Whitelabel Hydra Auctions for Gaming & Defi (MLabs + Ikigai)

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

Whitelabel Hydra Auctions for Gaming & Defi (MLabs + Ikigai)

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

360793

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

7

[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?

Builders on Cardano lack a fast, ready-to-use auction service. Current options are slow, costly, and complex, blocking innovation and raising building costs in NFTs, gaming, and DeFi.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://grabbit.market/
,
• https://MLabs.city/
,
• https://ikigaitech.org/

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

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

Yes

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

This project is a collaboration effort, and it depends on Ikigai and MLabs cooperation.

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

License and Additional Information

Open sourced, but monetized under a single model as wordpress, Apache or MIT licenses. The existing Grabbit project is also open source already.

[Theme Selection] Theme

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

GameFi

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Describe your established collaborations.

MLabs and Ikigai Technologies have a proven track record of collaboration, most notably co-developing Grabbit, the first Hydra-powered NFT auction house on Cardano. MLabs brings deep expertise from projects like Liqwid, Indigo, and Clarity, while Ikigai contributes product focus and gaming/NFT experience through Genun Games and Ascent Rivals. This established partnership combines technical excellence and user-centric design, ensuring low delivery risk and high value for the Cardano community.

Describe funding commitments.

This project is fully supported by MLabs and Ikigai Technologies, who are committed to delivering it through Catalyst funding. Both firms have dedicated internal resources to ensure completion, including senior engineers, product designers, and project managers. While Catalyst is the primary funding source, our teams have a history of absorbing additional effort when required to meet deadlines. The open-source nature of the project ensures long-term sustainability beyond the grant.

Describe your key performance metrics.

Key performance metrics include:

Completion of 6 milestones delivered on time and open-sourced.

Successful deployment of the whitelabel auction house on Cardano testnet and mainnet.

Availability of developer documentation, SDKs, and UI templates.

Evidence of successful Hydra incremental commit/decommit functionality.

Initial adoption measured by at least 2 external developer teams integrating the solution within 6 months post-release.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

Our solution is to modernize and open-source Grabbit, the Hydra-powered auction house already proven on Cardano. By transforming Grabbit into a whitelabel, WordPress-style toolkit, any builder will be able to easily launch their own high-performance auction platform. This includes ready-to-use APIs, SDKs, UI templates, and full documentation—making it plug-and-play for developers of any size. The solution is open source, lowering barriers to adoption, while its Hydra foundation ensures speed, scalability, and low costs. With this approach, NFT projects, gaming studios, and DeFi protocols can integrate auction functionality immediately, without the heavy upfront cost of building from scratch.

A whitelabel Hydra-powered auction house removes one of the biggest barriers for builders: the cost and complexity of creating reliable NFT/asset marketplaces. By offering a ready-to-use solution, we make it dramatically easier for new projects to launch on Cardano—whether they are NFT collections, DeFi protocols, or blockchain games. This drives faster adoption, increases network activity, and brings more users and value into the Cardano ecosystem. It will also strengthen Cardano’s reputation as the best blockchain for fair, scalable, and efficient digital asset markets.

Grabbit will see some enhancements and quality of life improvements, however these improvements can be enjoyed by the entire community, in a way that helps new builders.

The Whitelabel project will utilize and modernize the Grabbit infrastructure, and we will produce a product with clear API documentation, which can be run from our default web frontend, or easily integrated in a ‘headless’ configuration, to integrate with an arbitrary user interface - even a game.

Technical Architecture Overview

In this project, we wish to modernize our hydra infrastructure and make it easy to deploy anywhere (leveraging complimentary projects from txpipe, as well as MLabs’ own Cardano.nix)

Incorporating these two architectural changes will make the project much easier to maintain as well.

The whitelabel solution will also include out-of-the-box monitoring support through Grafana.

Finally, we will clean up our APIs, document them, publish SDKs in Javascript, and make them frontend-agnostic so that adoption is fast an simple for development teams.

Operational Framework

Development will proceed on an Agile methodology, with weekly sprints and regular meetings to ensure we continually make progress. MLabs and Ikigai will follow a structured, transparent delivery framework designed to ensure accountability and timely execution:

MLabs and Ikigai will execute this project using a milestone-driven framework, ensuring accountability, transparency, and timely delivery. Each milestone is designed to de-risk the project and provide tangible value to developers at every stage:

Project Specification, Testing Plan + Design

• Define the full functional and technical requirements.
• Establish the testing framework and success criteria.
• Finalize system architecture to ensure Hydra scalability and developer usability.X

Infrastructure Modernization

• Upgrade the Grabbit auction house codebase for modularity, maintainability, and performance.
• Refactor for clean integration with Hydra’s evolving features.

