[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.
Challenge:
- make Cardano developer tooling easy for newcomers and budding talent to find, understand, and start using as quickly as possible.
- produce research, tools, script, libraries, plugins, SDKs and other software artifacts that makes developing projects on Cardano easier and quicker to build and scale.
- produce research, analyses, standards, resources or documentation that bring novel innovation to the Cardano ecosystem.
- improve the understanding of tools within the Cardano ecosystem for software development or running technical infrastructure.
Criteria:
- Has this project clearly demonstrated in all aspects of the proposal that it will have a positive impact on the Cardano Ecosystem?
The Mendix-Cardano plugin will:
The Landano.io project was launched in early 2022 thanks to a Catalyst Fund 7 grant. The Landano CTO is a senior Mendix consultant who is in high-demand by global corporations to deliver Mendix-based enterprise solutions.
This Fund 10 grant would fund the rapid development of a Mendix-Cardano plugin with a development team under the direction of our CTO Dorus Van Der Kroft. The Catalyst funding would allow the Landano team to open-source and share the outputs of this work with the Cardano and Mendix community at large.
The Landano.io project has already completed rigorous pilot-project work in Ghana. We have uncovered a revolutionary new path to solving the land rights quagmire in this and several other Sub-Saharan African countries. We have developed detailed methodologies, process maps, and several Mendix-based software prototypes that function as a basic Minimum Viable Product for the Landano concept.
Landano needs to supercharge our MVP development to deliver a fully-featured, enterprise-scale, standards-compliant land record-keeping system within the next 6 months. This is so we can deliver on the palpable hope and excitement that was generated amongst our pilot project community, collaborators, and project team about the clear path Landano has now outlined to unlock land tenure rights where it is most needed.
This type of rapid development will be made possible by leveraging the Mendix low-code platform. At the same time, the Landano.io implementation of the Mendix-Cardano plugin will provide excellent examples of the plugin components in action.
[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
This proposal will address the lack of enterprise-ready, low-code platforms that can easily integrate with Cardano transactions, tokens, and on-chain state/history.
The purpose of the Fund 10 Development and Infrastructure campaign is to make it easier to develop and scale projects on Cardano by increasing the availability of high quality resources, standards, tools, scripts, libraries and SDKs for developers and operators to use.
The software engineering community has been undergoing a low-code revolution in the past decade, namely to address the same challenge, how to rapidly develop and scale enterprise-grade applications, particularly for bespoke solutions.
However, a Mendix-Cardano plugin does not currently exist. To fully leverage the power of an established low-code platform with blockchain technology, a Cardano to Mendix bridge needs to be built. This project will deliver Mendix app store solutions that are made available to the thousands of Mendix developers as plug-and-play solutions that allow them to integrate Cardano blockchain transactions and tokens into their apps.
Mendix has been a long-time industry visionary in the low-code space and boasts one of its most commercially successful solutions. Mendix is recognized as a 2023 Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms. See <https://www.mendix.com/evaluation-guide/gartner-forrester-mendix/>
[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
Success metrics for F10 Development & Infrastructure:
Success for this campaign will be measured by the demonstrable increase in new tools, software or research that support how developers build Cardano applications or that help with improving Cardano infrastructure.
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new novel approaches to Cardano software development
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amount of adoption from other projects
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metrics around any scalability, security or cost improvements.
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new ways of interacting with both blockchain and real world data.
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improved technical documentation and education
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larger number of new developers and builders introduced to Cardano technology
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licensing deliverables as open source to maximize re-use and knowledge sharing
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Number of plugin downloads in Mendix app store
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Number of Github interactions (clones, commits, PRs, issues, docs)
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Number of new Cardano users onboarded via Landano.io's implementation of this Mendix plugin (expected to into the hundreds of thousands based on Landano pilot project agreements).
[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
For daily insights and check-ins on project team progress towards the Mendix-Cardano plugin, we invite the community to join the Landano Discord server and follow the Landano Twitter account. We will also join community Twitterspaces and other AMA platforms to spread the word about the Mendix-Cardano plug-in and updates on its roadmap and milestones. Once we near completion we will post a detailed Medium blog post describing the objectives and results of the Mendix-Cardano plugin project.
The Mendix-Cardano plugins will be used in the ongoing R&D and feature upgrades for the Landano platform. Moreover, we expect the Mendix community to respond with interest and will encourage them to kickstart their own Cardano-based R&D project using the Mendix plugins to get up and running quickly, cheaply with hiqh-quality components and documentation.
[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?
We have significant business and management expertise on our team to deliver on our milestone with high levels of trust and accountability and we can be trusted to manage funds properly.
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This proposal clearly demonstrates that the Mendix-Cardano plugin project is highly feasible.
The project plan, milestones, and budget are realistic and achievable.
The project team has clearly demonstrated that it has the experience, capacity and skills needed to successfully complete the project as described, including an understanding of risks and possible mitigations.
We have explained and defined all financial aspects clearly.
The project team has the demonstrable skills and capacity needed to properly manage funds.
The Mendix-Cardano plugin project clearly demonstrates high value for the money invested.
[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?
- Develop a platform that integrates Mendix's low code capabilities with Cardano's blockchain technology.
