Smart Contract Library - Phase 1

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

This proposal involves creating and publishing a series of smart contracts that Cardano developers can use to jumpstart their projects.

The most visible example of a smart contract library is the OpenZeppelin project. This library is popular with Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain developers. OpenZeppelin contains solutions to common problems and illustrates the different types of contracts that can be created. There are smart contract examples for Cardano but they are not well documented and there are not enough of them. The new library will need to be constructed in a modular fashion so that developers can combine components from different templates as they build their Decentralized applications (dapps).

Our proposal is not to build a library that is comparable in size and customization to OpenZeppelin. We aim to build an introductory series of smart contract templates for token issuance and customization, NFT's, and governance protocols. Then we will release the contracts to the public and refine them based on user feedback.

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

The solution will address the challenge by introducing a quality new open source project and increasing the number of development frameworks that programmers have access to. All smart contracts that are developed as part of this proposal will be fully open source and available for developers to view on GitHub and the Highlander website. We intend to market the project to the Catalyst community and Cardano owners on social media and through professional marketing.

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

The main challenge we foresee is user adoption. Our strategy to overcome this challenge is to aggressively market the project after we release our production smart contracts. We also intend to release a series of informational videos that will explain how to use our contracts.

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

One Year Timeline

• 1st Quarter (Months 1-3) - We intend to spend the first three months hiring a new developer, re-launching our website, scoping the responsibilities of team members, and beginning the development of our templates.
• 2nd Quarter (Months 4-6) - In the second quarter we aim to release beta versions of our contracts that the public can use for testing. We will gather user feedback during this time and continue to refine the contracts.
• 3rd Quarter (Months 7-9) - Release production versions of our contracts and market them to the Cardano community.
• 4th Quarter (Months 10-12) - In the final quarter we will continue promoting and marketing the contracts to encourage widespread adoption in Cardano projects.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

• New Developer ($62,400) - We plan to hire a new developer and pay him or her $30 an hour with a one year employment contract. We will require a commitment of 40 hours a week or 2,080 hours over the course of a year.
• Marketing ($3,000) - To help promote of our smart contract templates on popular Cardano forums and to record professional instructional videos to help users.
• Hosting ($500) - Web hosting for our website and to pay for any other applicable technical subscriptions.

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

• Chris - Lead Developer who will serve as the project leader and handle part of the smart contract coding.
• Jack - Project manager who will provide high level guidance and help the team with planning.
• Newly Hired Developer - Main task will be to work with Chris to help write the code for our smart contract templates.

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

We have no plans to return for additional funding in a later round.

[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 intend to measure the development of the project by the number of contracts that we are able to release to the public. The overall progress of the project will be assessed based on the number of contract downloads and the number of Cardano projects that utilize our software.

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

Our definition of done during the funding period of this project is to release our contracts to the general public, market them successfully, and establish procedures for continued refinement based on user feedback.

[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 an entirely new project but it was first proposed in Fund7 and Fund8.