Granular Commit/Decommit for Bidders

• Implement incremental commit functionality, a new Hydra feature.
• Allow bidders to easily add or withdraw funds during an auction, solving one of the biggest UX friction points in Hydra auctions.

Fully Backed Bids Auction Flow

• Design and implement a new auction workflow compatible with Cardano Layer 1.
• Introduce “fully backed bids,” enabling more flexible auction types (e.g., English, Dutch, reserve-price) and expanding use cases across NFTs, DeFi, and gaming.

Documentation + SDK

• Publish developer-friendly documentation, APIs, SDKs, and code samples.
• Deliver UI templates to make the solution turnkey for builders, similar to a “WordPress-style” experience.

Testing + Mainnet Deployment

• Conduct rigorous testnet simulations to validate Hydra integration, auction flows, and user experience.
• Deploy to mainnet, followed by performance validation and community release under an open-source license.

Project Management & Accountability

• MLabs applies an Agile delivery model, with 2–3 weekly sprints , regular milestone reviews, and community-facing progress reports.
• Ikigai contributes product ownership and user experience expertise, ensuring the solution is practical for adoption in gaming, NFTs, and DeFi.
• Catalyst community members will receive milestone updates to ensure transparency.

Risk Mitigation

• Hydra evolution risks are covered by MLabs’ deep involvement in Hydra research and development.
• Adoption risks are addressed by Ikigai’s proven experience in bringing blockchain games and marketplaces live on Cardano.
• Open-source governance ensures continuous improvement and community trust.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

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

This project delivers broad, long-term benefits for the Cardano ecosystem by lowering barriers for builders and unlocking new types of economic activity:

Easier Entry for Builders

• By providing a free, open-source, whitelabel auction house, new teams no longer need to spend months (and significant capital) building complex infrastructure.
• This lowers the cost of experimentation and encourages more projects to choose Cardano as their launchpad.

Faster Ecosystem Growth

• NFT creators, gaming studios, and DeFi teams can launch marketplaces and auction systems immediately, driving new user activity and transaction volume.
• This means more TVL, more transactions, and more ADA utility across the network.

Innovation Through Flexibility

• Hydra-powered auctions solve key UTXO contention issues, enabling scalable, high-speed auctions that are not possible on Layer 1 alone.
• New auction types (via fully backed bids) give developers freedom to design unique user experiences, strengthening Cardano’s reputation as an innovation-friendly ecosystem.
• Community Ownership & Open Source
• The solution will be open source, ensuring transparency and allowing the community to build on top of it, extend its features, and keep it sustainable beyond the grant period.
• Like WordPress for websites, this project empowers the community with reusable infrastructure for digital markets.
• Strengthening Cardano’s Competitive Edge
• Competing blockchains already offer turnkey auction solutions. By delivering a Hydra-based alternative, Cardano gains a clear differentiator: high performance, low cost, and fairness guaranteed by Cardano’s eUTxO model.
• This helps attract projects from outside the ecosystem who are seeking robust, scalable infrastructure.

In short, this project transforms what is currently a major obstacle into a community asset, making it easier for builders to succeed and ensuring that more innovation, adoption, and value accrues to the Cardano ecosystem as a whole.

[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?

MLabs and Ikigai are two of the most experienced and trusted teams in the Cardano ecosystem:

Proven Track Record:

MLabs has delivered the smart contracts behind flagship Cardano projects such as Liqwid Finance, Indigo Protocol, and Clarity DAO Management, all of which are live on mainnet and trusted by thousands of users.

• Ikigai’s subsidiary Genun Games successfully launched Ascent Rivals to Cardano mainnet, and together with MLabs, built Grabbit, the first Hydra-powered NFT auction house.
• Deep Cardano Expertise: MLabs engineers are among the most active Haskell/Plutus developers in the ecosystem, and have contributed research and code to Hydra and other core Cardano technologies.
• Operational Transparency: Both teams apply professional Agile methodologies with milestone tracking, sprint reviews, and public reporting. Progress updates will be shared openly with the Catalyst community to ensure accountability.

Validation of Feasibility

1. Technical Foundations

• The core Grabbit infrastructure already exists and has been deployed on Cardano.
• New features (incremental commit, fully backed bids) are based on Hydra functionality that is now available and well understood by our engineering team.

1. Milestone-Driven Approach

• Six well-defined milestones (design, modernization, incremental commit, fully backed bids, documentation, and deployment) provide clear checkpoints for feasibility and delivery.
• Each milestone will be tested in isolation (on testnet) before integration.

1. Community Feedback & Open Source

• By open-sourcing the solution early, the community and potential adopters can validate functionality, stress test it, and provide feedback before mainnet release.

Together, our experience, structured delivery model, and transparency give the Catalyst community strong confidence that this project will be delivered successfully and sustainably.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Project Specification, Testing Plan & Design

Milestone Outputs

Outputs:

• Comprehensive specification document (requirements, architecture, workflows).
• Testing plan (unit, integration, Hydra benchmarks, security validation).
• UX design overview (bidder flows: incremental commit + fully backed bids).

Community Benefits:

• Provides transparency on how Hydra will be leveraged in production.
• Aligns community projects with the technical design early.
• Establishes trust with measurable success criteria.

Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance Criteria: A complete and reviewed project specification is produced, clearly defining technical requirements, user flows, and testing plans. The specification must integrate Hydra’s incremental commit/decommit features, outline interoperability with parallelized L1 auctions, and address UX approaches. It will be peer-reviewed and approved by both MLabs and Ikigai leads before moving forward.

Evidence of Completion

Evidence of Completion:

• Public specification + design document in project repo.
• Published testing plan with benchmarks.
• Video walkthrough summarizing design choices.

Delivery Month

1

Cost

39217

Progress

10 %

Milestone Title

Infrastructure Modernization

Milestone Outputs

Outputs:

• Refactored Grabbit codebase (modular, maintainable).
• Updated Hydra integration (latest APIs).
• CI/CD pipeline for automated builds/tests.
• Developer environment setup.

Community Benefits:

• Provides Cardano with a clean, modern auction core.
• Lowers developer onboarding friction.
• Ensures long-term sustainability and reliability.

Acceptance Criteria

The Hydra delegate server is successfully upgraded to the latest stable release, with dependencies fully aligned. Incremental API operations are implemented and validated with new endpoints for commit/decommit functionality. Technical debt is addressed through refactoring and toolchain updates, ensuring maintainability. Automated tests confirm reliability, and code passes peer review by MLabs and Ikigai engineering leads. Evidence of completion includes codebase updates, test results, and demonstration on testnet.

Evidence of Completion

Evidence of Completion:

Open-source repository link (GitHub).

Demo video of testnet auction using modernized infra.

Logs/screenshots from automated test suite.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

121570

Progress

40 %

Milestone Title

Granular Commit/Decommit for Bidders

Milestone Outputs

Outputs:

Incremental commit feature (add/remove funds dynamically).

• Hydra session logic for dynamic balances.
• Example dApp showing commit/decommit flow.
• Developer documentation for APIs.

Community Benefits:

• Removes friction for Hydra-based auctions.
• Improves UX, making Cardano auctions more competitive.
• Encourages adoption by solving a real Hydra limitation.

Acceptance Criteria

At least 10 unique testnet bidders are able to seamlessly commit and decommit funds during live auctions without errors or disruptions. Integration tests confirm reliable functionality across multiple Hydra heads, demonstrating stability under concurrent use. All new commit/decommit features are fully documented in the API reference, including example calls and expected responses, ensuring accessibility for external developers. Completion is evidenced by testnet transactions on CardanoScan, automated test reports, and published developer documentation.

Evidence of Completion

Updated open-source codebase with commit/decommit support.

Testnet transaction records on CardanoScan.

Video demonstration of bidder joining, committing, withdrawing, rebidding.

Updated API documentation published.

Delivery Month

3

Cost

58825

Progress

60 %

Milestone Title

Fully Backed Bids Auction Flow

Milestone Outputs

Outputs:

• New L1-compatible auction workflow with fully backed bids.
• Support for multiple auction types (English, Dutch, reserve-price, batch).
• Reference implementation integrated with Hydra.
• Updated system diagrams.

Community Benefits:

• Enables broader types of markets on Cardano (NFTs, DeFi, gaming).
• Increases fairness by ensuring bids are fully backed on-chain.
• Strengthens Cardano’s innovation profile.

Acceptance Criteria

Fully backed bid functionality is validated through successful execution of auctions on Cardano testnet, confirming that each bid is 100% collateralized and settled correctly. At least two distinct auction types (e.g., English and Dutch) are tested end-to-end within Hydra, demonstrating flexibility and reliability of the flow. Performance benchmarks are collected and published, highlighting improvements over existing Cardano L1 limitations. Documentation is updated to reflect the new flow, including developer guides and user-facing instructions. Evidence includes testnet auction records on CardanoScan, benchmark reports, peer-reviewed code, and updated docs.

Evidence of Completion

Public repo with new auction workflows.

CardanoScan testnet transaction links demonstrating fully backed bids.

