Cardano Catalyst Projects - Metrics & Insights

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

Cardano Catalyst Projects - Metrics & Insights

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

45000

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

8

[Proposal Summary] Problem Statement

What is the problem you want to solve?

The Cardano ecosystem is growing rapidly with diverse projects, but scattered info across platforms makes it hard to track progress—especially for Catalyst-funded, non-token initiatives.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://cardanoprojects.com
,
• https://docs.cardanoprojects.com
,
• https://github.com/Workharu/cardano-projects-ui

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

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

Yes

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

Yes the data we use are all coming from Project Catalyst itself and some of the data in future will be coming from different sources like X, Reddit and on-chain libraries as well.

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

License and Additional Information

The Apache License 2.0 is a permissive open-source license that allows users to freely use, modify, distribute, and sublicense the software. It provides an explicit grant of patent rights from contributors to users. Users must include a copy of the license and provide attribution. It does not require derived works to be open source. It protects contributors from liability and trademark use.

[Theme Selection] Theme

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

Analytics

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Describe what makes your idea innovative compared to what has been previously funded (whether by you or others).

This platform offers unified tracking across all Cardano projects—tokens, DeFi, NFTs, social impact, and governance—consolidated in one dashboard. It features a multi-metric rating system including community engagement, milestones, uniqueness, and alignment with UN SDGs for fair, data-driven comparisons. By focusing on Project Catalyst-funded initiatives, it fills a key gap with real-time analytics. Leveraging AI techniques like vector embeddings and zero-shot classification, it simplifies categorization and project comparison.

Describe what your prototype or MVP will demonstrate, and where it can be accessed.

Currently this project is on-going in dev environment which can be accessed from https://cardanoprojects.com

• Created basic UI design for home page.
• A uniqueness metric for distinguishing between other projects.
• Added basic project detail page.
• Categorized all projects to its campaigns as well.

Describe realistic measures of success, ideally with on-chain metrics.

Our project's success will be measured by its ability to deliver tangible, data-driven value to the Cardano community. We will track both qualitative and quantitative metrics, with a strong focus on on-chain data to demonstrate our platform's direct impact on the ecosystem.

Our platform, "Cardano Projects Insights," will focus on providing deep, on-chain analysis. Our success will be directly tied to the following measurable on-chain indicators likes TVL , Token Activity etc.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

We propose creating a system that uses different types of metrics to better understand, compare, and track projects. Here’s how it works:

1. Looking at Projects from Different Angles:

Instead of just checking how popular or funded a project is, we use a variety of metrics to see it from different perspectives. This includes:

• What makes the project unique (e.g., is it solving a new problem?)

• Who it's helping (e.g., is it for local communities, education, environment?)

• How active it is (e.g., are developers still working on it? Is the community involved?)

2. Tracking Progress Over Time:

We don’t just look at a project once — we track it continuously. Using activity metrics, we can see if the project is moving forward, reaching its milestones, and staying active. This helps us know whether a project is growing or has gone inactive.

3. Linking to Global Goals (UN SDGs):

We also check if a project fits into any of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — like quality education, clean energy, or reducing inequality. This shows the real-world impact and helps funders or voters support projects that contribute to a better world.

Why this matters:

This approach helps everyone — from funders and community members to voters and developers — clearly understand what each project is about, how valuable it could be, and whether it's making progress. It's a fairer, more complete way to evaluate and support impactful initiatives.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

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

This project will make it a lot easier for people in the Cardano community to see what funded projects are actually doing. Right now, it's hard to track progress or figure out which projects are really making a difference. By using clear, easy-to-understand metrics — like how active a project is, what makes it unique, and whether it's creating real-world impact — we give the community a better way to judge and follow projects.

This helps in a few ways: it builds more trust in the funding process, it helps voters make smarter decisions, and it encourages teams to stay active and accountable. Plus, by showing how projects connect to things like the UN’s sustainability goals, we can highlight which ones are really aiming to do some good beyond just tech.

In short, it’s about bringing more clarity and fairness into the ecosystem, so great ideas can get noticed and supported — and everyone in the community feels more confident about where things are going.

[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?

