Nothing came up for
funded

dcSpark (the company iteslf)

$399,000.00 Received
$400,000.00 Requested
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Community Review Results (10 reviewers)
Impact / Alignment
Feasibility
Auditability
解决方案

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

Problem:

dcSpark & related entities currently have about 40 employees. Our size is what has allowed us to build so many protocols in parallel, but also requires a certain amount of funding every Catalyst round

Yes Votes:
₳ 251,793,781
No Votes:
₳ 75,095,622
Votes Cast:
686

This proposal was approved and funded by the Cardano Community via Project F9: Dapps, Products & Integrations Catalyst funding round.

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社区顾问评论 (10)

Impact / Alignment

2.8 / 5
10 评论

Does the proposal effectively addresses the challenge?

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DcSpark is in need of capital to continue implementing completed projects and requires expenses for the company. We know dcSpark with the famous project Milkomda has contributed to Cardano in terms of technology, the achievements the companies create is undeniable. Taking out a loan to continue the company's operations with 40 members is appropriate, dcSpark is in need of help from Catalyst, which will contribute to more quality projects for the growing Cardano ecosystem. The company is a tangible asset that can fully guarantee its value. However, loans always have potential risks, the pre-determination of the risks presented by dcSpark is appropriate, there is firm reasoning about the payment of the loan. The return of cardano treasury has made calculations about the solution integrated into the system in the future. I rated: 4

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This proposal seeks funding for covering the expenses of the dcSpark company related to the 40 employees staff. The funding is asked as a loan with interest from Project Catalyst. The problem is clearly and honestly presented, in fund 9 there is not sufficient amount of money for developer ecosystem projects. The loan of 400K is asked for two years with the first year as a grace period where no money has to be paid back, and a second year where the loan will be paid back monthly with 6% appreciation for the year in USD terms. The Cardano treasury has no way at the moment to receive payments but the dcSpark have made a proposal to create functionality that will allow The Cardano treasury to receive payments. It has to be pointed out for the voter to know, that the Cardano treasury in the future will finance all development and support of the blockchan. The Project Catalyst treasury is a fractionof the Cardano treasury, therefore there is a risk of the money flowing out trough the Project Catalyst budget, but returning into the Cardano treasury, not into the Project Catalyst budget itself. At present time, this will not be an issue because the Cardano treasury is used only for Project Catalyst. The dcSpark as a company itself is the product of this proposal. This is an unusual proposal, but I believe the point could be made that this proposal aliens with the goals of the Dapps, Products & Integrations challenge. I neither agree nor disagree that this proposal effectively addresses the challenge.

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The problem is that dcSpark and related entities currently employ around 40 people. Their size has allowed them to build so many protocols parallelly, but they also require a certain amount of funding each Catalyst round to continue. They are requesting an interest-bearing loan from Catalyst for this round because Catalyst does not have much money for the developer ecosystem this round. The current state of the global economy has had an impact on the cryptocurrency market. Many startups are laying off employees as a cost-cutting measure. Even the ADA's price has dropped significantly. dcSpark, a well-known company in the Cardano ecosystem, has delivered numerous excellent projects. If providing a loan can assist them in continuing to deliver projects, that would be great. If dcSpark continues to deliver new projects, it will benefit the Cardano ecosystem. The proposal includes a detailed explanation of the loan terms as well as the interest payment. This is a one-of-a-kind proposal that can be repeated in future funds to keep good companies afloat that have contributed a lot of projects and will continue to contribute in the future. As a result, the proposal effectively addresses the problem.

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The current bear market in crypto is no doubt making situation harder for the companies involved in blockchain industry. We are in no shortage of crypto-related companies filing for bankruptcy these past weeks. Even company as big as Coinbase is reducing their workforce too to save some costs and sustain its survival through this bear market. I think this proposal is dcSpark team being humble and not being shy to tell the members of Cardano community that they need some help financially. I notice that they have been very busy building products and developer tools and infrastructure these past months despite the current economy is not in the greatest shape. They said the best thing to do in a bear market is to build, so you can grow in the bull market. I cannot agree more with that.

