[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

In collaboration with Harmonic Labs, Empowa has implemented an ecosystem specific marketplace that allows community members to trade NFTs using a Cardano native token that is unique to that ecosystem. If the NFTs being traded are related to the ecosystem (e.g. metaverse, music publishing, games) and therefore valued in that ecosystem’s token, this marketplace removes the risk of needing to exchange the token for ADA to trade the NFTs on generic-use marketplaces. Fees collected for trades are also kept within the ecosystem, to be used to benefit the project.

The smart contracts for this marketplace have been developed in plu-ts, which demonstrates to potential future Cardano developers that there are other alternatives to the existing smart contract development options. The code repository for the smart contracts is available for review at https://github.com/empowa-io/ecosystem-marketplace.

A fully implemented version of the marketplace (including frontend processes), is available in the Preprod version of the Empowa Explorer at https://preprod.empowa.app.

This proposal is requesting funds to perform the following:

• Prepare test cases to support its open source and auditing.

• Have the smart contracts audited by a reputable third party (e.g. MLabs, Anastasia Labs, Vacuumlabs).

• Whitelabel the frontend components used for interacting with the marketplace.

• Provide documentation.

  [IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

This proposal supports growth in the diversity of Cardano smart contract development options, by providing an open source and real world example of how a different smart contract language like plu-ts can be used. This will help attract developers to the Cardano ecosystem, which benefits all projects building on Cardano by having a larger pool of resources to draw from.

This type of ecosystem specific marketplace dApp may also be of use to other Cardano projects, so by sharing the code to implement it, they can save time and money, which can be used to focus on their core objectives.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

The ecosystem marketplace has already been implemented and is operational in preprod at https://preprod.empowa.app.

We have already obtained quotes from 3 reputable auditing companies, all of whom are available to perform the audit once funding becomes available.

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Test Cases

Having adequate test coverage is a prerequisite having the smart contract audited and important as an open source repository for any other project who may wish to use the marketplace code.

Outputs: Automated test cases added to the Github repo.

Verification: Acceptance by the selected auditor that there is sufficient test coverage for them to perform the audit.

Smart Contracts Audited

The selected auditor will complete the smart contract audits.

Outputs: An audit report. Any issues identified will be corrected.

Verification: A public version of the report will be made available to the community for review.

Whitelabel Web Components

This will allow other projects to build a frontend appropriate to their ecosystem, to interact with the marketplace smart contracts.

Outputs: Code repo with required web components.

Verification: The repo will be open source, so can be reviewed by community.

NA

NA

Documentation

Documentation for how to deploy and use the smart contracts and web components, for other projects to be able to implement their own ecosystem marketplace.

Outputs: Documentation

Verification: Will be included in the appropriate repositories, so will be publicly accessible for review by the community.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Project Manager - Phil Lewis (Empowa)

DevOps Engineer - Empowa Development Team

Frontend Developer - Empowa Development Team

Smart Contract Auditor - TBC

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Funds will allocated according to the following breakdown:

Test Cases - DevOps Engineer - 15,000 ADA

Smart Contracts Auditing - Third Party Auditor - 60,000 ADA

Whitelabel Web Components - Frontend Developer - 30,000 ADA

Documentation - DevOps Engineer - 15,000 ADA

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

Empowa have already implemented the smart contracts and web components required for any other Cardano projects to use for their own ecosystem specific marketplace. As the cost for that work has already been covered by Empowa, this proposal is only funding the work required to white label and audit the marketplace code.

This makes the final open source solution good value for the Cardano ecosystem, as most of the costs have already been covered by Empowa.

As a usable example for implementing smart contracts using plu-ts, this could also help attract additional developers to the Cardano ecosystem, which also adds value.