Please describe your proposed solution

"Good first issue" is the typical label given to issues in open-source projects that are self-contained and constrained enough for a new contributor to tackle when they are still getting to know the codebase. It's a way for project maintainers to express their desire to onboard external contributors.

We want to incentivize developers from inside and outside the Cardano ecosystem to contribute to open-source projects within the ecosystem by assigning ADA bounties to "good first issues" in each of these repositories.

We'll start by compiling a list of potential code repositories that fulfill the criteria:

• Projects that are related with Cardano technology
• Repositories are open-source with compatible licenses
• Maintainer agree to receive outside contributions

From the list of candidate repositories, we'll reach out to maintainers and ask them to opt-in into this bounty program. From the final list of participating repositories, we'll gather issues labeled as "good first issue". We'll then distribute available funds among each of the issues.

The goal of the program is to maximize the amount of participating developers and participating projects. To fulfill this goal, some constraints and rules need to be defined:

• The max bounty amount for each issue will be subject to the total amount of issues.
• There will be a max absolute bounty amount in case of low participation initially.
• Un-assigned amounts will be kept on-hold waiting for new issues to enter the program.
• After a reasonable period without activity, the bounty for an inactive issue will be reassigned to a different one.
• There will be a max amount of bounties that can be claimed by a single developer.
• Bounties need to be fulfilled by developers who aren't existing contributors of a repository.

To manage this process, we'll use Githoney, a bounty management system that uses Cardano smart-contracts to handle interactions between parties and ADA as the underlying asset for the bounty rewards.

DISCLAIMER: Githoney is a project by TxPipe and part of the Catalyst program. A secondary goal of this proposal is to promote adoption of the Githoney platform. All fees gathered from the execution of these bounties will be forfeited.

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

Incentivizing open-source contributions to Cardano projects will benefit the ecosystem in several ways:

• by potentially onboarding outside developers to Cardano
• by helping open-source projects that struggle with funding / bandwidth to fulfill their development requirements.
• by promoting developers to get involved with new projects, making the overall ecosystem more resilient and robust.
• by making these small improvements, they will positively impact several projects, enhancing the overall experience for everyone interacting with Cardano's dApps and services.

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?

TxPipe is an active member of the Cardano ecosystem

TxPipe has been developing open-source tools for the Cardano ecosystem for over 3 years and we're not going anywhere. Evidence of our commitment can be found by evaluating the continuous activity of our public code repositories.

Experience developing in the Cardano ecosystem

TxPipe has helped developed several dApps for the Cardano ecosystem. This experience allows us to evaluate the feasibility of the project and its potential benefit from a developer's perspective. We've also participated in development of chains using the released version of the IOG's Partnerchain SDK.

Successful Catalyst proposals

We have successfully completed several Catalyst proposals. This may serve as evidence that our team has the required capabilities to fulfill these type of projects.

Development process will be public and open-source

Both the output and the development process will be public and open-source. This approach provides an easy way for the Catalyst team and the Cardano community to evaluate the progress at each step of the process.

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

Milestone 1: Program setup and official announcement

Milestone outputs:

• A detailed description of the program scope and constraints
• A website describing the extent of the program and how to participate
• A public announcement of the bounty program

Acceptance criteria:

• Developer in the community are aware of the existence of the program
• Developers in the community are able to understand the scope of the program

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Links to public announcements on social media platforms
• Link to website with detailed information (URL TBD)

Milestone 2: Data gathering and processing

Milestone outputs:

• List of Github orgs that have opted-in to participate in the program
• Mechanism for scraping Github repositories of participating orgs
• Mechanism for scraping Github issues flagged as "Good first issues"

Acceptance criteria:

• We have a simple way of gathering participating organizations / projects
• We have a simple way of gathering candidate issues for the program

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Source code for data gathering scripts
• Spreadsheet with information about participating orgs
• Spreadsheet with preliminary list of candidate issues

Milestone 3: Bounty setup and fund distribution - 1st Batch

Milestone outputs:

• On-chain bounty contracts for 1st batch of participating issues
• Funds distributed to the corresponding bounty contracts

Acceptance criteria:

• Devs from the community can discover and participate in the program's bounties
• Project maintainers can see and manage the bounties for their projects

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Links to Github issues participating in the program
• Links to created bounties on Githoney website
• Links to on-chain transactions as evidence of fund distribution

Milestone 4: Bounty setup and fund distribution - 2nd Batch

Milestone outputs:

• On-chain bounty contracts for 1st batch of participating issues
• Funds distributed to the corresponding bounty contracts

Acceptance criteria:

• Devs from the community can discover and participate in the program's bounties
• Project maintainers can see and manage the bounties for their projects

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Links to Github issues participating in the program
• Links to created bounties on Githoney website
• Links to on-chain transactions as evidence of fund distribution

Final Milestone: Final Report

Milestone outputs:

• an assessment of pending and completed issues
• an assessment of fund distribution
• a video showcasing the final output of the project
• a final report describing the project process and outcome

Acceptance criteria:

• reviewers can assess the impact of the program
• the final video complies with Catalyst requirements
• the final report complies with Catalyst requirements

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Links to all related Github issues
• Links to all related bounties on Githoney website
• Links to on-chain transactions as evidence of bounty state
• Final video uploaded to Google drive
• Final report uploaded to Google drive

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

TxPipe members involved in this project will be:

• Santiago Carmuega - Github
• Federico Weill - Linkedin
• Rodrigo Suaya - Linkedin
• Felipe Gonzalez - Github
• Paulo Bressan - Github
• Manuel Gunther - Linkedin
• Franco Luque - Github
• Alejandro Gadea - Github

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

FTE = Full-time equivalent

Bounty / Rewards for distribution:

• Bounties assigned to open-source issues = ₳ $167,800

Data Management:

• Data Manager: 1/2 FTE x 3 months = ₳ 12,857

Marketing & Communication:

• DevRel professional: 1/4 FTE x 3 months = ₳ 6,429
• Community Manager 1/4 FTE x 4 months = ₳ 8,571

Project Management:

• Project Manager: 1/4 FTE x 6 months = ₳ 12,857

No dependencies.

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

The bulk of the budget is directly assigned to open-source development among Cardano projects. The constraint of a max bounty amount serves as security measure to avoid excessive rewards per individual issue. The scope and outcome of the work achieved from the distributed funds can be traced on-chain and via git in the corresponding repositories, providing the required transparency and accountability.