Please describe your proposed solution

There are mostly two reasons at the base of this proposal:

1. There currently is very little documentations and expertise on how to write a performant and fast offchain BOT on cardano
2. There are less than 5 bot operators that can compete on executing Spectrum or TeddySwap swaps.

By working on this opensource project I aim at

1. documenting, coaching and teaching best practices about writing cardano-centric offchain automated software
2. contribute to the adoption of the java libraries
3. offer a new source of income for people running already cardano infrastructure like SPOs

From an educational point of view Java is a very popular well-known and easy to read language, this means that developers fluent in other languages can rewrite this bot in their favourite language.

After several month spent on writing a prototype, I can demonstrate already that my bot works and can try to compete with the top dogs.

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

The intent of this proposal is dual:

1. education
2. offer a new source of income

By developing this open source project, I will teach what are techniques and best practices when developing offchain code using the very powerful java libraries.

Java is one of the most widely used programming language with several million of developers world-wide.

The success of this project will be measured by observing community engagement in many ways:

• github stars, forks, issues created, features requested
• higher download of the cardano java library on maven central (java library repository)
• higher engagement on the cardano java discord (https://discord.gg/b5v7CBuK)
• more variety in bot operators performing swaps on the Spectrum Finance escrow address https://cexplorer.io/address/addr1wynp362vmvr8jtc946d3a3utqgclfdl5y9d3kn849e359hsskr20n/tx#data

Additionally, for people that will decide to run this project, it could represent a way of earning a few ada by operating the BOT. This could be ideal for smaller SPOs looking at maximise they hardware use by operating the bot and earning extra ada.

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?

I'm a Senior Software Engineer with 20 years of commercial experience with extensive exposure to DevOps best practices.

I've been developing on cardano since 2020 in multiple languages, but mostly Java.

I've already developed a prototype and here a list of swaps already performed:

https://cexplorer.io/address/addr1q8kmf8s9fdrgqz082lnrq22m2zdxf4r4cszm95yr309zqfedcsszmdpqck3x045p9d3d89fht8cux79t0cer0fzzlznqkhyclu/tx#data

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

Milestone 1: Mempool Scanning and Hybrid UTXO Resolution

Milestone 2: Spectrum and Teddy Swap UTXO Indexing

Milestone 3: Swap Transaction Offchain Validation

Milestone 4: Swap Transaction Offchain building and submission

Milestone 5: Operations and Documentation

Final Milestone: Deployment and Demo

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

Giovanni Gargiulo: Senior Software Developer with 20 years of commercial experience. Open Source Contributor, DevOps Engineer.

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

All the required budget will be spent by developing or documenting the source code of the project.

The required budget will be calculated based on the estimated amount of hours already spent on the project to create the initial prototype and the effort still required to accomplish each milestone in order to make this a production grade project.

I've been working on a prototype for this project already 6 months between October 2023 and March 2024.

Assuming an average of 40 hours a month for 6 months, it is about 240 hours.

From the prototype, additional work is required to make of this a production grade project. Such work has been grouped into the different milestone. Estimated work in hours for each milestone is

1. Mempool Scanning and Hybrid UTXO Resolution 25h
2. Spectrum and Teddy Swap UTXO Indexing 25h
3. Swap Transaction Offchain Validation 10h
4. Swap Transaction Offchain building and submission 25h
5. Operations and Documentation 15h
6. Deployment and Demo 5h

240 + 105 = 345h @ 100euro/h => 34500 euro @ 0.41euro/ada => 84146

Considering a 25% buffer 105182.5

No dependencies

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

Based on a brief research the average per hour cost for a blockchain engineer varies widely based on factors such as experience, location, and specific project requirements. Generally, rates range from $50 to $150 per hour, with experienced engineers in high-demand regions potentially charging more.

Both Cardano onchain and offchain development skills are not common and in high demand and this project aims to both provide the community with a useful tool and educational material to spread this type of knowledge.