Last updated 9 months ago
New DReps need help to quickly understand proposals, check cost realism, & articulate positions with evidence. Without assistance & structure, participation skews to power users & many voters abstain.
Build AI Chief of Staff Agent suite: core agent w/ cited summaries, risk flags, memos; oversees 4 sub-agents—Research, Comms, Ops, Governance. Toolkit + EN/ES guides + workshops. Other tools in Beta
This is the total amount allocated to DRep Voting Management Platform—Your AI Congressional Staff.
Please provide your proposal title
DRep Voting Management Platform—Your AI Congressional Staff
Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA
98000
Please specify how many months you expect your project to last
12
Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated
No
Original Language
en
What is the problem you want to solve?
New DReps need help to quickly understand proposals, check cost realism, & articulate positions with evidence. Without assistance & structure, participation skews to power users & many voters abstain.
Supporting links
Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?
No
Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'
No Dependencies
Will your project's outputs be fully open source?
Yes
License and Additional Information
While the code will not be fully open-sourced, we will publish all outputs: templates, datasets, reports, and methods under CC BY 4.0. This balances IP protection with ecosystem transparency.
Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal.
Governance
Describe what makes your idea innovative compared to what has been previously funded (whether by you or others).
Previous Catalyst governance tools focused on dashboards, forums, or voter guides. Our project is the first to deliver an AI assistant tailored for DReps and voters, combining live proposal ingestion, cited summaries, risk/assumption flags, and a position-memo generator. Unlike static guides, it provides interactive, multilingual support (EN/ES) and publishes open templates & metrics so others can reuse and extend it. This bridges comprehension speed, transparency, and inclusivity in a way not yet funded.
Describe what your prototype or MVP will demonstrate, and where it can be accessed.
Our MVP demonstrates an AI assistant that ingests live Catalyst proposals, generates cited summaries, flags risks/assumptions, and helps users draft position memos. It shows how governance can be faster, clearer, and more inclusive. The prototype is already publicly accessible at https://drep-ai-assist-bgt.replit.app/, where users can test core flows. This open demo provides feasibility evidence and a foundation for our Fund14 pilot.
Describe realistic measures of success, ideally with on-chain metrics.
Success is measured by usage and outcomes: ≥200 assisted proposal reads, ≥60 active users (DReps/reviewers/voters), ≥35 published position memos. On-chain, we track growth in registered DReps using our toolkit, the number of wallets casting votes with referenced memos, and improved proposal review coverage (ratio of proposals with ≥1 assisted analysis). We’ll publish anonymized usage data + on-chain metrics dashboards so adoption and impact are transparent and verifiable.
Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem
Cardano’s governance system, managing 11.73 billion delegated ADA across 153,800+ delegators, places immense pressure on DReps to analyze complex funding proposals, mitigate security risks like phishing, and communicate transparently with their communities. The DRep Voting Management Platform — Your AI Congressional Staff (CardanoGov),solves these challenges with an AI-powered platform that streamlines governance workflows. By delivering 20-second proposal analyses, real-time security scans, and ready-to-use communication tools, CardanoGov reduces DRep workload from hours to seconds, enhances decision quality, and fosters inclusivity through bilingual resources.
The solution includes a public beta (Month 3), a DRep toolkit with workshops (Month 6), a Fund14 governance pilot with ≥200 assisted reads and ≥35 position memos (Month 9), and security safeguards with a final outcomes report (Month 12). Leveraging a proven MVP, a scalable tech stack (React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, GPT-4o), and the team’s expertise in AI-driven projects (e.g., a crowd-sourced NFT book minted on Cardano), CardanoGov empowers DReps, strengthens Cardano’s decentralized governance, and sets a foundation for scalable DAO tooling, delivering immediate and lasting value to the ecosystem.Structured Breakdown: Solution Components and Benefits
1. Core Problem Addressed
2. Solution Components
3. Benefits to the Cardano Ecosystem
Feasibility and Team CapabilityProven MVP:
Live demo already processes proposals, generates summaries, and detects threats, validating technical readiness.
Team Expertise: Billy Goat Tales authored a 30-chapter NFT book using AI workflows, hosted 30+ X Spaces, engaged 25,000+ YouTube viewers, and developed B2B AI tools and games, demonstrating proficiency in AI, blockchain, and community engagement.
Budget Alignment: ₳98,000 funds technical development (35%), toolkit and localization (25%), pilot operations (25%), and security/management (19%), ensuring lean delivery.
5. Alignment with Catalyst GoalsGovernance Innovation:
Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community
Narrative Summary
The DRep Voting Management Platform — Your AI Congressional Staff directly strengthens Cardano’s governance by making participation more accessible, transparent, and evidence-based. Catalyst faces an overload of proposals each fund cycle, which overwhelms both DReps and community reviewers. Our platform reduces the time to comprehend proposals through cited summaries, highlights risks and assumptions for more informed debate, and standardizes how positions are expressed through position-memo templates. This lowers the barriers for new DReps and voters, encourages wider participation, and increases the diversity of voices in governance. By providing multilingual resources in English and Spanish, we broaden inclusivity across the ecosystem. A live governance pilot during Fund14 ensures immediate value and adoption, while all outputs (toolkits, templates, anonymized datasets) will be openly licensed, enabling other community groups to reuse and extend the work. The project is designed to not only demonstrate short-term impact but also to lay the foundation for long-term scaling, aligning with Catalyst’s goal of transparent, high-quality decision-making.
Structured Breakdown of Impact
DReps: Faster proposal comprehension, consistent memo formats, reduced research burden, stronger evidence-based positions.
Community Reviewers: Assisted summaries and risk flags reduce time to analyze multiple proposals.
Voters: Gain clarity from published position memos, improving informed decision-making.
Proposers: Benefit from clearer, earlier feedback during review cycles.
Inclusivity: Full localization into Spanish ensures accessibility to a broader global community.
Transparency: Position memos + datasets create auditable, open governance evidence.
Reusability: All toolkits and templates published under CC BY 4.0; future groups can fork or adapt.
Scalability: Designed to evolve into a full “Partners & Products” level platform in future funds.
≥ 200 assisted proposal reads logged during the pilot.
≥ 60 active users (DReps, reviewers, voters) complete workflows.
≥ 35 published position memos, available to voters as decision support.
40% reduction in median “time-to-understand” a proposal (based on survey + UX tests).
On-chain alignment:
Growth in registered DReps that reference or adopt toolkit outputs.
Increased proportion of fund proposals with at least one assisted analysis attached.
Uptick in wallets voting with cited memos, providing traceable governance artifacts.
Educational outputs: Workshops (EN/ES), toolkit, and training videos foster governance literacy.
Data for future research: An anonymized dataset of assistant usage and outcomes supports academic and ecosystem analysis.
Strengthening Catalyst reputation: Demonstrates how AI can be responsibly applied to governance while respecting transparency and community oversight.
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?
The DRep Voting Management Platform — Your AI Congressional Staff is designed for practical delivery within 12 months, supported by a public demo already online. Our team, led by @BillyGoatTales with visible community engagement via X and YouTube, brings credibility and a track record of education and governance advocacy. Technical feasibility is demonstrated through the working MVP that ingests Catalyst proposals, produces cited summaries, and flags assumptions. The roadmap builds incrementally: first hardening the assistant, then delivering a governance toolkit with bilingual resources, followed by a live governance pilot, and finally implementing security/privacy safeguards and publishing an outcomes report. Each milestone is paired with specific acceptance criteria and Proof of Achievement, ensuring accountability. Costs are allocated to essential resources: technical development, toolkit production, translation, community operations, security, and project management. This balanced approach demonstrates that the ask is realistic, the deliverables are achievable, and the project is compatible with Catalyst’s milestone-based funding model.
ost & Resource Alignment Breakdown
Resources: AI backend engineer, frontend developer, cloud hosting, QA.
Supports Milestones 1 & 3 by delivering a public beta and scaling the pilot.
Feasibility: Demo already live; funds ensure reliability, UX polish, and stress testing.
Resources: Content designer, writer, workshop facilitator.
Supports Milestone 2 with checklists, templates, microsite, and educational workshops.
Feasibility: Builds on existing community materials; open-licensed for reuse.
Resources: Translator, captioner, accessibility review.
Supports Milestone 2, ensuring inclusivity across English and Spanish.
Feasibility: Straightforward translation/localization scope; scoped to toolkit + video content.
Resources: Pilot coordinator, survey designer, support moderators.
Supports Milestone 3 by onboarding ≥60 users, producing ≥35 memos, and gathering impact data.
Feasibility: Engagement channels already exist through BillyGoatTales media; cost covers structured recruitment & measurement.
Resources: Security consultant, documentation, red-team tester.
Supports Milestone 4 by implementing rate limits, privacy policies, and incident playbook.
Feasibility: Lean but targeted safeguards, with documentation open to community review.
Resources: Project lead, admin assistant, compliance/accounting support.
Continuous across all milestones, ensuring delivery, reporting, and PoA evidence.
Feasibility: Dedicated allocation keeps project on track with Catalyst requirements.
Reserved for unexpected costs (e.g., compute spikes, translation volume, workshop overcapacity).
Flexible across milestones.
Feasibility: Provides buffer without over-allocation, maintaining lean delivery.
Milestone Title
Public Beta Launch: Core AI Assistant Live
Milestone Outputs
The first milestone delivers a functional, public beta of the DRep AI Assistant. At this stage, the focus is on building confidence in the feasibility of our approach by delivering a live, working product. The assistant will allow users to ingest proposals directly (via URL or PDF upload), generate summaries with inline citations, and identify flagged risks or assumptions. Additionally, users will be able to draft and export structured “position memos” that can be shared with their communities. This milestone demonstrates technical readiness and user value: it proves that an AI assistant can meaningfully accelerate proposal comprehension and structured response. The beta will be publicly hosted at the Replit demo link (or migrated to a stable hosting environment if usage demands it), ensuring transparency and easy access for all community members. At least 50 DReps, community reviewers, or voters will test the tool during this milestone. Documentation will be published describing functionality, known limitations, and next steps.
Acceptance Criteria
Users can input a Catalyst proposal by URL/PDF and receive a concise summary with citations.
The assistant flags at least one assumption, risk, or missing detail in ≥70% of pilot test proposals.
Users can draft, export, and share position memos in a structured format.
At least 50 unique pilot sessions are logged with functional usage.
Uptime is ≥95% during a 2-week continuous beta period.
Documentation (user guide + FAQ) is available online.
Evidence of Completion
A public application URL accessible to the Catalyst community.
A short video walkthrough demonstrating the assistant’s features (summary, risk flags, memo drafting).
Git commit hash and repository snapshot proving code deployment.
CSV of anonymized usage logs showing ≥50 pilot sessions.
Uptime monitoring report covering 2 weeks.
Screenshots showing input → summary → memo flow working end-to-end.
Delivery Month
3
Cost
19600
Progress
20 %
Milestone Title
Toolkit & Localization: Governance Resources Released
Milestone Outputs
The second milestone extends beyond the technical prototype by creating accessible, educational resources for community use. We will design and publish the DRep Toolkit, a collection of practical resources that complement the assistant. This includes evaluation checklists, standardized templates for position memos, and guidelines for using the assistant effectively in governance. We will also develop a microsite to host these resources, providing a single hub where DReps and voters can access documentation, toolkit materials, training videos, and recorded workshops. To ensure inclusivity, all resources will be localized into Spanish, with full parity between EN and ES content. Subtitles and captions will be added to recordings, and translated PDFs will be distributed. Three live workshops will be held—two in English and one in Spanish—introducing DReps and voters to the toolkit, walking through use cases, and collecting feedback for iterative improvement. By the end of this milestone, the community will have concrete governance tools, in two languages, designed to be accessible and reusable beyond this project.
