End-to-End No-code Cardano Apps

Motivation
Gartner predicts that by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity. (https://research.aimultiple.com/low-code-statistics/)
To achieve a truly exponential growth in number of developers, Cardano needs to take advantage of this no-code/low-code movement to allow anyone (so called citizen developers), not just experienced software engineers, to build end-to-end apps that connect to Cardano smart contracts.
While Marlowe with Blocky will allow Cardano developers to create contracts with no coding experience, this will not be enough as an enterprise application consists of many more connecting parts.

About us
We are building flycode, the most complete no-code platform and, while being long time Cardano fans, we think it might be the perfect way for our product to tackle blockchain integration, while also benefiting Cardano by combining our powerful no-code enterprise app creation tools with the Blocky extension of Marlowe for a truly end-to-end no-code experience. This no-barrier way of building apps connected to the blockchain will be a competitive advantage for Cardano.
We plan to launch flycode.io towards the end of this year, and while being a comercial solution it will also have a free tier with enough features for most blockchain apps usage requirements. To be notified about our launch you can leave us your email on our website :)

Use Cases

An interesting example of an app that you will be able to build end-to-end with flycode would be a decentralised borrow and lending platform. In this use case the workflow would work like this:

• First create the neccesary smart contracts with Blocky and deploy them on Cardano
• Then create a beautiful user interface to display the vaults, and user actions, using our drag&drop app editor
• You now would be able to use the Cardano blockchain connector to link the user data & actions in the interface with the smart contracts on the blockchain through a browser wallet
• You could also create user dashboards with visual charts to display APY information or earning predictions
• Later in our roadmap, you will be able to use our AI&Data analysis tools to predict user actions or calculate earnings forecasts
• The created app will be automatically hosted in the cloud and you will be able to publish updates
• You could also take advantage of our other features that do not necessarily relate directly with the Cardano blockchain connector like: powerful database creation tools, automated workflows, the chat-bot creator and many more features that will roll our gradually in the next year.

Schedule

1st Phase - first month after receiving funds:

• Design and plan the Cardano Blockchain Connector in accordance with the Cardano roadmap
• Start wire-framing and prototyping

2nd Phase - second month after receiving funds, no more than 3 months prior to our release (subject to change depending on Cardano releases)

• 1st & 2nd month - Develop the first MVP of the Connector
• 3rd month - Test and refine the Connector
  
  

3rd Phase - Release and maintenance - Launch planned for December 16th 2021, private beta bill be available earlier

Budget

*The presented budget only refers to the Cardano Blockchain Connector module of our no-code solution

1st Phase

• Design&Plan - $3600 (40 man hours * $45 hourly rate)

2st Phase

• Developing - $14400 (2 full-time dev months * $45 hourly rate)
• Testing&Refining - $3800 (40 dev hours * $45 hourly rate + 80 tester hours * $25 hourly rate )

3rd Phase

• Cloud Servers - $3600 (3 bare-metal servers * $100/month * 12 months average - to accommodate the free tier for the Cardano Blockchain apps, after the first year we will support these costs ourselves)

Key Objectives and Definition of Success

• In the first 3 months we plan to gain popularity amongst blockchain developers / no-code enthusiasts and have at least 10 applications developed on our platform using the Cardano Blockchain Connector
• After 6 months we expect 30 Cardano apps, which will serve as success stories to attract new developers to start developing on Cardano using no code.
• We expect at least 100 Cardano apps up and running in the first 12 months after release

*If you're a blockchain enthusiast / developer / UI/UX Designer, you like our idea and you're interested in a collaboration please send me you're CV/portfolio at the contact information found on my GitHub account: https://github.com/MarianFilipovici

Thank you for considering our idea :)

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