Outputs

The Ouroboros Module provides all the network components needed to connect and exchange messages with the ouroboros layer.

This module scope is responsible for:

• Define a Multiplexer pipeline with swift-nio.
• Provide implementation of both client and server of the following miniprotocols (Handshake, KeepAlive, ChainSink, BlockFetch, TxSubmission).
• Define an Agent and provide implmentations of a client agent (that can connect to a node) and a server agent (that can receive connections of a node).
• Provide an easy to use API for connecting and use the clients empowering the usage of Swift concurrency.
• Tests that fully cover each of the mini protocol imlementations, as well E2E tests between Client and Server agents.
• Documentation fully specifying each component, members and functions as well as a set of tutorials and demos on how to setup both client and server agents.

Acceptance Criteria

The acceptance criteria for this module is:

• Have a full demo showing the capabilities of this module, where we can have a client agent talking with a server agent and successfully run the following tasks (using mocked data):
  • Success achieved with Handshake protocol.
  • Success keeping alive the connection with KeepAlive protocol.
  • Success retrieving a set of block headers with ChainSink protocol.
  • Success fetching the blocks for each block header received with BlockFetch protocol.
• Have a full demo showing the client agent connecting with a cardano node and achieve the same as the previous subtasks.
• All tests should be green with 90% of coverage in this module.
• Documentatio should be released in github pages.
• A github release should be published.

Evidence of Completion

The best evidence for the completion of this milestone is running the demo against a cardano node and checking if there was no errors trying to retrieve the data, as well as using the Ledger module to decode th blocks received. Besides that the tests should be green and all the tasks for Milestone 2 should be marked as done.

Delivery Month

5

Cost

25000

Progress

20 %

Milestone Title

Swift Addresses Module

Milestone Outputs

The Addresses module defines all the components needed that define Byron and Shelley addresses, creation of this addresses and parsing:

• Define Byron and Shelley addresses types and encoding/decoding implementations
• Support the address types public key, script, redeem and others.
• Extract address properties.
• Build addresses and derivation.
• It should support all the following CIPs: CIP‑19, CIP‑5, CIP‑1852, CIP‑11, CIP‑18.
• Test and cover the encoding/decoding as well as the correct parsing of addresses and creation of addresses.
• Document with support of tutorials and demo how to create, decode and derivate addresses.

Acceptance Criteria

The acceptance criteria for this module is:

• A demo showing the module can:
  • Successfully parse valid Byron and Shelley addresses, using the defined encoding/decoding implementations.
  • Build valid addresses from supported types (public key, script, redeem, stake).
  • Extract and display key address properties such as network ID, credential type, and stake reference.
  • Derive addresses correctly from extended public keys according to the supported derivation schemes.
• Tests should confirm:
  • Round-trip encode/decode for Byron and Shelley addresses.
  • Correct handling of all supported address types.
  • Successful property extraction and validation of network and checksum.
  • Correct derivation behavior for multiple paths.
  • The implementation should support the specifications defined in CIP-19, CIP-5, CIP-1852, CIP-11, and CIP-18.
  • Documentation should include API references, usage guides, and examples of parsing, building, and deriving addresses.
• All tests should be green with at least 90% coverage in this module.
• Documentation should be released via GitHub Pages (DocC).
• A GitHub release should be published containing the module.

Evidence of Completion

The best evidence for the completion of this milestone is running the demo that builds and parses Byron and Shelley addresses of different types, extracting their properties and validating them successfully. In addition, derived addresses should match expected test vectors. All tests must be green, and all tasks for this milestone should be marked as done.

Delivery Month

8

Cost

20000

Progress

20 %

Milestone Title

Swift Transactions Module

Milestone Outputs

The Transactions module defines the processes to build and validate a transaction on Conway/Babbage era and validate transactions:

• Construct transaction bodies with inputs, outputs (including multi-asset), change, metadata, certificates, withdrawals, required signers, validity intervals.
• Estimate and apply transaction fees based on protocol parameters.
• Work with the Ledger module for input selection and change handling.
• Ensure structural correctness: no duplicate inputs, correct network IDs, min-ADA requirements, proper ordering.
• Produce signing payloads for external key modules.
• Inject witness sets into transactions.
• Provide comprehensive tests covering transaction building and structural validation.
• Deliver full documentation of the transaction API, including tutorials and demos on creating and submitting transactions.