This proposal may push the advancement in Cardano treasury system through CIP-0056 which will allow donations to the treasury. Another important feature to point out is the possibility to own other asset than ADA in the treasury. This will minimize the treasury’s risk exposure due to ADA volatility by spreading them through multiple assets that as uncorrelated as possible to ADA. One of the idea is to hold stable assets such as USD in treasury so regular activities and operations such as Project Catalyst can be funded with more stability without the proposer, assessors, and other workers involved worrying too much about volatility of ADA. The fact that value of proposals/projects/efforts in Catalyst is still denominated in USD but paid in ADA put quite a burden to Cardano treasury and receiver of those compensations or rewards in ADA, especially in a bear market like this. This also put some pressure to the value of ADA. Maybe later when Djed stablecoin is already live and fully functioning in the mainnet as the go-to on\off-fiat ramping, this issue and risk will be mitigated and resolved further.

One thing I am concerned about is whether this Dapps, Products, & Integration challenge is the right place to submit this proposal. But then again, maybe this is the only challenge that has large enough funding to submit this proposal and actually be funded rather than only be approved, so yeah kind of understand proposer’s rationale here. The other thing to consider is if this do get funded and the payment starts after the first year of grace period (the 13th month) and monthly after that, there is a possibility that the crypto market is recovering to some extent by the beginning of second year or better, even sooner. This (white swan) event will allow dcSpark to start to pay off this loan sooner or quicker (in shorter term).

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I believe that this proposal can set a perilous precedent, and essentially allows the proposer to open a short position on the Cardano treasury. While the team are very important and key contributors to the ecosystem, many projects and community members are making sacrifices in light of current conditions. While I hope it does not come to this for the proposer and their employees, it seems inefficient and duplicative to fund "the team" for employee salaries and benefits, and yet see the proposer request funding for various other proposals that the same team would contribute to.

The problem they present is that this round of Catalyst does not have enough funding for developers. It's a bit of a stretch for me to accept their solution as providing any fruits beyond just their team, and offering a solution that other developers in the same. situation can benefit from. In fact, quite the opposite.

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dcSpark, a company that has worked on dozens of Catalyst proposals and delivered multiple tools and platforms, such as Carp, Rust SDKs, Milkomeda, Flint wallet, Fracada etc, has created this proposal to ask for a loan from the Catalyst treasury to fund their activity for the next two years. The impact this would have, is of course, the continued operation of the company and the continued delivery of products which are useful to the ecosystem. The first risk that was outlined is that due to unforeseen events, the company might go bankrupt, which means it would not be able to pay back the loan. The second risk is that currently there is no way to pay money to the Cardano treasury, but as a way to mitigate this, another proposal was created to add this capability. Personally, while I do agree that the continued existence of dcSpark is helpful to the growth of the ecosystem, I am not fully convinced that this proposal effectively addresses the challenge, as the funds that are asked are a very large sum (400k USD), while dcSpark already has 10+ proposals in this fund as well, most of them asking for 20k - 100k. It feels like they should find a funding model that does not require them to take such large loans from Catalyst (in addition to other proposals), or, if this loan will be used to greatly expand the capabilities of the company, that should have been mentioned. Aside from this, Catalyst is specifically designed to fund concrete projects which are very clear in what they aim to do (they have a clear deliverable) and they are auditable (easy to verify that the return on investment is there). This being said, I do not want to discount the possibility that this is a good idea and that large Catalyst loans might be something that happens often in the future. It is up for the community to decide. Score: 3.

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dcSpark is a parallel developer of many protocols and tools for project developers on the Cardano ecosystem. Some featured products, including Milkomeda sidechain, Flint wallet, Carp, Fracada, Rust SDKs, and several other tools, have been officially deployed or run testnet. All of these products contribute directly to the development of Cardano. I appreciate the professionalism of this company. dcSpark and related units have about 40 employees; to pay for this number of employees also requires a large amount of money, so they often request funding for each round of Catalyst. In Fund9, the total fund for the ecosystem and developers is not much, which is their main income source. To have enough budget, the proponent asked Catalyst for a loan with interest for 2 years. I consider this an absurd proposition, unsuitable for this challenging requirement. From fund6 up to now, they completed projects are all funded from Catalyst with quite a large amount. In Fund9, in addition to this proposal, They also have 13 proposals for funding with a large amount. If this proposal is approved, They will steal the opportunity of some other developers in this fund and the following funds, affecting the development of the Cardano ecosystem. This proposal is not Dapps, Products & Integrations; it is just a loan agreement. I strongly oppose this proposal.

