Cardano Governance & DAO Analytics Engine

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

Cardano Governance & DAO Analytics Engine

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

84000

[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?

DAO data on Cardano is scattered across multiple platforms, making it difficult to track participation, treasury activity, and overall DAO health. A unified, open-source analytics tool is missing.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://github.com/chris-r-99/cardano-dao-engine

[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

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.

MIT License

[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).

This project is innovative because it introduces the first ecosystem-wide, open-source analytics layer designed specifically for Cardano’s diverse and rapidly expanding DAO landscape. While some tools focus on individual DAOs or single governance frameworks, no existing solution unifies data across multiple DAO platforms, voting models, and treasury systems. Our approach standardizes how DAO metrics are collected, interpreted, and accessed, creating a shared foundation for transparency and comparison that has not previously existed.

The platform goes beyond simple dashboards by offering a fully open and extensible API, enabling developers, researchers, and community tools to build on a common data layer. This transforms fragmented DAO information into a coherent, comparable dataset accessible to everyone. By combining cross-DAO aggregation, normalized governance metrics, and open-source infrastructure, the project provides an innovative leap forward in how Cardano DAOs can be understood, evaluated, and improved.

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

Our prototype (MVP) will demonstrate the core functionality of the platform by aggregating real DAO data from an initial set of Cardano DAOs beginning with the MinSwap DAO and expanding to others. It will showcase the ability to fetch, process, and display key governance metrics such as participation rates, proposal activity, and treasury movements in a unified format.

The MVP will also include the first version of our public API, allowing developers to access these metrics directly and test integrations with their own tools or dashboards. This early version will validate our data model, performance, and cross-DAO compatibility before expanding to more governance frameworks.

The prototype will be fully accessible through a public web endpoint and hosted API, with all source code available on our GitHub repository from day one. This ensures transparency, community feedback, and the ability for others to test and build on top of the platform immediately.

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

Platform adoption metrics:

• API usage: A measurable number of external calls
• Repository engagement: Stars, forks, and issue activity on GitHub indicating real community use.
• DAO feedback: Direct requests from DAOs to expand coverage or add analytics features.

Ecosystem impact metrics:

• Improved participation insight: Demonstrated ability for DAOs to identify participation trends and treasury behavior using the tool.
• Transparency increase: Multiple DAOs referencing the analytics in governance discussions or reports.
• Research utility: Use of the dataset in community research, governance analysis, or Catalyst proposals.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

We will develop a unified, open-source analytics platform that aggregates and standardizes DAO data across the Cardano ecosystem. The platform will collect key governance and treasury metrics - such as participation rates, proposal activity, voting patterns, community engagement, and on-chain treasury movements - from all major DAO frameworks on Cardano.

This data will be processed, normalized, and presented through a consistent interface, allowing users to easily compare DAO performance, understand governance trends, and monitor treasury health. Alongside the dashboard, we will provide a fully documented public API so developers, researchers, and DAO teams can integrate these insights directly into their own tools and workflows.

By consolidating fragmented DAO data into a single transparent and accessible platform, our solution directly addresses the current lack of visibility across Cardano’s growing DAO landscape. It empowers community members to make informed decisions, improves accountability within DAOs, and gives the ecosystem a shared foundation for analyzing and strengthening decentralized governance.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

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

This project strengthens the wider Cardano community by making DAO activity transparent, accessible, and easy to understand. By unifying governance and treasury data into a single open-source platform, it enables community members to stay informed, participate more effectively, and hold DAOs accountable.

Developers and researchers gain a reliable data foundation for building tools, dashboards, and analysis, reducing duplicated effort across the ecosystem. DAOs benefit from clearer insights into participation trends, treasury flows, and governance health—leading to better decision-making and stronger community trust.

Ultimately, the platform helps Cardano’s decentralized communities operate more efficiently, engage more meaningfully, and grow more sustainably, improving the entire ecosystem’s governance maturity.

[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?

I have a proven track record of delivering high-quality software within the Cardano ecosystem and across multiple professional projects. With a master’s degree in computer science and years of experience building scalable systems, I bring both the technical ability and discipline required to deliver this project reliably and on time.

I have already produced an initial MVP for this platform, demonstrating my ability to execute and validate the core concepts early. My development process is fully transparent: all code will be published on GitHub from day one, with continuous updates, clear documentation, and open issue tracking so the community can follow progress in real time.

