Last updated 5 months ago
Catalyst and Intersect lack unified on-chain and off-chain auditing, enabling double-dipping, washing, self dealing, inefficiency, and poor RoI oversight, risking treasury waste
Pilot audit: review 200 projects (150 Catalyst, 50 Intersect), build real-time fund tracking tool, publish anomaly reports to prove value, and guide expansion of on-chain and off-chain oversight.
This is the total amount allocated to Quality Assurance: On-Chain & Off-Chain Audit.
Please provide your proposal title
Quality Assurance: On-Chain & Off-Chain Audit
Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA
100000
Please specify how many months you expect your project to last
5
Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated
No
Original Language
en
What is the problem you want to solve?
Catalyst and Intersect lack unified on-chain and off-chain auditing, enabling double-dipping, washing, self dealing, inefficiency, and poor RoI oversight, risking treasury waste
Supporting links
Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?
Yes
Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'
The success of this pilot depends on gaining access to accurate and complete funding records from both Project Catalyst and the Intersect Budget Process, including grant amounts, disbursement schedules, and milestone submissions for the 200 selected projects. Reliable on-chain data is essential, requiring integration with APIs such as Blockfrost, Koios, or CardanoScan, as well as the use of analytics tools like Oura for data extraction and NetworkX/Neo4j for wallet clustering. Cloud-based infrastructure will be needed to process large datasets and securely store audit results, while visualization frameworks such as D3.js will power the public-facing dashboard. Effective auditing also relies on industry-standard cost benchmarks, access to risk flag databases like Xerberus SIREN for fraud detection, and coordination with the Intersect Budget Committee to identify high-priority audit targets. Finally, legal and compliance considerations will be addressed to ensure all off-chain data handling respects privacy regulations, particularly when milestone documentation contains sensitive information.
Will your project's outputs be fully open source?
Yes
License and Additional Information
All code, datasets, and audit methodologies will be released under the MIT License on a public GitHub repository. Documentation will follow industry standards, ensuring easy reuse, adaptation, and scaling by the Cardano community. Updates and reports will be published openly for full 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).
This proposal is unique because it combines on-chain transaction analysis with off-chain deliverable verification across multiple funding sources—Intersect Budget Process, Intersect Grants, and Catalyst—in one unified framework. Unlike past funded efforts that focus on a single program or method, it cross-references funding data to detect redundancy, benchmarks cost-efficiency, and maps ADA flows for anomalies. As a 200-audit pilot, it delivers measurable results and a proof-of-concept for permanent governance integration.
Describe what your prototype or MVP will demonstrate, and where it can be accessed.
My prototype will demonstrate an integrated on-chain and off-chain audit system for a sample of Catalyst and Intersect-funded projects. It will show real-time fund flow tracking, anomaly detection, deliverable verification, and budget alignment checks. The MVP will be accessible through a live public dashboard, with all code, datasets, and documentation openly available on GitHub under the MIT License.
Describe realistic measures of success, ideally with on-chain metrics.
Success will be measured by completing audits of 200 funded projects with full on-chain transaction tracing, identifying anomalies such as wash trading, looping fund flows, and suspicious wallet clusters. All audit reports will be hashed and published on Cardano for immutable proof. Key metrics include the number of anomalies detected, volume of on-chain queries to the public dashboard, and governance actions or policy changes adopted based on our findings—demonstrating tangible improvements in treasury oversight, funding integrity, and community trust.
Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem
(See “On-Chain Architecture”) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j45DnSr7WXQO6zRyUaUvkbd96kghoprC/view?usp=drive_link
Uses ExuraLabs Hecate to connect directly to Cardano’s blockchain, capturing both historical and live transactions from treasury accounts.
Groups wallets into clusters (teams, vendors, exchanges) to understand relationships and money flow.
Detects risky patterns such as:
Funds looping back to the sender quickly
Sudden dispersal to many wallets
Transfers to exchanges without clear business purpose
Stores all transaction maps, clusters, and anomalies in a secure database.
Final audit reports are hashed and recorded on Cardano for tamper-proof verification.
(See “Off-Chain Audit, ROI & Redundancy”) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aiaXphbsVGl6wFZwyp37i9JFlAblBhOI/view?usp=drive_link
Auditors collect deliverables: software releases, event attendance lists, invoices, publications, and more.
Benchmarks costs against industry standards (developer rates, hosting, event expenses) to assess value for money.
Checks for double-dipping (the same work funded twice) and loophole abuse (excessive proposals via proxies).
Cross-references Intersect and Catalyst funding data to detect overlapping or redundant grants.
Creates a signed audit report with supporting evidence, linked to the corresponding on-chain transactions.
Anchors each report’s cryptographic hash on Cardano for anyone to independently verify.
(See “Dashboard Modules & API”) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BoFTg9WmMj0-XvC7FyRgkHlqOTGjxEls/view?usp=sharing
Visualizes treasury fund flows in easy-to-read charts and graphs.
Shows wallet clusters and how they connect to projects, vendors, or exchanges.
Lists anomalies with severity scores and links to supporting transactions.
Lets users open, download, and verify audit reports on-chain.
Search and filter by program, team, wallet, vendor, or time period.
Provides open data exports and API keys for DReps, committees, and researchers to run their own checks.
Why it matters:
This system doesn’t just check if a project delivered something — it proves where the ADA went, whether the spend was justified, and makes that proof public and permanent. It equips governance bodies, DReps, and the wider community with reliable, actionable oversight tools.
Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community
This project will deliver a lasting improvement to Cardano’s governance ecosystem by creating an open-source platform that integrates on-chain transaction analysis with off-chain deliverable and budget verification. The result will be a comprehensive oversight framework capable of detecting and exposing patterns such as wash trading, looping fund flows, and suspicious wallet clustering, ensuring that treasury ADA is not misused or lost to inefficiencies. By correlating blockchain data with verified deliverable evidence, governance bodies, committees, and DReps will have reliable, objective information to guide funding decisions and optimize the allocation of resources. The public dashboard will make these findings accessible to the entire community, offering real-time visibility into fund flows and anomalies while also providing downloadable datasets for independent analysis. Publishing hashed audit reports directly on the Cardano blockchain will give all stakeholders immutable proof of findings, reinforcing trust in the accuracy of the data. Because the tools, datasets, and methodologies will be released under the MIT License and Open Data licensing, the framework will be free to reuse, adapt, and scale for future funding rounds, expanding from the initial pilot sample to potentially thousands of funded projects. Over time, this system will embed a culture of transparency and accountability within the ecosystem, helping to protect the treasury, reward high-performing proposers, and strengthen Cardano’s reputation as a global leader in responsible decentralized funding governance.
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?
This initiative is led by a multidisciplinary team with a proven track record in Cardano governance, blockchain analytics, smart contract development, and financial oversight. The combination of governance leadership, technical expertise, and open-source infrastructure ensures the project is both achievable and impactful.
Core Team Strengths
Jose Velazquez – Governance leader, Intersect Budget Committee member, and multi-round Catalyst proposer (Funds 7, 8, 12). Experienced in treasury oversight, milestone auditing, and policy integration. Will jointly handle ROI assessments, proposal benchmarking, and dashboard content.
Javier Acosta – Technical Lead with 8+ years in blockchain development, specializing in UTxO-based architectures, fraud detection, and DeFi modeling. Leads platform architecture and clustering algorithms for on-chain anomaly detection.
Technical Feasibility
Exura Labs Open-Source Framework: https://github.com/ExuraLabs/hecate – Provides the backbone for blockchain data ingestion, transformation, and analytics using Ogmios. Ensures reproducibility, public verifiability, and rapid deployment.
Reeve – Cardano Foundation Transparency Platform: https://cardano-foundation.app.reeve.technology/reports – Delivers immutable, on-chain-anchored financial reports to publicly track treasury flows and milestone-linked spending.
Integrated Audit System
On-Chain Component – Full transaction tracing, wallet clustering, anomaly detection (wash trading, looping flows, self-dealing), and flow mapping.
Off-Chain Component – ROI analysis, cost benchmarking, milestone verification, and redundant funding detection.
Transparency Dashboard – Real-time public access to findings, hashed audit reports, and governance recommendations.
Execution Confidence
The team’s governance credibility, technical capacity, and reliance on battle-tested open-source tooling mean this system can be implemented immediately and scaled as needed. Every ADA spent will be traceable, justifiable, and linked to measurable impact, strengthening transparency and accountability across Cardano’s funding ecosystem.
Milestone Title
Milestone 1: System Architecture & Reeve Transparency Setup
Milestone Outputs
Outputs:
Finalized on/off-chain audit framework with documented workflows to guide the entire auditing process from data ingestion to reporting, ensuring technical and governance alignment.
Live blockchain data ingestion pipeline deployed, capable of pulling real-time Cardano mainnet transaction data into our analytics environment for clustering, anomaly detection, and benchmarking.
Reeve integration activated for public tracking of our 100,000 ADA project budget, enabling transparent budget visibility and immutable proof of all project-related expenditures.
Acceptance Criteria
Acceptance Criteria:
Audit framework approved internally, with documentation stored in a public repository for community reference and governance alignment.
Blockchain data pipeline tested and confirmed operational with consistent transaction retrieval on Cardano mainnet.
Reeve dashboard publicly displays all project budget transactions, allowing stakeholders to verify fund usage directly without intermediaries.
Evidence of Completion
Evidence of Completion:
Public link to architecture documentation and framework diagrams stored in the repository for community inspection and technical review.
Recorded demo or screenshots showing operational blockchain data pipeline fetching live transaction data.
Reeve dashboard screenshots showing transparent, real-time financial tracking of the 100,000 ADA project budget.
Delivery Month
2
Cost
35000
Progress
30 %
Milestone Title
Milestone 2: Clustering & Anomaly Detection Deployment
Milestone Outputs
Outputs:
Wallet clustering system deployed to group related treasury recipients and detect coordinated spending behaviors indicative of potential governance or funding inefficiencies.
Anomaly detection modules implemented for identifying wash trading, looping fund flows, and self-dealing patterns across audited projects.
Public dashboard visualizations created for suspicious transaction flows and flagged wallet clusters, ensuring transparency for the community.
Acceptance Criteria
Acceptance Criteria:
Clustering algorithms tested with historic transaction datasets and validated against known example cases.
Anomaly detection successfully identifies at least three synthetic or known anomalies in test datasets.
Dashboard provides publicly accessible, anonymized visualizations of detected anomalies without compromising privacy.
Evidence of Completion
Evidence of Completion:
Technical documentation of clustering and anomaly detection logic, including parameters and performance benchmarks.
Test reports and screenshots from anomaly detection runs on historic Cardano data, showing accuracy and detection speed.
Public dashboard screenshots displaying anonymized, interactive graphs of suspicious transactions and wallet relationships.
Delivery Month
3
Cost
30000
Progress
50 %
Milestone Title
Milestone 3: ROI Analysis & Cost Benchmarking Rollout
Milestone Outputs
Outputs:
ROI analysis tools deployed to measure financial return and efficiency of funded projects based on treasury spend vs. measurable output and governance impact.
Cost benchmarking system operational to compare proposal budgets against similar scope projects to detect inflated or unrealistic financial requests.
Off-chain milestone verification workflows implemented to cross-check deliverables against funding claims and detect redundant proposal submissions or loophole exploitation.
Draft governance recommendations prepared, incorporating audit findings to propose systemic improvements to Cardano treasury oversight.
Acceptance Criteria
Acceptance Criteria:
At least 50 funded projects audited with combined on-chain and off-chain methodology to validate both spending and deliverable completion.
ROI and benchmarking outputs validated through test runs and community peer review to confirm accuracy.
Draft governance recommendations reviewed by governance experts and aligned with Cardano treasury policy frameworks.
Evidence of Completion
Evidence of Completion:
Midterm audit report covering 50 projects, detailing anomalies, ROI scores, and benchmarking results.
Public release of anonymized ROI and benchmarking datasets for independent review and reproducibility of findings.
Published draft governance recommendations available for community comment before finalization.
Delivery Month
4
Cost
30000
Progress
90 %
Milestone Title
Milestone 4: Final Audit, Governance Report, and Close-Out Deliverables
Milestone Outputs
Outputs:
Comprehensive audit of 200 funded projects completed, combining on-chain transaction tracing with off-chain milestone verification for maximum accuracy.
All audit reports hashed on the Cardano blockchain for immutable proof of work and public verification.
Final governance report prepared, including systemic recommendations, ROI assessments, and transparency findings.
Final close-out report produced documenting full project lifecycle, achievements, methodology, governance impact, and budget reconciliation.
Close-out video produced summarizing project scope, results, and key insights, designed for accessibility and community awareness.
Reeve dashboard updated to display final budget usage and complete financial trail of the 100,000 ADA project budget.
Acceptance Criteria
Acceptance Criteria:
200 project audits completed, verified, and published, meeting predefined accuracy and quality standards.
Final close-out report delivered in PDF format, reviewed internally for completeness, and publicly released.
All audit reports publicly accessible and immutably stored via on-chain hashes.
Governance report reviewed by at least two independent governance experts and accepted as a contribution to Cardano policy discussions.
Close-out video publicly available on a recognized platform, providing a clear overview of project results and recommendations.
Reeve dashboard showing a full and transparent record of project budget transactions from start to finish.
Evidence of Completion
Evidence of Completion:
Public repository containing all final audit reports, with corresponding blockchain hashes for verification.
Downloadable PDF of the final close-out report and governance report hosted on the project’s transparency portal.
Public links to the final close-out video hosted on a community-accessible channel.
Reeve dashboard screenshots demonstrating complete financial transparency and final budget reconciliation.
Delivery Month
5
Cost
15000
Progress
100 %
Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources
Budget & Deliverables (₳100,000 Total)
₳45,000 – Blockchain Engineering & Backend Development
₳15,000 – Configure Oura transaction streaming nodes & Dingo event indexers to capture governance-related UTXOs, Catalyst/Intersect disbursements, and high-risk transactions.
₳10,000 – Develop resilient API integration layers with Blockfrost, Koios, and CardanoScan (real-time & historical data ingestion with pagination, failover, rate-limit handling).
₳12,000 – Build funding database linking Catalyst IDs, Intersect work orders, treasury disbursements, and wallet clusters for cross-referencing.
₳8,000 – Create backend services (Node.js/Python) to normalize blockchain transactions into structured JSON for analytics ingestion.
₳28,000 – Data Science & Analytics Engineering
₳9,000 – Transaction classification engine (incoming, outgoing, loops, wash trades, consolidations).
₳8,000 – Neo4j graph database modeling + NetworkX analytics for wallet clustering & relationship mapping.
₳6,000 – Xerberus SIREN anomaly detection integration.
₳5,000 – D3.js interactive visualizations linked to analytics API (flow maps, network graphs).
₳12,000 – Infrastructure & DevOps
₳5,000 – Deploy lightweight Cardano nodes for independent data validation.
₳4,000 – Cloud provisioning (AWS/GCP) with geo-redundant storage, encryption, firewall rules.
₳2,000 – CI/CD pipeline with rollback automation.
₳1,000 – Continuous system monitoring with automated alerts.
₳10,000 – Off-Chain Auditing & Verification
₳4,000 – Deliverable and milestone verification.
₳3,000 – Redundancy detection across funded projects.
₳2,000 – Benchmarking outputs against industry cost baselines.
₳1,000 – Integration of verified off-chain results into the on-chain dashboard.
₳5,000 – Reporting, Transparency & Documentation
₳2,000 – Reeve-powered financial transparency dashboard for ₳100k budget with percentage-based ADA batch tracking.
₳1,500 – Final governance & technical close-out report (PDF).
₳1,000 – Professionally edited close-out video.
₳500 – Minimal marketing/community engagement (social posts, final AMA).
How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?
This proposal delivers exceptional value for money by combining on-chain transaction monitoring with off-chain deliverable verification in a unified, open-source framework. The ₳100,000 budget is allocated evenly across four clearly defined milestones, each producing tangible outputs that strengthen Cardano’s funding transparency and governance. By leveraging existing infrastructure such as Oura, Dingo, Blockfrost, Koios, and Xerberus SIREN alongside proven analysis tools like Neo4j and NetworkX, the project avoids unnecessary development costs while ensuring robust functionality. The system will be reusable for future audits, significantly reducing the cost of oversight in subsequent funding rounds. All code, documentation, and datasets will be openly licensed, enabling community reuse, adaptation, and expansion without incurring additional funding requests. The framework directly addresses risks like double-dipping, wash activity, and circular funding flows, helping to protect millions of ADA in treasury funds and providing measurable ROI in the form of fraud prevention, efficiency gains, and stronger stakeholder trust.
Terms and Conditions:
Yes
Project Team
Our project team combines expertise in blockchain governance, treasury oversight, smart contract development, data analytics, and public transparency reporting. We have proven experience managing high-value budgets and producing verifiable results for the Cardano community.
Jose Velazquez – Project Lead & Oversight Coordinator
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-velazquez-809665186
Role: Jose will lead overall project coordination, ensuring that auditing processes, on-chain tracking, and off-chain verification operate seamlessly. He will manage team operations, stakeholder communication, and ensure findings are published through public dashboards and reports.
Experience:
Member of the Intersect Budget Committee, overseeing treasury allocation and working group outputs.
Fund 7, Fund 8, and Fund 12 Catalyst Proposer with successful delivery of large-scale proposals.
Experienced in governance, transparency initiatives, and multi-stakeholder coordination.
Co-host of multiple constitutional workshops across Latin America.
Javier Acosta – Technical Lead & Blockchain Data Analyst
GitHub: https://github.com/ExuraLabs/hecate
Role: Designs and oversees the technical architecture for the on-chain tracking system, integrating ExurA for transaction flow monitoring and analytics. Ensures accurate data ingestion, integrity checks, and scalable infrastructure for real-time reporting.
Experience:
8+ years in blockchain engineering and analytics.
Expertise in UTxO-based tracking, smart contract data extraction, and risk detection.
Developed governance and treasury tracking tools for Cardano ecosystem projects.