[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

Aquara MVP: Decentralized Water Finance on Cardano

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

200000

[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?

Water powers the global economy, yet water finance remains in the hands of closed institutions. As shortages rise and a $1T gap grows, people have no control over how water assets are financed.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://www.aquara.io/
,
• https://www.aquara.io/doc-hub
,
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/10BJVKgV7wxgDRP16NxUlXDdPEWMwXpkY/view?usp=sharing
,
• https://app--aquara-dashboard-e7c7522f.base44.app/
,
• https://app--aquara-governance-portal-84163bcd.base44.app

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

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

Yes

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

Aquara’s MVP will be built by Var-Meta, our chosen technical partner, under coordination from our CTO.

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

Please provide details on the intellectual property (IP) status of your project outputs, including whether they will be released as open source or retained under another licence.

Aquara’s main code, like smart contracts and governance tools, will be open source and shared on GitHub. We will use the MIT license so anyone can see, use, and help improve the project. This keeps things clear, safe, and open to the community.

[Theme Selection] Theme

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

DAO

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Describe what makes your idea innovative compared to what has been previously launched in the market (whether by you or others).

Aquara is the first project on Cardano (And in the blockchain space) aiming to build a decentralized, community-governed water fund. It introduces a completely new financial product and an asset class - water-related assets - into blockchain treasury governance, combining BTC + real-world water assets (water ETFs, listed water companies, water-tech startups, and eventually tokenized water rights) with transparent, participatory decision-making.

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

Aquara’s MVP is a functional governance and treasury dashboard where users can connect their Cardano wallets, view a transparent virtual treasury, explore water-related asset categories, submit and vote on proposals, and test early DAO decision-making with the AQA token on testnet.

It demonstrates the full flow of:

wallet → proposal → vote → treasury visualization, showing how Aquara’s future decentralized water fund will operate.

The MVP will be accessible directly on our website, and all smart contracts, dashboards, and governance templates will be fully open-source on our GitHub: https://github.com/AquaraOfficial/aquara-dao

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

Success means delivering the AQA token and a functional governance + treasury MVP by Month 6, followed by a DAO pilot with verifiable on-chain participation. We target 500+ pilot participants and at least 20% voter turnout (100+ on-chain voting transactions), along with 5+ proposals submitted through the portal by the team.

We also aim for 2–4 DRep endorsements and active participation from Cardano community members. Ecosystem traction will be measured through 2,500+ Twitter followers by Month 6 and 2–3 Cardano influencer endorsements to support onboarding and awareness. All progress will be open-sourced through monthly GitHub updates, with dashboards tracking proposal counts, wallet interactions, and voting activity on-chain.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

Water Belongs To Everyone, It's Finance Should Too

Aquara introduces a new financial model for water: a community-governed treasury where water-sector assets are financed, overseen, and grown transparently on Cardano. Instead of water-related investments being controlled by private institutions, Aquara enables a global community to participate in how capital is allocated to the water economy.

Our solution combines on-chain governance, a dual-asset treasury model (water-sector assets + Bitcoin), and a 12 year phased decentralization framework. Through the AQA token, participants can propose, review, and vote on decisions involving water ETFs, infrastructure companies, emerging water technologies, and—later in the roadmap—real-world water rights and start-ups.

The water economy is a multi-trillion-dollar market covering utilities, infrastructure, technology, and water ETFs. Today, this sector is controlled by private institutions, hedge funds and large companies with little transparency. Aquara brings it on-chain through community governance—something no other blockchain is doing—giving Cardano a first-mover advantage in a major real-world asset category.

Catalyst funding enables the release of our MVP, which provides the foundation for this long-term system:

• AQA token (Cardano native asset)

Deployed on testnet with governance and treasury logic built to scale over time.

• Governance Portal (MVP)

Wallet connection, proposal creation, voting, and governance flows—delivered fully on-chain.

• Treasury Dashboard

A simulated model of Aquara’s dual-asset approach (water-sector assets + Bitcoin), visualizing how the treasury evolves through community decisions.

• DAO Pilot (Testnet)

A guided governance simulation to validate participation, voting behavior, and treasury logic—risk-free, using virtual assets.

• Full open-source stack

Smart contracts, UI frameworks, and governance modules available for any Cardano project to reuse, enabling future resource-focused DAOs.

This MVP demonstrates how Cardano can host transparent, data-driven financial governance for real-world assets—starting with water and laying the foundation for future sectors such as clean energy, minerals, and farmland.

Aquara turns water finance into an open, on-chain system where decisions are transparent, global, and verifiable—shifting resource governance from private institutions to community-backed models.

Litepaper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13TNf74iXeh9C9j7FEjtnZ0IoVR_I0A_Z/view

Whitepaper: https://www.aquara.io/whitepaper

Community Engagement Strategy

To ensure meaningful participation in the DAO Pilot and build early governance culture, Aquara will execute a structured community engagement plan throughout the MVP period. We aim to include:

Sendr Network collaboration for influencer-driven campaign support, governance awareness, and onboarding into the AQA testnet environment.

Regular AMAs and Twitter/X Spaces, including technical walkthroughs, water finance education, treasury insights, and DAO governance Q&As.

Partnership outreach to dReps, Cardano governance leaders, and ecosystem projects to validate governance flows and increase visibility.

Creator and educator outreach to encourage independent coverage, explainers, and governance demos.

Dedicated governance onboarding through tutorials, step-by-step guides, and community challenges to increase proposal participation and voting activity during the DAO Pilot.

Metrics-driven engagement tracking, such as number of proposals, votes, unique wallets, and retention across the pilot governance cycles.

The goal is to ensure that AQA holders, Cardano users, and water-sector + impact investors are ready to participate in the governance portal from day one, strengthening the testnet pilot and laying the foundation for Aquara’s long-term decentralized governance model.

Clarification on Water Assets & Governance Timeline

Aquara does not acquire water rights, land, or real-world water assets during the MVP phase or in the early stages of the project. Our whitepaper outlines a 10-year phased asset acquisition strategy, beginning with safe, regulated instruments such as water-sector ETFs, public-market companies, and technology partners—only after the governance structure and treasury systems mature.

Similarly, Aquara’s governance model follows a 12-year decentralization roadmap (fully documented in our public Doc Hub). The MVP does not introduce high-risk governance decisions or real-world capital deployment. Instead, Catalyst Fund15 supports the foundation: smart contracts, governance portal, treasury modeling, and a DAO Pilot using virtual assets.

This phased approach ensures regulatory safety, realistic execution, and long-term credibility—avoiding the risks of premature real-world asset acquisition.

Governance Portal Mock-up UI: https://app--aquara-governance-portal-84163bcd.base44.app

Treasury Dashboard Mock-up UI: https://app--aquara-dashboard-e7c7522f.base44.app

FAQ: https://www.aquara.io/faq

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

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

Aquara introduces a new financial model to Cardano by demonstrating how real-world assets—starting with water-sector investments and Bitcoin—can be governed transparently through on-chain voting. Our MVP enables the community to submit proposals, vote, and interact with a live treasury dashboard, creating meaningful on-chain activity and governance participation.

This project will onboard new users from outside the crypto space, including water professionals, impact investors, activists and citizens who care about resource finance. Aquara becomes a bridge that brings real-world sectors into Cardano through a familiar entry point: water finance.

All governance tools, dashboards, and smart contracts will be open-source, allowing other Cardano teams to adapt the same toolkit for clean energy, climate assets, land management, and additional resource-finance use cases.

By proving that communities can manage real assets on Cardano, Aquara strengthens the ecosystem’s reputation as a platform for transparent, socially responsible, and institution-ready financial innovation.

Aquara also helps grow the Cardano ecosystem in a very real way. Every proposal, vote, and treasury interaction creates on-chain activity, increasing usage of the network. As Aquara develops a real, diversified treasury over time, it also lays the groundwork for future TVL growth on Cardano. Since no other blockchain is building decentralized water finance, Aquara gives Cardano a unique use case that can attract new users, new communities, and new capital into the ecosystem.

[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?

Aquara has already shown strong execution without external funding. We have a full Whitepaper, Litepaper, and a 160+ page Doc Hub detailing our financial model, governance roadmap, tokenomics, and long-term decentralization plan. Our website (Aquara.io) presents our mission and roadmap, supported by an active community of 1,100+ on Twitter and 100+ on Telegram.

We have engaged over 30 experts—water professionals, academics, developers, and financial specialists—whose feedback has shaped our design. Our advisors bring experience in DAO governance, hydrology, legal water rights, and blockchain development.

Aquara has attracted early interest from the ecosystem, including invitations to speak at H₂O Portugal, outreach from Water Europe, and constructive conversations at Cardano Summit. Intersect and the Cardano Foundation have shown informal interest in our RWA governance ideas. We also follow and engage with emerging Cardano RWA and stablecoin initiatives such as TRNZND and Libertum, which complement Aquara’s long-term vision for real-world asset finance.

We are exploring early collaborations with water-tech start-ups and sustainability groups such as Pydro, Desolenator, Humasol, Socious, Water Europe and several NGOs.

Our model is strengthened by continuous expert review, internal treasury simulations, and a clear 12-year decentralization roadmap focused on transparency and safety. With strong documentation, expert involvement, and early recognition, Aquara is well positioned to deliver a high-quality MVP aligned with Cardano’s long-term vision for real-world impact.

Aquara Roadmap: https://www.aquara.io/roadmap

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

AQA Token & Smart Contracts on Testnet

Milestone Outputs

AQA token deployed on Cardano testnet

Governance, treasury, and vesting smart contracts implemented

Token configurations aligned with whitepaper tokenomics

Internal testing (transfers, voting rights, contract interactions)

Developer documentation published

GitHub repo structured and accessible

Acceptance Criteria

Smart contracts deployed and functioning on Cardano testnet

AQA token minted and verified usable in voting flows

All contracts pass internal QA and basic security checks

Contract addresses, hashes, and deployment details published

Technical documentation available on GitHub

Evidence of Completion

GitHub repo link with full smart contract code and README

Testnet deployment transaction IDs and signed script hashes

Architecture overview diagram and short smart contract docs

Notes confirming alignment with Var-Meta MOU Months 1–2

Delivery Month

2

Cost

50000

Progress

20 %

Milestone Title

Governance Portal (MVP) Completed

Milestone Outputs

Cardano wallets integration

Proposal creation, listing, metadata display

Voting UI connected to testnet contracts

Authentication + signing flows

Governance UX (timers, participation indicators, proposal states)

Usability tests with 10 external testers

Acceptance Criteria

Governance portal works plug-and-play on testnet

Team can create proposals end-to-end

Users can vote and see final results

Votes display correctly on testnet explorers

Dashboard shows live on-chain data without errors

Evidence of Completion

Live plug-and-play testnet demo of the governance portal (MVP)

GitHub commits showing portal logic, UI, and integrations

Screenshots and recorded testnet transactions verifying proposal and voting flows

Delivery Month

5

Cost

60000

Progress

50 %

Milestone Title

Treasury Dashboard (Simulated RWA + BTC Model)

Milestone Outputs

Visual treasury model: water assets (ETFs, companies) + BTC

Simulated on-chain data feeds for Phase 1 treasury structure

Portfolio allocation UI

“Future RWA links” architecture (data structure for ETFs → startups → rights)

Open-source treasury toolkit for reuse

Acceptance Criteria

Treasury dashboard fully operational with test data

Clear breakdown of allocations, performance, Water Impact, and treasury reserves

GitHub documentation published with available API endpoints

Dashboard visuals accurately reflect treasury model data

Evidence of Completion

Live testnet dashboard demo

GitHub code for dashboard + APIs

Short walkthrough video showing data, charts, and model behavior

Delivery Month

6

Cost

45000

Progress

80 %

Milestone Title

DAO Pilot (Testnet) + Transparency Report

Milestone Outputs

Live DAO Pilot executed on testnet

Test proposals created and voted on

Participation metrics collected and displayed

DAO Pilot results documented in GitHub

Pilot summary report published

Dashboard updates where relevant

Acceptance Criteria

DAO Pilot completed with full testnet governance cycle

Pilot results documented on GitHub and website

Participation metrics shown (proposals, votes, unique wallets)

Final DAO Pilot report submitted to Milestone Reviewers

Evidence of Completion

Testnet proposal links and voting records

Snapshot hashes documenting vote resultsLive DAO Pilot executed on testnet

Test proposals created and voted on

Participation metrics collected and displayed (no numbers!)

DAO Pilot results documented in GitHub

Pilot summary report published

Dashboard updates where relevant

DAO Pilot summary report with participation data

Delivery Month

6

Cost

35000

Progress

90 %

Milestone Title

Final Milestone — Transparency, Reporting & Close-Out

Milestone Outputs

Final GitHub documentation for all MVP components

Complete close-out report and required Catalyst close-out video

Updated transparency dashboard and treasury reporting framework

Final public summary post shared on website and social channels

Acceptance Criteria

All prior milestones fully approved by Milestone Reviewers

Close-out report submitted, reviewed, and accepted

Final Catalyst-required close-out video delivered and published

Public documentation updated to reflect completed project

Evidence of Completion

Public GitHub links with final documentation

Published close-out video

Submitted close-out Report

Simulated treasury report PDF available in treasury dashboard

Delivery Month

6

Cost

10000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Catalyst Fund 15 — Budget Breakdown (₳200,000 Requested)

This proposal funds the complete development of Aquara’s MVP governance suite, including:

• DAO Governance Portal (testnet)

• Wallet integration and voting flows

• AQA token + governance smart contracts

• Treasury Dashboard (virtual + modular design)

• DAO Pilot (testnet simulation)

• Transparent reporting + open-source releases

These components form the foundation of Aquara’s decentralized water-asset fund and long-term DAO operations.

Use of Funds (Detailed Breakdown)

₳20,000 — Token + Smart Contract Development

Includes:

• AQA token minting policy

• Governance contract (voting + snapshots)

• Whitelist logic, integration, and QA

• Bug fixes & internal audits

• Developer documentation

₳70,000 — MVP Development (Front-End + Back-End)

Includes:

• Full governance portal build

• Wallet integration (VESPR, Eternl, Lace)

• Proposal creation + voting UI

• Backend logic, indexing, APIs

• Testnet deployment & QA

₳55,000 — Treasury Dashboard (MVP Version)

Includes:

• BTC + water-asset modeling

• Virtual treasury architecture

• Charts & analytics

• Mock data pipelines

• Modular design for future on-chain treasury

₳10,000 — DAO Pilot + Governance Operations

Includes:

• Testnet governance simulation

• Proposal cycles & stress testing

• Feedback collection & iteration

₳40,000 — Community Engagement & dRep Outreach

Includes:

• Governance onboarding

• Community support & education

• Outreach to dReps & key Cardano contributors

• Catalyst updates

₳5,000 — Transparency & Reporting

Includes:

• GitHub documentation

• Open-source releases

• Monthly progress reports

• Treasury reporting framework

• Public transparency materials

1. Optional Stretch Goals

(Pursued only if co-funding or internal savings occur)

• DAO UX testing & user-feedback workshops — ₳3,000

• Light product-management support — ₳2,000

• Additional DAO Pilot engagement (AMAs, onboarding) — ₳3,000

1. Timeline (6 Months)

Start: February 2026 (after funding distribution)

End: July 2026 (DAO MVP + transparency reporting delivered)

Deliverables: All milestones and documentation will be updated on GitHub.

1. Transparency Commitments

• All code and deliverables will be open-source.

• Progress and financial updates will be shared publicly.

Aquara is committed to full accountability throughout the project lifecycle.

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

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

The 200,000 ADA we’re requesting funds a complete governance and treasury MVP that brings a new financial model to Cardano: community-led resource finance, starting with water. This is a high-value build that includes smart contracts, a governance portal, a treasury dashboard, and a full DAO Pilot.

Proof of capability:

The MVP demonstrates that Cardano can support transparent, community-led decisions and manage real assets through a dual-asset treasury model (water-sector assets + Bitcoin). This establishes Cardano as a leader in impact-driven RWA governance.

On-chain activity & onboarding:

The governance portal, AQA token, and treasury simulator generate real on-chain interactions—proposal creation, voting, wallet connections, and testnet governance cycles. Aquara also attracts new users from water finance, sustainability communities, and impact investors, expanding Cardano beyond crypto-native audiences.

Reusable infrastructure for other teams:

Every component—governance contracts, dashboards, APIs, treasury tools—will be fully open-source. Other Cardano builders can reuse the system for clean energy, land, food security, minerals, or any real-world asset category. This makes Aquara’s MVP a multiplier for the entire ecosystem.

Strengthening Cardano’s long-term position:

A functioning MVP builds trust, signals institutional maturity, and positions Cardano as the chain for transparent, socially responsible resource finance. It helps lay the foundation for future TVL as Aquara’s long-term treasury model evolves over the next decade.

A small cost for a new category of Cardano use case:

For 200,000 ADA, the ecosystem gains a novel financial stack that can be replicated across multiple sectors—demonstrating that Cardano can support real-world asset governance where people, not monopolies, manage resource finance.

[Self-Assessment] Self-Assessment Checklist

I confirm that evidence of prior research, whitepaper, design, or proof-of-concept is provided.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal includes ecosystem research and uses the findings to either (a) justify its uniqueness over existing solutions or (b) demonstrate the value of its novel approach.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal demonstrates technical capability via verifiable in-house talent or a confirmed development partner (GitHub, LinkedIn, portfolio, etc.)

Yes

I confirm that the proposer and all team members are in good standing with prior Catalyst projects.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal clearly defines the problem and the value of the on-chain utility.

Yes

I confirm that the primary goal of the proposal is a working prototype deployed on at least a Cardano testnet.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal outlines a credible and clear technical plan and architecture.

Yes

I confirm that the budget and timeline (≤ 12 months) are realistic for the proposed work.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal includes a community engagement and feedback plan to amplify prototype adoption with the Cardano ecosystem.

Yes

I confirm that the budget is for future development only; excludes retroactive funding, incentives, giveaways, re-granting, or sub-treasuries.

Yes

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

I Agree

Yes