Please describe your proposed solution.
For the last 21 months, Dandelion has been provided as a community service. It has been used by countless Cardano builders to bootstrap their dapps/businesses - with some dapps even using Dandelion in production because it is easy, reliable, and free.
Dandelion is already built, and it is already delivering value to the Cardano community. It is provided as a community service so that dapp developers can test their ideas and learn how to use Cardano. We have included a disclaimer that Dandelion should not be used in a production deployment, but because the service provides value, it is common for developers to ignore this warning. Dandelion has supported live implementations of NFT marketplaces, DEXes, wallets, and community DAO tooling.
This proposal is to use Catalyst funding to ensure that Dandelion keeps running robustly, so that everyone who relies on it can keep using it.
In order to meet demand and continue providing this service for the community, we must fund additional servers. This provides an opportunity. Our plan is to deploy as many Dandelion nodes as are needed, on top of a decentralized computing network. The network will not be centralized on any major hosting provider but on top of multiple, underlying independent providers, so the exact number of nodes will depend on the research on decentralized computing networks we are doing, and on the demand for the network.
In the long term, our vision is for a global network of node operators to run Dandelion as a distributed and decentralized service – much like Stake Pool Operators run Cardano Nodes. In order to get to that point of a fully-decentralized Dandelion network, we propose to create a federated Dandelion network of nodes (much like the Byron era of Cardano), to train node operators, capture fair value for the services provided by the network, and to roll-out the distributed network at scale.
It’s time for Dandelion to chart a course where we can deliver on its true vision: a network of service providers, as robust as the Cardano network itself, that ensures that Web3 apps built on Cardano are truly decentralized and distributed.
This proposal is for the critical funding to keep Dandelion running, while also setting an example that other operators can follow as they support the network. We’re asking for two things:
- Funds for servers to keep Dandelion running reliably
- Funding to develop an access service that allows the network to capture enough value so that operators are incentivized to run resilient Dandelion Nodes.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
At Gimbalabs, we take seriously the idea mentioned at the top of this challenge: Cardano needs a thriving ecosystem of different Dapps, products and integrations for the community to use that increasingly become the better alternatives over current centralized providers.
But business thinking is not evolving as fast as technology.
We are building Web3 tools with Web2 mindsets. That is why it has been so much easier for organizations like Infura and Blockfrost to capture market share.
In addition to providing innovative technology that serves as the backbone of Web3, the Dandelion model demonstrates a new way of thinking about distributed value capture.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
The greatest risks to this project are that Web3 development never liberates itself from existing systems. If centralized API providers capture so much market share that other options are not viable, or if developers focus on what is easy over what is sustainable, it will be hard to bring this system to life.