Dapps, Products & Integrations
Why this category is important
Cardano needs a thriving ecosystem of different Dapps, products and integrations for the community to use that increasingly become the better alternatives over current centralized providers.
The more interesting and useful the products and integrations are that can be built in the ecosystem the more reasons people have to interact with the Cardano blockchain that can help further drive more adoption, feedback, growth and even more innovations.
Types of proposals to include
DeFi - Stable coins, DEXs, borrow & lending, synthetic assets, etc.
Marketplaces
Gaming - Open world games, card games, RPG, etc.
Transport & logistics
Hardware - Hardware wallets, Local ATMs for interacting with the blockchain, etc.
Physical products - Tokenised housing as a Cardano native asset, International crypto headquarters and liason office on every continent, etc.
Social media
Nation governance systems - New governance systems for nation-states
Environment - Solutions that help to solve environmental issues
Many others - Any other idea, product or integration that someone thinks should be built in the Cardano ecosystem!
Potential success metrics for proposal types
This list is not exhaustive but does provide some ideas for proposers to consider.
DeFi - Total value locked, the total number of users, number of active daily/weekly/monthly users
Marketplaces - Total number of users, number of transactions performed
Gaming - Number of players, player income generated (if play to earn), qualitative feedback on game experience, etc.
Transport & logistics - Total number of packages tracked, Number of counterfeit items prevented
Hardware - Number of items sold, number of total users, number of interactions with hardware solution
Physical products - Number of products tokenised as a native asset, Number of people using physical solutions
Nation governance systems - Amount of population onboarded, amount of costs saved due to new solution, security difficulty improvements over previous approach
Social media - Total number of users, number of meaningful interactions
Environment - Total number of users, total CO2 sequestered, amount of awareness being produced, number of people changing an environmentally damaging habit
Many others - Proposers can add in whatever metrics or success criteria make sense for their own project!
Considerations for proposers
Existing products or integrations - What products or integrations already exist in the ecosystem? What are the core differences between the proposal being presented and those existing ones and why will that provide impact to the ecosystem?
Technical requirements - Does the Cardano ecosystem have the right tools, libraries and SDKs for the idea to be feasible? What needs to be introduced or improved for the proposal to fully reach its potential?
Ecosystem maturity requirements - Why is this product or integration suitable for execution right now? Are there enough pieces of infrastructure, applications or other integrations available that would be needed for this suggested proposal to have a strong chance of gaining adoption? For instance, if you were making a professional social network DApp, do the right identity tools and wallets exist to make a professional network feasible?
FUNDING CATEGORIES BACKGROUND
Funding Categories is an approach to doing funding categorisation that will welcome all ideas, maximize the amount of ideas submitted and reduce the effort for all stakeholders in the Catalyst process.
Funding categories also help remove the existing issues with challenge settings. They help to prevent duplicate challenge settings, remove challenges created by self interest, reduce the need for deep knowledge of the ecosystem from challenge proposal teams and also removes an easy entry point for malicious actors.
The full documentation for Catalyst Funding Categories can be found here: https://catalyst-swarm.gitbook.io/catalyst-funding-categories/
7 funding categories have been documented to cover all forms of ideas and proposals. All proposals can be found here - https://linktr.ee/cardanopace
The budget weighting for the 7 categories has been determined using a community governance process. The voting results for this process can be found here - https://catalyst-swarm.gitbook.io/catalyst-funding-categories/community-votes/fund-8-categories-budget-weighting/voting-results-fund-8
In closing:
The potential opportunities that Catalyst can provide to genuine dapp and product developers have increased substantially. A 32x increase in the span of a year.
At the same time, it’s now up to the Catalyst community to drive the direction of the experiment by setting the challenges that provide funding opportunities for developers.
We, in the Catalyst community, need to change our perspective on the nascent experiment and enable it to grow up.
It’s time for the Catalyst community to step up and provide developers with the challenges that will unlock the funds they need to be able to develop for, and on Cardano with confidence.
It’s time to think big!
Why is it important?
Quality Dapps, products and integrations will increase the utility & adoption of Cardano.
How does success looks like?
Novel and viable applications and products get built on top of Cardano attracting users. Integrations manage to pull in more adoption.
Key Metrics to measure
Tracking success for this category will mean:
Increasing the number of dapps and products available for the community to use that help to enrich the ecosystem with new use cases.
Increase the number of integrations that bring existing solutions together for a more seamless and connected experience between different products.
Increased quality of existing products & integrations through suggested improvements that is supported by customer feedback or increased usage by the community.
For individual success metrics for the different types of proposal that can be included please refer to the suggested challenge brief success metrics ideas (see more below).
Overview
Dapps, Products & Integrations is focused on the following areas:
Creation or improvement of different Dapps, products, and integrations that provide value to the Cardano community and wider ecosystem.
