Please describe your proposed solution.

Onboarding developers into the Cardano ecosystem has been hampered by a scarcity of free resources, lack of support, learning credentials, and insufficient incentives to advance their skills and begin creating on the Cardano network. To counteract this, we propose establishing a Gimbalabs Student Contributor Treasury that provides task-oriented incentives.

This system will keep students motivated, ensuring they reach their learning targets. Gimbalabs provides free Project-Based Learning courses for various Cardano development facets. Each course comprises a series of learning modules, categorized into four phases: Onboarding, Building Background Knowledge (BBK), Specializing, and Contributing.

Upon registration, students mint a token, and as they progress through modules, the completion metadata gets linked to their token and stored on-chain. This method serves as a Cardano-based credential system for verifying the achievements of each student.

Currently, to manage costs associated with the Cardano mainnet, all transactions and recognition metadata are held on the preproduction testnet. This approach is suitable for early stages but, once students exceed the BBK phase and are deemed serious learners, data needs to be accessible on the mainnet. However, generating and storing recognition tokens on the mainnet incurs costs.

Our proposal seeks to cover these costs by incentivizing students with rewards upon completing crucial milestones. This strategy results in two outcomes: Firstly, the creation of a mainnet wallet to store their token and incentive Ada; secondly, the student becomes a stakeholder in the Cardano ecosystem.

For rewards allocation, we currently plan on offering tAda on the pre-prod, convertible to mainnet Ada at the end of the BBK phase. This approach motivates students to complete tasks, accumulating tAda that will eventually become real Ada upon transfer to the mainnet. As a security measure, the earned tAda amount can be stored on the token pair, preventing student manipulation. (This is subject to change and will be discussed further in the Gimbalabs live coding sessions.)

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

1. Adds developers to the Cardano ecosystem
2. Rewards students for improving the Gimbalabs project-based learning course
3. Keeps the students motivated to achieve their learning goals
4. Increases on-chain activity and wallet addresses
5. Creates a clear pathway for students to move from beginner to a contributing Cardano/Plutus dev

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

1. Number of student task completions
2. Number of course improvement proposals
3. Number of module completion metadata sets added to the student tokens from the date of funding
4. Number of credential token migrations to the mainnet
5. Number of course survey participants
6. Number of Cardano wallets created by students

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

Outside of submitting monthly reports, all the student contributor data is publicly available through the following link:

https://en.plutuspbl.io/contributors

The above page provides on-chain evidence and information about various aspects such as modules completed by each registered student, task completions, survey completions, most used smart contract languages, etc.

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

The Gimbalabs team has a proven track record of onboarding devs onto Cardano and providing high-quality, verifiable, and free education.

This proposal is a collaboration between the current students and the Gimbalabs team.

All claims are verifiable on the Gimbalabs website and Gitlab link provided in the above sections.

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

The main objective of the project is to increase the participation, improvement, and completion of the Gimbalabs course through a task-based incentivization system.

Our approach will be validated based on the increase in participation, completion of tasks, and the overall course after incentives are included in the task completion process.

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.

Task list:

1. Surveys once every 3 months
2. Course problems/Tasks completed (10 tasks for course completion)
3. Course Improvement Proposals
4. Module Metadata Added (Number of module completion metadata added)
5. Number of wallets created
6. Number of tokens moved from testnet to mainnet

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

Every month, we will produce a report outlining our progress in several key areas. At the end of the project, we will present a comprehensive report summarizing the cumulative results from these monthly updates, and the overall impact achieved. Here's what we'll be tracking:

1. Task Creation: We will record the total number of tasks created each month.

2. Student Surveys: The number of student surveys completed will be noted. This feedback assists the Gimbalabs team in identifying areas where the course can be enhanced to maximize its impact on the Cardano ecosystem.

3. Task Completion: We will keep track of the number of students who complete the tasks associated with the course content. This figure is a reliable indicator of student achievements.

4. Course Improvement Proposals: We'll count the number of proposals students submit for improving the course content.

5. Metadata Blocks Added: The number of metadata blocks added is a sign of course progression by individual students.

6. Mainnet Wallet Creation: This is a mandatory step required for course progression and reward access. Number of students incentivized for the first time will be recorded and counted as a new mainnet wallet creation.

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

The project management aspect of this endeavor involves several key responsibilities, and it has been budgeted at 10,000 ADA.

The work includes:

• Creating surveys and tasks/assignments
• Monitoring their completion
• Distribution of funds
• Creating monthly reports

The reward distribution system varies based on the complexity and length of each task or survey, with rewards ranging from 5 to 100 ADA each. This is not a 'first come, first served' system; instead, it ensures equal distribution to every student who completes a task.

Our team determines the reward for each individual task. Assuming that 10 students complete 3 surveys and 10 tasks, here's how the budget would break down:

- For surveys: 3 surveys x 10 students x 50 ADA = 1,500 ADA.

- For tasks: 10 tasks x 10 students x 100 ADA = 10,000 ADA.

This adds up to a total of 11,500 ADA. We have set aside an additional 3,500 ADA as a buffer, in case more students complete the tasks and surveys than anticipated.

Therefore, the total ADA requested for this project is:

Project Management: 10,000 ADA +

Incentives: 11,500 ADA +

Buffer: 3,500 ADA

Total = 25,000 ADA.

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

Student Team:

Harsha Gullapalli

Current Gimbalabs PPBL student. UX Researcher & Designer with 7+ years experience. Challenge Team member for DAOs love Cardano. Part of the Catalyst ecosystem since F6.

Dan Wheatley

Current Gimbalabs plutuspbl.io student. Contributing to the development of the course and supporting other students.

Newman Lanier

Current Gimbalabs PPBL student. Challenge Team member for DAOs love Cardano. Part of the Catalysts ecosystem since Fund5.

PBL Design Team

James Dunseith

Teacher, Coach, Smart Contract Developer and Facilitator

LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-dunseith-0135651/>

Sebastian Pabon

Social Entrepreneur and Educator

LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/ing-sebastian-pabon/>

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

We are requesting a total budget of 25,000 ADA, equivalent to $8,333. The tasks created under this initiative will serve multiple students over several years, as they do not have an expiration date. Each task completion contributes to the student's credentials, creating a permanent record on the chain that students can leverage and display.

Should these rewards incentivize students to complete the course and become developers within the Cardano ecosystem, it equates to an investment of 1,000 ADA, or $300, per onboarded developer. This represents exceptional value for the investment, contributing to the growth and evolution of the Cardano ecosystem.

Upon successful demonstration of this concept, we anticipate applying for additional Catalyst grants to sustain and expand this initiative in the future.