Our team has a lot of experience with Cardano Catalyst projects, particularly on the web and backend side. I’ve personally worked on several projects with Empowa, including the Cardano Summit 2024 NFT project. My more than a decade of experience in backend and cloud engineering means I'm confident we can hit every milestone.

To get a jump start, we've already created a basic UI and collected data on every Cardano project from Fund 2 to Fund 13. This preliminary work has given us key insights and a solid foundation for developing the project's metrics. We’re a motivated and energetic team that's ready to deliver.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Metric Calculation Engine (Initial phase)

Milestone Outputs

1. Metric Calculation Engine: A backend service or ETL pipeline that can ingest scraped data and calculate the defined metrics. This will be the "brains" of your insights platform. The engine should be able to compute Social Impact, Uniqueness, and Activity scores for each Cardano Catalyst project.
2. API Endpoints for Metrics: New API endpoints that expose the calculated metrics for each project. UI will call these endpoints to fetch the data needed for display.

Acceptance Criteria

Accuracy: The metric calculation engine must accurately compute each metric according to its defined formula. For example, the Social Impact Score must correctly aggregate data from multiple social community and group.

Evidence of Completion

Code Repository: A link to the code repository showing the new backend services for metric calculation and the new API endpoints.

Live Demo/Test Environment: A live, accessible version of the application that showcases the new metrics using backend API documentation. This allows developers to know and learn about the overall metrics findings.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

10000

Progress

30 %

Milestone Title

UI & UX Integration

Milestone Outputs

This milestone focuses on bringing the metrics from your backend to life for the end user. It's about building the front-end components and making the data digestible and interactive.

• Metric-Enhanced Project Dashboards: The UI for each project will be enhanced with new dashboards, sections, or sidebars that clearly display the calculated metrics (Social Impact Score, Uniqueness, Activity, etc.).

• Search & Filtering Capabilities: Update the search and filtering functionalities to allow users to discover projects based on the new metrics. For instance, filtering by "projects with a Social Impact Score above 80" or "projects with high Activity metrics."

Acceptance Criteria

Visual Fidelity: The new UI components must be visually consistent with the existing design and be responsive on various screen sizes.

Performance: The UI must render the new metric data quickly without causing noticeable delays or performance issues for the user.

Clarity: The information presented must be easy for a non-technical user to understand, with clear labels and explanations.

Evidence of Completion

Code Repository: A link to the front-end code showcasing the new UI components and logic for fetching metric data from the API.

Live Demo/Test Environment: A live version of the application that demonstrates the fully integrated UI with all new metric visualizations and functionalities.

UX/UI Mockups: The initial design mockups or wireframes for the new dashboard components, charts, and filtering UI.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

10000

Progress

50 %

Milestone Title

Data Source Expansion & Metric Refinement

Milestone Outputs

This milestone is focused on enriching metrics by integrating new data sources and fine-tuning the calculation engine to handle this expanded data. The goal is to provide a more holistic and accurate view of project activity and social purpose.

• Extended Activity Metric Engine: The existing activity metric engine will be updated to scrape and process data from a wider range of sources. This includes social platforms like YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, and search engines like Duckduckgo for press mentions or search interest. We would need to explore its viability because we are focusing on only opensource and easily available sources.
• UN SDG Category Metric: A new metric will be developed to identify and categorize projects that align with any of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This metric will analyze project descriptions, proposals, and other scraped data to determine which specific goals (e.g., "Quality Education," "Climate Action") a project contributes to.
• Updated Data Schema & API: The database schema and API will be modified to handle the new data points from the expanded sources and the UN SDG classifications. This ensures the backend can store the raw data, the refined metrics, and the SDG tags, while the frontend can access them.

Acceptance Criteria

• Data Integration: The system must successfully connect to and scrape data from multiple new sources like. YouTube, X, Reddit, Google etc.
• UN SDG Classification: The new metric must correctly identify and tag projects with the relevant UN SDGs based on their description and project goals.
• Scalability: The expanded data processing pipelines must be scalable and able to handle the increased volume of data without significant performance degradation.
• Data Transparency: A clear, documented methodology for how the new data sources are integrated and how they influence the final metric scores must be available.

