Please describe your proposed solution.

Hello Cardano Community!

I’m GiMa, lead business development for Maya Protocol. Maya Protocol is a decentralised cross-chain liquidity protocol. Allowing users to swap between unwrapped, native assets. We are a friendly fork of THORChain, that might ring a bell. It means that Maya is backwards compatible with THORChain and shares most of its code. We have some new features such as Liquidity nodes, an upcoming smart contract chain (Aztec) and support for different chains of course.

Background on Maya

The idea and development for Maya Protocol started in early 2021. After a lot of testing, mainnet was finally launched in February 2023, along with the Liquidity Auction. The Liquidity Auction was our liquidity bootstrapping event, in which we raised over $11 million worth of Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, USDC and Rune. This event was a fair launch. The entire supply of $CACAO was donated to liquidity providers. This also means the team does not own any $CACAO. $CACAO is used for pooling, so each asset is paired with $CACAO, and $CACAO is also the gas token of the MAYAChain blockchain.

Instead, the team received $MAYA. $MAYA is a revenue token. 10% of the protocol’s fees are taken and given to $MAYA holders in the form of daily $CACAO rewards. This means that if there is no volume, the team doesn’t earn anything. This incentivises the team to keep working on the protocol and making sure the project succeeds.

Maya is not a frontend, but a backend. This means that we don’t have our own decentralised exchange (dex). However, decentralised exchanges and other interfaces can choose to integrate our swaps. We service the swaps, interfaces visualise these swaps.

Chains

At the moment, Maya Protocol supports native Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH, USDT & USDC), THORChain (RUNE) and Dash (DASH). In the following weeks, we’ll also add support for the Kujira blockchain, followed by Arbitrum. After that, we’re planning on integrating the Cardano (ADA) blockchain for cross-chain swaps. More chains will follow later on…

Then there is the concept of dex aggregation. Dex aggregation makes it possible to leverage the liquidity of other dex’s and AMMs. For example, Uniswap, 1inch, Fin & Sundaeswap.

In practice, this means that a user can swap from $BTC to all tokens on Uniswap. Or swap from a token on Uniswap to a token on Sundaeswap, in one single swap and transaction.

Maya Protocol has integrated the THORChain blockchain. This also opens up doors for dex aggregation. Users will be able to swap from assets supported by Maya Protocol to assets supported by THORChain and vice versa in one single swap. This feature will be released later this year. THORChain currently supports: Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Binance Beacon Chain (BNB), Avalanche (AVAX), Cosmos (ATOM), and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) will follow later this year. Users would be able to swap from $SUNDAE on Cardano to $JOE on Avalanche for instance.

Aztec

AZTECChain will be a smart contract chain for Maya. It will be available later this year. Aztec is a fork of Cosmos (Gaia) and will support IBC. It will also have $CACAO for its gas token. Allowing smart contracts for Maya will allow a lot of possibilities, such as perpetuals of native assets, leveraged trading, order books, NFT’s and more. Because of the IBC functionality, $ADA and others will be able to be used across all Cosmos chains supporting IBC. These assets are backed 1:1 by real assets. This gives Cardano more fame in Cosmos and will hopefully result in more interest in Cardano and adoption of the Cardano ecosystem.

Cardano

One of the reasons why we have chosen to integrate Cardano is because Cardano simply has one of the biggest ecosystems in the industry. The Cardano ecosystem produces a lot of volume and has a big community behind it. However, Cardano is still very isolated from all other blockchains. Maya wants to change that. By supporting Cardano, we will be connecting the ecosystem to many other blockchains. Cardano will be more accessible and tradable in a decentralised way. Dex aggregation will also make the liquidity of Cardano’s dex’s more accessible to other markets. This can lead to an injection of new capital from other chains.

Maya Protocol’s cross-chain swaps have been or will be integrated into the following notable interfaces: THORWallet, Rango Exchange, El Dorado, THORSwap, Shapeshift, Trust Wallet, Ledger and more. Users will be able to swap to Cardano on these respective interfaces. The integration of Cardano into Maya Protocol will also likely result in more wallets supporting Cardano, such as THORWallet, XDEFI and Ferz Wallet.

Liquidity

Liquidity is one of the most important parts of the protocol. More liquidity means deeper pools. Deeper pools result in less slippage and thus lower fees and greater output. Liquidity can be provided by pairing $ADA with $CACAO (symmetrical deposit). In exchange, the liquidity provider will earn liquidity fees. It’s also possible to provide $ADA asymmetrically. The asymmetrical deposit allows users to only deposit one single asset into the LP. For example, let’s say an intending provider does not hold any native $CACAO but still wishes to deposit their $ADA into the $ADA pool. They can do just this. In the transaction of adding $ADA to the ADA/CACAO pool, Maya will then auto-swap half the $ADA into native $CACAO (with a slip fee dependent on the depth of the pool vs volume of the deposit). This liquidity provider will have price exposure to both assets and Impermanent Loss Protection is based on the value of both assets after the 50% swap. Then there is Savers. Savers is similar to staking. Savers allows users to single-side lp their $ADA with no exposure to $CACAO. The yield on Savers is lower than for dual lp’s.

We’re also researching the possibility of staking the pooled $ADA. An $ADA liquidity provider would get both staking rewards + liquidity fees then. Read more about that here: <https://gist.github.com/erikd/9e3a37c51aff569c9dffca6f7bef5679>

We hope to incentivize ADA holders to provide liquidity on Maya with this dual yield system.

Proposal

In order to attract the first liquidity providers and be ready for trading, we’re looking for 600,000 $ADA of funding from Project Catalyst that would be used for development and seeding the ADA/CACAO pool with an asymmetrical deposit. So that users will be able to swap to and from Cardano from the start.

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

• Maya Protocol will integrate Cardano later this year.
• Cardano will be swappable to native $BTC, $ETH and more. (No bridges or wrapped assets)
• Dex aggregation creates a lot of possibilities for Cardano dex’s.
• $ADA will be tradeable on major decentralised exchanges and interfaces.
• The Cardano ecosystem could see an injection of new capital.
• $ADA liquidity providers will be able to earn liquidity fees + staking fees.

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

We are able to measure the following KPI's:

• Number of swaps to Cardano.
• Number of swaps from Cardano.
• Volume of swaps to Cardano.
• Volume of swaps from Cardano.
• The Cardano pool depth.
• Increased number of integrations of Maya Protocol's cross-chain swaps thanks to Cardano.
• Number of interactions (transactions) with Cardano on each interface.
• A growing interest in Maya Protocol from the Cardano Community.

We hope that the support of the Cardano blockchain on Maya Protocol will have a big impact on the Cardano ecosystem: Injection of new capital and more interest in the ecosystem.

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

There are already tools and sites showing the metrics for Maya Protocol (Trading volume, Liquidity, Nodes). Everyone can access these sites and data. We will also be sharing exciting metrics on our social media profiles, chat groups and in our weekly Mondays with Maya Twitter Space.

Once Cardano goes live on Maya, we expect to see a gradual increase in volume and liquidity.

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

We have a talented team that has already delivered a lot of features, it's not unknown territory for the team. We're already supporting chains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, THORChain and Dash. Before Cardano, we will also integrate the Kujira blockchain and Arbitrum.

The funds will be stored on a multi-sig wallet until the integration of Cardano is fully operational. Once it's operational, the funds will be used for testing and to seed the pool, so users will be able to enjoy cross-chain swapping from the start.

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

The main is to integrate Cardano as a blockchain on Maya Protocol. When the integration is live, the goal is to get more and more liquidity and swaps. (The deeper the liquidity pool, the cheaper the swaps). We expect that once Cardano is live on Maya, more dApps will integrate Maya which would result in even more volume and deeper pools.

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.

In order to add Cardano to MAYAChain, there are a few changes you will need to make.

• MAYANode changes
• Bifrost changes
• Node launcher changes
• Smoke test changes
• XChainJS changes
• Auditing
• Stagenet testing
• Mainnet launch

MAYANode changes

Bitfrost changes

Bifrost is a key component in MAYAChain, it is a bridge between MAYAChain and external chains

1. First, create a new folder under bifrost\pkg\chainclients
2. Implement interface ChainClient interface

Node launcher changes

Node launcher is the repository used to launch MAYAChain node, <https://gitlab.com/mayachain/devops/node-launcher/-/tree/master/>

1. Create a new folder under the root folder, like "newchain-daemon"
2. Add new helm chart to run the chain client daemon
3. Make sure the autoscaling capabilities are still enough on the max nodes configuration.

Smoke test changes

Make smoke tests for the Cardano integration. This is to ensure all the various components function and work properly. Also verifies that MAYAChain operates with the correct mathematics, and emits the correct events, crypto, etc.

Auditing

In order to make sure all code is supposed to work properly and to ensure there are no vulnerabilities, the code will be audited by an external firm.

XChainJS changes

XChainJS is a typescript library for cross-chain wallets. Connect with multiple blockchains via a common interface, with support for the minimum features necessary. This makes it easier for dApps and wallets to integrate Maya's cross-chain swaps.

Stagenet testing

Stagenet is a network that clones MAYAChain with real assets. Stagenet will have capped liquidity and node operators, but real economic incentives. This design will allow for rapid testing of the security of new features and chains.

Mainnet launch

Cardano will be pushed to mainnet in a new update if no major issues are found. After this update, users will be able to deposit liquidity. After a few days of only providing liquidity, trading will be enabled and users will be able to swap their native BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, etc. to native ADA and vice versa.

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

• Maya Protocol will produce a decentralised permissionless way of swapping to native Cardano, from native Bitcoin, Ethereum and more.
• Maya produces a new way of yield generation for Cardano holders. Cardano holders can provide liquidity and earn fees, but they can also bond their lp units to secure the network.
• Cardano will see an injection of new capital flowing from other chains to the Cardano blockchain.
• All progress regarding the milestones can be seen in the public repository.
• Metrics such as trading volume and liquidity, can be found on our blockchain explorer, and are shared on our Twitter, Discord and Twitter Spaces.

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

The costs for development, marketing, etc. will be provided by the team itself. All funds would be used for seeding the ADA/CACAO pool.

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

All team members use pseudonyms to remain anonymous. One of our Co-Founders is semi-doxxed.

GiMa - Lead Business Development - Responsible for new integrations and partnerships.

Aaluxx Myth - Co-Founder - Strategical lead. (Semi-doxxed)

Itzamna - Co-Founder and Lead developer - Responsible for leading the dev team.

Bitol - Developer

Maximon - Developer

Kukulkan - Developer

Hunahpu - Developer

Then we have a marketing team, consisting of Akna, Ak 'aan, Hurakan, Citbil and Ixchel.

We're always open to contributors helping with the development of Maya.

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

The 600,000 $ADA will be used for seeding the pool and testing. Maya Protocol works with a slip-based fee model. The deeper the pools, the less slippage. The 600,000 ADA will be used for an asymmetrical deposit. With a current price for ADA of $0.3, this would give a total pool depth of $180k. Enough to support some bigger swaps, and not to have too high slip fees.

We hope that these costs will eventually reflect in a high volume for trading ADA on Maya Protocol.