Cardano represents many different things. Financial realignment, pushing power to the edges, and concerns about environmental impacts are just a few examples. However, a component which sets it apart from the majority of the crypto space is the willingness to take the time to do things correctly. In fact, the “move fast and break things” approach is the antithesis of what Cardano stands for. To date, however, the quality assurance resources available to smaller projects have been somewhat limited. Swift Crypto (SPO ticker 4WARD) intends to change all of that with a Catalyst Proposal in F9.
The Proposal
Steve from Swift Crypto intends to build a website that will allow projects to request code checking or offer bug bounties at a reasonable cost. A website will be created that is read only until a wallet is connected. The user will have the option to create a profile for their account. Once an account is created a form will be used to create the bounty. Details of the bounty may include: a bounty category, a problem statement, the reward amount in ADA/native token, the success criteria, how to claim the bounty, optional tags, an optional website URL, and an optional time frame for completion. Creators will have a dashboard where they can view all of their proposals simultaneously. There will be a small service fee collected in addition to the network fee. This will make the website sustainable in the long term.
All of the bounties will be searchable so that a bounty hunter can search and filter according to their interest or skill set. A comment thread will be available to creators and hunters for comments or questions. The success criteria will be determined by the creator at the outset of the bounty, and they will set the instructions for claiming a bounty. The creator must add the transaction ID for the payment if they want to have the closed proposal marked as successful. The system will check the transaction amount and will only mark a proposal as successfully closed when the bounty amount paid meets or exceeds criteria. If a bounty proposal goes for six months with no activity it will be marked as stale. At that point the creator must act to bring the status back to active.
Searchable Metrics
There will be multiple metrics available to the community to create an open and honest environment. They are:
Creators
- Percentage of successfully closed bounties vs all bounties
- Percentage of partially successful bounties vs all bounties
- Percentage of unsettled bounties vs all bounties
- Percentage of expired bounties vs all bounties
- Percentage of stale bounties vs all bounties
Hunters
- Number of successful bounties claimed
- Number of partial bounties claimed
Technical Foundation
This project is centered on and built around Cardano metadata and wallets. The blockchain provides immutability in the bounty data so that it cannot be altered. Bounty comments and system metadata will be stored in ElasticSearch. Technologies and libraries to be used in implementing the website include:
- Multiple Cardano wallet browser extensions (as many as possible)
- Cardano Browser Library
- Angular
- Java
- SpringBoot
- ElasticSearch (will allow more flexibility, capability, and scalability over similar solutions)
- AWS Cloud hosting (chosen based on developer’s experience)
- Github (this project will be opensource allowing full transparency and community interaction)
- Node.js
As stated above there will be a small service fee of <3 ADA to submit a bounty request. There will be no fee to comment on a request. There will be no service fees associated with closing a bounty, although a small Cardano network fee will apply. The fees will allow the project to be self-sustaining in the long term.
This project will help experienced Web2 developers transition into the Web3 space. Experienced developers who are new to Cardano will have access to a plethora of tools and resources with the creation of a simple and straightforward proposal. The data search component of the website will make it easy and inexpensive to match resources with needs. Additionally, this set up encourages community involvement in the development of the Cardano ecosystem.
The Budget
Senior Full Stack Developer (pre-tax): $48,600
This line item pays for 540 hours of a Senior Full Stack Software Developer’s time at a rate of $90/hour. 480 hours are dedicated through Milestone 5. 60 hours are dedicated to maintenance after Milestone 5 is completed.
Responsibilities for this role include (but are not limited to):
- UI/UX design
- Wallet integration
- Server infrastructure setup and deployment
- Development hours
- Documentation and FAQs
- Testing and QA
- DevOps
Service Hosting and Infrastructure for 1 Year: $5000
- Domain registration and DNS Services
- Testnet
- Website hosting (single EC2)
- ElasticSearch Cluster (single EC2)
- Mainnet
- Scalable website hosting
- Load Balancer for the website
- Scalable/load balanced ElasticSearch Cluster
Marketing: $1500
- Time spent for interviews
- Time spent for social media posts and social interactions
- Graphics and video creation
Total Budget
$55,100
The Project Team
Steve Fisher has over 23 years of software development experience and an MS in Systems Administration from George Mason University. He has experience in developing full stack solutions and leading teams through design review processes. He is a core member of Freeloaderz, Cardano SPA and xSPO. Additionally he is the lead front end developer and creator of the SmartClaimz project for Freeloaders. Although that is still in testnet an example of that work can be seen here. For additional information see: https://github.com/FreeLoaderz/rwd-frontend
Further links to Steve’s credentials & projects:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenkfisher/
https://4wardpool.swiftcryptollc.com
Final Thoughts
This project offers solutions to a number of ongoing issues. It helps small teams access the resources that have, to date, only been available to large, well-funded projects. It gets the community involved in Cardano’s development. The search capability creates an easy way for projects and applicants to access compatibility. Additionally, Steve has the knowledge and experience to build it. You can review the project in detail here:
If you’d like to know more information or have questions/comments regarding {insert Teams/Individuals} proposal, check out the link provided: ADA Bug Bounty Website (ideascale.com)
