[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

VESPR: AI Bridge to Cardano 🤖 | For Claude, GPT & AI Agents

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

95000

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

6

[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?

AI agents and tools cannot query Cardano data or interact with the blockchain, leaving Cardano invisible to the AI ecosystem while competitors rush to integrate AI capabilities.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://vespr.xyz
,
• https://github.com/vespr-wallet
,
• https://x.com/vesprwallet
,
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/vesprwallet

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

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

No

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

No dependencies

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

License and Additional Information

MIT License - Free for both Personal and Commercial Use

[Theme Selection] Theme

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

AI

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

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

This is the first MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for Cardano, creating an entirely new interaction paradigm. No Cardano project has enabled Claude or other AI agents to directly query blockchain data through MCP. Developers can use GPT through platforms like Cursor or custom integrations can leverage our infrastructure. This positions Cardano among the early adopters of AI-blockchain integration, competing with other chains exploring similar capabilities.

Note: ChatGPT doesn't natively support MCP yet, but it's expected to come in the near future

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

Our MVP will demonstrate:

1. Live MCP server accessible through Claude Desktop App showing real-time Cardano queries
2. Developer integration with Cursor IDE demonstrating AI-assisted smart contract development
3. Public testing endpoint at mcp.vespr.xyz for community validation
4. On-chain proof via transaction queries and balance checks verifiable on Cardano explorers

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

• Query volume tracking: Monitor actual usage through server logs (no specific targets)

• Developer engagement: GitHub activity and community feedback (organic growth)

• Integration examples: Document real use cases as they emerge

• Technical performance: <2 seconds response time for most APIs, 99.9% uptime

• Accuracy validation: 100% match with on-chain data

Success will be measured by the quality of the infrastructure and the new capabilities it enables, rather than adoption numbers we cannot control.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

Understanding the Problem

AI assistants like Claude, GPT, and Gemini are becoming primary interfaces for technology interaction, yet Cardano remains completely inaccessible to AI agents. While users can query stocks, weather, or general knowledge through AI, they cannot check ADA balances, token prices, or DeFi opportunities on Cardano. This creates a critical capability gap as blockchain interaction increasingly happens through AI intermediaries.

The technical barrier: AI models use standardized protocols like MCP (Model Context Protocol) to access external data. Without an MCP server, Cardano lacks the bridge to the AI ecosystem, leaving it invisible while competitors race to integrate AI capabilities.

Approach to the Solution

We will build a production-ready MCP server leveraging VESPR's infrastructure that handles $30-40M daily volume with 99.95% uptime. This server exposes Cardano functionality through AI-friendly endpoints:

• Wallet Operations: Balance queries, transaction history, staking information
• Token Intelligence: Real-time prices, market caps, volume data
• DeFi Insights: Liquidity pools, yields, DEX aggregation
• Smart Contracts: NFT ownership, DApp interactions, protocol statistics
• Network Analytics: Epoch information, block production, health metrics

The implementation ensures compatibility with Claude Desktop (via MCP installation), GPT models through developer tools like Cursor IDE, custom AI agents, and third-party frameworks.

By building on VESPR's existing infrastructure, we eliminate blockchain indexing challenges. Our servers already maintain comprehensive token databases and real-time price feeds, we simply expose this through AI protocols.

Engagement and Beneficiaries

Primary Beneficiaries:

1. Everyday users of Claude Desktop (Similar to ChatGPT)
2. Technical users installing MCP for AI-powered Cardano queries
3. Developers building AI agents needing Cardano data
4. Cardano daily users leveraging AI assistance
5. The Cardano ecosystem gaining AI integration capabilities

Use Cases:

• Claude Desktop: "What's my ADA balance and staking rewards?"
• Cursor IDE: "Help me query Cardano blockchain data"
• AI trading bots accessing DeFi data
• Technical analysis through AI-processed on-chain metrics

Network effects multiply value: every AI query increases Cardano visibility, every developer brings their users, every interaction demonstrates technical leadership.

Uniqueness and Importance

This positions Cardano among early blockchains with MCP support, critical as AI becomes the primary technology interface. MCP was released by Anthropic in November 2024. Quick implementation establishes Cardano as AI-ready alongside forward-thinking competitors.

Our MIT-licensed, open-source approach ensures ecosystem-wide benefits. Other wallets can integrate, DApp developers can extend, and the community can contribute improvements, creating sustainable AI infrastructure for Cardano.

Leveraging VESPR's infrastructure delivers this in 6 months versus 12+ months from scratch. Our track record: $400M secured assets and near-perfect uptime, ensures production-ready infrastructure capable of serving AI queries at scale.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

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

Value to the Cardano Community

By enabling AI agents to query Cardano, we create essential infrastructure for AI-powered discovery and interaction. This positions Cardano among early blockchains with MCP support, critical as AI becomes the primary technology interface.

