SwarmLabs - Treasury Systems

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

We develop Tools and systems which provides  fully transparent treasury & accounting management for Projects, building on the Cardano & Catalyst Ecosystem

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

This Proposal is a collaboration between Catalyst Swarm, Treasury Guild, AIM & Fluid7.

We are an assembly of highly committed, engaged and experienced Catalyst & Cardano Community members, working on solutions to build a strong Community infrastructure

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

When it comes to being funded via Project Catalyst and receiving Funds from the Cardano Treasury, the funded Projects accountability heavily relies on the availability to provide a transparent and access to funding distributions & allocations. However, it is difficult and time consuming to establish transparent treasury & accounting systems and many funded projects do not have the time nor the focus on developing such systems.

This is where we come in

Together with the Catalyst Swarm & The Treasury Guild, we develop first tools & suits, platforms and services to the Cardano Community which help to build a strong and transparent auditable, Treasury and Accounting processes.

Previous Funds from Funded Proposals have been used to develop & build first tool sets.  

The current system works as such:

(1) A task or Bounty is completed on Dework https://app.dework.xyz/i/2DSwalQqTtsrGp8jsa6WRK 

(2) The task gets updated to our contributors sheet 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p9UND-IUIrpsXGXKk4H_dFyKchaKnCTvhMzeE8tLL9g/edit#gid=195961065 

(3) From there, the task gets included in a weekly bulk transaction. The number of bulk transactions we have to do every week is already growing. Currently we are doing bulk transactions for Swarm, Governance Services Guild, SingularityNet Ambassador program.

(4) Each monday we send out all payments & rewards in a single bulk transaction using the following tool -  https://staking.rocks/bulk-ada-sender We will develop our own tool in the future to include metadata in these bulk transactions.

(5) We fill in the details of the transaction in our treasury system that generates a json file and a GitHub Issue with the transaction details. 

(6) We copy the transaction id into the json file and GitHub issue. The json file gets committed and the issue gets submitted. (This process needs to be automated)

(6) When the Issue is closed it sends a message to Discord - Which can be viewed here - https://discord.gg/6jk8mVuYqA

(7) Transactions are documented in Gitbook as well.

https://treasury-guild.gitbook.io/catalyst-swarm/ 

Right now and as we still explore the whole thing, a lot of work is done manually. To run through the manual process allows us to create strong & needed insights on how the system works & should work and to identify specific problems and potential solutions.. However, our goal is to fully automate the Treasury & Accounting system and to be able to provide well matched toolsets to projects which might see a need and use for our services.

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

Treasury Guild & SwarmLabs build and develop products from the Community, for the community. We see ourselves as vision driven Toolmakers & Maintainers, dedicated to supporting the Cardano Ecosystem in its growth. Our Focus with this proposal and the project is to build Accountability and trust amongst Projects & Communities and we believe that “Tools, not Rules” (AIM) are important pillars of a healthy ecosystem

Increasing the number of dapps and products available for the community to use that help to enrich the ecosystem with new use cases. - Our Treasury System can be used by funded proposers to add a transparency layer to their projects and also help them manage their budgets and assist with monthly reporting. A new and much needed use case indeed. It can also be used by other projects/communities that need help managing their finances and projects.

Increase the number of integrations that bring existing solutions together for a more seamless and connected experience between different products. - Our Treasury System integrates into existing products like Discord, Dework and GitHub to ease the overall user experience from the client’s side as well as the community’s side. As we grow we will most likely add more integrations to this list. 

Increased quality of existing products & integrations through suggested improvements that is supported by customer feedback or increased usage by the community.  - People can comment in the same channel where transaction information is sent. We also have treasury channels in all the Discord servers where people can ask us questions and make suggestions. Dework also has a suggestion space for the community where they can vote on suggestions. We are open and welcome any feedback the community has. We made improvements to our metadata based on community feedback. One example: Allison Fromm suggested we add Ideascale proposal links in the metadata and we did just that.

We see the Treasury & Accounting Project as a great Product, which provides an effective & needed solution for Project, Companies or DAOs which are building on Cardano…

Building an open source treasury and accounting system that adds transparency to any project, aligns as well with what Cardano is all about. 

