Please describe your proposed solution

Cardano currently lags behind other blockchains in key metrics like Daily Active Addresses and DEX Volume. The reasons for this are unclear, but it may stem from ICO participants not using the chain or from inadequate protocol offerings and yield opportunities.

You can read a full Report for the Background here.

Historically, Cardano has prioritized first principles, organic growth, and decentralization over rapid expansion and industry trends. Some challenges, such as Japanese tax laws affecting ICO participants' willingness to engage with DeFi, are beyond the community's control. Nonetheless, it is essential for Cardano to enhance blockchain usage, especially as its long-term security model relies on transaction fees. With the upcoming Voltaire initiative and a $1.5 billion ADA treasury available, projects and community members must innovate and drive adoption.

To address this, we propose the Catalyst Funded initiative "Cardano DeFi Onboarding by Minswap." This program aims to create a framework for onboarding more users to Cardano DeFi, with the main focus on Minswap, then expanding across the entire Cardano DeFi ecosystem.

The program will target two groups:

1. Current Cardano users and ADA holders who are not engaging with DeFi.
2. Broader crypto users familiar with other chains who have yet to interact with Cardano DeFi.

For the program to succeed, it must be supported by a robust incentive structure and a marketing campaign. This proposal specifically emphasizes the educational aspect of the campaign.

Our solution includes high-quality content and a series of easy-to-understand video campaigns about Cardano DeFi protocols. This will help onboard users to Cardano, educate them about Minswap, and encourage engagement with both the Minswap platform and the broader Cardano ecosystem, with a strong emphasis on stablecoin usage, yield farming, lending, borrowing, leveraging, and derivatives trading.

The program components are:

1. YouTube Content Campaign - A series of videos by Linda Roland (“Linda Cryptofly”) will target users with little to no DeFi knowledge, focusing on onboarding them to Cardano DeFi, particularly the largest DEX on Cardano, Minswap. Linda’s YouTube channel has 2,000 subscribers and features regular updates on projects within the Cardano ecosystem.
2. X (Twitter) / Discord / Telegram Campaign - Linda has a significant reach across multiple blockchains and enjoys organic engagement on her posts that rivals profiles much larger than hers. Her X profile has over 25,000 followers. Additionally, her recognizable name and brand will be leveraged within Discord and Telegram communities to boost the visibility of her YouTube videos.

This campaign will consist of a minimum of 7 videos over a 3 month period.

Each video will take approximately 60hrs to write, create animations, produce, shoot, edit, and promote.

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

The positive impact on the wider Cardano community will include onboarding and incentivizing new users, showcasing innovations in DeFi, and creating a library of educational content for future learners interested in using Cardano DeFi.

This impact will be demonstrated in several ways:

1. Onboarding New Users to Cardano DeFi: We will measure success through metrics such as views and comments on the "Cardano DeFi Onboarding by Minswap" videos on YouTube. Contributions will benefit the entire ecosystem, not just Minswap, ideally increasing transaction volume across all projects and shifting the mindset away from a "Buy and Hold" mentality.
2. High-Quality Educational Content: Funding this campaign will result in a comprehensive library of educational materials tailored for new Cardano DeFi users, accessible to anyone interested in exploring the ecosystem.
3. Evaluation and Open Source Contribution: The campaign's results will be reported through Minswap's social media accounts, forums, and blogs, shared by Minswap Volunteers. Other projects may learn from this educational initiative and be inspired to develop similar campaigns.

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?

Our team consists of Minswap Volunteer members, including programmers, blockchain experts, marketing professionals, and well-known educators within the Cardano ecosystem. Together, they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to this project.

The Content Creator is Linda Roland, who runs a YouTube channel focused on Cardano education. She has produced high-quality, concise videos on nearly every major Cardano project, earning praise for her ability to simplify complex concepts from project whitepapers. You can see some of these videos here and here. Linda is also a successful Stake Pool Operator on Cardano, nominated for Stake Pool Operator of the Year at the Cardano Foundation's Summit 2024, and she leads an active Telegram community around her stake pool called MALU Pool.

The proposal is further supported by the Minswap Labs team, composed of experienced Plutus engineers who have been developing Plutus-based smart contracts for over three years. Minswap Labs has established itself as a leading company specializing in DeFi tools within the Cardano ecosystem.

Minswap DEX is the Cardano dApp with the highest daily active users and transactions. It also has the highest total value locked among Cardano DeFi dApps and handles the majority of trading volume on Cardano DEXs.

For more data, visit: <https://dappsoncardano.com/> and <https://defillama.com/chain/Cardano?currency=USD>.

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

Milestone 1: Milestone 1 - 1 month

<u>Milestone outputs:</u>

Initial Research:

Finding relevant DeFi topics - Surveys, research, planning, laying out the educational campaign, topics, and videos needed.

Video 1 &amp; 2:

Introducing basic DeFi concepts readily available on Cardano.

Pre-Production:

Concept Development - defining the video’s purpose, target audience, and key messages.

Research and Scriptwriting - in direct communication with the relevant projects and thorough research of relevant documents to ensure technical accuracy.

Concept Creation, writing, editing, and finalizing the script.

Production (Filming):

Set-up

Filming and sound recording

Post-Production:

Video Editing

Sound Editing

Voiceover Recordings

Concept Creation and finalizing custom animations, and other associated edits to be included in videos 1 &amp; 2

Visual Effects

Music Selection

Creation of thumbnails and promotional material, including short "snippets" to be uploaded to X for improved engagement.

Video Upload and Advertisement:

Upload to YouTube, multiple posts on X, including short snippets.

Sharing the video via telegram and discord.

Coordination with any associated project teams to amplify marketing and content reach.

Post-Video Analysis:

Performance Monitoring - Upload engagement and responses to videos 1 &amp; 2.

Data Analysis - Analysing insights to understand audience reception and areas for improvement.

<u>Acceptance criteria</u>

Successful completion of Video 1 &amp; 2 including pushing video to wider audiences.

<u>Evidence of milestone completion </u>

Published videos 1 &amp; 2 available on YouTube

Milestone 2: Milestone 2 - 1 month

<u>Milestone outputs:</u>

Video 3, 4, &amp; 5:

Expanding into more complex DeFi strategies leveraging multiple protocols within Cardano.

Pre-Production:

Concept Development - defining the video's purpose, target audience, and key messages.

Scriptwriting - in direct communication with relevant projects and thorough research of relevant documents to ensure technical accuracy.

Concept Creation, writing, editing, and finalizing the script, introducing basic DeFi concepts readily available on Cardano.

Production (Filming):

Set-up

Filming and sound recording

Post-Production:

Video Editing

Sound Editing

Voiceover Recordings

Concept Creation and finalizing custom animations, and other associated edits to be included in videos 3, 4, &amp; 5

Visual Effects

Music Selection

Creation of thumbnails and promotional material, including short "snippets" to be uploaded to X for improved engagement.

Video Upload and Advertisement:

Upload to YouTube, multiple posts on X, including short snippets.

Sharing the video via telegram and discord.

Coordination with any associated project teams to amplify marketing and content reach.

Post-Video Analysis:

Performance Monitoring - Upload engagement and responses to videos 3, 4, &amp; 5.

Data Analysis - Analysing insights to understand audience reception and areas for improvement.

<u>Acceptance criteria </u>

Successful completion of all 3 videos including pushing video to wider audiences.

<u>Evidence of milestone completion</u>

Published completed videos available on YouTube

Final Milestone: Milestone 3 &amp; Final - 1 month

<u>Milestone outputs</u>

Video 6 &amp; 7:

Understanding risks and applying methods of risk mitigation. Making use of protocol features. Exposure to other blockchain currencies used on Cardano. Eg cBTC.

Pre-Production:

Concept Development - defining the video’s purpose, target audience, and key messages.

Research and Scriptwriting - in direct communication with the relevant projects and thorough research of relevant documents to ensure technical accuracy.

Concept Creation, writing, editing, and finalizing the script.

Production (Filming):

Set-up

Filming and sound recording

Post-Production:

Video Editing

Sound Editing

Voiceover Recordings

Concept Creation and finalizing custom animations, and other associated edits to be included in videos 6 &amp; 7

Visual Effects

Music Selection

Creation of thumbnails and promotional material, including short "snippets" to be uploaded to X for improved engagement.

Video Upload and Advertisement:

Upload to YouTube, multiple posts on X, including short snippets.

Sharing the video via telegram and discord.

Coordination with any associated project teams to amplify marketing and content reach.

Post-Video Analysis:

Performance Monitoring - Upload engagement and responses to videos 6 &amp; 7.

Data Analysis - Analysing insights to understand audience reception and areas for improvement.

Close-Out:

Completion of close-out video/report and any other associated Catalyst paperwork.

<u>Acceptance criteria</u>

Successful completion of videos 6 and 7 including pushing video to wider audiences.

<u>Evidence of milestone completion</u>

Published videos available on YouTube

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

Linda Roland (Linda Cryptofly) - Project Lead.

Linda is one of the most recognisable and well-renowned key opinion leaders on Cardano. She has a firm grasp on DeFi concepts as well as having her finger on the pulse of Cardano.

Her X Profile has over 25,000 followers and her YouTube channel is growing steadily at nearly 2000 subscribers.

Her extensive library of videos already covers most projects at a high level and her content is highly requested.

Minswap Volunteers Group who have a track record and experience on Cardano and have contributed in the past to Minswap, such as Mark (Eternl Wallet, Iagon, and SteelSwap), Elder Millenial (SteelSwap), CWSchub or Chicken.

Technical Support from Minswap Labs

Adrian (“PurritoGeneral”) - Product lead, previous experience at Optim Labs.

Long Nguyen - Tech lead, previous experience at AWS Cloud, Anduin Transactions (specialists in smart deal tech solutions for the alternative investment market) and Jenkins (extensible automation engine)

Website: <https://minswap.org/>

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

The projects' costs are primarily related to the time required for content creation. All equipment, software and licences required have been purchased at Linda's own cost.

Costs are based on the average industry standard for writing technical documentation and video content.

All-inclusive video content creation $75 USD per hour / 221 ADA per hour

Current ADA price 0.34 ADA per $1 USD

100,000 ADA = $34,000

Milestone 1 - Video 1, 2 &amp; Preparation

Initial Research:

Surveys: 5hrs

Research: 15hrs

Planning: 5hrs

Video 1 &amp; 2:

Concept Development: 4hrs

Research, Scriptwriting, Correspondence with projects: 40hrs

Production (Filming): 6hrs

Post Production: 60hrs

Publishing, and social media activities for increased engagement: 8hrs

Post-Video Analysis: 2hr

<u>Total:</u> 145hrs / 32,045 ADA

Milestone 2 - Video 3, 4 and 5

Video 3, 4, &amp; 5:

Concept Development: 6 hrs

Research, Scriptwriting, Correspondence with projects: 60hrs

Production (Filming): 9 hrs

Post Production: 90hrs

Publishing, and social media activities for increased engagement: 12hrs

Post-Video Analysis: 3 hr

<u>Total:</u> 180hrs / 39,780

(Unclear/missing catalyst docs at time of proposal. If Milestone 2 is limited to 30,000 ADA then the remaining 2,045 and 9,780 ADA from milestone 1 and 2 can be paid in milestone 3/final)

Milestone 3 - Video 6 and 7 &amp; Closeout

Video 6 &amp; 7:

Concept Development: 5 hrs

Research, Scriptwriting, Correspondence with projects: 40hrs

Production (Filming): 6 hrs

Post Production: 60hrs

Publishing, and social media activities for increased engagement: 8hrs

Post-Video Analysis: 2 hr

Closeout:

Catalyst closeout video and paperwork: 8hrs

<u>Total: </u>129hrs / 28,509 ( + 11,825 remaining from Milestone 1 &amp; 2 if limited to 30,000 ADA per milestone)

Total cost: 100,000 ADA

No dependencies.

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

Investing in this proposal provides significant value for the Cardano ecosystem. Our detailed DeFi Education campaign will leverage the largest Cardano DEX and major DeFi protocols to boost user adoption and foster positive views of Cardano's innovative DeFi capabilities. These new users can enhance the ecosystem's dynamism and reputation, leading to increased engagement and investment.

In the long term, funding this education program as part of the Cardano DeFi Onboarding by Minswap campaign will create a lasting Public Library of DeFi content. This single investment will remain relevant for years, serving both new and existing users. By allocating resources to this initiative, Cardano can offer a comprehensive education program that equips newcomers with essential information about using Minswap and engaging with the vibrant DeFi ecosystem. We will assess the results and explore further educational opportunities as a community.

In the short term, this proposal aims to attract regular crypto users from other chains, as well as Cardano users who are unfamiliar with DeFi or misinformed about Cardano's capabilities, such as the existence of smart contracts. This effort should improve key metrics like DEX volumes and active addresses, enhancing liquidity and overall ecosystem health, making Cardano more appealing to new users and investors.

The broader Cardano DeFi Onboarding by Minswap campaign seeks to foster a sense of community by encouraging participation in DeFi and welcoming users into the Minswap community.