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DcSpark adds immense value to the Cardano eco-system as infrastructure builders. The asking for a loan doesn't specifically align with this challenge although the company to my knowledge specializes in products and integrations.

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dcSpark propose for the company to take a loan from Catalyst to execute on development infrastructure work that will benefit the ecosystem. After one year they will start paying 6% APR on that loan as they begin to pay it back. Whether this proposal makes impact or not is fully determined by what dcSpark do with the funding once it is loaned out. dcSpark has a history of delivering open source code and infrastructure that benefits the ecosystem. However in this instance they are not specifying what the funding will be used for. Overall I somewhat agree that this could be an impactful proposal however dcSpark should add more details to highlight where this funding would be explicitly used in the future or share some roadmap of things they are working on.

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OK, where do I start. Let’s start with the positives, the dcSpark team is one of the best-known and most competent developer teams in the Cardano ecosystem. We all know Sebastian and Nico from their days at Emurgo and how they helped to create Yoroi. This then translated into Milkomeda and many other integrations with Cardano. Funnily, enough, as strange as this proposal might sound (loan to a company) – it is almost (almost! – but not really) covered by the brief of the challenge “Any other idea, product or integration that someone thinks should be built in the Cardano ecosystem!” – which is a formulation that is as wide as can be. Yet, the dcSpark team failed to state what “should be built in the Cardano ecosystem” during the loan term. The team is directly seeking a loan from Catalyst because Fund 9 does not have sufficient money for the developer ecosystem. Hence, dcSpark wants to receive a loan that would be repaid with interest. The loan will be for 2 years with a first-year grace period where no money has to be paid back and the second year would see dcSpark pay back the loan month-by-month with an apr of 6% in USD terms. Unfortunately, the proposal does not clearly articulate how it will add value to the Cardano ecosystem – except for filling the treasury with interest after two years if dcSpark is still around. There were several ways of improving the impact of this proposal – and a clear one would have been to include a timeline of planned projects that dcSpark intends to deliver to Cardano during this two-year period. Not tied to the loan,– but still – as a sort of a counterweight that makes the loan proposal more palatable. Catalyst is not designed as a lending platform, although – it is an experiment – so even loans can be seen as an experimental function for Catalyst. The team simply states “dcSpark the company is itself the product in this proposal”. I like dcSpark. I like Sebastian – yet the team’s proposals are pushing the envelope in terms of how minimalistic they are. The content of some of their proposals is very bare bones and eventually the Catalyst voters may run out of patience with this approach to Catalyst funding. Fortunately, for dcSpark, I think that my criticism of their proposal-writing skills will fall on deaf ears with voters who value their ability to deliver great products.

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Feasibility

2.9 / 5
10 评论

Given experience and plan presented is likely that this proposal will be implemented successfully?

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The 2-year term for the loan, $400,000 is borrowed at a 6% interest rate is appropriate. dcSpark is a company that has contributed a lot to the Cardano community, with these projects including Carp, Rust SDKs, Milkomeda, Flint, Fracada and many other protocols & tools that you can find on Github. The main company is the right collateral for the loan. The implementation of the loan according to us is important to the company. The DCSpark team made the loan they continued to work on and provided Cardano with projects suitable for the development that were worth more than $400,000. I rated 4

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The proposer envisions the return of the loan in question to be possible trough “a mix of revenue from dcSpark products, future grants from companies/ecosystems and, in case this is insufficient, from the sale of dcSpark assets or ownership”. However the proposer is pointing out the risks, that it is possible that dcSpark does not survive for the 2 years required to pay back the loan. The timeline of the loan is outlined. The proposer does not provide any more details other than that the loan will be used to pay for the company costs&employees. The team is presented trough the website of dcSpark.io where linkedin accounts and other media outlets could be found. I neither agree nor disagree that the project plans and budget supplied is feasible to deliver the results promised.