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

Biggest risk for Toolmakers is mostly to build tools, and then having noone using your tools or even having lack of feedback on developed tools for further development

Due to our Community wide Network which we are building with the Catalyst Swarm since 2021, we are able to communicate & coordinate our tools across a wide spectrum of close Community Projects like: Eastern, Latam & Africa Town Halls, the NFT, SPO & Treasury Guild, Cardano 4 Climate, Gimbalabs & WADA etc

The Treasurer Guild, AIM & Fluid7 will naturally start to use commonly created tools and with that, provide additional use cases from which we can receive feedback to further improve and develop the tools.

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

Q4 2021 Done

• Setting up first pilots on creating transparent Treasury management for Catalyst Swarm Proposals

https://discord.com/channels/832894680290951179/913197515032133743/913198443047055420 

Q1 2022 Done

• Creation of the Treasury Guild with André Diamond  Miroslav Rajh & with support from Catalyst Swarm - done
• Cause it matters what we do but we need much more hands on the topic.. Submit a Challenge Proposal for Legal & financial implementations for Project Catalyst Fund 9 

https://cardanocataly.st/voter-tool/#/fund/f8/challenge/26455/proposals/399771 

Note

The submitted legal & financial implementations Challenge ( Proposal got voted & Funded. )The Treasury Guild runs as Challenge Team

( Visit the legal & financial implementation Telegram Chat https://t.me/+Tlp2ttTofzA3YTQ8 )

Q2 2022 Done

• Develop & maintain the Dework, Discord treasury integration with the Treasury Guild for the Catalyst Swarm Fund - done

https://discord.com/channels/832894680290951179/973497013519925278/973497656485744690

• Partnership between Catalyst Swarm, Treasury Guild, Fluid7 & AIM, creation of SwarmLabs - done
• Submitting a Proposal to transform the previously volunteer based engagements in rewarded development. Hoping to receive Funds and to be able to pay people for further development - done
• Constantly developing the Treasury & Accounting tools and services. - done
• Implementing Treasury & Accounting system to the SingularityNET Ambassador program
• Setting up a Treasury Guild Website - done
• https://www.treasuryguild.io/ 

Q3 2022

• Constantly developing the Treasury & Accounting tools. - in progress
• Develop the SwarmLabs general structure and implement Treasury & Accounting system
• Onboarding Developers and implement created tools to other Community Projects
• Waiting for voting results XD  - in progress
• Fully Automate dework to sheet  - in progress
• Fully Automate sheet to github  - in progress
• Fully Automate github to gitbook & Discord  - in progress

Q4 2022

• Hopefully being Funded in Fund 9 XD
• Adapt & Adjust Treasury & Accounting systems to the Community Led Town Halls
• Eastern Town Hall, Latam Town Hall, Africa Town Hall. We envision to have a minimum of 10 Cardano Community Projects using our Products & integrations by end of 2022
• Creating Treasury Dashboard for our clients
• Gathering all made experience to develop a first PoC application for the Treasury & Accounting system

Btw, when speaking about development:

We held & hold recurring Team meetings & communicate our Actions via a private SwarmLabs Discord Channel on the Catalyst Swarm Discord. In order to have a strong alignment and focus of our actions we communicate & coordinate closely

Further and as we are a community led initiative we want to keep the development of the treasury & accounting systems close to the community and evolve & improve our work by feedback, suggestions and collaboration with the Cardano Community itself. 

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

This budget breakdown covers a timeframe of 4 months ( June - September )

Project Management 

Setting up & maintaining Project Management structure for the projects development

2 People - 10 hours per week for 4 months ( 40 usd per hour ) 

= 12800 usd in Ada

Developer Budget 

Budget to engage & pay developers for further development of the Treasury & Accounting systems and tools. 

4 People - 10 hours per week for 4 months ( 40 usd per hour ) 

= 25600 usd in Ada 

Coordinations & Collaborations

Coordinating & ensuring successful communications, coordinations,collaborations & implementations for our tools with additional Groups and Projects outside Swarmlabs.