Performance benchmark report published.

Video walkthrough of different auction types running live.

Delivery Month

4

Cost

78432

Progress

70 %

Milestone Title

Documentation & SDK

Milestone Outputs

SDK modules for Hydra integration + auction creation.

• Full developer docs (API references, setup, troubleshooting).
• UI templates for NFTs, gaming, DeFi.
• Example repos with integrations.

Community Benefits:

• Empowers developers with turnkey auction infrastructure.
• Lowers time-to-market for Cardano builders.
• Open source ensures sustainability + community growth.

Acceptance Criteria

The SDK is published under a recognized open-source license (e.g., MIT or Apache 2.0) in a public repository with proper versioning and release notes. A reference dApp is developed to demonstrate successful SDK integration, showcasing core auction workflows and bidder interactions in a real use case. Comprehensive documentation is produced, covering API references, integration guides, code samples, and UI templates. Documentation undergoes external review by at least one developer outside MLabs/Ikigai to confirm clarity, usability, and completeness. Evidence includes the public repo link, release artifacts, the demo dApp, and review feedback.

Evidence of Completion

SDK published in GitHub repo (tagged release).

Public documentation site or GitBook.

Video tutorial showing integration of SDK in example dApp.

Delivery Month

5

Cost

23531

Progress

90 %

Milestone Title

Testing & Mainnet Deployment

Milestone Outputs

Outputs:

• Full testnet validation of all flows.
• Stress testing results published.
• Security audit reports.
• Mainnet deployment of whitelabel auction house.
• Public adoption guide.

Community Benefits:

• Delivers a production-ready, battle-tested auction house.
• Provides builders with immediate infrastructure for NFTs, DeFi, and games.
• Boosts Cardano’s reputation for reliability and innovation.

Acceptance Criteria

The auction system is fully validated on Cardano testnet, supporting 100+ concurrent bidders and multiple simultaneous auctions without errors or transaction failures. All smart contracts and Hydra integration components pass internal and external security audits with no critical or high-severity issues remaining. The whitelabel Hydra-powered auction house is deployed live on Cardano mainnet, publicly accessible via documented endpoints and an open-source repository. A comprehensive adoption guide is published, including step-by-step instructions, integration examples, and a close-out video demonstration, providing the community with clear guidance to implement and adopt the system. Evidence includes testnet and mainnet transaction logs on CardanoScan, security reports, published code, and demonstration media.

Evidence of Completion

CardanoScan testnet + mainnet transaction records.

Public GitHub repo with final release + tagged version.

Published security audit report (internal + external).

Video demo of live mainnet auction.

Adoption guide shared with Catalyst community.

Delivery Month

6

Cost

39218

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Project total ADA: 360793

Detailed budget breakdown:

Milestone 1

Spec: backed bids + commit/decommit ₳ 9804

Research: L1 parallel auctions ₳ 11765

Spec update: L2, L1, UX ₳ 17648

Milestone 2

Hydra dep bump ₳ 3922

Incremental API ops + tests ₳ 39216

Toolchain refactor ₳ 78432

Milestone 3

Multi-auction workflows ₳ 9804

L1 full-back compat ₳ 9804

L2 full-back bids ₳ 19608

Flow debug & test ₳ 5883

Grabbit script integration ₳ 13726

Milestone 4

L1→L2 parallel auctions ₳ 39216

L1→L2 parallel auctions ₳ 39216

Milestone 5

Full-back flow changes ₳ 7844

Docs update ₳ 15687

Milestone 6

Close-out video, flow testing, adoption guide ₳ 7844

Social media promo ₳ 5883

Article publish ₳ 11765

Testnet launch ₳ 13726

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

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

This project delivers exceptional value because it transforms complex, costly infrastructure into a reusable, open-source solution that benefits the entire Cardano ecosystem. Today, teams that need auction functionality must invest significant time and capital to design, test, and maintain their own infrastructure — often making such projects infeasible. By providing a whitelabel Hydra-powered auction house, we remove these barriers and dramatically reduce the cost of entry for new builders in DeFi, gaming, and NFTs.

Every ADA spent on this project multiplies its impact: instead of funding a single dApp, the grant creates shared infrastructure that dozens of future teams can adopt at near-zero cost. This accelerates innovation, strengthens Cardano’s competitive edge, and fosters a vibrant pipeline of applications that bring real users and liquidity to the network.

Moreover, the proposal is delivered by two highly credible teams with proven Cardano mainnet success — MLabs and Ikigai — ensuring efficient use of funds, transparent delivery through milestone evidence, and long-term value creation. The result is infrastructure that pays dividends to the community well beyond the life of the grant.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes