Learn-to-Earn Open Source Tooling

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

We will deliver plug and play Smart Contracts and tooling for Incentivized eLearning initiatives within the Cardano ecosystem.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Plutus Pioneers, Haskell Developers, Educators, Researchers, 20+ years of experience in software engineering, 15+ years DevOps expertise, Blockchain development, Plutus/Haskell/Solidity literacy, MLE expertise, and business acumen.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

This proposal is for an add-on and continuation of our funded proposal that seeks to build a new Incentivized d-EdTech Platform for developing regions.

Our open source tooling will become a plug-and-play tool for people that seek to develop internal economies (Tokens not open to the market) using Learn-to-Earn mechanics.

🔥 GitHub: https://github.com/AylluAcademy-org

Currently most of our development is happening in a hybrid manner using both traditional infrastructure/development and personalized libraries to interact with Cardano's Blockchain, however, we would like to put more time and financial resources into developing the mechanics fully through the use of Smart Contracts in the Plutus Ecosystem.

Cheesy Marketing Line Warning:

Do you have an idea on how to tokenize the value generated by an educational service, but don't know how to implement it? Then this is for you! :D

With our tooling, people will have a new alternative when choosing how to implement Learn-to-Earn modalities with the use of fungible tokens within an internal micro economy.

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

1. Our open source tooling will provide more options for developers seeking to build in the Cardano ecosystem.
2. Lots of people are entering the Learn-to-Earn Space seeking to build from scratch; we offer an option people can start from therefore reducing the barrier of entry and development.
3. Our tooling will also naturally make use of core components within the Cardano ecosystem, such as a node and CLI calls to interact with the Blockchain; this will give users an organic introduction to Cardano’s technology.

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

Trust in the tooling we offer. We are aware that the ecosystem is still young; therefore it takes a lot of time and usage for something to become as robust as people want it to be, but we are confident our tooling will prove to be valuable to the community.

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

⫸One Month

1. Collect initial smart contracts references
2. Issue a Logic Flow Chart to describe Smart Contract High Level Operation
3. First draft of Core Smart Contracts needed for the Learn to Earn Mechanics.

⫸Two Month

1. Development of Smart Contracts in Haskell / Plutus

⫸Three Month

1. Kickstart the integration of the Smart Contract Functionalities to our Python Libraries
2. Implement and Test Smart Contracts in TestNet

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

⫸2 Smart Contract Engineers (1 Full Time, 1 Part Time)

1. Full Time: 12 Weeks x 40h/Week x $27/h = $12,960
2. Part Time: 12 Weeks x 20h/Week x $27/h = $6,480

Total: $19,440

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

Over the past months our team has grown, and is now composed of a number of highly skilled and competent people; a lot of us will be contributing to the development of our tooling. However, the majority of the work will be led and performed by two of our members:

(Note: If you, the reader, would like to join us in this adventure, please reach out!)

◢ Antonio Hernández-Garduño

Ph.D. in Mathematics by Caltech. Plutus Pioneer. 20+ years of teaching experience, with emphasis in computer based learning using functional programming languages like Haskell and Wolfram Language.

He has taught at UNAM, UAM, ITESM and ITAM, all academic institutions in Mexico. At ITAM he imparted courses on Quantum Computing at the undergraduate and graduate level, supervising the activities of QuantumLab-ITAM.

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

◢ Roberto Cerrud:

Plutus Pioneer Program. 18+ years of experience as a developer. 25+ years of experience in technical support and DevOps. 8+ years of experience in mining, and extensive knowledge of blockchain technologies.

Currently teaches Haskell and Plutus Cohorts in Emurgo Academy.

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

◢ Other Contributors

Luis Restrepo

Process Control Engineer / Plutus Pioneer / SPO / Blockchain Developer & Educator

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-restrepo-55005226/

Giancarlo Pablo

Software Engineering / MLE / Blockchain Developer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gpablo6/

David Quintanilla

Software Engineer / AI Engineering / Full Stack Developer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-quinta/

David Tacuri

Software Engineer / Lead Full Stack Developer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-patricio-tacuri-lema-256a08b1/

Cristhian Tejada 

Data Scientist / Blockchain Development Consultant / Plutus Pioneer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristhian-tejada/

Jaime Martinez

Industrial Automation Specialist / PM and Coordinator / Entrepreneur 

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

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

Yes. We are in this for the long run. The next round of funding we seek will be to move from the Proof of Concept Stages to MVP Stages, and/or to further develop and improve our IoT modules to interact with the Blockchain.

Our project has been in development for over 1 year now, and we have made a lot of progress both thanks to the Fund we received in Fund 7, as well as the voluntary hours put into it by everyone in the team. We plan to have a Proof of Concept working soon where we will collect data, test and break things, and iterate.

We are confident the amount of research and work we've put into it so far will give us great results, and we'll have one of the first Open Source d-EdTech Platforms for developing regions.

[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?

For the past year we've been using the ClickUp Platform to track our progress, take minutes, etc. However, going forward for Catalyst Updates we will be making use of Notion to do bi-weekly reports on the progress of our development; we will be making that public in our website (Which will be released soon).

Along with bi-weekly reports, we will use the following as general indicators of progress:

• Publication of the high level operation of the Token Reward Mechanic. (This is in Progress)
• Number of external contributions to the design and development of the contracts
• Number of projects benefiting from the tooling
• Number of resolved issues

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

By Month 3-4, Success will be measured with the following:

a) Proposal deliverables completed, with minor ongoing maintenance and clean up activities

b) Support for other projects using this tooling as a starting point in Learn-to-Earn Mechanics

c) Increased usage of the Smart Contracts through our Open Source Python-Cardano Library

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

As stated above, this proposal is for an add-on and continuation of our funded proposal that seeks to build a new Incentivized d-EdTech Platform for developing regions. The platform is still in progress and on track, but due to the budget and man power planning we had to prioritize other elements within the platform before getting to the Smart Contract portion of it, with this proposal we plan to pump more resources into it.

Our open source tooling will become a plug-and-play tool for people that seek to develop internal economies (Tokens not open to the market) using Learn-to-Earn mechanics. 

🔥 Previous Proposal :

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/381053

🔥 Milestones Relevant to this Proposal:

• We've developed and tested Cardano-Python Libraries to interact with Cardano's Blockchain through a node.

• We are currently testing tooling for Blockchain interaction through IoT Infrastructure.

• We are almost done the first draft of a Narrative for the operation of Smart Contracts.

🔥 GitHub: https://github.com/AylluAcademy-org