Evidence of Completion

• Code Repository: A link to the code for the new data scraping scripts, the refined metric calculation engine, and the UN SDG classification logic.
• Technical Documentation: A detailed document explaining the new data sources, the methodology for scraping them, and the updated formulas for all metrics, including the new UN SDG metric.
• Live Demo/Test Environment: A live version of the application that showcases the updated metrics and a new UI component displaying the UN SDG goals for relevant projects.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

15000

Progress

70 %

Milestone Title

Finalization, Optimization & Launch

Milestone Outputs

This final milestone is about preparing the entire system for a public release. It focuses on ensuring the platform is performant, secure, bug-free, and well-documented. It's the last step before the product is ready to be used by the community.

• System-Wide Performance & Scalability: The backend services, metric calculation engine, and frontend will be optimized for performance. This includes fine-tuning database queries, caching strategies, and ensuring the infrastructure can handle a growing user base and data volume.
• Comprehensive Quality Assurance (QA): A final, end-to-end testing phase will be conducted to identify and fix any remaining bugs or usability issues. This includes testing all metrics, UI components, and the entire user journey from a user's perspective.
• Public-Facing Documentation & Marketing Materials: The creation of a public-facing website, a user manual or a "How It Works" section explaining the metrics, and a plan for the public launch announcement. This ensures users understand the value proposition and how to use the platform effectively.

Acceptance Criteria

• User Documentation: All public-facing documentation must be complete, accurate, and easy for the target audience to understand.
• Launch Readiness: The final, stable version of the application must be deployed to a production environment, ready for public access.
• Functional Accuracy: A final QA report must show that all features, including the metric calculations, UI components, and data integrations, are functioning correctly with no critical or high-priority bugs.

Evidence of Completion

• Deployment Checklist & Launch Plan: The final deployment checklist, along with the communication plan for the public launch using Discord and X.
• Live, Publicly Accessible Product: The final, polished application deployed on a production server and ready for use by the community.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

10000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Milestone 1: Metric Calculation Engine

Cost: 10,000 ADA

• Core Team Labor: 7,500 ADA
  • This covers the dedicated work of a backend and data engineer to build the initial data pipelines and API endpoints for the project's core metrics.
• Infrastructure & Tools: 2,000 ADA
  • Covers cloud hosting for the data processing server, database, and initial API access fees for scraping project data.
• Administration: 500 ADA
  • Accounts for general administrative and project management overhead.

Milestone 2: UI & UX Integration

Cost: 10,000 ADA

• Core Team Labor: 8,000 ADA
  • This budget is for the efforts of a frontend developer and a UX/UI designer to build the metric-enhanced dashboards and interactive visualizations.
• Administration: 500 ADA
  • Accounts for general project management and administrative fees for this phase.

Milestone 3: Data Source Expansion & Metric Refinement

Cost: 15,000 ADA

• Core Team Labor: 11,000 ADA
  • This covers the specialized work of a senior data engineer to integrate new data sources and develop the complex UN SDG classification algorithm.
• Infrastructure & Tools: 3,000 ADA
  • Covers the expanded cloud hosting and potential API fees required for the increased data volume from new sources.
• Administration: 1,000 ADA
  • Covers administrative fees and consultancy for specialized data modeling.

Milestone 4: Finalization, Optimization & Launch

Cost: 10,000 ADA

• Core Team Labor: 6,000 ADA

  • This is allocated for a QA specialist to perform final testing and a DevOps engineer to optimize performance and deployment.

• Marketing & Engagement: 2,500 ADA

  • Covers the creation of all public-facing documentation, user guides, and the final launch campaign.

• Administration & Consultancy: 1,500 ADA

  • Includes costs for a third-party security audit, legal reviews, and final administrative fees.

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

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

The 45,000 ADA budget provides clear value by creating a platform that makes Project Catalyst more transparent and effective.

Here's how it benefits the ecosystem:

• Helps Voters Make Better Choices: The platform gives community members objective metrics like social impact and project activity. This makes it much easier to quickly find and support the most promising proposals, leading to better-funded projects.
• Supports Project Proposers: Proposers get a powerful tool to showcase their project's progress with real data. It helps them stand out, prove their value, and attract more votes.
• Strengthens the Ecosystem: By making the funding process more transparent and data-driven, the platform builds trust and confidence in Project Catalyst. This ultimately attracts more talent and innovation to Cardano.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes