Please describe your proposed solution

The Cardano After Dark team already delivered DRED: a secure, real-time communication infrastructure used by interactive applications.

DRED is currently used to run the CPoker dApp, facilitating seamless communication between decentralized players of the game. You can check the video at the bottom of this proposal to see an example of how we currently use it for secure communications in a poker dApp.

With this proposal, we will bring our tokenized real-time communications infrastructure on-chain so dApp creators can easily access these decentralized services and optionally monetize through DRED.

This is what a dApp creator should do with DRED:

• Register their dApp as a DRED Neighborhood
• Register and operate one or more DRED nodes, or incentivize others to operate DRED nodes within their neighborhood (this establishes capacity for the communications network)
• Add DRED Client library to their application to connect to their DRED neighborhood, create channels when/where needed, and subscribe to those communications channels. The Cardano After Dark team can help dApp developers formulate their real-time communications approach to fit their application needs
• Optionally integrate with end-user wallets to collect fees for monetizing their communication-channels or application

When dApp developers complete this setup, their players, users, and customers will be able to seamlessly collaborate in realtime. These services will become available to any dApp developer through simple on-chain registration activities, so they can get started easily without having to create their own infrastructure for operating their dApp's communications.

Below, you see a detailed breakdown of this proposal, which will enhance DRED and add these functionalities:

• (M1) Create on-chain smart contracts for node operators to register their decentralized nodes that serve one or more dApps (each in their own DRED Neighborhood)
• (M2) Create on-chain smart contracts for dApp developers to create and maintain their DRED Neighborhood (including monetary policies for node operators and end-user monetization)
• (M2) Refine node-to-node replication capabilities to ensure smooth dApp operation even when some nodes may not always be online
• (M3) Provide a docker-based package for running a DRED Neighborhood node
• (M3) Begin allowing dApp developers to configure incentives and costs for users to access their communication infrastructure, and for node operators to be incentivized through this monetization approach
• (M4/Closeout) Develop documentation and video tutorials on how to initialize and use the infrastructure for your dApp.

Our aim is to provide builders on Cardano with ready-to-use capabilities to enhance their applications with communications and monetization so they can focus on their products.

In the video below, you can understand the team's overall effort in building real-time interactive dApp, and a specific example of how the DRED comms infrastructure is used.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERWI-xHvXE0>

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

Our aim is to provide builders on Cardano with ready-to-use capabilities to enhance their applications with communications and monetization so they can focus on their products.

DRED is a technnology to enable dApp developers and users which need access to low-latency, distributed data storage for high-performance interactive dApps.

At the moment there is no distributed DRED network other than the nodes we use for the cPoker dApp. By improving DRED, we will enable node operators to create more DRED nodes, and more interactive dApps on Cardano.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Our Capability to Deliver can be demonstrated by what we have already done, what we are doing, how we are working together, and by the reputation of the team members:

• we developed DRED, a foundational library at the core of this proposal. The DRED project was managed and successfully delivered by this same team.
• we are developing a commercial gaming application using DRED, of which we have a working PoC.
• The team is capable, meets regularly, and has a good track record of github commits, and of published documentation and videos for the current projects.
• We already worked in other Cardano projects, and we are technically ready to take the challenge.
• We work on this project for more than a year. We know the technical challenges well because we put our own ressources to work on this project.
• Our team members are well-known in the community, joining and organising community events on a regular bases for years by now. In the past, we also organized and participated in Challenge Teams, such as the Open Source CT.

The Feasibility of our Approach is validated according to:

• Our Trackrecord: We already built sophisticated software on which this project builds on.
• Incremental Progress: we broke down the problem in subproblems, which makes it easier to solve different aspects
• Pragmatic Approach: incremental testing during development, incremental assessment of the deliverables for the project milestones

What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone 1: M1: Create on-chain smart contracts

Milestone outputs

• Source code and documentation on <https://github.com/cardano-After-Dark/dred>

Acceptance Criteria

• Create on-chain smart contracts for node operators to register their decentralized nodes that serve one or more dApps (each in their own DRED Neighborhood)
• Create on-chain smart contracts for dApp developers to create and maintain their DRED Neighborhood (including monetary policies for node operators and end-user monetization)

Evidence of Completion

• Pull Requests on GitHub
• Smart-contracts Documentation

Milestone 2: M2: Smart contract integration, node replication

Milestone outputs

• Source code and documentation on <https://github.com/cardano-After-Dark/dred>

Acceptance criteria

• Smart contracts integrated in DRED
• Refine node-to-node replication capabilities to ensure smooth dApp operation even when some nodes may not always be online

Evidence of Completion

• Pull Requests on GitHub
• Integration Documentation

Milestone 3: M3: Containerization, configuration

Milestone outputs

• Source code and documentation on <https://github.com/cardano-After-Dark/dred>
• Docker Image on Docker Hub

Acceptance criteria

• Provide a docker-based package for running a DRED Neighborhood node
• Begin allowing dApp developers to configure incentives and costs for users to access their communication infrastructure, and for node operators to be incentivized through this monetization approach

Evidence of Completion

• Pull Requests on GitHub
• Reference to DRED Docker Image on Docker Hub
• Configuration Documentation

Final Milestone: M4: Closeout

Milestone outputs

• Source code and documentation on <https://github.com/cardano-After-Dark/dred>
• Video on <https://www.youtube.com/@cardanoafterdark>
• Closeout Report

Acceptance criteria

• Provide project closeout report and video about the project completion.
• Develop documentation and video tutorials on how to initialize and use the infrastructure for your dApp.

Evidence of Completion

• Closeout report and video
• Project Documentation and Video publicly available
• List all evidence from previous milestones.

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

P.Suzzi, Developer, SW Engineer - www.linkedin.com/in/psuzzi

• Responsible for co-development, and for integration and testing of the communication module.

Jake G. - Developer, SW Engineer - <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-gonzalez-551306b4/>

• Responsible for co-development, software engineering, testing and integration of the dApp.

Randall - Software architect, 20+ years exposure to cryptography, accounting, and application development - <https://www.linkedin.com/in/randall-harmon-aa52765/>

• Designing the architecture and ensuring scalability and security of the system.

Seomon - Project Manager, IT Consultant, Cardano Ambassador

• Managing the project-, timelines, milestones, alignment, reports and community engagement.

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

We have calculated the total costs based on team experience, average market rates, and our willingness to be paid less than average market rate in order to get funded. This is possible since we don't need external resources, and we're confident about the work to be done.

The core team is distributed across the EU (Austria, Italy) and the US (California, Texas). Market rates for the roles needed will average to ~ 90 USD/hour. But we're willing to work for 150 ADA/hour.

Cost Breakdown:

Project Efforts:

• Project duration: 4 months
• Total estimated development time: 680 working hours –&gt; 17 working weeks
• Development and Engineering activities: 520 h
• Project management, communications, documentation: 160 h

Development Costs:

• Based on the development team previous experience, we estimate that 150 ADA / hour will cover for the estimated development costs in the period.
• Personnel: 680 hours * 150 ADA/hour = 102 k ADA (~34 k USD)

No dependencies

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

Our aim is to provide builders on Cardano with ready-to-use capabilities to enhance their applications with communications and monetization so they can focus on their products.

This project also aims to improve the usability of DRED: an existing Cardano solution for dApps that need a low-latency, distributed data storage for high-performance interactions.

We believe this project represents good value for money, as the improvement of DRED will enable more dApp developers to use DRED, and will enable node operators to simply configure and run DRED instances.

At current market price, 102k ADA is ~ 34k USD, which seems a good price for improving the reach of a solution that demonstrably works, and that could be adopted by more interactive dApps in the Cardano ecosystem.

Since we already developed part of the software and we don't depend on external resources, the team can operate below market rates. In our locations, the average hourly rate would be around 90 USD/hour in average (~268 ADA/hour), while our proposed rate would be 150 ADA/hour.