DripDropz Open Source Voting Tool

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

DripDropz Voting Software provides a proven means to accomplish high performance, secure on chain governance. An open source version of our tool will open up community voting opportunities to all. 

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

The DripDropz team has a proven record of deploying highly successful projects on Cardano, including BuffyBot, Tokhun NFT Market, and the DripDropz Token Distribution System. The team also represents major stakepools. Learn more at https://dripdropz.io/about-us/

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

DripDropz successfully deployed voting infrastructure, and completed the first on-chain, native asset vote in Cardano history.  

This opportunity was embraced by the community. 1,998 voters participated, representing 112.3 million native DRIP tokens, 22.6% of the circulating supply. 

We feel that this tool represents an excellent opportunity for the entire Cardano blockchain. In order to ensure the widest adoption possible, we feel it is important to build this tool as an open source package which will allow any project on Cardano to securely run their own vote. 

Creating an open source release for a previously private code base is not trivial. The code must be examined for any private libraries or connections to infrastructure that may not be available to an end user. These components must be replaced, or also open source released to work properly. The code base must be evaluated for any security issues, and it must be thoroughly documented and tested on a variety of platforms.

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

By building a repeatable, secure, decentralized voting tool, we are enabling community self governance. This tool will aid greater adoption and utility for the Cardano network

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

A potential missing module or library that cannot be included in the open source release could delay launch, or add unforeseen time and expense to this project. We will mitigate this by performing an initial evaluation prior to the first funding round.

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

This project will complete in 120 days, and utilise five staff members.

The following deliverables will be monitored and tracked to completion.

• Extract existing code from private code base into separate GIT repository.
• Evaluate code for dependencies on other private code.
• Evaluate code for comments/hard coded text that must be removed.
• Evaluate all external dependencies to ensure modules are open source and readily available.
• Replace Dependencies, or Code as required from above evaluations.
• Test deployments of the open source code base.
• Complete documentation of the installation/deployment process.
• Provide a limited alpha release for extended testing.
• Complete Usage documentation with best practices.
• Provide a limited beta release for exhaustive testing.
• Open to public first release.
• Monitor and maintain code base to ensure bug fixes for 6 months after release.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Full stack developer #1 40K

Full stack developer #2 35K

Project Manager 25K

Quality Assurance 25K

Technical Writer 25K

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

The core DripDropz team includes 11 leading figures from the Cardano ecosystem.

Kyle Solomon - Co-Founder and CEO: An electrical engineer who began his career building and selling IoT and embedded systems at Intel. Kyle brings a wealth of business knowledge, technical savvy, and a passionate leadership drive to the team. Kyle is the creator of FROG Pool, Adosia, Spacecoins & JetChicken. 

Andrew Westberg - Co-Founder and Lead Developer: A full stack and mobile developer who retired from the world's leading retail chain to pursue full time blockchain development. He has contributed many core tools and improvements to Cardano, including Phyrhose, JorManager, cncli and PoolPerks. His infrastructure tools power the DripDropz network and ensure stable, fast, secure transactions with unparalleled efficiency.

Latheesan Kanesamoorthy - CTO: A senior software engineer and full stack developer. He has built many leading platforms in the Cardano space, including Tokhun's NFT minting and trading solution, Heidrun and the CIP-0027 royalty standard.

Anthony McDonough - CFO: A former R&D Design Engineer for projects with NASA, Lockheed Martin, Harris, Boeing and others. Anthony has worked in the cryptocurrency space for 10+ years, most recently as a partner in Bloom Pool and the creator of Crypt Keeper, a cold storage wallet solution. 

Adam Dean - Technical Consultant: Adam is at the forefront of native assets on the Cardano blockchain. As the creator of the Buffy Bot NFT drop system, Adam’s technology is responsible for delivering a large percentage of NFT projects on Cardano. He has been contributing to the industry for many years, including open source projects like Mercury (crypto centric shopping cart plugin for WooCommerce), and SPOCRA on-chain voting infrastructure.

Quinn Parkinson - Lead Plutus and Smart Contract Developer: Quinn graduated from the first Plutus training program and has written a considerable number of successful Plutus smart contracts. A functional programmer with exceptional mathematical strengths, Quinn has been instrumental in the construction of impactful initiatives such as on-chain voting, multimillion dollar NFT marketplace contracts, vesting contracts and many others.

Rick McCracken - Project Manager: a former Navy Communications specialist, is a vocal leader in the community. His YouTube channels boast a combined following of 20k+ users, hosting interviews with many of the industry's leading projects. Rick’s management style lends itself to effective collaboration. With a breadth of knowledge on regulatory compliance matters, Rick has championed risk management, onboarding of new projects and project development navigation for the team.

Chris Hockaday - Business Development: Chris comes from an industrial automation/manufacturing background and specialises in Lean Six Sigma methodology. Chris has been contributing to the cryptocurrency space since first working with the Verge Protocol team in 2015 when they rebranded from DogeCoinDark to VERGE, Adosia from 2017 and Tokhun from 2021 to present day. 

Lloyd Duhon - Communications Manager: Lloyd is a Veteran of the US Army. With over 30 years of technical entrepreneurial experience, his knowledge encompasses nearly every aspect of business management. Lloyd is one of the foremost technical writers in the space. From SEO to traffic analyses to programming, Lloyd is fluent in all elements of project navigation. He is the lead for Living Greens Urban Farm and has had a huge impact in several projects throughout the space.

Siddik Adamu - Core Developer: A junior full stack developer who has lent his talents to many critical elements of commerce being utilised by end users in the space today. He has written automated auction systems, policy management infrastructure and NFT sales tools, to name a few. Siddik is currently completing his masters degree in Artificial Intelligence.

Valentin Besson - UI/UX Developer: Valentin is a prescient artist and creator of user interfaces. He leads with a focus on creating the best possible user experience on any given platform. Val has contributed his toolset to Tokhun, one of the earliest NFT platforms on Cardano, which has been emulated time and time again. 

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

This project will be concluded at the end of this round, and will not require additional funding. If we choose to develop additional features for the system in the future, we may request additional Catalyst funding.

[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?

We will measure completion of the milestones listed above. We anticipate the entire project taking 120 days to complete. We will use Github commits to ensure that team members are progressing towards their goal. 

The team currently meets regularly six (6) times per week across various teams. We regularly track relevant action items, tasks, needs and progress and we adapt as necessary.

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

Our current voting tool, assembled as an open source package, with installation and usage documentation, available on github.

[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 an entirely new project for the Cardano ecosystem.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG Goals

16 - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

SDG Subgoals

16.6 - Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels

16.8 - Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

16.6.1 - Primary government expenditures as a proportion of original approved budget, by sector (or by budget codes or similar)

16.6.2 - Proportion of population satisfied with their last experience of public services

16.8.1 - Proportion of members and voting rights of developing countries in international organizations