Please describe your proposed solution.

This solution has been tracked for some time on Github <https://github.com/blockfrost/blockfrost-backend-ryo/discussions/8> and will consist of two major milestones:

1. Creating a new plugin to Blockfrost’s open source backend that will enable users to choose their Cardano network submit provider
2. Deploy this plugin to the Blockfrost.io platform, making it possible for users to choose their preferred provider

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

This proposal considerably enhances the Cardano infrastructure, promoting not only the decentralization of the protocol but also providing fault tolerance to the submitted infrastructure.

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

We are going to measure the diversity of submitted transactions through Blockfrost. We will consider it a success if no submit infrastructure component takes more than 50% of the transactions submitted.

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

The output of this project is going to be an open source contribution to the Blockfrost open source backend. The final report of the project will include data about adoption and diversity of the submit providers.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

We are one of the most trusted entities in the Cardano ecosystem. We are best known for developing Blockfrost.io, a service that provides developers with an API to interact with Cardano blockchain.

In addition to more than 30 successful Catalyst proposals over the past two years, we’ve also integrated Cardano into a digital wallet application developed by one of the industry's top hardware wallet manufacturers.

Further adding to our portfolio, we have developed a unique solution for safeguarding and preserving the digital representation of Cardano NFTs by providing secure, global and long-lasting cold storage backups - Continuity Token.

With a skilled team of blockchain enthusiasts and experts, Five Binaries is committed to making the Cardano blockchain more accessible and secure for developers and users alike.

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The milestones are:

• Delivery of a multi-provider transaction submit plugin to Blockfrost open source backend
• Deployment of this plugin to the Blockfrost.io platform

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.

• Delivery of a multi-provider transaction submit plugin to Blockfrost open source backend
• Discussion of proposed technical solution on Github (1 week)
• Pull request proposing the change to the blockfost-backend-ryo (4 weeks)
• Discussion, testing and community consensus around provided solution (2 weeks)
• Deployment of this plugin to the Blockfrost.io platform
• Implementation of the plugin to the platform (3 weeks)
• Promotion and encouragement of use (1 week)
• Report of usage at the end of the project (1 week)

We estimate this project will take no longer than 3 months.

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Outputs and deliverables are described in detail in the previous section. After the deployment phase we will track the usage of each submit provider on Blockfrost.io.

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

We estimate the cost of development will be around 43,000 EUR.

• Development costs (salaries): 39,000
• Development infrastructure, server computing: 1,000
• Infrastructure for a multi-provider cluster: 3,000
• Administrative costs: 1,000

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

The technical tasks detailed in this proposal will be carried out by our existing Blockfrost team. This team possesses considerable knowledge of and experience with the Cardano blockchain and Blockfrost platform. Given their existing expertise, we see no need for additional recruitment. We have full confidence in our team's ability to perform the work needed in an efficient and effective manner.

<https://github.com/blockfrost>

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The ability to choose a provider for the Transaction Submit (Tx Submit) API adds significant value to the ecosystem, and it's an investment that can yield substantial benefits for the community as it greatly improves decentralization, censorship resistance, resilience of the network and eliminates single point of failure.