SharpDAO - DAO Tooling for Cardano

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

CardanoSharp and Gimbalabs want to build tooling and an interface for the Cardano community. The goal is to provide both off-chain and on-chain tools.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

CardanoSharp

We have over 20 years of collective .NET experience.

Gimbalabs

An educational and builders community implementing both off-chain and on-chain governance techniques.

We all have been building on Cardano since the Mary Era when metadata was introduced.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

We are proposing to build tooling that will let people manage DAO Structure, Treasury, and Voting. This would be considered an off-chain dao since this iteration will not be using smart contracts. This will help lower fees for members of DAOs using this approach.

We will be able to leverage cryptography, json-ld, and decentralized storage to deliver an off-chain solution. 

We will provide the following:

• .NET libraries that can be consumed for executing the various functionality needed to create and manage a DAO
• A command line interface that will leverage the .net tooling. Users familiar with cli will be able to create and manage a DAO
• A DAO community that is ready to use the command line interface and provide rapid feedback for continuous iteration

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Right now the challenge evolves around DAOs. Currently the ecosystem to even build a DAO is severely lacking. We would provide the base infrastructure to build a DAO, in hopes it can be not only utilized by the community, but used in conjunction with some of the other amazing efforts coming out of this fund.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Scope creep. We are starting small and thinking about how to build methodically by using the tools described in this proposal.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

MultiSig Treasury + Off-chain Voting = community can spend and allocate funds in a decentralized way.

Phase 1: Initial Development

So what will we actually develop first:

1. Treasury Creation
2. Treasury Modification
3. Treasury Spending as Proposal Process
4. Can include how Spending Proposals are created
5. Can include how x of N sigs work… → which is voting
6. DAO Registration
7. CIP Proposal for off-chain dao metadata

Phase 2: Develop PBL Modules

We will deliver Project-Based Learning Modules that support:

User Onboarding: 

• Hands-on lessons for how to use SharpDAO CLI tools to register a DAO, create a Treasury, and utilize the proposal pipeline

Community Background Knowledge:

• How SharpDAO CLI tools are built
• DAO decision-making processes

Developer Contribution: 

• How to contribute to the SharpDAO project
• How to build your own modules.

Gimbalabs will test these tools by using them in practice across Gimbal Tokenomics Working Groups. Gimbals will be used to test features and processes.

We will host two dedicated Live-Coding sessions that are focused on using and developing SharpDAO tooling.

Beta Testing and initial rollout complete by the end of Month 3

Phase 3: Exploring additional features of DAO Tooling

Using the tools built in Step 1 and the learning resources in Step 2, we will bootstrap the governance process of SharpDAO.

• Engaging with users of SharpDAO tooling to suggest next development goals 
• Showing examples of community-customized use-cases
• Deciding what to do next

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Phase 1: Development Budget = 860 Total Hours * $50 per Hour = $43,000

User Stories - Total Hours 860

1. MultiSig features added to CardanoSharp - 160 hours
2. Define DAO Metadata Structures for Off-chain voting - 60 hours
3. Register a DAO - 20 hours
4. This is used for verifying a DAO’s signature
5. Proposal Results - 40 hours
6. When a Proposal has been successfully passed, it will be submitted to the Cardano Blockchain. The metadata will hold the proposal and the results.
7. DAO Registration - 120 hours
8. Define metadata schema - 40 hours
9. Library Feature - 40 hours
10. CLI Implementation - 40 hours
11. Create Treasury - 160 hours
12. Library Feature - 80 hours
13. CLI Implementation - 80 hours
14. Create Proposal Pipeline - 360 hours
15. Initiate Proposal - 240 hours
16. Create Proposal Strategies - 80 hours
17. Send/Pay Funds - 40 hours
18. Allocate Funds to Sub-Treasury - 40 hours
19. Library Feature - 80 hours
20. CLI Implementation - 80 hours
21. Cast Vote - 80 hours
22. Library Feature - 40 hours
23. CLI Implementation - 40 hours
24. Execute Proposal - 40 hours
25. Library Feature - 20 hours
26. CLI Implementation - 20 hours

Phase 1: Project Based Learning Modules Budget = 265 Total Hours * $50 per Hour = $13,250

User Onboarding - (80 hours learn, document, lesson design) 

• Hands-on lessons for how to use SharpDAO CLI tools to register a DAO, create a Treasury, and utilize the proposal pipeline

Community Background Knowledge - (80 hours learn, document, lesson design) 

• How SharpDAO CLI tools are built
• DAO decision-making processes

Developer Contribution - (80 hours learn, document, lesson design) 

• How to contribute to the SharpDAO project
• How to build your own modules.

Meetings and Meeting Planning (25 hours)

Gimbalabs will test these tools by using them in practice across Gimbal Tokenomics Working Groups. Gimbals will be used to test features and processes.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Kyle Johns - Contributor of Fund3 CardanoSharp, .NET Serialization and Transaction building library.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnskyle/

Daniel Schaefer - Contributor of Fund3 CardanoSharp, .NET Serialization and Transaction building library.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danschaefer96/

Keith Tun - Contributor of Fund3 CardanoSharp, .NET Serialization and Transaction building library.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/keefie/

James Dunseith - Co-founder of Gimbalabs, currently focused on developing a project-based learning framework that enables DAO formation

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Yes! This is only the beginning for the type of DAO tooling we are envisioning. As we get the foundation built and documentation written, we will look to enhance the tooling to bring non-technical users to SharpDAO.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Pre-Release

• Github Activity - we will be able to track various development metrics like Commits and PRs from github.
• Documentation - as we build out the tooling and cli, we will document how to use each piece.

Release

• DAOs Registered - we can track how many DAOs register using the tooling or cli.
• Successful Proposals - we can track how many successful proposals are recorded on the chain

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

If a community is able to collectively manage treasury funds and vote on what to do with said funds, I would consider this a success.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This will extend and build off of CardanoSharp Wallet, a successfully funded fund3 proposal