Ecosystem Capabilities Enabled:

1. AI Discovery Channel: Users exploring blockchain through AI can now access Cardano data
2. Developer Empowerment: AI developers can include Cardano in trading bots, analysis tools, and agents
3. Technical Parity: Cardano achieves feature parity with competitors racing to integrate AI
4. Lowered Barriers: AI helps explain complex concepts like eUTXO and staking, improving accessibility
5. Innovation Foundation: Infrastructure enabling future applications we cannot yet predict

Measuring Impact

Technical Metrics:

• Query performance (response time <2s for requests, over 99.9% uptime)
• Data accuracy validation against on-chain sources
• API usage patterns and query types

Ecosystem Indicators:

• Documented use cases and applications
• Developer testimonials and feedback
• Community projects extending our MCP server
• Educational impact on user understanding

Sharing Outputs

Open Source (MIT License):

• Complete codebase on GitHub
• MCP reference documentation
• Integration guides and with examples

Community Engagement:

• Periodic GitHub/Twitter updates

Ecosystem Collaboration:

Provide disponibilty for wallet providers, DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and developer tools to enable AI capabilities across Cardano.

The strategic importance: AI agents are becoming primary technology interfaces. By implementing MCP support, we ensure Cardano has the technical capability to participate in the AI revolution alongside forward-thinking competitors.

[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?

Existing Capabilities

Proven Infrastructure:

• $400M+ secured assets, 30,000 MAU
• $30-40M daily transaction volume
• 99.95% uptime over 2+ years
• Extensive token database, transactions and wallets indexing, DeFi integrations already operational

We're not building from scratch, we're exposing existing, battle-tested functionality through AI protocols. The heavy lifting of reliable blockchain indexing is already complete.

Cardano Expertise:

• Co-authors of CIP-0099
• Published 5+ MIT-licensed SDKs
• Integrated with almost every single Cardano protocols

Technical Team

Alex Dochioiu (CEO & Senior Architect): 10+ years at American Express/Virgin Money, architected VESPR's infrastructure, Cardano Product Committee member

Vlad Stan (Engineering Manager): Led teams at Adobe, expert in scalable systems and high-performance architectures

Daniil Shumko (Lead Developer): Expert in AI tools and cross-platform development, will lead MCP client libraries

Our expertise in RESTful APIs, WebSocket, JSON-RPC directly translates to MCP development.

Why VESPR:

1. Infrastructure exists. No additional blockchain indexing needed
2. 99.95% uptime ensures reliable AI service
3. Direct connections to major Cardano projects
4. Profitable business ensures long-term support
5. Deep Cardano architecture understanding

This is a straightforward implementation of a proven protocol using existing infrastructure—essentially guaranteed feasibility.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Core MCP Server Development

Milestone Outputs

We will deliver a functional MCP (Model Context Protocol) server implementing the first core Cardano query capability: fetching wallet balance. Basic API documentation will be created covering installation, configuration, and initial usage patterns. Initial integration examples will demonstrate connection from Claude Desktop App and show real-time Cardano data access through AI interfaces.

Acceptance Criteria

The MCP server must successfully respond to wallet balance queries through the MCP protocol. It must accurately return wallet balances matching on-chain data on mainnet. The balance data must be verifiable against blockchain explorers with 100% accuracy. The GitHub repository must contain working code with clear README instructions for setting up the MCP server. Documentation must cover installation steps and provide at least one working example of querying a wallet balance through Claude Desktop App.

Evidence of Completion

• Video showing successful balance query through Claude Desktop App and validation with a Cardano Blockchain Indexer

• Link to published GitHub repository with initial documentation

Delivery Month

2

Cost

35000

Progress

40 %

Milestone Title

Enhancing Capabilities

Milestone Outputs

We will significantly expand the MCP server's capabilities by adding comprehensive blockchain query endpoints. New APIs will include transaction history retrieval, token information and real-time prices, wallet staking details, swap history tracking, stake pool information, trending tokens identification, ADA Handle resolution, and detailed asset metadata. These enhancements will transform the basic balance-checking server into a full-featured AI gateway for Cardano blockchain data. All new endpoints will maintain the same reliability and performance standards established in Milestone 1.

Acceptance Criteria

Transaction history must return accurate records for any wallet address including timestamps, amounts, and transaction types. Token price queries must match correctly the price with on-chain DEX data. Staking information must correctly show delegated pools, rewards earned, and epoch details. ADA Handle resolution must accurately map handles to wallet addresses. Asset information must include metadata, policy IDs, and minting details. All new endpoints must handle concurrent queries without degradation.

Evidence of Completion

• Screenshot showing token price queries matching TapTools data

• Demo video of ada handle resolution

• Demo video of token info retrieval

• Demo video of wallet staking info retrieval

Delivery Month

4

Cost

30000

Progress

70 %

Milestone Title

Productizing & Public Deployment

Milestone Outputs

We will refactor the MCP server codebase to production standards with clean architecture, comprehensive error handling, and optimized performance. The server will be deployed publicly at mcp.vespr.xyz with rate limiting, and authentication systems. Code quality improvements will include proper logging, documentation comments, and removal of technical debt. The deployment infrastructure will feature health checks for real-time monitoring of server availability. Security hardening will ensure the server can safely handle public traffic while preventing abuse.

Acceptance Criteria

The refactored codebase must follow best practices with clean architecture and comprehensive error handling. The production endpoint must be publicly accessible at mcp.vespr.xyz with reasonable response times under 2 seconds for most implemented queries. Rate limiting must effectively prevent abuse while allowing legitimate usage. Health checks must properly monitor server availability and automatically alert on issues. The server must maintain 99% uptime during a two-week testing period. Code must be documented with inline comments and updated README.

Evidence of Completion

• Live demo of public endpoint at mcp.vespr.xyz handling multiple queries

• Screenshot showing health check status and server availability

• GitHub repository showing commits to improve code quality

Delivery Month

5

Cost

25000

Progress

90 %

Milestone Title

Catalyst Documentation & Close-out

Milestone Outputs

The Catalyst Final Report will detail all project outcomes, achievements, lessons learned, and future roadmap. The Catalyst Close-out Video will present the working MCP server, demonstrate real-world usage, and highlight community impact. If applicable, minor bug fixes and final optimizations will be made to ensure production stability.

Acceptance Criteria

The Catalyst Final Report must comprehensively document all milestones achieved, detailing the delivered MCP server functionality, usage metrics collected, and community feedback received. The Close-out Video must demonstrate the complete working MCP server, showing real examples of AI agents querying Cardano data through various endpoints. All critical bugs identified during the project must be resolved to ensure stable production operation.

Evidence of Completion

• Submitted Catalyst Final Report

• Published Catalyst Close-out Video

• Confirmation of minor bug fixes / improvements applied to production server (if any further changes are required)

Delivery Month

6

Cost

5000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Milestone 1: Core MCP Server Development

• Senior Software Developer: 43 days @ $560/day = $24,080

• Technical Architect: 7 days @ $700/day = $4,900

• Infrastructure Setup: $2,500

• Documentation: 7 days @ $350/day = $2,450

• Testing & QA: $1,000

Milestone 2: Enhancing Capabilities

• Senior Software Developer: 32 days @ $560/day = $17,920

• Technical Architect: 11 days @ $700/day = $7,700

• Testing & QA: $4,000

Milestone 3: Productizing & Public Deployment

• DevOps Engineer: 14 days @ $560/day = $7,840

• Senior Software Developer: 17 days @ $560/day = $9,520

Final Milestone: Catalyst Documentation & Close-out

• Technical Writer: 4 days @ $350/day = $1,400

• Video Production: $2,000

• Final Report & Bug Fixes: $1,600

Infrastructure Costs (Throughout Project):

• Servers and Infrastructure hosting: $800/month × 6 months = $4,800

• API monitoring and analytics: $400/month × 6 months = $2,400

• Development tools and licenses: $800

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

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

This project delivers exceptional value to the Cardano ecosystem with a modest investment:

ROI Analysis:

• Capability Value: Enabling AI integration opens entirely new use cases for Cardano
• Developer Ecosystem: Each AI application built multiplies the value of the infrastructure
• Strategic Positioning: Having AI capabilities ensures Cardano remains technically competitive
• Infrastructure Reuse: The MCP server provides long-term value with minimal maintenance

Cost Efficiency:

• Leveraging existing VESPR infrastructure saves 6+ months and $200,000+ in development costs
• Our team's proven expertise ensures on-time, on-budget delivery
• Open-source approach means the entire ecosystem benefits from a single investment

Long-term Sustainability:

• VESPR will maintain and enhance the MCP server beyond the funding period
• Open-source nature ensures community can contribute improvements
• Revenue potential from premium features ensures long-term viability

Comparative Value:

• Similar projects in other ecosystems cost $300,000-500,000
• Traditional blockchain API development typically requires 6-12 months
• Our 6-month timeline with production-ready output is highly efficient
• The infrastructure enables countless future use cases beyond initial implementation

The investment of 95,000 ADA to bridge Cardano with the entire AI ecosystem is not just good value, it's essential infrastructure for Cardano's future. As AI becomes the primary interface for technology, blockchains without AI integration will become irrelevant. This project ensures Cardano has the technical infrastructure to participate fully in the AI revolution.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes