Project Name: Candide
Author Name: @marc
Number of OP tokens requested: OP 190k
L2 Recipient Address: 0xA60b3402051eC75B17abb81b4c92BF88d5e49Aa8
Relevant Usage Metrics: (TVL, transactions, volume, unique addresses, etc.) N/A new product
Introduction
Token management across different networks is a cumbersome process. Although many bridges have emerged to offer connectivity across networks, the manual process of bridging assets can be quite laborious. If Ethereum were to scale and to become powerful enough to have a widespread impact on humanity, interconnectivity between its decentralized scaling solutions needs to be intuitive to use.
To solve this problem, we are building Candide: an open source self-custodial wallet that enables cross-rollup transactions. Users can spend their funds seamlessly across networks. As an EOA, Candide Alpha currently achieves this by having a bridge built within the wallet. With the help of Hop Protocol, Candide can securely communicate across several networks by proposing a pre-transaction to move the assets to the destination chain. The feasibility of our proposed solution is supported by a product demo that is currently live, with ETH transfers between Arbitrum and Optimism. Allowing for interactions with any contract on any rollups is expected to ease the burden of using the multiple scaling solutions built on top of Ethereum. Building accessible wallets will standardize Ethereumās Layer2, resulting in consistent use of the network at low fees.
Our Story
Candide originally started as CrossCash at ETHGlobal hackathon; an idea of a zk-bridge on top of Azdek Network that connected rollups through liquidity transfers. To me, that was the first exposure to development on Ethereum, and I was blow away by the endless possibilities of programmable money. We somehow became finalist at Unicode, and this is where I have decided to give Ethereum a shot by pursing crypto full-time.
A few iterations later, we quickly understood that bridges are a competitive space, and we had to bring something new to the table. We noticed that Layer 2s were being developed quicker that expected, but its adoption and migration hasnāt reached its full potential yet. We understood that there was a learning gap of using bridges for many users. The average crypto native could quickly navigate both worlds, but on-boarding less tech-savy users was the burden to the success of Ethereumās scaling solutions.
On my second ETHGlobal hackathon, I knew I wanted to focus my effort on a wallet that abstracts away the bridging part, so that Ethereum users can easily use rollups without going into the rabbit hole of transfers. PiggyCross was met with a wide acceptance that validated this idea. I later spend the next few months building a working prototype that became what is known today as Candide Alpha.
Today, Candide represents an idea that Etheruem is relying not only in the short-term on Layer 2 like previously expected, but also on the long-term. The road of making truly decentralized self-custodial wallet on Layer 2 is not yet build, and we are here to for it. The team consists of myself along with a few other contributors.
Optimism alignment
Candide is first and foremost an idea that wallets are general purpose public goods. It is the first point of contact for most crypto users. It is the bridge to the digital world of decentralized applications. We believe in exposing the broadest set of users to self-custody wallets on Ethereum, educating them on self-sovereignty & privacy, and giving them access to digital money and data-friendly services.
Candide is aligned with Optimism values of experimentation
- Candide is currently experimenting with EOA wallets with built-in bridge transfers for cross-rollup transactions: to see how wallets can be used in the most user-friendly way possible. These experiments will help us understand how users interact with Ethereum from its core place and allows us to define how wallets should evolve and grow iteratively over time.
Candide is aligned with Optimism values of Impact = Profit
- We align with Optimism on dispelling the myth that public goods cannot be profitable. Candide is considering different paths to profitability so that the project can be sustainable in the long term in order to yield profit for the Collective and cycle to invest back in public goods.
Proposal for token distribution
How will the tokens be distributed?
Candide works as a collective of individuals that cares about building accessible Layer2s wallets. For this grant, we will setup a program to invite contributors who would like to collaborate on working on new features, design and communication. We estimate that a single contributor that we will onboard will be paid for his time around 3k a month, averaging between a developer, a designer and a content creator.
| Budget Category | Description & Assumptions | Amt USD |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals | Build fundamental wallet components to properly support Rollups like Optimism | $20,000 |
| Ecosystem integration | Add wallet integrations that augments and encourage the use of the network | $20,000 |
| Interface | Design and implement accessible interfaces that are designed for Layer2s | $20,000 |
| Educational | Create a space to learn about Ethereum scaling solutions and self-custodial wallets | $10,000 |
| Incentives | Subsidies fiat-on-ramp fees that are deposited to Optimism | $15,000 |
| New Beta | Experiment with interfaces on top of Account Abstraction | $4,000 |
Total Budget: $89,000
At current price of ~$0.468 per OP at the time of writing this proposal, this amounts to ~190k OP.
To breakdown further some of the tasks in each category:
- Fundamentals: this includes to the basic features that are supported in mainstream wallets. Examples includes displaying account balances and estimating gas on contract interactions.
- Ecosystem integration: this includes integrations that are vital for users to deposit and interact with Optimism network. Examples are fiat-on-ramp integration and in-app bridging support.
- Interface: this includes studies on how to properly design easy to use wallets that are native to Optimism and Layer2s and that includes design interfaces and front-end work.
- Educational: this will be considered our marketing strategy, fostering not only an awareness of Candide but also Ethereumās decentralized values and Layer2s purposes. Example includes blog posts and community engagement.
- Incentives: Candide plans to offset the fees required to deposit to on-ramp operators; making it essential free to get on-boarded Optimism without going through Layer 1.
- New Beta: As the tech mature, Candide would like to experiment with Account Abstractions that is direclty built on top of Layer2s. We would use that budget specifically to research around that topic.
Note: I have added a denomination in dollar amount to be prioritized in this budget proposal over OP ā as the the spot price assumed at the time of posting was much higher. If this price changes between then and when the budget gets proposed on-chain, the OP amount will be readjusted to reflect the dollar amount above. OP are rounded values.
How will this distribution incentivize usage and liquidity on Optimism?
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Candide will bring in more liquidity to Optimism by making it attractive and easy for users to bridge to Optimism Network. Users will be incentivized to sign a transaction on Optimism even if they didnāt have enough funds on the network, and without passing by an external front-end to bridge their assets.
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By on-boarding users with some of the best fiat-on-ramps directly onto Optimism, users will find it attractive to spend the deposited funds directly on projects built on Optimism. Candide will help onboard them by creating a Portal with a curated list of projects that have been selected in Phase 0 to help users discover the Optimism Collective.
Why will the incentivized users and liquidity remain after incentives dry up?
- Candide enables access to the Optimism World. Connecting to dapps on Optimism should work flawlessly. Our Portal will continue to be updated as a means of discovery for users looking to use applications on Optimism. In addition, the bridges that Candide will integrate will continue to exist and be useful for users who want to move their assets onto Optimism, keeping the liquidity flowing to the network.
Over what period of time will the tokens be distributed?
We estimate that we would be spending this amount in a time frame of 8 months.
How much will your project match in co-incentives?
Candide is a new project with no sufficient capital to currently match in co-incentives.
Resources:
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Candide is completely open source and the source code can be found on Github.
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Watch us during Optimism demo day on how to do a cross-roll transaction swap from Arbitrum to Optimism here.
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The team consists of myself along with a few other contributors. Candide was inspired by building on multiple hackathon ideas at ETHGlobal:
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CrossCash: UniCode Finalists, Uniswap Best Innovation Hack, Best use AZTEC Protocol
PiggyCross: Polygon - Best Tooling/Infrastructure
StroopWallet: Best use of ERC-4626 and Optimism Just Deploy
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CrossCash: UniCode Finalists, Uniswap Best Innovation Hack, Best use AZTEC Protocol
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If you would like to get involved using or building Candide, we highly recommend that you reach out to us so we can onboard you. Candide Alpha is currently live.
Thatās great news for you, and hopefully (or eventually) the OP Community! Itās uplifting seeing a new(ish) project take a strong lead in the voting count.