SOLID Software Development Projects

The Problem:

The demand for developers in the Cardano ecosystem is rapidly increasing and will only become more so. In a decentralized environment with developers and customers spread all over the world, there is so much potential yet on the client side there can be concerns over appropriate content delivery, and on the developer side issues with confidence in payment. Potentially promising projects may fail or not even start due to these lack of trust or communication issues. Moreover, in order to encourage more people to take up work as full-time developers in the Cardano ecosystem, a certain security of income and reliable project specification is necessary.

Additionally, many developers are not well educated on (or interested in the legal aspects of supplier) the finer details of customer relationships. They want to do what they are truly passionate about : develop software!
On the other hand, potential clients may not have experience with software development projects, especially in this new and rapidly developing blockchain environment. They are cautious about taking on ideas and projects to permissionless blockchains like Cardano due to not only a lack of understanding, but also a lack of trust in people and technology.

Today this issue could partly be approached by bringing in an intermediary to act as a middleman. These services can not only be quite expensive for both parties, increasing project costs, but can also be difficult to implement internationally. Furthermore the point of failure is then just shifted to the intermediary and other issues arise if the intermediary does not act fairly or cannot be trusted. High costs for lawyers and consultants can arise, which are not feasible for freelancer or small and medium sized businesses (SMB).

Phase-1:

The system we are developing addresses this issue by providing a platform to fairly and securely work on projects. The goal is to increase the number of successful projects on Cardano and support developers, clients and SMB.

The system is not limited to software development on Cardano, but works as a solution for distributed services in general. At the heart of the solution lies smart contract technology, leveraging the security of the Cardano blockchain, to ensure agreed execution of (software development and other service) projects. The suppliers and clients interact with their specific smart contracts via a web platform.

The platform defines a legal agreement, software specification, project scope, project timeline, milestones and other related tasks. This information is tamper-proof and stored on the Cardano blockchain, so all parties can rely on the agreed specifications and conditions. They can work together without the need of expensive external consultancy.

The system can assure available budget for development teams and clients can be confident that their project goals are achieved according to the defined specification and their satisfaction. All payments are handled in accordance with certain pre-defined conditions and verified by the client. Suppliers can rely on available budget and be sure to get compensated for their work at the agreed time. Clients reduce risk for their investment and avoid opportunity costs. If needed, issues can be claimed by both parties and the system can help them by securing the payment until such a time as a mutually agreeable solution is found.

The payment is intended to happen in ADA. In general the system does not demand crypto currencies, and payments in fiat currencies are also supported. However, in this latter case no automated payment option would be available, as the contract can technically not interact with bank accounts (at least not at this time).

Value-add:

• build trust between parties

• simplify remote work

• legal support for developers

• reduce risk for all parties

• reduce opportunity costs

• provide a verified mechanism to handle software projects on blockchain

• tamper-proof project specification and agreements

• location independence

• wage protection

• on-chain payment solution

In a first production implementation the system is intended for software development projects, especially those including Plutus Pioneers and similar. At a future point we wish to develop the platform further to be able to handle all kind of agreements in an automated and verifiable manner.

Vision:

In general the platform has high potential for scaling. With a high-enough number of users it can also be used to find appropriate developers for projects. It can also feasibly expand to handle more-or-less every service which can be delivered via the internet.

Furthermore, the platform will provide information on how to handle projects and will implement free interactive guidelines for project management and legal contracts. These guides could inform users on, for example, on what a model legal contract looks like (for software development), which elements are important for both clients and suppliers to be particularly aware of, recommendations on how to have the best possible experience and increase the chances of a successful project. At the same time the platform offers essential services to handle those projects on the Cardano blockchain : automated, verifiable and tamper-proof.

Additionally, the contracting system can be further developed to be able to automatically negotiate legal contracts between parties, by utilizing an AI. By adding these features we open access to use-cases beyond internet deliveries e.g. for logistics and smart electronic devices.

Phase-2: Find Cardano Developers

In a second Phase of the project we want to integrate a free Cardano developers 'database'. Users will have the possibility to add themselves to this service. Companies looking for a developer would be able to search the database and get directly in touch with a potential partner. Projects can be handled on the SOLID platform.

Upon completion of every successfully completed project on the platform, the developer would get an NFT minted by the client through the platform, with associated appropriate metadata attached for identification and verification. By collecting these NFTs a developer would be able to easily provide evidence of relevant experience. Other potential areas include potentially co-operating with one of the great many Cardano education services being proposed (their are some interesting ideas right here on ideascale), for example using similar NFTs (etc) for proof of qualifications.

We envisage that the developers database would be a free service, with no requirement that projects have to be set up or executed on the SOLID platform, while providing great support for both parties.

Value-add:

• fee-free service to help match talent and projects for Cardano development

• build trust through NFT references and qualifications

• showcase your experience

• further education will be rewarded

• direct access to a project execution platform

• next generation project and talent acquisition platform

What challenge to address:

Attract more developers to build on Cardano, attract more enterprises and SMB to start projects for Cardano.

How the proposal contributes to the challenge:

Providing support structures for developers, development teams and SMB building on Cardano on legal aspects, salary, project execution and building and maintaining trustful relationships with their clients. In this way, encourage companies and developers to begin more projects together and increase the number of successful software development projects on Cardano.

Goals:

in 3 months:

• Beta version is in evaluation and close to production release

• acquired 10+ partners for evaluation, who will start using the platform on release

in 6 month:

• first production version of the platform available ( ~February 22)

• improvements and scaling the system to 200+ regular users

• project execution and legal contracting guides available

finish Phase-1

• integrating Atala PRISM for customer / supplier identification

• start on Phase-2 to find developers for projects on Cardano

in 9 month:

• release first version of Phase-2

in 12 month:

• finish Phase-2

• scaled the system to 1000+ regular users

• adopted the concept to other use-cases / services

• integrating advanced features for claimed issues

• the platform is known as a place to find skilled Cardano developers and successful projects

• further research and development to handle and automatically negotiate general business contracts

Budget plan:

Funding                                                                                                                      80100 $

       Salary for 3 developers (Front-end, Back-end, Plutus),

       PM, DevOps for the first 4-5 month (~75$/hr)                                                52500 $

       Legal Consulting (creating legal contract

       templates for different regions and internationally)                                        17500 $

       Infrastructure

       (Technical equipment, server, software, licenses)                                           5800 $

       Marketing                                                                                                            4300 $

Potential risks:

Service is not accepted by developers / clients

           How to approach: feedback from the community to make the service fit their needs

Not able to become self-financed in first six months because of small users' base

            How to approach: appropriate marketing and community interaction

Legal issues

             How to approach: Legal consultancy for different regions/continents and on international level

Acknowledgments:

Thank you very much Zagita21, for your revision on the english language and your ideas for this proposal !

Notes:

The name SOLID is a work in progress name and will not be the finial name of the system, proposals are welcome.

Personal note:

Dear community member,

I hope the concept suits you well and that you will support us with your ideas, proposals, suggestions and questions.

I have been working in software development for many years and have a degree in electrical engineering as well as many years experience as an entrepreneur. At the moment I am working in R&D for blockchains in a research center and have run through the Plutus Pioneer program.

With this project we want to contribute to the Cardano community and support the many new smart contract developers out there, who are working hard daily to develop their programming skills. If the project gets funded we want to add a plutus pioneer and a front-end developer to the team. If you are interested to work on this project, get in touch with me.

I am looking forward to your feedback.

Torben Poguntke

solid.sw.dev@gmail.com