Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.
The project plan consists of the following activities with its duration:
- Shielding the user from the complex nature of digital identity**: 2 weeks**
- Making every view and interaction consistent to reduce the learning curve**: 1 week**
- More guiding lights like app messages, tooltips, and indicators**: 2 weeks**
- Separating the user specific information/features, from the information/features between other users**: 2 weeks**
- Better introductory scenarios so that the user can self-learn**: 4 weeks**
- Testing: 1 week
- Documentation: 1 week
<u>TOTAL DURATION</u>: 13 weeks
The high-level scope of each activity is described below:
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Shield the user from the complex nature of digital identity (DIDs, communication/transport layers, credential formats, etc) as well as networking/storage layers. Similar to how web-browsers and websites shield the user from networking, databases, etc. This will involve removing long cryptographic strings and replacing them with user friendly labels, icons, and messages that help the user with the concepts, without overwhelming them.
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Making every view and interaction consistent to reduce the learning curve. Consistency across the entire app will reduce stress levels as the user navigates through all the features.
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More "guiding lights" like app messages, tooltips, and indicators so that user understands what is happening when they create a DID, receive a Verifiable Credential request, etc.
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Separating the user specific information/features, from the information/features between other users. We need to be very clear about what the user sees, about themselves and others and what their contacts see about them and others. This requires splitting or contrasting views and elements in the user interface.
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Better introductory scenarios so that the user can self-learn. Scenarios like like applying for a job, voting, renting a car, applying for a loan, etc. will highlight the value of identity technology for convenience, privacy, safety, and it will make the concepts more familiar.
<u>Deliverables</u>:
- RootsWallet improvements as a new version on the Google Play Store
- Open Source code available on our Github
- Documentation
This effort will span 13 weeks, from when Fund 9 funding is first released. We will follow a similar schedule to what we did to produce the Android alpha release of RootsWallet:
- Start development when first Fund 9 Ada is sent, approximately <u>Monday September 19, 2022</u>.
- 9 weeks will be development to implement the already growing list of UX suggestions from UX expert sessions, tester feedback, and user feedback. We will be doing regular demos of the improvements on emulated Android and iOS environments. We will be adding tests and sending/receiving feedback from the IOG Atala Prism, UX, and open source teams.
- 3 weeks will be on-device testing. Pre-alpha release testers will use and give feedback about bugs, UX, issues. We will prioritize the fixes and complete as many as possible
- 1 week to work on the release to the Apple App Store, documentation, and socializing it to the Cardano/Catalyst/SSI community.
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<u>Release the RootsWallet iPhone alpha mobile app around December 23, 2022</u>
Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.
We will follow the same development cycle and cost breakdown that successfully produced the Android RootsWallet alpha release from Fund 7 and is producing the RootsWallet beta release in Fund 8.
TOTAL BUDGET: $7800
Broken down by feature:
- Shielding the user from the complex nature of digital identity**: $1200**
- Making every view and interaction consistent to reduce the learning curve**: $600**
- More guiding lights like app messages, tooltips, and indicators**: $1200**
- Separating the user specific information/features, from the information/features between other users**: $1200**
- Better introductory scenarios so that the user can self-learn**: $2400**
- Testing: $600
- Documentation: $600
Broken down by timeline:
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$5400 for the first 9 weeks, will be spent updating the existing RootsWallet mobile app, to implement already known UX enhancements. This is mostly software development but also includes time to meet with the IOG UX team, receive/give more feedback to partners and users, and various other development ecosystem related meetings/tasks/costs
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$1800 for 3 weeks of on-device testing and bug fixes. This is still mostly software development but also includes time spent with pre-alpha release testers and making prioritized updates based on their feedback as the UX evolves, adjusting test scenarios, adjusting test data and unit tests.
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$600 for 1 week spent releasing/verifying the Android and iOS versions, documenting the usage, privacy policy, updating links/pages, and socializing the mobile app changes to the community.
Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.
The RootsId team has been delivering Open Source building blocks for the Self-Sovereign Identity ecosystem in Cardano. They have been funded in several Catalyst projects since Fund 6. All of them were delivered successfully on time or still in development in the planned timeline. Our funded projects are:
The team is constantly engaged in all Self Sovereign Identity Cardano activities such as Atala Prism Astros, Atala Prism Pioneer Program, Prism+SSI After Town Hall break rooms, and meeting periodically with partners or related Catalyst projects with the aim of collaboration and help adoption and growth of Cardano in the Identity world.
Additionally, the team participates actively in the worldwide SSI community by attending and collaborating on several working groups in the Decentralized Identity Foundation, the Hyperledger foundation, and the Trust over IP foundation.
This project in particular will be developed by Lance Byrd:
<u>Lance Byrd</u>: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/2byrds/>
His background includes a BS in Computer Science (UMBC) and MS in Information Assurance (Capitol College) and more than 22 years of software development as a consultant. He has developed massive scale data analytics and visualizations, machine learning analysis pipelines, and worked with University researchers to bring their work to market. He has also built and taught technical certification courses for several different topics in data analysis, big data, and compliance.
He is an expert Cardano/Catalyst/Atala Prism SSI mobile developer. He is one of the founders of RootsID which has been building a Cardano-based open source identity ecosystem including a mobile identity wallet called RootsWallet. He is advised by expert UX designers from IOG, identity experts like Darrell O'Donnel and Tony Rose and is a regular at Trust Over IP, Decentralized Identity Foundation, and Hyperledger foundation meetings.
For this Fund 9, RootsId is presenting the following proposals:
Since we are participating in 10 proposals, we carefully planned time allocation for each of us. We defined our individual commitment per week as if all of the proposals are funded including extra activities. Based on that, we defined the allocation per proposal for each of us needed to deliver the proposal in time. Take in account that we design our proposals to have a duration no longer than 12-14 weeks in order to match funding rounds, that means that our pending F8 proposals will be concluded before the F9 execution phase starts. For your reference here is a link to the time allocation spreadsheet that can help you validate that our commitments are feasible.
If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.
If funded, this proposal as defined will conclude in this round. It does not depend on further funding to be used and adopted in production. Based on the success and adoption of RootsWallet, we hope to expand the development of the mobile app and surrounding ecosystem in future funding rounds.
History and Future:
RootsID has been funded to develop Cardano identity software since Catalyst Fund 6 and plans to continue to expand the features and open source software for the Cardano, Catalyst, Atala Prism, and SSI communities in all future Catalyst funds.
RootsWallet was first funded in Fund 7 and we will continue to prioritize our features/enhancements based on Catalyst use-cases (we call them our partners).
RootsWallet also received funding in Fund 8 to add a backup/restore feature, which we are currently working on.
RootsID plans to continue to request funding for RootsWallet in all future Catalyst funds so that the product will continue to evolve to solve the digital identity needs of Cardano, Catalyst, Atala Prism, and SSI community.