I am committed to open-source principles, reproducible builds, and publicly verifiable development. By sharing progress openly, engaging with feedback, and adhering to Catalyst reporting standards, I ensure high accountability throughout the entire project. This combination of technical expertise, transparency, and previous delivery experience provides a strong foundation of trust for completing this project successfully.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

DAO Research & Metrics Defintion

Milestone Outputs

• Short report to understand the current DAO forms on Cardano
• Identify relevant parameters to track key DAO metrics (e.g. participation numbers, treasury activity, proposal histories)
• First technical plan to understand how these metrics will be implemented in our platform

Acceptance Criteria

• The report defines which DAO metrics we have indentified and how we can include them on our platform
• The technical plan outlines the tech stack we are planning to use for this project and how the different components we identified will be implemented

Evidence of Completion

• Link to Research Report to understand current Cardano DAO landscape
• Link to technical plan outlining tech tool stack and architecture of first conponents (can be either in PDF form or README in the GitHub repository)

Delivery Month

1

Cost

21000

Progress

20 %

Milestone Title

Development of Backend Infrastructure

Milestone Outputs

• Data crawler to fetch different DAO sources and bring them into a unified database format
• Backend systen analysing the different databases and serving them through different APIs
• Uniform API including endpoint documentation

Acceptance Criteria

• Integrating at least 2 different DAOs and bring them into a unified format
• Test-framework to validate API values and validate that the correct schema is returned
• Detailed documentation of available API endpoints

Evidence of Completion

• Open-Source Code available on GitHub with clear README documentation for reproducability
• Link to documentation of API endpoints and deployed API

Delivery Month

3

Cost

23000

Progress

50 %

Milestone Title

Frontend Development

Milestone Outputs

• Develop a React Frontend that visualizes the key DAO metrics we defined in mileston 1
• Documentation for the DAO frontend and its development (for both developers and end users)
• Publicly Acceesible DAO frontend

Acceptance Criteria

• Open-source code for the DAO frontend should be released under MIT license
• DAO frontend should at least visualizes 4 key metrics we have identified
• Documentation should include instructions for developers to reproduce the frontend and define clear contributiosn guidelines

Evidence of Completion

• Link to the frontend project source code released on Github
• Documentation for the frontend (either as PDF or Github readme)
• Link to the publicly accessible DAO frontend

Delivery Month

5

Cost

20000

Progress

70 %

Milestone Title

Final Milestone

Milestone Outputs

• Project Close-Out Report accoring to Project Catalyst Guidelines
• Project Close-Out Video according to Project Catalyst Gudelines
• API Documentation for Ecosystem Projects
• Example demonstration to show end-to-end flow of API and Frontend

Acceptance Criteria

• Project Close-Out Report follows Catalyst guidelnes
• Project Close-Out Video follow Catalyt guidelines
• API Documentation such that ecosystem projects can include the DAO AP in their interfaces
• Example demonstation should clearly demonstrate how changes in a Cardano DAO update our internal metric tools and hence frontend/API results -> example can either be provided as video or text

Evidence of Completion

• Link to Project Close-Out Report
• Link to Project Close-Out Video
• Link to API documentations
• Link to Example end-to-end flow of how our API tracks DAO decisions across Cardano

Delivery Month

9

Cost

20000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Calculation: 1 ADA ≈ 0.40 USD

Total funding requested: 33,600 USD

The project is expected to require approximately 8-9 weeks of full-time work, covering milestones 1 through 4. With an hourly rate of roughly 90 USD, the total work effort aligns with the requested budget of 32,600 USD.

This estimate does not include the additional time required for Catalyst administrative tasks such as milestone submissions, the close-out video, and the final report, which I expect will add approximately 50 hours of work.

No extra licensing or software expenses are anticipated, as the project will primarily use free tools and open-source technologies.

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

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

This project offers strong value for money by creating an open-source analytics platform that any Cardano DAO can use at no cost. Instead of each DAO building its own tools, the ecosystem gains a shared data infrastructure that improves transparency, participation, and treasury oversight. Because better governance strengthens many communities at once, the impact of this project extends far beyond its development cost and becomes a long-term public good.

[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