Please describe your proposed solution

We are Smart Contract Audit Token SCATDAO. For over two years we have been working with the Cardano ecosystem to educate, inform, watch our for bad actors, build open source tools, and encourage people to DYOR. Our most popular product, the DYOR Tool (https://dyortool.io/) gets over 6,000 unique visits per month and it has been used to create DYOR Reports for over 100 Cardano Dapps and NFT projects. We have written over 60 articles and made over 40 videos to educate and inform the Cardano Community. We have also built an open source Audit and Social Media platform for people to share information and learn more about the Cardano ecosystem (https://auditocean.com/).

For over 2 years we have been holding DYOR Competitions to incentivize people to learn more about researching projects and spotting red flags or positive aspects, to increase dialogue and discussion around research that is being performed by the community, and to build a comprehensive library of research reports on our Cardano ecosystem that anyone can use or reference. In F11 we received some Catalyst funding to provide ADA as prizes to the top voted research reports and the amount of participation in the contests has increased drastically. That funding will be completed around the time that funding for F12 begins, so we are submitting this proposal to keep this program going.

How the Competitions Work

We run one competition each month. There are 2 weeks for anyone to submit a research report using our in house tool, <https://dyortool.io/>. Immediately following, there is 1 week for the community to discuss the reports, ask questions or comment on things they liked or found to be inaccurate, and vote on which report they think should win, and then a 1 week break until the next competition begins.

Week 1 &amp; 2 - We announce the contest on Twitter and Discord and include a Medium article that has all the rules of the contest. In general they are very similar each time but can have a few small changes such as a specialized theme (Cardano DEXs for example)or changes to the prizes (Top 8 best will get something vs just top 3 for example). Here is the Medium article we had from our recent competition last month for example.

<https://medium.com/@scatdao/do-your-own-research-contest-cardano-ecosystem-a3ffbabe2908>

We include regular announcements during this time to encourage as much participation as possible and try to help onboard new people who have never created a report yet but might be interested.

Week 3 - We announce that the submissions are over and now is the time to discuss the proposals that were submitted. People can share things they thought were interested or that they liked from the reports and well as point out anything they found confusing, were unsure of, or thought might not be accurate. A poll is also set up on <https://app.summonplatform.io/home> with all of the reports that were submitted during weeks 1 &amp; 2. Community members can vote all week for which report they thought was best. Best is subjective, but we recommend that people choose which reports they thought were most accurate, contained the best insights, and that they learned the most from as opposed to picking which report was done on their favorite project but might not be the best quality.

Here is a poll from our recent contest to give you an example: <https://app.summonplatform.io/poll/1c016788-b3c4-4c66-b8d0-5f7520e97040>

Week 4 - In week 4 the results are released, we share a Medium article that contains all of the reports and the winners, and we announce it on our Discord and Twitter accounts. We also begin the process to pay all the participants the ADA and AUDIT tokens they have earned.

DYOR Report Examples

Here are some DYOR Reports that were submitted in the recent competition to give you an idea of what is being produced.

Orcfax

<https://audits.dyortool.io/report/f9dee1eda4197db6369827>

Book.io

<https://audits.dyortool.io/report/38e8ce6408283b9a293169>

Cerra

<https://audits.dyortool.io/report/6b09cff835b85f6a52d282>

DYOR Library

As a result of these competitions, we have a library that contains 120+ high quality research reports on Cardano projects. We would like to expand this to cover every token and NFT in the Cardano ecosystem and continuously update any reports that are older than 6 months so that the library remains current. We believe this is possible through these research contests. All reports are open source and free for anyone to use however they like.

You can view the library here: <https://dyortool.io/>

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

We may not be the biggest or most well known project in Cardano, but we have been here since 2021 and have built a very strong and passionate community. We have helped many Cardano Community members improve their research skills or spark an interest in researching projects and receive a lot of positive feedback from people who participate in this and have improved their research as a result (can check the comments to this proposal and should be some there as well). We are very proud of this and would like to continue and grow it to reach even more people.

In what way will the success of your project bring value to the Cardano Community?

The success of our project will bring value to the Cardano Community in 3 main ways.

1. By encouraging and facilitating research of our dapps, tokens, and NFTs, we create a better informed community that is more equipped to find strong project worthy of supporting, or red flags that they should probably avoid. This makes our community better at avoiding potential scams which do damage to our ecosystem and concentrate liquidity on strong projects which deserve it. It increases our reputation within the Crypto Community and it attracts other good actors because they know that they are being recognized and rewarding for doing the right things.
2. By having regular research competitions on projects in the Cardano Ecosystem, it helps us promote and create awareness of these projects. Our tool generates a nice mini report that is able to be shared easily on social media (see example below). We regularly promote the competitions and share the reports that are being submitted. It is a type of marketing that focuses on fundamental research instead of price hype that is ultimately good for Cardano as a whole.
3. Through these contests, we are able to build a comprehensive library of research reports on the Cardano ecosystem that is continuously being updated. These reports are all open and free for all to use anyway they like. People can incorporate them into their websites or tools with our free API, read them, share them, etc. This is a great source of knowledge for anyone interested in researching our ecosystem and helps onboard new people who do not know where they should start.

How will you measure this impact?

We have created the following KPIs that will help measure the impact of this proposal and assess its effectiveness upon its completion.

1. Number of DYOR Contests Held: This proposal is for 6 DYOR Contests, 1 each month. If we do not hold 1 contest each month, then it would be considered a failure of the proposal. Therefore our goal here will be 1 per month, for a total of 6 upon completion.
2. Number of DYOR Reports Submitted: This is a very important metric for us. It would measure how many unique reports were submitted for our DYOR Contents by community members. Our goal here would be to have a minimum of 10 submitted per contest, and 20 per contest being ideal. That means that we would have 120 unique research reports on Cardano ecosystem projects at the end of the proposals completion.
3. Number of Wallets Voting: This would measure the number of wallets that voted in the competition to select their favorite reports. This metric is important because it gives an idea of how many people are reading these reports and benefiting from them. Our goal here would be to have a minimum of 30 wallets voting each competition, and 100 wallets being ideal.

How will you share the outputs and opportunities that result from your project?

We will share the outputs and opportunities the result from our project through our primary social media accounts. We have a Twitter account with 5,700+ followers (@SCATDAO) and an active Discord with 500+ members (<https://discord.gg/8euq37Rx>). Both of these accounts were grown organically over years will real followers and members. We will distribute our outputs through there primarily. We also have a Medium account we can write articles with (<https://medium.com/@scatdao>)

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 believe the best way to predict the future is by looking at the past. Projects and teams that have consistently delivered the things they have promised are likely to continue doing so while teams that have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars while delivering nothing will likely continue to do so as well. So I would start answering this question by looking at our track record in previous Catalyst rounds.

Our team has been funded for 4 separate proposals in three different rounds (5, 6, 8, &amp; 11). And I am proud to say that 3 of those projects were completed and delivered and 1 is still ongoing and has met every milestone on time. The close out videos are copied below to evidence this.

NOTE: If you look us up using the LIDO Nation tool, you will see a few other projects that we are associated with. These are things like the Audit Circle or of Token Vesting Dapp. This is something that one of our team members helped out with and so is included on the proposal but that we do not collect funds from.

F8 Close out video:

<https://youtu.be/8nZIGvcoqpg>F5 Close out Video:

https://youtu.be/aG22acr_8HYF6 Close out Video:

<https://youtu.be/EfS-eBq6zyg>We have also posted our projects financials at the end to share our receipts and a breakdown of how the money was actually spent vs how it was budgeted. We feel this is very important and plan to continue doing it with this proposal. Below is the link to view our past proposals.

https://catalystaudit.com/smart-contract-audit-token-f5-expenses/

How do we intend to validate if our approach is feasible?

As mentioned, we have been doing this for over 2 years now. We have already held multiple DYOR successful Competitions. We have over 100 projects covered with our DYOR Tool. All of these things we have been successfully doing for over 2 years validate that our approach is feasible and is a good investment for the Cardano community.

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

Milestone 1: Month 1: Deliver 1 DYOR Competition

Milestone Outputs:

A: 1 DYOR Competition

Acceptance Criteria:

A: There will be 1 DYOR Contest per month which will have the following criteria:

i. Each DYOR Contest will have 1K ADA in prizes.

ii. There will be 1 week for submissions, 2 weeks to discuss and vote, then a 1 week break.

iii. All prizes must be distributed each month.

iv. Voting will be on-chain on the Summon app using AUDIT.

Evidence of Completion:

A: DYOR Contests will be announced on our Discord and Twitter accounts. A link to the announcement in Twitter and a screen shot of the discord announcement will be provided. A brief summary of the contest including which projects were submitted and which one will be written after the contest and shared on our Twitter or Medium, and a link to that will be provided as well. The URL to the DYOR Reports that were entered into the contest will also be provided.

Milestone 2: Month 3: Deliver 2 DYOR Contests

The second milestone is double outputs as the first milestone, as this covers a two month period instead of a single month.

Milestone Outputs:

A: 2 DYOR Competitions

Acceptance Criteria:

A: There will be 1 DYOR Contest per month which will have the following criteria:

i. Each DYOR Contest will have 1K ADA in prizes.

ii. There will be 1 week for submissions, 2 weeks to discuss and vote, then a 1 week break.

iii. All prizes must be distributed each month.

iv. Voting will be on-chain on the Summon app using AUDIT.

Evidence of Completion:

A: DYOR Contests will be announced on our Discord and Twitter accounts. A link to the announcement in Twitter and a screen shot of the discord announcement will be provided. A brief summary of the contest including which projects were submitted and which one will be written after the contest and shared on our Twitter or Medium, and a link to that will be provided as well. The URL to the DYOR Reports that were entered into the contest will also be provided.

Milestone 3: Month 5: Deliver 2 DYOR Contests

The third milestone is double outputs as the first milestone, as this covers a two month period instead of a single month.

Milestone Outputs:

A: 2 DYOR Competitions

Acceptance Criteria:

A: There will be 1 DYOR Contest per month which will have the following criteria:

i. Each DYOR Contest will have 1K ADA in prizes.

ii. There will be 1 week for submissions, 2 weeks to discuss and vote, then a 1 week break.

iii. All prizes must be distributed each month.

iv. Voting will be on-chain on the Summon app using AUDIT.

Evidence of Completion:

A: DYOR Contests will be announced on our Discord and Twitter accounts. A link to the announcement in Twitter and a screen shot of the discord announcement will be provided. A brief summary of the contest including which projects were submitted and which one will be written after the contest and shared on our Twitter or Medium, and a link to that will be provided as well. The URL to the DYOR Reports that were entered into the contest will also be provided.

Final Milestone: Month 6: Deliver 1 DYOR Contest, Final project completion report and video

The final milestone will be to deliver the final DYOR Contest, and submit the final project completion report and video which officially closes out the proposal.

Milestone Outputs:

A: 1 DYOR Competition

B: A final project completion report and video which meets all the Catalyst requirements for time, length, and content.

Acceptance Criteria:

A: There will be 1 DYOR Contest per month which will have the following criteria:

i. Each DYOR Contest will have 1K ADA in prizes.

ii. There will be 1 week for submissions, 2 weeks to discuss and vote, then a 1 week break.

iii. All prizes must be distributed each month.

iv. Voting will be on-chain on the Summon app using AUDIT.

B: The project completion report and video must meet all Catalyst requirements for time, length, and content.

Evidence of Completion:

A: DYOR Contests will be announced on our Discord and Twitter accounts. A link to the announcement in Twitter and a screen shot of the discord announcement will be provided. A brief summary of the contest including which projects were submitted and which one will be written after the contest and shared on our Twitter or Medium, and a link to that will be provided as well. The URL to the DYOR Reports that were entered into the contest will also be provided.

B: A link to the closeout report which is hosted on google docs will be provided along with the URL to the video which will be hosted on YouTube.

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

Eric Helms - Eric is a Certified Public Accountant who has spent the last 10 years working in Corporate Audit from both the public and private side. He is passionate about blockchain and its ability to make society and business fairer and more transparent for everyone. He is currently a Veteran Community Advisor for Project Catalyst and is proud to be a member of the Cardano ecosystem. (<https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-helms-cpa-97866a3b/>). Eric wrote all of the content for the first version of the DYOR Tool. Eric has written a large majority of our articles on Medium (<https://medium.com/@scatdao>) and is a member of the core team. He will continue working on creating content for the DAO to share through our social media channels. Eric will also be working on general management of the DAO, performing our monthly accounting and reporting, and will also be responsible for managing the monthly Catalyst reporting.

Jimmy - Jimmy is a Certified Public Accountant who has 10+ years of experience in corporate finance and accounting, 3 of which were spent auditing public and private companies. He also built and operated a small business for the past 8 years. He is looking to leverage his experiences to help build a strong and effective DAO for the Smart Contract Audit Token project. (<https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-huang-83a3689/>). Jimmy is the head of community and helps keep the DAO running. He helps answer questions and help newcomers in our Discord and on Audit Ocean and is responsible for distributing and AUDIT tokens that are earned throughout the month and administering any governance votes that we carry out. He will be administering our DYOR Contests and creating a lot of new DYOR Reports as well.

Jed - Jed is a certified Enterprise Architect with 15 years of experience as an Interface Engineer and serves as a member of the Industry Advisory Board at Kutztown University, representing healthcare. He looks to serve the Cardano Community by helping people understand how to do their own research and raising awareness of project risk types. Jed’s passion for the Cardano Community’s safety is his motivating drive to help put the power in the hands of the community to protect itself through Smart Contract Audit Token. (<https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-horning-8b577173/>). Jed is spearheading our advertisement and promotion of the platform. He creates new and original content that demonstrates the research our community performs, shares the platforms features and functionality, and creates general awareness. You can review the videos Jed has already created here (<https://www.youtube.com/@smartcontractaudittoken434/videos>)

Shelby - Shelby works for a power grid protection company as a maintenance technician working on everything from electrical or mechanical problems to maintaining a water treatment system. He found his way into crypto in 2021 knowing nothing about it and not knowing anyone in it. He was surprised about all the uplifting communities and openness from others to help him learn and grow. His main focus now is to help new members to the community avoid scams and have the same great experience in the ecosystem he has.

Dubble-u - dubble-u43 is a passionate Cardano community member who is active is several projects and is particularly talented with on-chain analysis.

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Item 1: DYOR Contests

We will be running 1 contest per month. To administer the contests we must advertise them, create materials for them, answer any questions people might have, review all the entries to ensure they followed the rules, share the wining reports along with threads or write ups on them, and distribute the prizes. We have a team of 5 people who work on this and our goal is to focus on these contests to achieve as much participation as we ever have.

Budget: $3,500 per Month, $21,000 total, 60,000 ADA

Item 2: DYOR Contest Prizes

We will be running 1 DYOR contest per month with a total prize pool of 1,000 ADA per contest.

Budget: $350 dollars per month, $2,100 dollars total, 1,000 ADA per month, 6,000 ADA total.

Item 3: Operating Expenses

This is to pay for our general operating expenses. The cost to run our servers, domain registrations, google teams, site maintenance etc. We have budgeted this cost to continue running them for 6 months.

Budget: $980 per month, $5,880 total, 16,800 ADA

Item 4: Project Management

This would include processing monthly expenses for costs that we incur (servers, domain fees, etc) as well as doing the monthly bookkeeping for these. It would also include the time spent attending Catalyst meetings, preparing our monthly Catalyst reporting, preparing close out reports and videos, and everything else related to that. As well as monitoring this project, the people participating in it, and ensuring everything stays on schedule and on budget.

Budget: $1000 per month $6,000 total, 17,142 ADA

Price of ADA = .35

Total ADA = 99,942

$34,980

Note: We used a Price of ADA of $0.35 in the calculation of this budget, which is about 25% lower than the current price of ADA at the time of writing (0.44). Since ADA price is always fluctuating and our expenses are in USD, we calculated with this buffer to ensure we could complete the project as promised if the price of ADA continues to drop. During the last 6 months we have seen a low of.335 and a high of .79, but it has been on a downtrend since it hit its high and it is possible it can continue to drop. With a budgeted price of .35 we are confident that we would be able to continue and complete what we have promised here regardless of what the actual price of ADA reaches over the next several months as we are completing the proposal.

No dependencies.

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

We believe this proposal represents a good value for money for the Cardano ecosystem. We have a dedicated team of 5 people that have always delivered on our promises over the years. 4 of us live in the USA and 1 lives in Western Europe which are all very high cost of living areas. With less than $35,000 dollars we are able to run these contests for 6 months which engage the Cardano community, promote our projects, and distribute ADA rewards to people who do great research. Please consider dropping by our discord to see how the contests are currently going (https://discord.gg/CVZjVAQ6rz) ask any questions you have and get community feedback on what they think of the contests, or review our report library and see the types of reports people are making for them https://dyortool.io/ (note: start with the most recent reports for the contest submissions). I think you will see the value in what we are doing here.

Thank you for reading our proposal.