In recent months, we have seen the Cardano community grow exponentially on all fronts. From increased developer activity on GitHub, to community growth on platforms such as Reddit and Twitter, the trend has yet to show signs of slowing. Similarly, we have seen a gradual increase in Cardano blockchain statistics such as supply in circulation, new wallets created, total amount in stake, transactions per epoch and other important non-price statistics.
These growth statistics are illustrative of the growing adoption of Cardano, along with many individuals looking to make valuable contributions to the Cardano ecosystem. However, as Cardano becomes the primary focus, new project proponents and developers have no clear path and no comprehensive support structure to help them bring their ideas to life. Gimbalabs, a collaborative platform focused on driving Cardano adoption, aims to fill this gap by supporting developers who want to join the Cardano ecosystem. They will focus on building their already funded Fund 2 project.
The Gimbalabs team
The Gimbalabs team is driven by a mission to mobilise everyone in the Cardano community by creating real-world tools and use cases that ignite the public imagination and facilitate adoption. The team envisions a world where people can solve problems using the Cardano platform. To achieve this, the Gimbalabs team has already launched a number of projects focused on developers and end users. These include the Cardano 2 Starter Kit, the Dandelion APIs, Programming on-chain 1, and Gimbalabs Playground, among other technical educational projects.
In the Fund 4 project, the Gimbalabs team will focus on improving its organisational structure and expanding its open source developer toolbox to accommodate the growing network. This initiative is spearheaded by an experienced leadership team, consisting of:
James Dunseith - One of the co-founders of Gimbalabs with over ten years of experience in creating development courses, teaching programmes and educational material for mathematics and computer science.
Roberto C. Morano - An experienced system administrator and DevOps advocate who is passionate about decentralised technologies. Roberto, who is also one of the co-founders, has more than ten years of experience in high-tech software development. He is also a stakepool operator and Cardano enthusiast who was part of the Emurgo infrastructure team in charge of the Yoroi wallet and the Seiza explorer.
Juliane Montag - An experienced business developer and marketing professional in the consulting sector, she manages the user side and relationship building for startups and large corporations. Part of the founding team, Juliane brings a wealth of experience to Gimbalabs' strategic planning and overall project management.
Kyle Johns - Experienced developer and project proponent at Fund 3, passionate about problem solving and providing software solutions. Through his video series on the LIFT wallet and Programming on-chain, Kyle helps developers gain an in-depth understanding of how Cardano works. His latest project includes CardanoSharp, a .NET library for C# developers.
Bridging a gap by improving the developer experience.
The Gimbalabs team connects with Cardano developers, entrepreneurs and blockchain enthusiasts who want to develop on Cardano every day. Through their collaborative framework, they plan to continuously roll out development courses and create collaborative structures that support new teams. In addition to sharing tools and learning resources, Gimbalabs management will also help developers learn how they can contribute to Catalyst. The goal is to create a series of projects that will drive the creation of new proposals in Cardano, facilitate the formation of development teams and expand Gimbalabs' open source toolbox for developers.
According to the proposing team, the initiative aims to facilitate project teams and develop an agile framework, tailored to how Cardano developers work within Gimbalabs.
Roadmap for Developer Capacity on the Web
The value proposition of this project is based on Gimbalab's ability to offer developers a platform to learn, test ideas, collaborate and participate in real projects. Gimbalabs has a well laid out roadmap for improving the developer experience, which includes a series of steps as shown:
1. Establish a basis for software development and collaborative processes.
The starting point is to provide developers with learning materials and a platform to incubate projects that address modern business needs. In this phase, the core of the project will be:
Developer training - Deployment of Cardano starter kits that equip experienced (non-blockchain) developers with practical knowledge to develop on Cardano.
Coding on Chain (CoC) sessions - In addition to training, there will be sessions on how to code live, which will encourage developers to familiarise themselves with the ecosystem and minimise barriers to entry. This will also be an opportunity to bring interested people on board and familiarise them with Cardano's libraries and development tools.
Gimbalabs Initiatives - There will be a series of mini-projects that will help both developers and non-developers to collaborate and achieve specific goals.
Gimbalabs Playground - In this phase, management will partner with developers to launch a series of open source projects or tools that will pave the way to real-world utility.
2. Open source toolbox for developers
Gimbalabs intends to continue to expand its developer toolbox, making it easier for contributors to take advantage of a range of tools when exploring and implementing their ideas. These include, but are not limited to:
Cardano APIs such as Community Service (Dandelions). These will serve as entry points for developers who want to leverage existing tools to build their projects. Dandelions will facilitate the adoption of Cardano by providing an infrastructure for initial project setup and testing.
Initial OSS deployments. Gimbalabs will host its OpenSource service instances that are open to other Cardano API builders in the community.
Apart from these, the LIFT wallet and Gimbalabs Playground will also be part of the open source toolbox for Cardano developers.
3. Cardano Starter Kits (CSKs)
Gimbalabs will launch a project-based way of learning, which will help developers onboard the ecosystem and get Cardano into the hands of the general public.
4. The Gimbalabs platform
The Gimbalabs platform will serve as a central source of information where all the above resources will be consolidated. It will be a gateway platform for developers who want to start their Cardano journey. It will also provide start-ups, teams with their proposals in Catalyst, and institutions with the tools and support they need to develop on Cardano.
Project Budget and Timeline
The Gimbalabs management team projects that they can bring this developer-focused initiative to life within three months of funding. Given that they are building on a project they have already started, this will be a fairly achievable goal. The budget for the project will be $49,350, half of which will be set aside to fund additional contributors. Here is a quick breakdown of how these funds will be used:
- For the core Gimbalabs team: $24,000 (four team members, each with $2,000 per month, for 3 months).
- For contributing developers: US$15,000
- For community contributors: US$ 10,000
- Operational costs (infrastructure, web hosting, servers): US$ 350
- Total funding requested: US$ 49,350
Beyond Developer Experience: Creating a Pathway to a Self-Sustaining DAO
This proposing team seeks to create a decentralised group of talented developers and skilled leaders who are equipped to help companies and institutions develop on Cardano. By focusing on intensive developer training and resource creation, Gimbalabs will introduce a huge pool of developers to the Cardano blockchain while providing a platform for ideation and collaboration. The ultimate goal will be to position Gimbalabs as a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) in the ecosystem of Cardano. This will also involve revamping the organisational structure so that community members have a sense of clarity around Gimbalabs and how it works.
For more information about the Gimbalabs project, take a look at its official website and check out the project proposal presented at the Catalyst Project at this link.