Acceptance Criteria

The acceptance criteria for this module is:

• Demo(s):
  • Build a valid Conway/Babbage transaction with inputs, multi‑asset outputs, metadata, certificates, withdrawals, required signers, and validity intervals.
  • Estimate and apply fees from protocol parameters.
  • Integrate with the UTxO module to balance and produce correct change.
  • Produce a signing payload, attach witness sets, and serialize the signed transaction.
  • Submit a signed transaction to a Cardano node using the Ouroboros TxSubmission client and confirm acceptance (e.g., receive SubmitSuccess or equivalent and show tx id).
  • Provide a “mocked mode” demo exercising the same flow without a live node.
• Tests:
  • Round‑trip encode/decode of constructed transactions using Ledger CBOR types.
  • Fee calculation and change correctness under multiple protocol parameter sets.
  • Coverage of all supported Conway/Babbage fields.
  • Negative tests for structural errors (duplicate inputs, wrong network ID, min‑ADA violations, bad ordering) with clear errors.
• Documentation:
  • Full API reference (DocC) for builders, validators, and submission helpers.
  • Tutorials & demos: building, balancing, signing, and submitting via TxSubmission.
  • Documentation published to GitHub Pages.
• All tests green with ≥90% coverage for this module.
• A tagged GitHub release.

Evidence of Completion

The best evidence for the completion of this milestone is running the demo that builds, balances, signs, and successfully submits a transaction through the TxSubmission client to a Cardano node, with the node confirming acceptance of the transaction. Additional evidence includes running the demo in mocked mode to verify transaction construction without a live node.

All round-trip encode/decode tests using the Ledger CBOR types should pass, fee and change handling should be validated against protocol parameters, and negative tests should confirm that invalid transactions are correctly rejected.

Finally, all tasks for this milestone should be marked as done, tests should be green with at least 90% coverage, documentation should be available on GitHub Pages, and a GitHub release should be published containing the module.

Delivery Month

11

Cost

25000

Progress

30 %

Milestone Title

Final integration and benchmarks

Milestone Outputs

The scope of this milestone is to create fully functional demos that integrate all developed modules (Ledger, Ouroboros, Addresses, Transactions) running on both mobile (iOS/iPadOS) and macOS platforms. These demos will show end-to-end workflows such as connecting to a node, syncing, parsing blocks, building transactions, and submitting them to the network.

In addition, this milestone will deliver a comprehensive benchmark and performance testing suite, executed across supported platforms. This will include:

• Benchmark tests measuring serialization/deserialization throughput for blocks, headers, and transactions.
• Performance tests for transaction building, balancing, and fee calculation at different transaction sizes.

These demos and benchmarks will provide clear, practical validation that the libraries are ready for real-world use and highlight their performance across Apple platforms.

Acceptance Criteria

The acceptance criteria for this milestone is:

• Demos
  • A demo mobile app (iOS/iPadOS) and a demo macOS app that integrate all modules (Ledger, Ouroboros, Addresses, UTxO, Transactions).
  • The demos should successfully:
    • Connect to a Cardano node and sync headers/blocks.
    • Parse and display block/transaction data using the Ledger module.
    • Build, balance, and sign a transaction using UTxO, Addresses, and Transactions modules.
    • Submit the transaction via Ouroboros TxSubmission and confirm acceptance.
• Benchmarks & Tests
  • Provide benchmark results for CBOR serialization/deserialization throughput on blocks, headers, and transactions.
  • Provide performance tests for transaction building, balancing, and fee calculation at different transaction sizes.
• Documentation
  • Publish step-by-step guides for running the demos on iOS/iPadOS and macOS.
  • Publish benchmark results and methodology, with clear instructions for reproducing them.
• All benchmarks and tests should pass with reproducible results.
• All tasks for this milestone marked as done.

• Documentation published via GitHub Pages.
  

• A GitHub release.

Evidence of Completion

The best evidence for the completion of this milestone is running the demo applications on iOS/iPadOS and macOS, successfully connecting to a Cardano node, syncing block headers and blocks, parsing blockchain data, and submitting a transaction via TxSubmission. In addition, benchmark reports should demonstrate throughput for serialization, transaction building, fee calculation, and chain sync performance across different devices and platforms. Load, stress, and scalability test results should be documented and reproducible. All automated tests must be green, milestone tasks marked as complete, and final documentation published to GitHub Pages. Finally, a GitHub release should be published containing both the demo applications and the benchmark suite.

Delivery Month

12

Cost

10000

Progress

10 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Here is a budget breakdown of the cost:

Milestone 1

ADA 20000

Milestone 2

ADA 25000

Milestone 3

ADA 20000

Milestone 4

ADA 25000

Milestone 5

ADA 10000

Total = 100k

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

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

The value of this project comes from enabling true native development for Cardano on mobile and Apple platforms, where most users now interact with digital services. By providing open-source Swift libraries, developers gain the tools to build wallets, dApps, and services that operate directly on-device, without wrappers or reliance on external servers. This ensures greater security, privacy, and performance, while lowering barriers for developers to innovate.

The cost of this project is therefore not just about writing code, but about empowering developers with reusable, well-documented, and production-ready building blocks. This accelerates the creation of new applications, strengthens the developer experience, and fosters a richer ecosystem around Cardano. By investing once in high-quality libraries, Catalyst ensures many future projects can build faster, safer, and with consistent standards.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes