AdaLink: Affiliate Network for SPO Growth

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Platform Overview

AdaLink is a platform designed to facilitate meaningful connections and partnerships within the Cardano ecosystem. It will serve as a bridge between Stake Pool Operators (SPOs), influencers, NFT project leaders, marketers, and large capital delegators (whales).

As a first-of-its-kind affiliate network powered by blockchain technology, AdaLink will leverage the power of smart contracts to create a trustless environment. This ensures all transactions and partnerships are transparent, secure, and fair.

The primary objective of AdaLink is to function as a partnership management platform, boosting the visibility of SPOs by facilitating their collaboration with influencers, NFT project leaders, marketers, large capital delegators, and others. These partners, utilizing their creativity, resources, and promotional strategies, will assist SPOs in attracting new delegations in ways that best align with their unique capabilities and audience reach.

AdaLink aims to revolutionize the Cardano ecosystem by making it easy for its various stakeholders to connect and collaborate. It's not just a platform; it's a tool for growth, revenue generation, and community building within the Cardano ecosystem.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing: This is a practice in advertising where third-party publishers are compensated for directing customers to a company's goods and services. It's an effective, low-budget, low-risk, and popular method for boosting a company’s visibility and revenue.
Global Impact: Affiliate marketing is a multibillion-dollar global industry, demonstrating its effectiveness and wide acceptance. It's a proven strategy that transcends borders and industries, making it a viable solution for diverse ecosystems like Cardano.
Popular Among Top Brands: More than 80% of top brands run an affiliate marketing program.
Publishers Love It: 94% of publishers join 2 or more affiliate programs.
NFT Projects as Publishers: In the context of Web 3, NFT projects can be seen as the publishers. Our goal is to get 94% of Cardano’s publishers to join AdaLink to support SPOs.
AdaLink's Role: AdaLink will incentivize influencers, NFT project leaders, marketers, and large capital delegators to promote SPOs and attract new delegations to their pools.

How will AdaLink work?

AdaLink will function as a dynamic affiliate network platform. Here's how it will work:

1. User Registration and Profile Management: Users, including SPOs, NFT Project Leads, Marketers, and Large Capital Delegators, can register and sign in to AdaLink. SPOs can edit their profiles to provide necessary information for affiliates.

2. Affiliate Interaction: Affiliates can search for SPOs, review potential commission rewards estimates, send offers for collaboration, request bonus rewards, and in the future, select and collect bounty incentives.

3. NFT Tracking: AdaLink will monitor NFT policy IDs and wallets, which will allow the platform to provide precise estimates of potential commission rewards for affiliates and potential additional incoming delegation for SPOs. Additionally, this tracking system will serve as the basis for performance evaluation and reward distribution, ensuring that all parties are compensated fairly and transparently based on their contributions.

4. Reward Distribution: At the end of every epoch, AdaLink will calculate the exact amount of new incoming delegation resulting from each affiliate's promotional work. The platform will then automatically allocate commission rewards accordingly. Affiliates will claim these rewards through the platform, ensuring a transparent and accountable reward distribution process.

5. User Dashboards: Each user will have a personalized dashboard to manage their interactions and track their performance. These dashboards will display key information such as partnership status, detailed information about each SPO partnership, outgoing offers, and the rewards status of current partnerships. Affiliates will have access to performance analytics, enabling them to monitor the effectiveness of their promotional efforts and adjust strategies as needed. In the future, AdaLink aims to evolve into a hub center for dApps plugins, providing a range of related services to our users, further enhancing the platform's utility and user experience.

6. Referral Link Provision: Initially, AdaLink will focus on servicing affiliates who already have their own NFT collections and whales. We will provide these affiliates with unique referral links that they can share on their platforms to attract delegation to their partner SPOs.

As the platform matures, we plan to expand our services to include a feature for marketers and influencers. This feature will provide them with a unique referral link that guides their audiences to create a Cardano wallet, mint an NFT, and delegate to their chosen SPO. This future development underscores our commitment to evolving AdaLink into a comprehensive tool for promoting SPOs and boosting stake pool delegation.

How will user interactions work?

1. SPO: Selects epochs they are open for promotions

2. Affiliate: Selects an SPO and epochs they want to collaborate with

3. Affiliate: Receives estimate of potential commission rewards

4. Affiliate: Sends offer

5. SPO: Receives offer with an estimate of incoming delegation. Accepts or declines offer.

6. At the end of every epoch AdaLink’s smart contract will send the appropriate amount of commission rewards to the SPO Affiliates

Commission Reward Distribution

Our proposed model for affiliate partnership reward distribution is based on a proportional split of the pool's margin, determined by the percentage of delegation an affiliate brings to a pool. Fixed fees are not included in this split. The duration of an affiliate partnership, in terms of epochs, is determined by the SPOs.

For instance, if an affiliate partnership is active and an affiliate contributes to 25% of the total delegation of a pool, the affiliate would receive 25% of the pool's margin rewards as commission rewards, excluding any fixed fees.

We value the input of our SPO and user community and will always be open to feedback to find the right balances. Our goal is to make this system fully customizable in the future, allowing all parties to negotiate terms that best suit their needs.

In addition to the commission rewards, SPOs will have the option to send tips to affiliates as a token of appreciation for their efforts. Eventually, we plan to introduce a bounty system, providing additional incentives for affiliates. Affiliates, on their part, will also have the option to solicit bonus rewards in their offers. This flexibility is part of our commitment to creating a platform that caters to the diverse needs of our users.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

User Benefits

AdaLink addresses the challenge of enhancing the visibility and reach of stake pool operators (SPOs) within the Cardano ecosystem. Our solution leverages the power of affiliate marketing to connect SPOs with influencers, NFT leaders, marketers, and large capital delegators. This fosters partnerships that boost pool delegation and share rewards, contributing to a more decentralized and robust Cardano network.

We believe AdaLink will bring significant value to the Cardano ecosystem in several ways:

Community Growth: AdaLink aims to facilitate collaborations between SPOs and content creators, influencers, marketers, and publishers, ultimately attracting new users to the Cardano community.
Ecosystem Strengthening: By boosting pool delegation through affiliate marketing, AdaLink will contribute to the decentralization of the Cardano network, which is a key aspect of its security and resilience.
Problem Solving: AdaLink addresses the issue of visibility and reach for SPOs, particularly smaller pools that may struggle to attract delegation. By connecting these pools with influencers and marketers, AdaLink helps level the playing field and promotes a more equitable distribution of delegation.
Innovation: AdaLink will be one of the first affiliate marketing platforms on Cardano, paving the way for future innovations in this field.

Impact

We anticipate that AdaLink will bring a significant number of new users to the Cardano community. Initially, we expect to draw influencers and content creators already in the crypto space. As the platform matures and proves successful, we anticipate attracting content creators from other niches who see the potential to augment their income by promoting SPOs and the broader Cardano ecosystem.

Goals

Our specific goals for AdaLink's impact on the Cardano ecosystem include:

1. Increasing Cardano's Minimum Attack Vector (MAV) through the use of AdaLink to boost SPOs' pool delegation.

2. Strong community awareness and adoption of the platform, contributing to the growth and vibrancy of the Cardano ecosystem.

3. Steady growth in the number of registered users on the platform, with a target of registering 30% of SPOs and at least 30% of total verified NFT projects within two years.

4. Establishing a win-win balance for all users of the platform, ensuring that both SPOs and affiliates find value in their participation.

By meeting these goals, we believe AdaLink will make a substantial and lasting contribution to the Cardano ecosystem.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

KPIs

The success of AdaLink will be measured through a combination of quantitative and qualitative Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs will provide a comprehensive view of the platform's performance, user engagement, and overall impact on the Cardano ecosystem.

Quantitative KPIs:

MVP Completion: Successful completion and launch of AdaLink as per our roadmap timeline.
User Registration: The number of registered users on the platform, including stake pool operators, NFT project leaders, marketers, and large capital delegators.
Active Partnerships: The number of active partnerships between affiliates and stake pool operators.
Commission Rewards: The total commission rewards earned by affiliates through their promotional efforts.
Incoming Delegation: The amount of new delegation received by stake pool operators as a result of partnerships on the platform.
Successful Transactions: Number of transactions that have been executed successfully on the platform.
Revenue: We plan to implement a 2 ADA transaction fee on commission reward claims. This means that when affiliates claim their commission rewards, a fee of 2 ADA will be deducted from the total amount. This metric will help us track and measure the revenue generated by the platform through these transaction fees.

Qualitative KPIs:

Platform Engagement: Metrics such as website traffic, user engagement, and social media engagement can be used to gauge the level of engagement with the platform.
Customer Satisfaction: Measure the satisfaction of customers by conducting surveys, conducting interviews, and analyzing feedback.

In terms of the platform's impact on Cardano's productivity and growth, we anticipate that AdaLink will contribute to the ecosystem's decentralization and robustness by promoting a more equitable distribution of delegation. This will increase the security and resilience of the Cardano network, both in the short and long term. Furthermore, by attracting new users to the Cardano community, AdaLink will contribute to the ecosystem's growth and vibrancy.

Our plan for sharing AdaLink's outputs and results includes:

Community Engagement: We will regularly update the Cardano community on our progress, milestones, and impact through social media, forums, Medium articles, community Spaces, Townhalls, and GitHub. We value transparency and will actively seek community feedback.
Documentation and Reports: Comprehensive documentation and reports on AdaLink's development, implementation, and results will be publicly available for anyone interested in our project.
Collaboration: We're open to partnerships with other projects in the Cardano ecosystem, including MPOs, NFT Projects, influencers, and other platforms, for mutual benefit.

As for further research and development, AdaLink is an ongoing project. The insights and data we gather will guide our platform's refinement and expansion. We'll continuously iterate based on user feedback and user needs. Furthermore, the lessons learned from AdaLink could potentially inform the development of other projects within the Cardano ecosystem.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

The AdaLink team is uniquely positioned to deliver the project, thanks to a diverse set of skills and experiences.

Natalia Rosa, the project lead, brings her background in film and multimedia production and her experience in managing television production crews. Her passion for blockchain technology and its potential applications in the media industry is a key driving force behind AdaLink.

Our developer, Mahmoud Nimer, is a Plutus Pioneer with a proven track record in delivering NFT-related services within the Cardano ecosystem. His knowledge, expertise and experience will be invaluable in the development and implementation of AdaLink.

Bryan Hernández, our Project Advisor and a software engineer, will provide technical guidance and assessment to ensure the project meets the highest standards.

Keith, our SPO and technical consultant, has been an active participant in Cardano's decentralization since epoch 254. As a software engineer and stake pool operator of Hedges Stake Pool, he brings essential experience to our team.

Gisela Rosa, our Community Manager, has a deep understanding of the Cardano ecosystem. Her knowledge will be instrumental in growing our brand awareness, guiding strategic partnerships, and ensuring our approach aligns with the Cardano community's values and expectations.

In terms of trust and accountability, our team's past experiences in managing high-value media production content and NFT minting services demonstrate our ability to handle resources responsibly. Our long-standing involvement in the Cardano community underscores our commitment to the ecosystem and its values. We commit to maintaining transparency, providing regular updates to the community, and managing the funds entrusted to us with utmost responsibility.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

Platform Capabilities and Features

This proposal aims to build a robust Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for AdaLink to facilitate seamless interactions between SPOs and their affiliates, to promote a more connected and collaborative Cardano ecosystem.

The platform will have the following features:

1. User Registration and Sign-In: Users, including Stake Pool Operators (SPOs), NFT Project Leads, Marketers, and Large Capital Delegators, can register and sign in to the platform.

2. Profile Management: SPOs and Affiliates can create and edit their profiles, providing relevant information about their stake pools.

3. Search and Offer Features: Affiliates can search for SPOs, review estimates, and make offers for partnerships.

4. User Dashboards: Users will have personalized dashboards where they can manage their interactions. The dashboards will include features such as:

- General information about stake pools

- A summary of current affiliates

- Incoming offers from affiliates

- View performance analytics

- Options to remove ended affiliate partnership

- Automatic reward payment system

- Option to send a tip to an affiliate

5. Affiliate Profile Dashboards: Affiliates will have their own dashboards, featuring:

- Affiliate partnership status for each policy ID

- Detailed information about each SPO affiliate partnership (in case of several policy IDs)

- Outgoing offers

- Options to remove ended affiliate partnership

- View performance analytics

- Feature to claim rewards

- Feature to send an offer and solicit a bonus

In conclusion, AdaLink's features aim to meet the needs of SPOs and their affiliates, facilitating collaboration and growth within the Cardano ecosystem. Successful implementation will validate our approach and contribute to Cardano's decentralization.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Our project's implementation will be divided into four key stages: Pre-Production and Research, Development and Integration, Preparing for Testnet Launch, and Testing, Deployment, and Post-Launch Maintenance. Each stage has been designed to build upon the previous one, ensuring a seamless transition and continuous progress towards our final goal.

Throughout the project, we will maintain a strong focus on quality, user experience, and the effective use of resources. Regular team meetings will be held to discuss progress, address any challenges, and adjust plans as necessary. We will also engage with the Cardano community, gathering feedback and making necessary improvements to ensure the platform meets the needs and expectations of its users.

Here is our detailed roadmap:

Month 1: Research & Pre-Production
Define project scope and objectives
Develop project plan and timeline
Conduct research on trustless operations, focusing on the use of smart contracts.
Understand the current capabilities and limitations of smart contracts within the Cardano ecosystem.
Determine how smart contracts can best meet user needs for trustless operations.
Months 2-4: Pre-production development begins
Finalize project scope and objectives
Develop wireframes and mockups for user interface and user experience
Prepare database architecture and data collection plan
Begin development of backend scripts and engines for tracking data
Develop user interface and user experience based on wireframes and mockups
Begin testing and iterating on user interface and user experience
Months 5-8: Integration and Feature Development
Finalize and implement database architecture
Develop and test backend scripts and engines for data tracking
Continue integrating backend and frontend
Develop and add new features
Test and iterate on features
Months 9-10: Platform Testing and Deployment
Conduct thorough testing of the platform
Prepare for deployment and platform promotion
Launch the platform to the public testnet
Months 11-12: Post-launch Monitoring and Maintenance
Monitor the platform usage and performance
Address any issues and bugs that arise
Continuously gather user feedback and make improvements

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestones

Milestone 1: Pre-Production, Planning, and Trustless Operations Research

- Output: Defined project scope, objectives, and timeline. Wireframes and mockups for user interface and user experience. Prepared database architecture and data collection plan. Conducted research on trustless operations, with a focus on the use of smart contracts.

- Acceptance Criteria: Finalized project scope and objectives. Completed wireframes and mockups. Established database architecture and data collection plan. Developed a clear understanding and plan for the potential integration of smart contracts to enable trustless operations within our platform.

- Costs: 60,000ADA

- Evidence of Achievement: Documented project scope, objectives, and timeline. Wireframes and mockups. Database architecture and data collection plan. Report on the research conducted on trustless operations and smart contracts.

Milestone 2: Development, Integration, and Trustless Operations Design

- Output: Complete user interface for minimum viable product (MVP) based on wireframes. Wallet, user, and database integration completed with frontend. Plan of attach for smart contract design to enable trustless operations decided on.

- Acceptance Criteria: Completed MVP user interface. Functional backend to allow a user to connect to site via wallet. Successful integration of authentication flow with backend and frontend. User features developed and tested. Smart contract designs completed.

- Costs: 60,000ADA

- Evidence of Achievement: Completed UI that allows for a user to connect & authenticate themselves in pre-production environment. Functional backend scripts and engines. User features added and tested. Documented smart contract designs.

Milestone 3: Prepare for testnet launch

- Output: Ensure peer-to-peer process to allow for SPOs & counter-parties to interact with one another through AdaLink platform.

- Acceptance Criteria: Potential ‘Links’ are initiated and can be accepted by any party

- Costs: 60,000ADA

- Evidence of Achievement: Launch of AdaLink is live in a closed beta setting

Milestone 4: Testing, Deployment, and Post-Launch Maintenance

- Output: Thoroughly tested platform, including testing of smart contract functionality for trustless operations. Deployed platform to a limited number of users. Monitored platform usage and performance. Addressed any issues and bugs. Gathered user feedback and made improvements.

- Acceptance Criteria: Completed platform testing, including testing of smart contract functionality. Successful platform deployment with a limited amount of users. Monitored platform usage and performance. Addressed any issues and bugs. Gathered user feedback and made improvements.

- Costs: 60,000ADA

- Evidence of Achievement: Test results, including results of smart contract functionality tests. Deployed platform. Monitoring reports. Bug reports and resolutions.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Our budget is designed to cover 12 months of development work for a robust MVP platform for AdaLink. We've estimated our costs based on the current market value of ADA. Here's the detailed breakdown:

Smart Contract Research and Platform Development: 157,500 ADA (~$45,000) - This budget item covers the cost of researching and developing the smart contracts that will power our platform. It also includes the cost of developing the AdaLink platform, including the user interface, database architecture, and backend scripts.
Project Management, Legal, and Basic Marketing Expenses: 77,000 ADA (~$22,000) - This budget item covers the cost of managing the project, including administrative and legal expenses. It also includes essential marketing and promotion activities, such as basic social media advertising, content creation, and community engagement initiatives. These activities will be designed to raise awareness of the platform within the Cardano community and will be carried out in a cost-effective manner to maximize the value we deliver within our proposed budget.
First year of Servers: 5,500 ADA (~$1,500) - This budget item covers the cost of maintaining and operating the servers necessary to run the platform.

In total, we're requesting 240,000 ADA (~$68,500) to kickstart the development of the robust MVP for AdaLink. We believe that this budget will provide us with the necessary resources to deliver a high-quality product that effectively addresses the needs of our user base.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Team

Our team comprises experienced professionals with diverse backgrounds and skills, each contributing to different aspects of the project.

Project Lead: Natalia Rosa, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Film, brings over a decade of experience working, directing and supervising production departments for various film, television, and multimedia promotional campaigns. She has worked on award-winning projects and with renowned artists. Natalia will leverage her expertise in project management and multimedia production for AdaLink.

Website

Lead Developer: Mahmoud Nimer, a Mechanical Engineer with a Master of Science degree in Control Systems and Robotics, has extensive experience in industrial automation engineering. As a Plutus Pioneer, Mahmoud has been an active builder in the Cardano ecosystem and is the founder of Shrooms, a platform that provides specialized services for non-fungible token projects (NFTs), including non-custodial staking, raffles, and token ATMs.

Website

Project Lead and Community Manager: Gisela Rosa is the co-founder of Blockverse Media, Inc., a company that develops various crypto products, including AdaLink and La Cryptoría. Since epoch 259, she has been a strong supporter of multiple projects built on Cardano, consistently promoting Cardano's values within the community.

Known as Arcella on CT, Gisela is not only a professional musician with over 10 years of experience but also an educator who has collaborated with world-renowned and emerging artists. Her profound understanding of the Cardano ecosystem enables us to cultivate a welcoming and inclusive environment. With her guidance, AdaLink can become a platform that truly comprehends and serves the needs of the Cardano community.

Socials

SPO and Technical Advisor: Keith Hedges, brings a wealth of experience from his time as a software engineer at a Fortune 500 company, where he honed his technical skills for four years. Seeking to immerse himself fully in the blockchain space, he transitioned to a startup, further expanding his expertise. In addition to his professional roles, Keith has been an active participant in the Cardano ecosystem, operating the Hedges Stake Pool since epoch 254. His hands-on involvement in Cardano, makes him an invaluable asset to our team.

Project Advisor: Bryan Hernández is a software engineer with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Inter American University of Puerto Rico. He co-founded Blockverse Media, the parent company of AdaLink, and has extensive experience in the aerospace manufacturing industry.

Currently, Bryan serves as a Software Automation Engineer in the healthcare sector, where he continues to leverage his technical skills and problem-solving abilities. His passion for emerging technologies, including cryptocurrency and video games, as well as his love for the arts, music, and anime, fuels his innovative approach to challenges. With his guidance, he will assess and provide expert advice as needed, ready to contribute to the successful completion of the project.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The budget for the AdaLink project has been carefully calculated to ensure MVP completion of a platform that offers maximum value for the SPO community and other users. We have considered industry standards for similar projects, and the specific needs of our project to arrive at our proposed budget.

The total cost of the project is 240,000 ADA, which covers the following key areas:

Smart Contract Research and Platform Development: 157,500 ADA (~$45,000)
Project Management, Legal expenses, and Basic Marketing: 77,000 ADA (~$22,000)
First year of Servers: 5,000 ADA (~$1,500)

We're confident that our budget represents excellent value for the Cardano ecosystem. The AdaLink platform will foster seamless interactions between Stake Pool Operators and their affiliates, promoting a more interconnected and collaborative Cardano ecosystem. By helping SPOs attract delegation, we believe that this platform will significantly contribute to improving Cardano's decentralization. The long-term value of a more decentralized Cardano ecosystem is immeasurable and far outweighs the project cost.

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