- Ensure the platform adheres to industry standards and best practices.
- Enable rapid development and deployment of solutions within the Cardano ecosystem.
- Test and validate the platform for robustness and scalability.
- Create comprehensive documentation and resources for developers to utilize the platform effectively.
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This proposal clearly demonstrates that the Mendix-Cardano plugin project is highly feasible.
The project plan, milestones, and budget are realistic and achievable.
The project team has clearly demonstrated that it has the experience, capacity and skills needed to successfully complete the project as described, including an understanding of risks and possible mitigations.
We have explained and defined all financial aspects clearly.
The project team has the demonstrable skills and capacity needed to properly manage funds.
The Mendix-Cardano plugin project clearly demonstrates high value for the money invested.
[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.
F10 rules:
- Minimum 5 milestones for Mendix-Cardano plugin project
- Milestones are minimum 1 month duration
- Each Milestone Funding Amount must equate to between 5% and 30% of the Grant Amount.
- Milestone 1 must equate to no more than 75,000 ada or 30% of the Grant Amount.
- In addition to the Milestones set out above, each Statement of Milestone must also include a Final Acceptance Milestone which represents the last step before a project is considered complete.
- The Final Acceptance Milestone must be allocated a Milestone Funding Amount of no less than 15% of the Grant Amount.
- The Final Acceptance Milestone will be considered achieved upon
- (i) approval by Community Reviewers and the Catalyst Team of all other Milestones in the Statement of Milestones;
- (ii) approval by Community Reviewers and the Catalyst Team of the Project Close Out Report; and
- (iii) approval by Community Reviewers and the Catalyst Team of the Project Close Out Video.
Milestone 1 [Name]
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Milestone 1: Requirements Gathering and Design (Month 1)
- Conduct a thorough analysis of the requirements and functionalities expected from the platform.
- Design the architecture and user interface for the platform.
- Define integration points between Mendix and Cardano.
Milestone 2: Platform Development (Months 2-4)
- Develop the core functionalities of the platform, including the integration of Mendix and Cardano. Making it possible to create a wallet, build, sign & submit transactions.
- Implement the necessary components for rapid development and deployment.
- Perform continuous testing and debugging to ensure a stable platform.
Milestone 3: Testing and Optimization (Months 4-5)
- Conduct extensive testing to validate the platform's robustness and scalability.
- Optimize performance and security aspects of the platform.
- Address any issues identified during testing.
Milestone 4: Documentation and Release (Month 6)
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Prepare comprehensive documentation, including user guides and developer resources.
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Finalize the platform and ensure it meets all specified requirements.
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Release the platform to the Cardano community.
[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.
Milestone 1: Requirements Gathering and Design (Month 1)
- Deliverables: Requirements documentation, architectural design, UI wireframes.
Milestone 2: Platform Development (Months 2-4)
- Deliverables: Functional platform with basic features, integrated Mendix-Cardano components.
Milestone 3: Testing and Optimization (Months 4-5)
- Deliverables: Test reports, optimized platform.
Milestone 4: Documentation and Release (Month 6)
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Deliverables: Documentation package, final platform release.
[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.
Based on the proposed 6-month timeline and the scope of the project, Landano requests funding of approximately 610,489 ADA (175,000 USD / 0.286 USD/ADA). The budget will be allocated as follows:
- Development team salaries and resources: approximately 419,580 ADA
- Testing and quality assurance: approximately 69,930 ADA
- Documentation and technical writing: approximately 34,965 ADA
- Miscellaneous expenses: approximately 86,014 ADA
The budget includes costs associated with personnel, tools and software licenses, infrastructure, and other project-related expenses.
[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?
Dorus Van Der Kroft.
Landano: CTO
Mendix Plugin Project: Lead Developer
<https://www.landano.io/team/dorus-van-der-kroft/>
Peter Van Garderen
Landano: CEO
Mendix Plugin Project: Systems Analyst
<https://www.landano.io/team/peter-van-garderen/>
Aaron Moguin
Landano: COO
Mendix Plugin Project: Project Manager
<https://www.landano.io/team/aaron-moguin/>
Dan Amankona
Landano: CMO
Mendix Plugin Project: Community Liaison
<https://www.landano.io/team/dan-amankona/>
Christian Koch
Landano: Systems Analyst
Mendix Plugin Project: Systems Analyst, QA, Documentation
<https://www.landano.io/team/christian-koch/>
The project team will also hire up to 3 additional Mendix and/or Cardano developers to complete the development, QA, and deployment of the Mendix-Cardano plugins.
[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?
The current rate for a senior Mendix Business Engineer lies around $130 per hour (excl. VAT). Based on rates in the Netherlands where our CTO Dorus Van Der Kroft will leverage his professional network to build out our development team.
This proposal clearly demonstrates that the Mendix-Cardano plugin project is highly feasible.
The project plan, milestones, and budget are realistic and achievable.
The project team has clearly demonstrated that it has the experience, capacity and skills needed to successfully complete the project as described, including an understanding of risks and possible mitigations.
We have explained and defined all financial aspects clearly.
The project team has the demonstrable skills and capacity needed to properly manage funds.
The Mendix-Cardano plugin project clearly demonstrates high value for the money invested.