Liquidity-less peer to peer DEX

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

What will we produce? (i.e. outputs) 

A user facing Dapp that allows any user to list any Cardano asset for sale, in any quantity and any price they choose. Orders are settled peer to peer, using signatures and an atomic swap mechanism. Any user can browse available offers created by other users.

No liquidity pools are required.

Token listing is instant and permission less, and takes place on non custodial contracts that any other project can build on top of.

We have already built a working implementation of our DEX and deployed it to several EVM based networks. We will rewrite our smart contracts and UI for Cardano.

Why is this needed?

A secure peer to peer DEX is a needed and complimentary trading arena that should coexist with AMM based DEX's like SundaeSwap or Wingriders.

For trades larger trades of popular tokens or small trades of tokens with lower liquidity, this "over-the-counter" style DEX will offer a superior execution price.

This is extremely helpful for keeping smaller, fledgling projects alive during market downtrends and periods of waning liquidity. Users are also fully protected from front-running and sandwich attacks.

What will happen as a result of this work? (i.e. outcomes)

The Cardano ecosystem will gain a key piece of peer to peer trading infrastructure. We expect this to make the Cardano ecosystem an even more investor friendly environment. We hope this contributes to greater network health overall.

The DEX will also support trading of other kinds of derivatives, LP tokens and liquid vesting tokens - that traditionally don't have AMM Liquidity - creating further business opportunities for Cardano developers.

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

Peer to peer trading is a very helpful piece of Dapp infrastructure.

It is a composable and interoperable tool that benefits all token issuers and owners on 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?

We have already deployed our trading tools on several EVM blockchains. The primary risk is that our team does not have as much experience building natively for Cardano.

We will be consulting with experienced Cardano developers to support the porting process and up-skilling our existing team to build more on Cardano in the future.

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

Project Planning - Q3 2022

Deep research, testing, setting internal milestones, assigning responsibilities.

Development - Q3-Q4 2022

Rewriting solidity contracts in Haskell/Plutus and porting the web app to support Cardano wallets.

Audit, Private & Public Beta - Q1 2023

Robust testing with real and testnet assets. Bug fixes and UX improvements.

1.0 Release - Q2 2023

Release and widespread marketing, user outreach.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

$8000 - Ongoing infrastructure costs, Hosting, network fees, software & services

$5000 - Legal and administration (offline) costs

$8000 - Project management throughout the pre-launch & life cycle of the dApp

$12400 - Research, internal & external testing, QA

$28800 - Engineering hours toward smart contracts implementation and back-end

$6600 - Engineering hours toward UI/UX, front-end

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

Kiran Matthews - Protocol Design, Project Management, UX

10+ Years software industry experience. Kiran previously led the Product team at Termius, a Y Combinator startup endorsed by Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple). Other past clients include Apple and MasterCard.

Klaus Vidal - Lead Smart Contract Developer

Highly experienced Smart Contract Developer and blockchain security expert who has authored and audited contracts with billions in volume/TVL. Klaus also develops Prettier - a key tool used by Uniswap, Bancor, Open Zeppelin, Gnosis Protocol, Synthetix, Gelato, The Sandbox, UMA and others.

Alan Soares - Full Stack Developer (Haskell/Functional programming)

14+ Years programming experience. 2 Years experience in blockchain.

Juan Ubinatus - Full Stack & Smart Contract Developer

Sergey Stepanets - Full Stack & Smart Contract Developer

Eli Douglas - Front End Developer

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

No. We expect maintenance and feature upgrades to be funded by revenue generated on swaps.

[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?

Delivering a stable and secure Cardano compatible port of our OTC dApp (otc-dev.netlify.app) is our initial measure of success. Following that milestone, TVL and trading volume will be ongoing indicators of success.

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

Success looks like trading volume on this peer to peer DEX growing steadily, providing life support to smaller projects during the projected bear market.

We will leverage our contacts at partners CardStarter, Spores and GeroWallet to find projects that will benefit from increased peer to peer trading opportunities.

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

This is a new proposal.