In my previous article (Cardano Part 1: Project Catalyst — The Future of Decentralized Voting) I spoke about Project Catalyst and how it has been instrumental in developing a decentralized voting system for Cardano. IOHK, the research arm of Cardano started experimenting with decentralized voting with Project Catalyst Fund 0 and then Fund 1. It had then rolled out Fund 2 with $250k worth of Ada allocated for the winning projects. There were 11 winning projects. It is important to understand these projects as all of these projects will play an important role in building the right bridges for the adoption of Cardano.
The below list is arranged by the number of votes (in ADA) received by each project in descending order.
1. Create a message-signing standard: This proposal was put forward by a Yoroi Team member. The proposal aims to create a message-signing standard to prove balances, identity, and stake pool delegation. The project will create a library that any company can use through Desktop & mobile. This specification will also be implemented inside the Yoroi Extension.
2. Liqwid: Liqwid is a Defi project by the Proof of Africa Stakepool Team. It will be one of Cardano’s first decentralized lending markets that consist of a liquidity protocol to earn interest on deposits and also borrow assets on Cardano. Note that as the project is based out of Africa, it is also aligned with Cardano’s Africa theme. The project includes 30+ years of combined Haskell and JavaScript experience.
3. Cardano for mobile DApp developers: Once the Cardano Platform is smart-contract-ready with Guogen, projects will start onboarding and launch Dapps. Though we have crypto mobile wallets, mobile dApps are rare due to the scarcity of developer tools. This project aims to create mobile SDKs, mobile-first DApp experience, and app store compatibility. The team has experience in building dApps since 2017. They had previously built Tesseract (human-compatible dApps platform) in 2018.
4. GimbaLabs: GimbaLabs provides free and open-source APIs, lessons, and project-based learning resources. These will provide infrastructure for the initial setup and testing of ideas. The Cardano Starter Kits (CSKs) consists of a smart contract code, voting apparatus, guided learning materials, and implementation tips. CSKs will produce real-world outcomes and also help users learn Cardano at the same time. The modules will have varied complexities, from beginners to experts. Just like the previous project, this one will also ease adoption by removing the high entry barrier for community members. The project team consists of three people, a developer, an educator, and a marketing professional. To summarize the 3 areas of the project are
- Free, Open Source Community Resources
- Cardano Business Educational Marketing
- Apply PBL to support Institutions with Blockchain Adoption
Some Minimum Viable products include
5. Lovelace Academy for Marlowe and Plutus: Cardano is built on a relatively lesser-known language, Marlowe and Plutus. Now that the fundamentals are built, it is important for developers to adapt to these languages. The academy aims to attract, inspire and educate individuals and companies to create applications on Cardano’s smart contract and native assets platform.
The 3-member team consists of a popular YouTuber and two developers. The program plans to deliver 25 episodes in 6 months, with 1 episode per week.
The content will include
- Smarter Contracts Series: 30–60 minutes each which included GitHub Tutorials and Repositories
- Making Sense of Cardano Series: 10–30 minutes each. Guest interviews, news, and updates centered around real-world use cases of Cardano.
In the next article, we will go through the remaining 6 projects which have received the Fund-2 grant. It is interesting to see how these different pieces come together. Even after the foundational development, the next step of a project is not to jump directly into the dApps but build the necessary bridges for adoption. It’s good to see that the Cardano grant program has acknowledged that as the first priority. The decentralized voting system actually works.
Note: This post was first published here for Cryptowriter in association with voice.com.
Read my previous article: Cardano Part 1: Project Catalyst — The Future of Decentralized Voting
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