Envision 10 Community Projects to use our Tool by end of 2022

2 People - 10 hours per week for 4 months ( 40 usd per hour ) 

= 12800 usd in Ada

Consulting & Advice

2 People - 5 hours per week for 4 months ( 40 usd per hour ) 

= 6400 usd in Ada

Bounty Budget

This Budget will be fully allocated to public Bounties and to public tasks which directly supports the Swarm Bounty Board

1000 usd in ada per month for 4 months to engage & reward high quality contributions via rewarded Bounties = 4000 usd in Ada

Media & Marketing - 4500

Creating content & videos to introduce developed tools & systems to the Cardano Community

3 short videos a 1500 usd 

= 4500 usd in Ada

Total = 66100 usd in Ada

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

Treasury Guild

André Diamond - Treasury Guild ( Fulltime Catalyst & Cardano )

Development & Automations

(Treasury Development Engineer) has experience in small business operation and accounting. Joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team as treasurer in Nov 2021 and has expanded this role by starting the Treasury Guild alongside Miroslav to support projects in the Catalyst community as well. Currently responsible for the development of the treasury system and automations

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andr%C3%A9-diamond-45871242 

Miroslav Rajh - Treasury Guild ( Fulltime Catalyst & Cardano )

Development & Documentation

(Treasury Accountant) has 20 years of experience in managing finances and organizing the business of NGOs and the University. He also worked as a Human Resources Manager (HRM). Joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team together with Andre as treasurer in Nov 2021. Currently he is recording, documenting and managing all transactions for the Treasurer Guild

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miroslav-rajh-94566845

Catalyst Swarm

Felix Weber - somehow lead at Catalyst Swarm ( Fulltime Catalyst & Cardano )

Coordination & Shephership 

Felix is the guy who brings the Coordination, network and the glue to the project, making sure everyone has everything needed to successfully collaborate on the Proposals execution

Tevo Saks - somehow lead at Catalyst Swarm ( Fulltime Catalyst & Cardano ) 

Development & Integrations

Tevo as a experienced Project Manager and master of sheets helps in the automation process of the Treasury & Accounting systems, further Tevo ensures a successful implementation of our tools to the SingularityNet Ambassadors Program

AIM

Phil K. - Co founder of AIM ( Fulltime Catalyst & Cardano ) 

Development & Advisory

Phil is a co Founder of AIM and driving force in the development of the AIM Community Tools, Phil brings a network of developers and project management experience and will mentor & advice the Project along its way

Fluid7

Jonathan Adjei - Director at Fluid7

Project Management & Development

Jonathan is a Cardano & Catalyst OG, very engaged in Catalyst Swarm & Gimbalabs since over a year, besides that director at Fluid7. Jonathan will take Charge of the Project Management & development 

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

We hope to build products which are able to establish a first alternative income stream next to Project Catalyst. But, Yes… it might be needed to come back in a future Funding round and to ask for additionals funds as we have a long term vision of building dApps on the first systems which we develop right now and it still might take time until we are on a point to generate sufficient financial resources from outside of Project Catalyst to sustain the Treasury Guild and its operations

[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?

The Project Management & development will be tracked via Dework & Discord Integration on the Catalyst Swarm Discord & Dework Server

Dework: https://app.dework.xyz/i/0m6XgGE7wrVTyzZcV2Q6oR 

Discord: https://discord.gg/tU9umVcQNe 

All transactions & payments are fully tracked and documented via the Treasury Guilds Treasury & accounting system on Discord, Github and Gitbook.

Discord: https://discord.com/channels/832894680290951179/973497013519925278

Github: https://github.com/treasuryguild  

Swarm Gitbook: https://treasury-guild.gitbook.io/catalyst-swarm/ 

Other Gitbooks - https://treasuryguild.github.io/Gitbook/  

Developed Tools & Projects are open sourced and accessible via

https://github.com/treasuryguild 

https://gitlab.com/swarmlab2

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

Having a great experience & progressive development on our Treasury & Accounting services & Products, successfully integrating our tools to other Catalyst & Cardano Community  Projects and establishing a SwarmLabs environment which allows developers to team up under Projects which fits best to them while being rewarded & paid for engagement & invested time.

Further to reach self sustainability for the core team & development by establishing enough relations to customers and clients through our provided services

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

This Proposal is a entirely new one, next funding round ( Fund 10 ) we might submit a follow up proposal