I’m Alberto. I’m currently supporting Draper University as a Web3 Scout / Product Mentor, and my first focus is helping identify strong Cardano founders and projects for the DraperU Cardano Accelerator Ecosystem Programs.
I wanted to bring this here because the Cardano community usually has the best visibility into who is actually building, often before those teams are widely known outside the ecosystem.
The question I’d love to ask is:
Which Cardano projects or technical teams should be on our radar?
The programs are intended for founders building on Cardano or integrating Cardano seriously into their roadmap. Strong fits may include teams working on:
Infrastructure
Developer tools
DeFi
RWA
Institutional use cases
AI x Web3
Identity and privacy
Smart contracts
Decentralized media
Other products that can increase real Cardano usage
If you know founders who could benefit from DraperU’s Silicon Valley residency, mentorship, investor access, and the broader Draper network, please feel free to share the link with them or suggest projects in this thread.
I’d also welcome feedback from the community on what types of projects you think would create the most value for Cardano right now.
One extension of DeFi that could likely be done nowhere except Cardano (plus maybe some object oriented chains) is the DeFi Kernel, demonstrated in these reference implementations:
Summary: DeFi Kernel users can place orders on-chain, for fulfilment when certain market conditions are reached, without first transferring their funds to any custodian or smart contract. They remain in the user’s own custody: remaining capitalised for staking and other potential trades, minimising KYC and taxable events, etc.
Supporting this project would be an excellent way for mainstream DeFi entities — currently validated by & only seeking to increase “Total Value Locked” on all their projects and chain assets — by a protocol that accomplishes the same thing without locking or increasing TVL at all.
Any educational or development entity that values real decentralisation should consider the unique market potential of diversifying their resources into this project.
For more information you can contact @fallen-icarus here and through contact links on GitHub. You are welcome to confidently tell anyone at Draper this: if they are looking for a promising and sustainable way to beat the TVL discrimination currently suffered by Cardano, this is it.
The Cardano community has a problem.
Money is tight and our core developers are leaving because they can’t get funding.
The funding is not coming back any time soon and eventually all our core developers will be gone.
That said, development must continue.
I propose that the developer void be filled by passionate community members supported by a.i.
I am one of the dedicated community members who is staying to build.
My personal track record of completed projects in the last two months is proof that average people supported by a.i. can fill that void. Please click through all the projects to get a sense of what an average community member has built for our community in only two months with the help of a.i.. Then please ask yourself if others could do this too if only they knew what a.i. empowers them to build.
Pool Ranger, a Cardano staking management platform built on Plutus V3 smart contracts.This is now running perfectly on testnet.
CIP-0187?, a simple protocol modification that aligns the interests of SPOs and delegators and also helps close the parameter space where multipools earn more than single pools.
The Multi CIP Simulator This simulator uses MRI image processing techniques that allow anyone to discover the parameter space where multipools can operate more profitably than a single pool and to compare CIP strategies for closing down these spaces.
I am trying to convince other dedicated community members to get comfortable with a.i. and to start building too. Our core developers are not coming back any time soon and nobody is coming to save us. It’s now up to regular community members to build what we need.
My appeal to the community is found at the following link.
You mention your association with DraperU and the following resources:
DraperU’s Silicon Valley residency, mentorship, investor access, and the broader Draper network.
You are in the business of helping developers, but that entire industry will disappear just as soon as regular people discover what they can do with a.i. assistance.
Interesting take, and I do agree with you, AI assisted builders are now able to go further and build what just a couple of years ago was impossible for them. I am one of those people too.
These two programs are actually perfect for those type of builders for several reasons:
1- They provide initial funding even for ideas
2- You co-live in SF with other Cardano builders, which provides a lot of knowledge, insights, feedback and potential to pivot fast/ validate your build.
3- You meet mentors, experts, investors.
This is not a dev bootcamp, it’s a program for builders and founders with ideas and the grit/passion to execute them.