Acceptance Criteria
Toolkit is published under CC BY 4.0 license and accessible online.
Microsite is live with toolkit resources and links to the demo app.
Spanish translations of toolkit, position-memo templates, and training materials are complete.
All workshop recordings have captions in both EN and ES.
Three workshops are delivered: ≥15 participants per session; feedback average ≥4/5.
Toolkit and resources are clearly linked to the outputs of Milestone 1.
Evidence of Completion
Repository link with toolkit templates and checklists (EN + ES).
Live microsite URL with content publicly accessible.
Three recorded workshop videos + participant attendance logs.
Published PDFs of toolkit and translated documents.
Screenshots of captioned videos.
Feedback survey results compiled and published.
Delivery Month
6
Cost
24500
Progress
40 %
Milestone Title
Governance Pilot: Live Testing with Community
Milestone Outputs
This milestone validates the assistant under real-world governance conditions. During the Fund14 proposal review window, we will run a live pilot where community members actively use the assistant to review proposals, create position memos, and share results. The pilot will focus on adoption and measurable impact. Targets: at least 200 assisted proposal reads, 60 active users, and 35 position memos created and shared publicly. We will track time-to-understand metrics and compare them against baseline self-reported comprehension times to measure efficiency gains. We will also collect qualitative feedback from users on clarity, usability, and trust in AI outputs. A dataset of anonymized interactions will be published, along with a pilot report that documents adoption rates, lessons learned, limitations, and improvement opportunities. The milestone ensures the project delivers not just a working app and toolkit, but also evidence of value creation in a live governance cycle.
Acceptance Criteria
≥200 assisted reads across different Fund14 proposals.
≥60 unique active users engage with the assistant during the pilot.
≥35 published position memos are produced and shared.
An anonymized dataset of interactions and metrics is published.
Pilot report analyzing adoption, outcomes, and limitations is published.
User survey feedback compiled and reported.
Evidence of Completion
CSV dataset of anonymized usage data (reads, memos, active users).
Publicly available pilot report (PDF).
Gallery of ≥10 anonymized memos produced during the pilot.
Screenshots of usage metrics dashboard.
Feedback survey report with participant quotes.
Delivery Month
9
Cost
24500
Progress
70 %
Milestone Title
Security & Close-out: Hardening and Handoff
Milestone Outputs
The final milestone ensures sustainability, trust, and a clear pathway beyond Fund14. We will implement and document security and privacy safeguards, including rate limiting, abuse detection, and data retention policies. A privacy and security document will be published, outlining how data is handled and stored. An incident response playbook will be created to guide future maintainers on mitigating risks and misuse. Finally, a comprehensive outcomes report will be delivered, summarizing usage, adoption, KPIs, lessons learned, and a roadmap for Fund15 scale-up under the Partners & Products track. This milestone ensures that the project not only delivered technical outputs and pilot adoption, but also leaves behind auditable documentation, safety measures, and a plan for long-term impact.
Acceptance Criteria
Rate limiting and privacy controls deployed and documented.
Security and retention policies published and accessible.
Incident response playbook created and shared.
Final outcomes report completed, with lessons learned and roadmap.
All public resources (toolkit, datasets, memos) remain live and accessible.
Reviewed and validated by at least two external community reviewers.
Evidence of Completion
Published privacy and security documentation.
Incident response playbook (PDF).
Final outcomes report and roadmap deck.
Public links to all deliverables (toolkit, datasets, reports).
Community reviewer sign-off in Catalyst App.