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The proposal was made by dcSpark, the company. dcSpark has contributed to the development of many good projects, including Carp, the Rust SDKs, Milkomeda, Flint, and Fracada. has also produced a large number of tools and protocols, which are available on their GitHub. These findings indicate that they have relevant experience and are well-known in the community. Currently, Catalyst does not have much funding for the developer ecosystem in this round, and they require a specific amount of funding from each Catalyst round to cover business expenses and employee salaries. They are asking for a $400K loan that will be repaid with interest. They have only given a general explanation of how the requested funds will be used; no specifics have been given. It would have been very helpful to analyze whether the loan demand was justified or not if the clear fund breakdown had been presented. There is a risk of not repaying the loan with interest, and there is currently no way to do so to Cardano Treasury. To reduce the risk that the loan would not be repaid in full with interest in the event that dcSpark failed to survive for the required two years, collateral should be offered as security. The solution to the second risk, which involves having no way to repay the loan to Cardano Treasury, has been offered by the proposer. It is very likely that the loan will be given to the proposer if these risks are managed.

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The loan will be used to fund the company costs and employees, which is fair in my opinion since people in dcSpark have done a lot of significances for Cardano ecosystem. The income stream to repay the loan will likely to come from dcSpark product revenue, future grants, and even sales of assets or ownership. They also stated they have no intention to write new loan from Catalyst to pay for this one, while also mentioned that this proposal could pioneer new framework or model (loan and equity or asset acuqisitions) of funding in Catalyst other than just proposals delivering products and services to Cardano ecosystem and community.

Another concern to contemplate is whether it is okay to pay back the loan in USD value if ADA price goes up against USD since that means the treasury will get less ADA back. Say if this proposal got funded and the fund is granted now, dcSpark will receive about 1,000,000 ADA, equal to around USD 450,000 (principal + interest) at 1 ADA = 0.45 USD. Say when the time to repay the loan comes 1 ADA = 1 USD, if the loan is paid on USD value the treasury will only receive back 450,000 ADA. I am not too confident if the community in general will accept this outcome. Above being said, dcSpark had made an effort to outline few risks including the possibility of dcSpark not surviving for the next 2 years, another one is a CIP to payback the Cardano treasury and there is temporary solution if no such system is introduced in time.

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The proposer explains that the entity may not be in operation to pay back the loan. Additionally, the proposer on its face suggests that the team has not properly planned out their budget and staffing needs beyond what can bridge them to the next round of Catalyst funding. I strongly disagree that the plan and budget is feasible for the team to deliver on their loan repayment.

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Another issue I have with this proposal is, like I mentioned above, that it does not have clear deliverables, so it is difficult to measure feasibility. “dcSpark the company is the product in this proposal” is something that is very broad and in the end, just the existence of the company is not success in itself for the ecosystem. I would suggest to the proposers to be more specific here and maybe to commit to delivering X tools / libraries / etc per quarter, or something like that. 400 thousand dollars is not a small sum and if this proposal were funded, that means that lots of other people would not get a chance to work on their projects, so I think that we at least would have needed to have a very very detailed breakdown of what the budget would be used for (how much goes to salaries, how much goes to investments, how much goes to covering operational costs etc). Another big concern that I have is that I saw no discussion here of a binding legal process that would make this an actual loan and not simply a donation, like Catalyst funding normally works. Without law involved, the ecosystem has to rely on the good will of dcSpark to return the money and the interest they promised in 2 years. I give feasibility a score of 3.

