[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.
Using the DAO-NET platform, a DAO will be created called Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding. Anyone can become a member of the DAO although a small transaction fee will apply (probably about 0.17 ADA).
Any member of the DAO can submit a Budget Item to fund a small development project (ideally to improve the open source DAO-NET ecosystem but not necessarily). To limit abuse, a minimum of 10% of the DAO members must approve a budget item as valid before it can start to receive funding.
Every day for 100 days, 1% of the expected total received funds (~$300 worth of ADA) will be placed into the Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding DAO treasury.
DAO members will vote to allocate on a percentage basis how the treasury will be divided. For example if the DAO has 100 members then each member would be allocating approximately $3 of ADA on a daily basis and could split that up over multiple projects or put it all into 1 project. DAO members votes remain the same until changed so daily voting is not necessary. If a member has unallocated percentages then that proportional amount is placed back into the treasury to be divided the next day.
When a budget item has achieved its requested funding then the funds are released to the proposer. If the budget item does not reach its requested funding target by its expiration date then the funds are returned to the treasury for redistribution the next day.
[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
Using a simple and fast proposal submission and funding process makes the developer experience much more positive and helps the developer spend more time focusing on developing apps instead of doing paperwork.
This proposal allows new developers and those without a support network to develop small projects on which to build up their experience, reputation and portfolio thus increasing the talent pool of Cardano developers.
[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 risk is possible low levels of engagement by developers and by the broader community. DAO Coders has several small feature enhancements to DAO-NET that it will submit through this process as means to kick start the process however the intention is to attract other developers so as to grow the community.
If successfully funded, DAO Coders will seek a short time slot during the first subsequent Town Hall to raise awareness of the opportunity as well as to make posts in relevant Telegram and Discord groups.
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.
Timeline
On day of successful funding notification:
- create the Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding DAO on the DAO-NET platform (the process takes only a few minutes).
- Place notices of funding opportunity in relevant Telegram and Discord groups.
- Submit request for a timeslot on the first subsequent Town Hall.
Submit on boarding forms with completion date for 2 months so that funds will be divided into 3 payments of $10,000 USD in ADA (using the standard Project Catalyst Number of Months + 1 payment formula).
On day of first funds received, using the calculated exchange rate of the ADA at the time it was received, transfer $300 USD equivalent in ADA into the Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding DAO. Repeat the same transfer for 33 days.
When the second batch of funds is received, recalculate the exchange of the ADA at the time it was received. From day 34-66, transfer the recalculated $300 USD equivalent of ADA into the Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding DAO.
Submit final report to Project Catalyst to release the third batch of funds.
When the third batch of funds is received, recalculate the exchange of the ADA at the time it was received. From day 67-99, transfer the recalculated $300 USD equivalent of ADA into the Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding DAO.
On Day 100, submit the remaining amount ADA received (which will be slightly less than $300 USD in value due to 100 transaction fees, that are expected to total approximately 18 ADA).
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.
- 100 Transaction Fees for daily transfers (~ 18 ADA)
- All remaining funds transferred to Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding DAO on a daily basis for 100 days for redistribution to Developer projects based upon community votes.
Total $30,000
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.
Product Manager: Dwayne Collard - 20 years+ IT Consultant, Solutions Analyst, IT Manager, Veteran Community Advisor <https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwayne-collard/>
- has a holistic understanding of the DAO-NET suite of proposals that he invented
- experienced in managing multidisciplinary teams in up to a dozen projects simultaneously
- ability to articulate and fluently translate between business and technical requirements
- able to manage large complex budgets
- experienced in hiring consultants and third party contract negotiations
Note: The entire process will be mostly automated and the applications will already be launched prior to funding therefore there is no significant work associated with this proposal. As a result, Dwayne will not be getting paid for the negligible work.
Dwayne managed the 4 successful DAO-NET proposals from Fund 7, all of which will be completed prior to funding release for Fund 9.
Of the 3 successful DAO-NET proposals from Fund 8, one is scheduled for completion prior to funding release for Fund 9 therefore even if all 4 DAO-NET proposals from Fund 9 are funded the management team has the capacity to deliver on all funded projects.
[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.
DAO-NET's initial primary focus is to complement the Project Catalyst funding process by providing an alternative funding process that requires less overhead, takes days instead of months, focuses on small projects (under $10K USD) instead of large projects and provides a means for funding the day-to-day expenses of ongoing services.
While the eventual intention is for the DAO-NET ecosystem to be self-sustaining, initial funding for subsequent redistribution to eligible projects via community voting is envisioned to come from future Project Catalyst proposals in Funds 10-12. (This proposal is an example of how these future funding requests will look).
If Project Catalyst future funding requests are not granted then the project has contingency funding plans however the adoption rate to grow the Cardano and DAO-NET communities is expected to be significantly slower.
Regardless of future funding, the DAO-NET ecosystem which has several minimum viable products, all of which are open source, will be available for the community to use and to build upon.
[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?
Each month, DAO Coders will manually measure:
- the number of Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding DAO members
- the number of Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding DAO budget items created
- the number of Project Catalyst Small Developer Funding DAO budget items funded
DAO Coders will submit the measurements in the monthly and final Project Catalyst reports along with the list of budget items funded with description.
[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?
For a successful end of this funding experiment, at least 30 developers, organizations or DAOs will have submitted budget items for funding.
Success would also include at least 1000 members become a member of a DAO in the DAO-NET ecosystem.
On a broader basis, the DAO-NET community should be expanding and evolving with new features, products, services and decentralized organizational structures on a much more rapid basis than the more formal Project Catalyst approach.
The maximally decentralized DAO-NET ecosystem should become the part of the overall Cardano ecosystem where experiments and new ideas on decentralization, radical transparency and new organizational structures can be rapidly developed, tested and implemented with low risk and at a low cost.
[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.
This proposal is a continuation of the previously funded projects:
Fund 7:
DAO-NET: DAO Deployment Platform
DAO-NET: Multilingual Translation
Fund 8:
DAO-NET & A2T Sidechain Design
Merchandise Store Pricing in ADA (Selling online brand merchandise using ADA is one of the alternative fund raising mechanisms for DAO-NET and any member DAOs)
and is related to the Fund 9 proposals:
DAO-NET: ZKP Sybil Defense Service