Delivery Month
12
Cost
29400
Progress
100 %
Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources
The DRep Voting Management Platform — Your AI Congressional Staff is budgeted at ₳98,000 to deliver a transformative governance toolset within a 12-month cycle, aligned with Catalyst’s milestone-based funding model. This lean allocation supports technical development, governance resources, community engagement, security, and project management, ensuring every expenditure drives measurable outcomes. Costs are structured to maximize value, with approximately one-third funding the AI assistant’s development, one-quarter creating reusable governance tools and translations, another quarter validating impact through a Fund14 pilot, and the remainder securing trust and accountability. All deliverables—AI platform, DRep toolkit, bilingual content, pilot data, and security policies—are openly licensed, offering lasting ecosystem value. A modest contingency ensures resilience without inflating the ask. Each milestone payout is tied to verifiable Proof of Achievement (PoA), guaranteeing transparency and community benefit.
**1. Technical Development & Infrastructure (₳34,000, 35%) **This category funds the core engineering, hosting, and testing required to deliver a robust AI assistant capable of ingesting Catalyst proposals, generating cited summaries, flagging risks/assumptions, and producing position memos. It covers backend development (Retrieval-Augmented Generation system, prompt engineering), frontend UX for proposal uploads and memo drafting, cloud hosting for inference and storage, and quality assurance through unit, integration, and load testing (supporting ≥200 concurrent sessions). These efforts ensure a reliable public beta (Milestone 1) and a scalable governance pilot (Milestone 3).
Metrics & Deliverables:
**2. Governance Toolkit & Content Creation (₳18,000, 18%) **To empower DReps and reviewers, this allocation funds a comprehensive DRep Toolkit (checklists, memo templates, governance guides), a public microsite hosting toolkit and demo links, and three interactive workshops (2 English, 1 Spanish). These resources complement the AI assistant, fostering governance literacy and adoption. All outputs are open-licensed (CC BY 4.0) for community reuse, delivered in Milestone 2.
Metrics & Deliverables:
**3. Localization & Accessibility (₳7,000, 7%) **Inclusivity is prioritized through full English/Spanish localization of the toolkit, microsite, and workshop materials, alongside professional captioning and accessibility adjustments (e.g., screen-reader compatibility). This ensures the platform serves a diverse global audience, aligning with Cardano’s ethos. Delivered in Milestone 2.
Metrics & Deliverables:
**4. Community Engagement & Pilot Operations (₳12,000, 12%) **This category supports a Fund14 governance pilot, onboarding ≥60 active users (DReps, reviewers, voters), facilitating ≥200 assisted proposal reads, and generating ≥35 position memos. It includes pilot coordination, community support, and impact evaluation (e.g., time-to-understand metrics). The pilot, executed in Milestone 3, produces verifiable governance impact and datasets for community analysis.
Metrics & Deliverables:
**5. Security, Privacy & Risk Mitigation (₳9,000, 9%) **Trust is critical for governance tools. This allocation funds security hardening (rate-limiting, abuse detection), a published privacy/retention policy, an incident response playbook, and a final outcomes report summarizing adoption and lessons learned. These safeguards, delivered in Milestone 4, ensure the platform’s integrity and community confidence.
Metrics & Deliverables:
**6. Project Management & Administration (₳10,000, 10%) **Effective coordination ensures timely delivery and compliance. This category funds the project lead, administrative support, compliance with Catalyst requirements, and detailed milestone reporting (PoA, financials, public updates). It spans all milestones, maintaining accountability.
Metrics & Deliverables:
**7. Contingency (₳8,000, 9%) **A modest reserve addresses unforeseen costs, such as cloud compute spikes, additional translations, or workshop overcapacity. Any unused funds will be returned or reassigned with community approval, ensuring transparency. Flexible across milestones.
Metrics & Deliverables:
Milestone Summary
This structure ensures funds are proportional to deliverables, with 35% powering technical innovation, 25% enhancing ecosystem resources, 25% proving governance impact, and 19% securing trust and management. All outputs are verifiable, reusable, and aligned with Catalyst’s goals of transparency and community value.Budget Justification (392 chars)The ₳98,000 budget delivers an AI assistant, DRep toolkit, bilingual resources, and a Fund14 pilot. 35% funds technical development, 25% supports toolkit and translations, 25% drives pilot impact (≥200 reads, ≥35 memos), and 9% ensures security. Project management (10%) and contingency (9%) ensure accountability. All outputs are open-licensed, maximizing Catalyst’s ROI.
How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?
The DRep Voting Management Platform — Your AI Congressional Staff; for CardanoGov delivers exceptional value for the Cardano ecosystem with a lean ₳98,000 budget, addressing the critical need for scalable, secure, and inclusive governance tools. Managing 11.73 billion delegated ADA across 153,800+ delegators, DReps face overwhelming proposal volumes (up 400% in 2024) and security threats like phishing. CardanoGov’s AI-powered platform reduces analysis time from hours to 20 seconds, enhances security, and provides reusable governance resources, directly strengthening Cardano’s decentralized decision-making. The budget is meticulously allocated: 35% builds a production-ready AI assistant, 25% creates open-licensed toolkits and bilingual resources, 25% drives a Fund14 pilot with measurable impact (≥200 proposal reads, ≥35 memos), and 19% ensures trust via security and project management. Compared to private-sector AI governance tools costing multiples more, this project leverages existing MVP traction (already preventing phishing attempts) and a proven tech stack (React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, GPT-4o). By delivering a scalable platform, open educational assets, and anonymized datasets, CardanoGov not only empowers DReps but also sets a foundation for governance innovation across DAOs, offering immediate and long-term returns for the Catalyst treasury.
Structured Breakdown: Value & ROI for the Cardano Ecosystem
1. Cost Efficiency and Justification
2. Immediate Ecosystem Benefits
3. Measurable Returns (KPIs and On-Chain Metrics)
4. Long-Term Ecosystem Value
5. Alignment with Catalyst Goals
Additional Information on the Billy Goat Tales Team
Our team brings a proven track record of community-driven innovation and leadership within the Cardano ecosystem, making us uniquely qualified to deliver the DRep Voting Management Platform — Your AI Congressional Staff (CardanoGov). Since November 2023, we have hosted weekly X Spaces, engaging 172 contributors—including Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and Crypto Crow—to create a 30-chapter, crowd-sourced NFT book minted on the Cardano blockchain. This project, born from 30 weeks of community discussions around our 10 cornerstones:
The Givers Gain Pathway and our 10 Cornerstones
These exemplify our motto, “Givers Gain,” and our commitment to helping others help themselves.
Our YouTube show, streaming live every Sunday, has surpassed 25,000 viewers, fostering crypto education and dialogue. We have a strong presence at major crypto conferences (Bitcoin, Consensus, Rare Evo) for 3–4 years, building trust and networks within the ecosystem. Additionally, we authored and sold two children’s books introducing cryptocurrency and moral values, broadening Cardano’s reach to new audiences.
**AI-Driven Innovation: **
Our team has a proven track record in Cardano’s ecosystem, and under our “Givers Gain” ethos demonstrate our expertise in community engagement, content creation, and blockchain innovation, ensuring we can deliver CardanoGov’s scalable, inclusive AI-powered governance tools for 3,000+ DReps and 153,800+ delegators managing 11.73 billion ADA.
Terms and Conditions:
Yes
The Billy Goat Tales Team, is comprised of 5 members. Below I will list their full names, and X handles and common crypto handles.
Rich Smothers, CEO (aka. Crypto Billy, X: @cryptobilly111)
Anthony Baeza, COO (aka Tex Mex Biomex & Tony the Brick, X: @the_biomex)
Dave Nugent, Marketing Director and Lead AI Manager (aka. Dave Digital, X: @_davedigital)
Jimmy Wyble, CTO (aka. Jimmy Jim, X: @CryptoJDubya)
Jeff Dingess, Content Creator & Community Manager (aka. Red Man, @ontothenext0x)