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Cardano's treasury only derives revenue from the reward distribution mechanism implemented at Cardano's protocol level. The proponent once proposed the idea of ​​CIP-0056 to diversify Cardano's Treasury holdings and increase protocol revenue for the treasury by enabling private ventures funded by Catalyst; here is the link source of this idea https://github.com/cardano-foundation/CIPs/pull/269. This proposal requires Catalyst for a loan, which is part of the realization of the CIP-0056 concept, so technically, the proposal is doable. However, the idea of ​​CIP-0056 has not yet been implemented, so lending and loan management will not be possible without an alternative. In previous funds, dcSpark had many proposals for funding from Catalyst; most of their proposals were funded. In this fund9, they applied for funding totaling $887,000 for 13 other proposals. Given their grant application history, I'm sure most of this proposal will also get through. All the money has been and is about to be funded above, dcSpark rarely publishes plans for the community, such as how much to pay for employees, for each stage of product development, for marketing, and for management. The total amount of funding received is converted in ADA; the option to switch to stablecoin to avoid price slippage, I don't see mentioned. Therefore, this proposal requires Catalyst for this loan, which I consider unreasonable. This proposal requires a 2-year loan, which is a long time, with many changes that we cannot foresee, for the constantly evolving world of blockchain technology, with that amount of $ 400,000. Can incubate development for a variety of other potential projects. In the 2-year period with many changes in the blockchain industry, will dcSpark still exist to pay this debt? This is a big risk that the proponent has identified but has no way of solving; the community's only way to believe in the commitments, the development of the market, and its existence. If this proposal is funded, it will set a precedent for future fund proposals. The proponent could apply for a new loan to pay back the old loan, which breaks consistency and vulnerabilities in Catalyst's funding process, seriously affecting the Cardano ecosystem.

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The DcSpark team has proved to be reliable in the past. The likelihood of success from this loan is not clearly defined, the timeline to pay back the loan is also very vague. Also noted by the proposer that there is currently no way to pay back the loan to the treasury in Cardano's current state, although there is a CIP proposed to amend this. Additional risks involve DcSpark not surviving the next 2 years. Taking all the points above into consideration I give this proposal a high chance of failing; more information is needed in regards to paying back the loan and specific use cases for the loan.

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In terms of the progress for this proposal it is fully based just on the timeline of the loan and repaying it back in 2 years based on the terms provided. The loan will be used for paying for company costs and employees. The mixture of dcSpark products or grant funding are the ways dcSpark would like to repay the loan but also mention that they will sell off assets if required to pay off the loan. The team details are all available on the dcSpark website. Overall it looks very feasible that this proposal would be executed as intended based off the history of dcSpark and their contributions to the ecosystem.

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To be clear, this proposal is so simple and straightforward that it is feasible in the part where the loan is paid to dcSpark. Catalyst treasury would have to pay out a loan to dcSpark in the requested amount of $400,000. “dcSpark is the product”- hence the successful existence of dcSpark for the next 12-24 months is key to the start of repayment. This is a competent team that will continue to work in delivering solutions, so after the loan disbursement payment is made to dcSpark – we simply have to wait for the first year grace period to pass and dcSpark will start repaying the loan with interest. There is the issue that the Catalyst Treasury might not be able to receive the loan repayment as it stands now, but Sebastian who works on Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs) has already initiated a CIP number 0056 that would allow for this type of transaction to be realized. Yes, we are on the very cutting edge of Catalyst Treasury loan territory here, we are treading new ground. The loan will be used to pay company costs and employees, while the revenue needed for repaying the loan will come from “a mix of revenue from dcSpark products, future grants from companies/ecosystems and, in case this is insufficient, from the sale of dcSpark assets or ownership”. Sigh. Alas, we do not get more than that. Of course, there is a risk that dcSpark might not be around in two years – the team is upfront that it is possible that dcSpark does not survive for the 2 years required to pay back the loan – I sort of feel that the proposer has not thought through how to mitigate this risk, despite acknowledging it. One way would be to commit to develop something during this two-year period – so that Cardano – if indirectly – could look forward to the delivery of a product or technology that in a way lessens the risk for Catalyst. I don’t know, I understand dcSpark’s position and I understand Catalyst rules – dcSpark is making it hard for Proposal Assessors with proposals of this type. On the bright side, can’t wait to read what other PAs said.

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Auditability

2.6 / 5
10 评论

Does the proposal provides sufficient information to assess and audit progress and completion?

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The loan is used to pay costs to the company & employees. The money to repay the loan will most likely come from a combination of revenue from dcSpark products, future grants from companies. Projects provided for the ecosystem. The payment of the loan can be determined in 2 years of implementation. We can assess the success of the future projects dcSpark offers Cardano, their value of which may be greater than the amount of $400,000. I rated: 4

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Auditability of this project will be only possible in the end of the project itself. There is no sensible way presented by which the community could audit the development of the company and if the chances of achieving a payback are increasing or decreasing. Success metrics are clearly defined but they are due in two years time. I disagree that this proposal provides me with sufficient information to assess the progress in attaining its stated goals.

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Assessment Quality Assurance is an offered role to veteran in the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. The purpose is to review PA assessments of proposals, providing a second layer of Quality Assurance.

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z_assessor_2795
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3
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The loan proposal includes clear loan terms and an explanation of the loan's requirements. The loan will be repaid over a two-year period, with the first year serving as a gap year during which neither principal nor interest will be due. Beginning with the second year, however, the loan will be repaid each month with interest. Thus, the development of the proposal can be easily monitored. Both sustainable development objectives and key performance indicators are not necessary for the proposal. It would have been easier to understand the need for the fund if the proposer had provided a valid fund breakdown of how these funds will be used. Additionally, it should be confirmed that the business generates enough revenue to repay the loan after a year. The proposal's success will be determined by whether or not the borrowed money is repaid with interest, so it is simple to assess. The information offered should be adequate to assess the proposal's success and progress.

Assessment Quality Assurance

Assessment Quality Assurance is an offered role to veteran in the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. The purpose is to review PA assessments of proposals, providing a second layer of Quality Assurance.

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z_assessor_2736
Total QA Ratings
4
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The term of the loan is in 2 years where no repayments in first year as grace period and 12 monthly repayments of roughly USD 37,500 each starts in 13th towards 24th month. I think the Catalyst need to have a way to track, monitor, and verify proposal spanning for this long duration. The success of this proposal is simple and outright that the loan is repaid successfully. Maybe I can also suggest adding the success of CIP-0056 implementation and the development of new tool to enable the Cardano treasury receive payments thus enabling new funding models in Catalyst as big and important successes too, with lots of multiplier effect. This way the outcomes (and side effects) from this proposal will actually be beneficial to the greater good of community and somehow ultimately aligning with the challenge in the end. I trust that dcSpark has the best interest of Cardano community in their heart and mind and hopefully our faith in them will be greatly rewarded.

To end this assessment on a positive note, this proposal may seem to be too avant-garde at this moment, but nothing extraordinary will be achieved by only doing ordinary things every time. More of than not we need to step outside of our communal comfort zone then be brave and explore new way of doing things. I pray the best of luck for the dcSpark team voyaging through this difficult time and of course, the best outcome for this proposal.

Assessment Quality Assurance

Assessment Quality Assurance is an offered role to veteran in the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. The purpose is to review PA assessments of proposals, providing a second layer of Quality Assurance.

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z_assessor_2482
Total QA Ratings
5
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The proposer explains that there is currently no way to reimburse the Cardano treasury using the distributed ledger system. Therefore, there is no way for the community to track loan and interest payments through transaction history. The proposer offers no alternative method for the community to audit their fidelity, nor their responsibilities in repaying the loans. My ability to audit the payment would depend on the team's CIP gaining traction. Such a CIP may actually serve as a distraction from more impactful development efforts.

Assessment Quality Assurance

Assessment Quality Assurance is an offered role to veteran in the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. The purpose is to review PA assessments of proposals, providing a second layer of Quality Assurance.

Assessor ID
z_assessor_2358
Total QA Ratings
2
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My concerns for auditability are linked to what I said above about feasibility. dcSpark mentions that the measure of progress here will be successful payment of the loan, but that is simply not a measure of progress (at most it’s a measure of success, though not even that). A measure of progress would be reports regarding the company’s activity, since the company is the deliverable in this proposal. dcSpark should have committed to being very transparent with its finances and results, in my opinion, for it to be possible for me to give auditability a good score. The stated measure of success is the payment of the loan plus the interest, which is valid, but again, I must mention that we must track other aspects as well (what this money bought the community). As it stands, I can only give a score of 3 to auditability. I must reiterate that this might be a good idea and it might be a valid way of obtaining long term Catalyst funding to grow your business, but for that to be the case, the information provided by the supplicant and their commitments must be on par with what we see in traditional finance.

Assessment Quality Assurance

Assessment Quality Assurance is an offered role to veteran in the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. The purpose is to review PA assessments of proposals, providing a second layer of Quality Assurance.