Integrations with other existing services, products, and protocols that improve the end-user experience whether that's giving the user more options or making something easier to use that benefits the wider ecosystem.
DecentralizeMusic.com
Solution: Creating adoption & community around music with live streaming, digital music sales/streaming, physical merchandise sales & a CNFT marketplace. DM will also serve a consulting service for musicians.
Decentralized Social Intelligence
Solution: Mainline is x-ray vision for social media, allowing the community to see through bogus vanity metrics, capitalize on organic virality, and participate in governance, curation, and a data marketplace.
Decentralized Next-Gen Edge AI
Solution: A decentralized framework is key to build next-gen edge AI that enables model efficacy while making it safer and secure - both user data and model parameters are only accessible to the end-user.
Decentralized Newsletter Service
Solution: Create a decentralized newsletter service that decouples payment, publishing, and subscription from centralized services. That way journalists are able to do their job without fear of censorship.
Decentralized Logistics Dapp
Solution: A Dapp that tracks a live cost to transport moves from one postal code to another with a load board transportation seekers and providers will see every transaction ensuring a fair exchange of value.
Decentralized Journalism Protocol
Solution: Our protocol will use IPFS content addressing and the blockchain to create an immutable, auditable history of publication. Our neutral UI will force external reviews that disincentive sensationalism.
Decentralized Health Info Exchange
Solution: Capitalizing on the existing Hippocrades Healthcare Infrastructure plus blockchain and zero-knowledge cryptography protocols, a decentralized & secure healthcare information exchange is now possible.
dcSpark (the company iteslf)
Solution: This round of Catalyst does not have much money for the developer ecosystem (one of the primary things we build). To balance it out, we are asking for a loan w/ interest from Catalyst for this round
DCOne Crypto
Solution: DCOne Crypto is a place where the community can receive updates from project owners, discuss and evaluate projects they are interested in. Website is built on a multi-language platform
d-Cargo: Decentralized Cargo
Solution: Create a Decentralized Cargo Platform (d-Cargo) that connects merchants with merchandise, agents and truck owners/drivers in such a way that they can find each other and transact seamlessly.
Datapods - Reclaim Your Data.
Solution: Create a blockchain-based platform to allow people to store their data, and also selectively allow companies to access select parts of their personal data in exchange for compensation.
Dashar Move To Earn On Cardano
Solution: DasharApp will offer the Cardano community and it’s users an incentivised Health-Fi app where participants can earn rewards in cryptocurrency.
DAPP FOR TECH REPAIR (REPAIR ME)
Solution: Create a DApp platform that links tech repairers to device owners directly, so as to enable the repair of their damaged devices. This will host repairmen across the country for easy access to service.
DAO-NET: Voting Wallet Integration
Solution: DAO-NET will integrate its voting interface with one or more open source wallets to make the solution more decentralized and to increase adoption via introduction to existing wallet users.
Dandelion: Decentralized Web3 APIs
Solution: Deploy a Dandelion Federated Network atop a decentralized computing grid, while developing the foundations for other independent node ops to join the mission of decentralizing the Cardano API layer.
Daedalus Turbo - 10x Quicker Sync
Solution: A new download algorithm better utilizing network bandwidth, a quicker algorithm for wallet-history reconstruction, temporary sync apps, and an integration into Daedalus and Cardano Node.
DADF - Disruptive Comm. Application
Solution: A framework for the deployment of digital equity tokens on the Cardano blockchain that has the support of regulators, digital exchanges, companies, lawyers, accountants and investors.
Custom Jewelry NFT Certificates
Solution: Integrate a Cardano NFT minter into the production process of Customized Jewelry pieces that are designed online, sent to production, and the customer receives an NFT certificate with a 3d model
Custom AI tools & growth paths
Solution: AI-assisted cognitive assessment, skills mapping, and insight for teams.
Crypto collateralized loans
Solution: The lending Pond team will make a order book style lending and borrowing platform for fungible tokens.
It will use smart contracts and go lang. This allows people to de-risk themselves.
Crypto banking & Payment Processing
Solution: Ennarea finance will provide a merchant service for businesses to accept and process ADA and Cardano-based stablecoins and will enable users to spend their crypto assets for goods and services.
Create YOUR RPG Character with NFTs
Solution: A 2D Fantasy Multiplayer Role-Playing Game (RPG) that allows for NFT owners to create their own character with randomized traits in a fantasy game, building on Cardano "The God Fragment".
Create Value For Screenplay Writers
Solution: Collude is a Web3 platform for screenplay writers to securely store & manage, edit, sell, license and distribute their screenplays.
Courses & Education Crypto MKTPLACE
Solution: Marketplace for marketing and conducting online courses (e-learning) in blockchain, crypto and programming. Payments with Fiat and Crypto.