TapDano & Petrobras - Hydra & NFC Presence Tracking System

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

TapDano & Petrobras - Hydra & NFC Presence Tracking System

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

828162

[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?

Training at Petrobras demands verified presence. Manual logs fail, causing disputes and job risks. Independent, auditable evidence solves this.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://github.com/tapdano/tapdano/
,
• https://tapdano.com/

[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?

No

License and Additional Information

MIT For On-chain Contracts, TapDano Card Firmaware, Reader Firmware and Hydra Integration Service. Other components/services necessary for the commercial licensing of the solution will be proprietary to TapDano

[Theme Selection] Theme

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

Identity & Verification

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Describe your established collaborations.

TapDano collaborated with Petrobras and the Cardano Foundation to pilot a Proof-of-Attendance POC at ExpandLab 2024. Key directors issued a letter of intent to scale the technology across headquarters, leading directly to this proposal.

Describe funding commitments.

Signals at Petrobras point to exploratory interest moving through internal interactions. Early indications are favorable and the road ahead looks promising, though formal outcomes remain to be confirmed.

Describe your key performance metrics.

Our key performance indicators would be the completion certificates for every student at the end of every course completed. We estimate to generate thousands transactions every year on mainnet and NFT certificates.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

TapDano makes presence verifiable. Staff and Students tap TapDano cards on TapDano IoT readers. Readers sign events on-device and stream to Hydra for sub-second finality, batch-anchored to Cardano L1 for immutable audit. Dashboard/API syncs HR/LMS, flags anomalies, issues signed reports. Privacy-first (hashed IDs), secure boot/OTA, offline queues, Petrobras-grade. Cuts disputes and scales enterprise-wide.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

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

Our project delivers tamper-evident, auditable attendance using layer-1 Cardano transactions for high-stakes corporate training, reducing disputes and compliance risks. By showcasing Hydra at enterprise scale with Petrobras, South America’s largest company, we provide Cardano with a Fortune 500 success case that strengthens credibility among global enterprises.

TapDano’s open-source firmware, SDKs, and reference integrations ensure other institutions can easily adopt and extend the solution, diversifying Cardano’s use cases beyond finance into secure identity, certificates, and corporate operations. This creates lasting value for the ecosystem by embedding blockchain culture within a major enterprise.

In 2025, Petrobras will hire 1,780 new employees, all attending mandatory Universidade Petrobras courses, totaling 1,780 participants (~700 in the 1st semester, ~1,080 in the 2nd, ~18 classes). In 2022-2023, the company conducted over 4,500 onboardings, showing UP's high capacity to take advantage of our proposed solution.

[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?

TapDano has already delivered a mainnet Proof-of-Attendance with Petrobras and the Cardano Foundation at ExpandLab 2024 and Cardano Summit Dubai 2024. The same experienced team, covering product, development, firmware, and operations, is leading the effort, with a track record of shipping and managing enterprise rollouts. The plan is well-defined, timelines are staged, and risks are identified and managed. This follows our successful TapDano Catalyst proposal, where we provided the ecosystem with an open-source SDK enabling NFC capabilities.

Petrobras, one of the largest energy companies in the world with annual revenues exceeding $100 billion, is a strategic player in the global energy market and holds a dominant position as a top 1 enterprise in Brazil and Latin America. Its engagement with blockchain technology marks a pivotal step in the corporate adoption of this innovation, especially in Latin America.

The first contact between Petrobras and the Cardano ecosystem began in 2022 during the Cardano Rio event. The launch of the Petrobras UP Cardano Academy, a large-scale blockchain educational initiative aimed to be part of the oil and gas state owned company as its official internal course for all 40,000 Petrobras employees.

Petrobras's collaboration with Cardano has significantly impacted the platform's visibility across Latin America, particularly drawing attention in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.The ongoing work with Petrobras has opened crucial reputational doors in the region, positioning Cardano for potential partnerships with other major corporations and nations.

The journey to integrate Petrobras into the Cardano ecosystem has been a long process, requiring years of dedication and effort—and it will continue to require time to fully realize its potential. Identifying strategic opportunities and navigating the required pathways is essential to achieving success. This project establishes a precedent, demonstrating how large corporations in Latin America can engage with Cardano and blockchain technology.

We recognize that large enterprises like Petrobras face significant challenges when adopting blockchain technology due to bureaucratic hurdles, compliance requirements, and security concerns, particularly around the custody of private keys and secure use of decentralized applications (dApps) by employees. These issues impede the integration of Cardano's blockchain solutions into corporate environments, limiting the platform's potential impact and adoption at scale.

What makes our solution unique is the combination of TapDano's expertise in secure smart card technology and the robust, scalable infrastructure of the Cardano blockchain. By ensuring that private keys are stored securely on NFC cards without ever leaving the device, we directly address critical security concerns that are paramount for enterprise adoption.

Successfully integrating Cardano's technology within a global energy leader like Petrobras will enhance the platform's visibility in the public and corporate sector, open doors for future partnerships with other industry giants, and accelerate adoption, driving innovation and growth within the Cardano ecosystem.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

M1. Requirements & Architecture

Milestone Outputs

• Vision & Scope Report
• Functional Requirements & Use Cases Report
• Non-Functional, Security & Compliance Report
• Solution Architecture Overview Diagram (C4: Context)

Acceptance Criteria

• Objectives, success metrics, and in-scope/out-of-scope clearly defined and approved by Business, IT, and Security.
• End-to-end use cases described (NFC tap → on-chain → acknowledgment → reports).
• NFRs with targets (e.g., p95 “tap-to-ack” ≤ 5s on Hydra head, availability ≥ 99.5% for the pilot, retention and GPDR/LGPD).
• Threats mapped (STRIDE) with mitigations; compliance GPDR/LGPD requirements documented.
• C4 diagram covers all components: Cards, ESP32 readers, MQTT, TapDano back end, Hydra/Cardano connectors, indexing, UI, observability.

Evidence of Completion

• Versioned documents (v1.0).
• C4 Diagram exported (PNG/PDF).

Delivery Month

1

Cost

75000

Progress

10 %

Milestone Title

M2. On-chain Development

Milestone Outputs

• On-Chain Data Schema Definition (UTxO/Datum/Redeemer, events, PlutusData/CBOR encoding)
• Hydra Infrastructure Provisioning (heads, monitoring, runbooks)
• Hydra Connector Development (internal API/SDK)
• Cardano Connector Development (L1 interaction, submission/query)
• Aiken Smart Contracts (validators, tests)

Acceptance Criteria

• On-chain schema reviewed with payload samples.
• Hydra provisioning: automated open/close of multiple test heads, health checks, logs, and metrics exposed.
• Aiken contracts: compile without warnings, unit/property tests passing.

Evidence of Completion

• Repos with release tags.
• Uptime and metrics report.
• Execution logs of an end-to-end demo flow (video/steps + test tx hashes).

Delivery Month

4

Cost

249000

Progress

40 %

Milestone Title

M3. Back-end Development

Milestone Outputs

• Database Schema Definition (DDL + migrations)
• Database Provisioning (instance, backups, observability)
• TapDano Platform API Specification (OpenAPI)
• TapDano Platform API (BFF) Development (Proprietary)
• TapDano Platform API Provisioning

Acceptance Criteria

• DB schema normalized, keys/indexes defined, automated migrations.
• Provisioned with auto backups; health/usage alerts in place.
• OpenAPI covers main endpoints (attendance read, corrections, reports, devices); standardized error codes.
• API implemented with rate limiting, structured logs and observability.
• TapDano Platform API E2E Tests.

Evidence of Completion

• Database Schema (DDL).
• OpenAPI published (YAML/JSON) and API portal generated (URL).
• TapDano Platform API E2E reports.
• Provisioning, Uptime and metrics report.

Delivery Month

6

Cost

127000

Progress

60 %

Milestone Title

M4. TapDano Platform

Milestone Outputs

• TapDano Platform UX/UI (prototype and design system)
• TapDano Card Design
• TapDano Platform Front-end Development (responsive web app)
• Petrobras Authentication & Data Integration (OTP, Import / Export data)

Acceptance Criteria

• Prototypes approved by stakeholders;
• Front end with proper error/empty/loading states;
• Petrobras OTP integrated, roles/permissions enforced in front/back end;
• Data integration with Petrobras;
• Hydra, Cardano & MQTT Connectors Integration.

Evidence of Completion

• Prototype and Design System (Figma).
• Front-end build deployed to staging (URL).
• Recorded successful corporate login flow (captures/logs).
• Demo video of platform with all functional requisites developed

Delivery Month

8

Cost

127000

Progress

80 %

Milestone Title

M5. NFC Reader Hardware

Milestone Outputs

• ESP32 Reader Firmware Development (NFC, offline queue, OTA, security)
• MQTT Server Provisioning (broker/cluster with TLS)
• MQTT Connector Development (ingestion > TapDano Platform API)
• Open-Source Reader Manufacturing (Components, 3D Enclosure and Accessories)

Acceptance Criteria

• Firmware: reliable NFC reads; offline buffer; retry with deduplication; NTP/time sync; signed OTA; secure boot enabled.
• MQTT Server provisioned with TLS, per-device ACLs, LWT (Last Will and Testament) configured (readers live availability monitoring); load test.
• Readers manufacturing, provisioned with reader private keys and bench-tested.
• Cards manufacturing, provisioned with private keys and bench-tested.

Evidence of Completion

• Firmware repo with release tag;
• MQTT Broker load-test report;
• Uptime and metrics report of MQTT Server and Connector.
• Demo video of working NFC reader integrated with the Platform;

Delivery Month

10

Cost

127000

Progress

90 %

Milestone Title

M6. Go Live

Milestone Outputs

• Tests (E2E, performance, security, UAT - User Acceptance Testing Petrobras)
• Production Deployment
• Documentation (runbooks, playbooks, APIs)
• Feedback & Final Report
• Legal assessment of TapDano Enterprise Platform business contracts and Support

Acceptance Criteria

• E2E tests covering key journeys; performance targets met.
• Pentest/security with no open critical findings; mitigation plan for medium/low issues.
• Production deploy with live observability (dashboards/alerts) and backups.
• Documentation: operations, SRE/runbooks, user guides, API and final diagram.
• User feedback collected (instructors/admin) and final report with lessons learned and next steps.
• Documentation of Marketing efforts.

Evidence of Completion

• Reports: UAT, performance (charts), pentest (with remediation proof).
• Documentation repository published (links), including final OpenAPI.
• Infrastructure manual and support guide documentation.
• Final Report with real metrics from the first 2–4 weeks and post-pilot backlog.
• Close out video of working NFC reader integrated with the Platform at Petrobras headquarters.
• Evidence of Marketing efforts or future commitments to specific events.

Delivery Month

12

Cost

123162

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Our cost structure is led by 4.8 FTEs— 1 Project Owner, 1 CTO, 1.5 Software Engineer, 0.5 Front-End Developer, 0.6 UI/UX Designer, and 0.2 Legal—totaling $430,000/year. Non-personnel expenses for travel, hardware/IoT, IT services, marketing (two events), light manufacturing, and accounting/taxes add $60,000, bringing the base budget to $490,000/year ($40,833/month). We also include a 20% one-year volatility contingency of $122,840 ($10,237/month), resulting in approximately 828,162 ADA at an ADA price range of $0.74.

Project Cost Breakdown Sheet

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13PfOOZFyiqBiHumSdRmMthAD7fZJPQY-/view?usp=drive_link

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

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

Funds build a reusable Hydra-powered attendance stack (hardware, SDKs, APIs) open-sourced for all. Petrobras deployment proves enterprise value, drives L2/L1 tx volume, showcases compliance use cases, and seeds tools, docs, and case studies that accelerate Cardano adoption in LATAM and beyond.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes