Please describe your proposed solution

We are solving the problem of high financial and technical barriers for communities interested in using Verifiable Credentials (VCs). Currently, Identus relies on cloud agents for issuing and verifying VCs, which requires costly infrastructure, limiting accessibility for smaller or resource-constrained communities. We see it as difficult for communities to use Identus because the setup and ongoing upkeep is challenging. If we are building decentralized identity, this setup should not be a barrier to adoption.

Our solution is to extend the Identus SDK to allow for offline-first VC issuance, removing the need for cloud agents and making the technology more affordable and accessible. We could have created cloud deployment scripts, but Cloud Agents still feel too web2. In our work with the Ahau Platform, we’ve observed that Issuers are already in close, trusting relationships with Holders—both personally and digitally—and communicate directly via peer-to-peer connections. There is no reason to rely on a Cloud Agent to get started.

Our first users will be the Indigenous tribes and communities we serve in Aotearoa (New Zealand). They will validate and help refine the solution. Additionally, we will work closely with the developers who maintain: Hyperledger Identus, long-time collaborators, to ensure the project’s success and to strengthen and grow our relationship.

We will demonstrate our impact by reporting feedback from real-world communities using the solution. Successful VC issuance and practical use cases will be showcased on the Ahau platform. What makes our solution unique is its offline-first approach, which addresses a key barrier that has yet to be tackled in the Cardano ecosystem. This project aligns with Cardano’s goals of fostering decentralization, community-driven innovation, and providing solutions that scale efficiently.

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

Our project will positively impact the Cardano community by lowering the financial and technical barriers for communities to adopt Verifiable Credentials (VCs). By enabling offline-first issuance via the Identus SDK, we will empower smaller communities to implement decentralized identity solutions without the need for costly cloud infrastructure. This will make the ecosystem more inclusive and accessible.

We will measure impact through qualitative feedback from users in our communities, highlighting their experiences and challenges. Additionally, we expect to see issues and questions coming in related to these new features, an increase in SDK installs from NPM as developers no longer need to spin up an Issuer node to get started, and higher traffic to our blogposts and case studies. We’ll also monitor engagement with our video presentations explaining how to get started with this solution.

To share our outputs, we’ll release all code and tools in open-source repositories and publish real-world case studies. We will also engage the Cardano community via forums, events, and collaborations with the developers who maintain: Hyperledger Identus to foster adoption.

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?

We have a proven track record of delivering Verifiable Credential (VC) solutions, particularly in supporting Indigenous tribes in New Zealand to implement sovereign infrastructure. Our team has successfully deployed working prototypes for VC issuance and presentation within Ahau. Notably, our past collaboration with the AtalaPrism team saw the addition of Pluto-encrypted to the Identus SDK, a product of work between members of both teams. This existing working relationship further reinforces our ability to deliver efficiently on this project.

We’ve demonstrated trust and accountability in prior Project Catalyst-funded projects, managing funds responsibly and meeting milestones. Our transparent project management processes include clear budget tracking, regular updates, and thorough reporting on progress and outcomes.

Mātou has been working with communities to build community-owned infrastructure for over six years. This experience includes developing and implementing technology solutions that prioritize self-sovereignty and decentralization, empowering communities to take control of their own digital infrastructure. Through this work, Matou has gained deep insights into the unique needs and challenges faced by these groups, particularly Indigenous tribes in New Zealand. Their ongoing commitment to fostering sustainable, community-driven initiatives has established them as a trusted partner in the development of tools that promote autonomy and resilience.

Our history of successful delivery, combined with a transparent process and real-world feedback, makes us confident in our ability to manage this project effectively.

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

Milestone 1: Identus SDK Extension Development (Month 1-2)

• Outputs: Offline-first issuance feature developed and integrated into the Identus SDK (Typescript). Initial technical documentation created.
• Acceptance Criteria: Code written, tested, reviewed by internal team, and basic documentation available. Feature functional in test environments.
• Evidence: GitHub repository with code commits and technical documentation. Internal test logs and developer feedback.

Milestone 2: Ahau Platform Integration (Month 3)

• Outputs: Feature integrated into the Ahau platform, making it usable for end-users.
• Acceptance Criteria: Feature is live and operational on Ahau for end-user interaction.
• Evidence: Ahau platform demo showing live feature, and bug reports, if any, tracked.

Milestone 3: Community Testing and Feedback (Month 4)

• Outputs: Community testing of the feature, refinement based on feedback.
• Acceptance Criteria: Communities actively testedusing the feature in real-world contexts. User feedback collected, critical bugs fixed, feature refined.
• Evidence: Feedback reports from community members, documented fixes or updates to the SDK, user testimonials.

Milestone 4: Documentation, Case Studies, and Public Release (Month 5)

• Outputs: Complete documentation and case studies, blogpost, and video tutorial.
• Acceptance Criteria: Documentation finalised and published, case studies written and shared, blogpost and video tutorial released.
• Evidence: Links to published documentation, case studies, blogpost, and video.

Final Milestone: Project Close-out Report and Video (Month 6)

• Outputs: Final project report and summary video, with a review of project outcomes and lessons learned.
• Acceptance Criteria: Report and video completed and shared with the Catalyst community. Feedback from key stakeholders gathered.
• Evidence: Links to the report and video, along with a summary of stakeholder feedback.

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

For the past five years our team has been successfully building and delivering community designed technologies. Below are our team members that are leading this project:

Ben Tairea

As Product Owner of the project solution, Ben will play a pivotal role in driving the development and success of the project. Ben will be responsible for ensuring the product meets the needs of both the development team and the diverse communities it aims to serve.

Professional Experience:

• Proven experience as the Product Owner with Ahau since 2017
• Strong familiarity with AtalaPrism and Cardano as the core contributor to the ssb-atalaprism module
• Strong understanding of decentralised identity concepts, verifiable credentials, and related technologies, serving as chair of Digital Identity NZ 2019-23 and Member of the Identity Product Advisory Group for New Zealand Government (current)
• Clear understanding of user base and product vision as Earth Defenders Toolkit Community Steward since 2022

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and communicate a clear product vision aligned with the goals of the project.
• Curate and manage the product backlog, ensuring it reflects project priorities.
• Champion user-centric design principles, working closely with UI/UX designers to implement feedback and improve usability.
• Collaborate with QA teams to establish and maintain quality standards, participating in testing processes.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive project plans, defining tasks, timelines, and dependencies.
• Track project timelines, identifying and addressing potential delays, and ensuring the timely delivery of milestones.
• Facilitate clear communication between project stakeholders, ensuring everyone is informed about project progress and changes.
• Work closely with the project's financial team to manage and monitor the budget, ensuring resources are allocated efficiently.

Engie Matene

Is our community liaison for the project leading our co-development approach between the product development team and the communities we aim to serve. Engie will be responsible for developing an engaged communities user base, fostering collaboration, addressing concerns, and ensuring a positive and inclusive experience.

Personal experience:

• Strong understanding of community registrations as lead research and community engagement for TribalDID's = Indigenous sovereignty project since Nov 22
• Secretary for Te Riingi Marae (Marae Trustee)
• Delivery Experience Developer for TradeMe and Flick Electric
• Strong technical understanding and community product development working as a community software developer since 2017
• Founder of He Tāngata Tech - Community Tech Support for rural, remote and indigenous communities of Te Tai Tokerau, Aotearoa, NZ

Key Responsibilities:

• Actively engage with potential user communities to build strong relationships.
• Gather and synthesise user feedback, ensuring the community's voice is heard and considered in project development.
• Address community concerns, inquiries, and issues promptly, working closely with the development team to find resolutions.
• Act as the bridge between development teams, community stakeholders, and other relevant parties.
• Be an advocate for the community within the development team, ensuring their needs and perspectives are considered in decision-making processes.

Mix Irving

As the senior developer for the project Mix is a key player in the design, development, and implementation of our decentralised identity solution on the Cardano blockchain. His expertise will drive technical excellence, innovation, and the successful delivery of a robust and scalable open-source product.

Personal Experience:

• Core developer for Loomio governance tool
• Key contributor to Dark Crystal v1
• Core developer and community organiser of Scuttlebutt
• Lead developer for Āhau
• Founder of commons.garden
• a new project working to build a stronger p2p commons, sharing learning, fostering collaborations

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership within the development team, guiding the implementation of decentralised identity solutions.
• Lead blockchain development efforts, particularly on the Cardano and AtalaPrism platform, ensuring secure and efficient integration
• Enforce coding standards and best practices to maintain high-quality, maintainable, and efficient code.
• Implement robust security measures, including encryption and secure key management, to ensure the integrity of the decentralised identity system.

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Development Team (60% - ₳120,000):

• Salaries and compensation for developers, and technical team members.
• Software development tools and licences.

Feature design (10% - ₳20,000):

• Compensation for solution architecture services, development team and stakeholder input costs

Project management (7% - ₳14,000):

• Compensation for project management resource responsible for reporting and communications

Documentation (5% - ₳10,000)

• Technical writers for creating comprehensive documentation.

Community engagement (15% - ₳30,000)

• Facilitation for stakeholder feedback, user testing and onboarding event

Contingency (3% - ₳6,000):

• A reserve fund for unexpected expenses or scope changes.

The budget will be regularly revisited throughout the duration of the project with shared responsibility between the project leads to ensure that funds are allocated optimally and to accommodate any emerging needs or changes in scope. Additionally, maintaining a detailed and transparent record of expenditures will aid in effective budget management throughout the project lifecycle.

Identus Tools: We rely on the Identus ecosystem for compatibility with Verifiable Credentials and secure voting mechanisms, enabling both online and offline functionality. We are also working with the developers who maintain: Hyperledger Identus who supply the underlying identity infrastructure supporting secure issuance and verification of DIDs and VCs, ensuring compatibility with global standards (e.g., W3C).

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

Our project offers strong value for money by addressing a key barrier to adoption of Verifiable Credentials (VCs) in the Cardano ecosystem—namely, costly and complex cloud infrastructure. By enabling offline-first issuance via the Identus SDK, we effectively reduce both financial and technical hurdles, making VCs more accessible to a broader audience. This focused intervention is designed to promote collaboration and innovation by increasing uptake and use of VCs, particularly among smaller communities.

The budget reflects fair compensation for skilled developers in New Zealand, ensuring efficiency by building on our existing work and strong collaboration with the developers who maintain: Hyperledger Identus. Our open source approach embodies our commitment to integrity and transparency, ensuring that all stakeholders can engage meaningfully. Long-term, this project will drive wider adoption of VCs, which will boost demand for other Cardano-based services and tools, ensuring a high return on investment for the ecosystem.