Please describe your proposed solution.

Cardano usage and adoption is soaring, with the number of unique wallets active in a 24-hour period exceeding 70,000. However, this coincides with a surge in wallet providers since the introduction of smart contracts roughly 18 months ago. At present, there are 22 wallet providers listed on Cardano Cube - all with their unique interfaces and feature sets. This creates complexity for developers, uncertainty for users, and fragmentation for the Cardano ecosystem.

As a leading service provider for development solutions on Cardano, Anvil has identified four key obstacles that developers on Cardano routinely encounter when integrating new wallets into their DApps. These are

1. The lack of technical documentation, which creates confusion for new developers and hinders their ability to start the integration process.
2. The reluctance of existing developers to invest time into integrating new or lesser-known wallets, as it can be a time-consuming endeavor, which leads to market concentration and is a vast barrier to entry for innovative newcomers.
3. The specificity of each wallet’s feature sets, which complicates the implementation process for developers and projects teams.
4. The handling of wallet connections, which can be intricate due to variations in networks and user accounts.

Consequently, the process of integrating and managing connections to all Cardano wallets is excessively complex and immensely time-consuming, especially for less experienced developers and project teams. This time-consuming task represents a huge opportunity cost to Cardano and the Cardano community, taking time away from more creative and innovative project development tasks. Indeed, less experienced developers are forced to integrate each wallet one at a time to provide a ubiquitous user experience. Consequently, many developers will not integrate each wallet, which creates a fragmented user experience on Cardano with users having to manage multiple wallets in order to interact with their favorite DApps.

Therefore, Anvil will create a Wallet Normalization Library, which will serve as a one-stop shop to access all verified Cardano Wallets. Rather than adding each wallet individually and going through multiple different wallet verification processes, the Wallet Normaliziation Library will serve as an access point to wallet integration. This will also mitigate the hardships around lesser known wallet options and will keep all connections up-to-date.

The Wallet Normalization Library will comprise a GitHub repository dedicated to an open-source universal wallet connector, encompassing the most popular Cardano wallets. Anyone will be able to request additions, removals and/or edits to the wallets listed. The most popular Cardano wallets will be integrated into the Wallet Normalization Library from launch, while any new or lesser-known wallets will be able to submit a pull request to be included in the integration list.

Each integrated wallet will adhere to the same set of functions, ensuring a seamless experience across all wallet integrations. Additionally, each wallet will provide a download link and standardized icon, and their unique features will be accommodated as much as possible. For instance, a noteworthy feature could be the Eternl mobile bridge.

By unifying and consolidating all wallets, this initiative simplifies the lives of developers and serves as a comprehensive starter kit for newcomers, enabling developers to focus on their projects without reinventing the wheel for each new endeavor.

Anvil will spearhead the initial phase of the project, which will involve creating the wallet collector, documentation, and the most widely used wallets. To propose bug fixes, improvements and/or adding a new wallet to the library, users can open an issue on the repository, while developers can propose code updates. An Anvil team member will review these issues or proposals, approving them or requesting further changes/information.

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

The integration of wallets is an early and important stage in platform development that should not hinder developers, especially newcomers. By streamlining this process, Anvil invites developers to explore and harness the capabilities of Cardano, and supports them by eliminating an essential yet repetitive task. We aim to drive adoption and increase opportunities for new developers.

Moreover, this community-driven project aims to establish the first robust and reliable universal wallet connector tool for all projects building on Cardano. This will include a common audited repository, and will serve as an excellent starting point for new developers to Cardano, increasing opportunities for and access to technical documentation for new developers. Overall, this will contribute to creating a sustainable Cardano ecosystem, with new developers able to build on the achievements of existing developers rather than replicating the same tasks.

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

• Downloads on NPM
• Github Activity (Pull Request, Forks, Issues open)
• Track wallet connections to DApps monthly to track growth
• Gain support from the wallets themselves

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

• Use the NPM download count
• Use our social media platforms to share information on usage and updates
• Potential to integrate connection stats to a live dashboard view

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

Anvil Development Agency is a 15-person, international team that is deeply embedded within the Cardano community. Our developers have more than 25 years of combined experience in software development and programming.

Anvil has a proven track record of delivering high quality, and easy-to-use blockchain products since the inception of smart contracts on Cardano. Our team has earned the reputation of being credible, reliable, and delivering on quality.

Our products have been used by tens of thousands of individual users, and we have continually improved upon them by taking feedback seriously. The current assortment of user-friendly products such as minting, staking, and exchanges demonstrate the ability of Anvil to execute on this plan in a professional and timely manner.

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

The objective is to develop a universal Cardano wallet connector, consolidating the efforts of developers into a shared project. This approach has proven successful for projects such as the wallet-adapter on Solana, which demonstrates the feasibility of replicating that success on Cardano’s superior blockchain.

Based on Anvil’s extensive experience of providing development solutions to some of the leading NFT projects on Cardano. Our current tools include multisig minting and non-custodial staking, which we have integrated with numerous wallets and are continuously improving. Indeed, we have created a purpose-built in-house wallet connection that integrates seamlessly with our own products. Project Catalyst funding would allow us to expand on our in-house prototype, and make the tooling open-source for all projects and developers building on Cardano.

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.

Universal Connector: Research Solana connector, scope Cardano connector requirements, identify differences between Solana and Cardano connector requirements, develop and test connector on testnet, beta-testing with limited projects, launch on mainnet.

Integration of wallets: identify most popular Cardano wallets by users and TVL, research feature sets, identify common feature sets among wallets, identify unique but innovative feature sets among wallets, integrate wallets into validator

Documentation and usage examples: research technical requirements, draft and publish articles explaining technical requirements for Cardano community, research examples of how Solana connector is used, survey Cardano partner projects to research how they might use a wallet connector, draft and publish articles on Cardano community forums

Issues and pull request process: research how pull requests are submitted on GitHub for other projects, design and develop pull request process, test and implement pull request process

Distribution and marketing: publish articles to key Cardano community forums (Reddit, Discord, Chain Lobby), appear on Twitter Spaces to promote wallet connector, seek advertising space on key Cardano community resources (CardanoCube, Cardano Explorers, Chain Lobby)

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

• Public and open-source github repository
• Package published on NPM
• Documentation and usages example on github Wiki or equivalent

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

Core: 50k ADA

Wallet integration: 15k ADA

Documentation & example: 15k ADA

Issues and PR: 10k ADA

Distribution and marketing: 10k

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

Cash (Zachary Soesbee) - CEO/Management

Patrick Bernard - Project manager and marketing

Jérémie Bergeron - Lead developer UI/UX

David Desjardins - Lead developer backend and smart contract

Audrey Lacombe - Designer and UI/UX expert

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

This proposal would help to address the mismatch between scarcity of experienced Cardano developers and the many projects wanting to launch on Cardano. This solution allows a more junior developer without blockchain experience to seamlessly and efficiently integrate all Cardano wallets. Moreover, the proposal would enable Anvil Development Agency to focus on continuing to innovate on-chain rather than needing to monetize existing products, while further reinforcing Cardano’s open source culture.

In summary, Anvil aims to halt the constant reinvention of the wheel as new developers are onboarded to Cardano. This solution provides developers and project teams with tools that are functional, easy to use, user friendly, and fully supported by the Anvil team.