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z_assessor_2335
Total QA Ratings
5
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When dcSpark projects have been deployed on the main network or run testnet, they propose to apply for funding; the funding amount for each project does not disclose detailed usage plans. Once the product is complete, the usage plan and budget allocation are no longer essential and can be ignored. However, the Cardano community always wants to know how that fund is used for each item. Is it reasonable to use it? For example, they proposed #400674 at fund8 with a funding amount of 35000 USD; to fund9 they proposed #419159 further to apply for more funds with an amount of 65000 USD for a product, and without a detailed explanation, no progress reports for the community to check. If they have a plan as well as set specific KPIs for each item, this situation will be somewhat reduced. Before recommending this loan, the proponent should have an estimate of the sales of the deployed products, detailed costs for each item, and salary for each employee, … Because of the above, I rate this proposal as having no clear audits nor transparent spending.

Assessment Quality Assurance

Assessment Quality Assurance is an offered role to veteran in the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. The purpose is to review PA assessments of proposals, providing a second layer of Quality Assurance.

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z_assessor_2324
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4
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There is no way the community can currently audit how the funds are going to be used, and no detailed roadmap of how long or viable the CIP is to allow payment of the loan back to the treasury. Information given is very opaque and in my opinion wouldn't be comfortable giving a loan of this size until a more detailed breakdown of how funds will be used and a more detailed plan of getting the CIP developed and passed.

Assessment Quality Assurance

Assessment Quality Assurance is an offered role to veteran in the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. The purpose is to review PA assessments of proposals, providing a second layer of Quality Assurance.

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z_assessor_2148
Total QA Ratings
9
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Payment of the loan is the way in which this proposal can be tracked that will start happening in one year from voting. dcSpark has provided their website and Github in which you can track how the team is spending their labour resources (which effectively is how the loan is being used). Success for this project is paying back the loan and helping other future projects. It appears likely this project will be auditable however one issue is that it has a long time horizon which has not been the general theme for projects going through Catalyst. Increasing the length of time people can request funding for means high funding requests and less short term development. This is a situation that needs more discussion in the community to determine whether this is a net benefit or problem for the ecosystem if approaches like this are increasingly adopted.

Assessment Quality Assurance

Assessment Quality Assurance is an offered role to veteran in the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. The purpose is to review PA assessments of proposals, providing a second layer of Quality Assurance.

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z_assessor_2073
Total QA Ratings
13
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The proposing team given a roadmap for the loan that will involve receiving the loan and paying it back. The second part is currently impossible unless the Cardano Improvement Proposal 56 is approved and implemented, which will make the Treasury capable of receiving funding (which is a welcome change in any case). Fortunately, dcSpark’s Sebastian is one of the editors in the CIP process – so the dcSpark team has what it takes to proceed with that protocol level change. I think that this proposal due to its overall simplicity is only generally auditable, but some key specifics are missing. I would say that two simple modifications to this proposal could have improved its auditability. First, there is no timeline provided for the CIP proposal approval – with a commitment of dcSpark to pursue this implementation with “all it takes”. Second, the team does specify that if the CIP is not approved – “it's possible to have a temporary solution if such a system is not introduced in time”. Why stop there. Describing this temporary solution for repaying the $400,000 loan from Catalyst would probably require a few additional minutes. Hence, I cannot agree that the team has provided a clear understandable and effective solution that addresses the problem. If this proposal is not approved this time around, I would advise the dcSpark team to prepare a more comprehensive proposal that would create, explain and present an air-tight mechanism for repaying the loan.

Assessment Quality Assurance

Assessment Quality Assurance is an offered role to veteran in the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. The purpose is to review PA assessments of proposals, providing a second layer of Quality Assurance.

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z_assessor_2047
Total QA Ratings
20
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Project Catalyst give out loans now? $400,000 at a company with no revenue source…….. Who voted yes to this talk to any ex dcSpark employee see what they feel the company and if any belief this “loan” would ever get payed back

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Last month we delivered Milestone 1 Evidence. Currently our tech team focus on additional features for Flint. We are working towards to Milestone 2 - Educational Section for Flint! Our work is in progress, currently finalizing designs for both mobile & desktop versions of Flint.

Disbursed to Date
$399,000
Status
Still in progress
Completion Target
5. After 1 year
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