Grant Proposal : SiaFrench

Grants Inactive
1

Introduction

Project Name: SiaFrench

Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal: CotradeChain

Description of your project, who benefits, and how the project will serve the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data: The Sia blockchain allows its users to access a totally autonomous and self-governed decentralized storage technology. The main problem encountered is the lack of technical documentation on its use as well as the non-possibility of being able to recover data from the network without going through the deployment of a Sia node.

The problem being addressed is the lack of comprehensive documentation for the Sia API in French and English, including information on endpoints, parameters, and responses.

Siafrench APIs provide a way for different software systems to interact with the SIA Network and easily retrieve Data without depoying a new node. It’s allowing developers to build new applications and services on top of the Sia Network. APIs can be used to access onchain data, file managing fonctionnality, or services from other applications, and can be built using a variety of programming languages and technologies.

Goal

  • Set up an open API system to facilitate interactions with Blockchain Sia. The API will include a set of requests to know the state of the network, the financial interaction data of the sia token or even data on the various actors of the network.

  • Set up an Opensource Web interface to display network data, generate and control the API interactions of its software.

  • Facilitate the onboarding of new users on the Sia network by creating a website based on Docusaurus and including courses, written and video tutorials but also by organizing a series of meetups around Sia’s decentralized storage technology for the French-speaking community and English-speaking.

Grant Specifics

#Community impact

The community impact of our project is at several levels:

  • At the level of end users and developers, our project will bring a large number of developers to understand the functioning of the Blockchain Sia. Thanks to the various Meetups organized in direct liaison with the Facebook and GDG Google developer communities in Cameroon, Senegal and Ivory Coast (more than 2,000 developers).

  • At the level of companies and young French-speaking start-ups, this will make it possible to create new projects around Sia’s storage technology.

Major requirements & deliverables

  • API Deliverable :

  • Develop and publish a comprehensive documentation for the Sia API, including information on endpoints, parameters, and responses.

  • Create a developer portal that provides API keys, sample code, implementations models for different language, Datas dashboards about the current Sia Network State.

  • Implement OAuth2 authentication to secure API access and provide different levels of access to users.

  • Use RESTful architecture to make the API easy to use and integrate with other systems.

  • Create a testing sandbox environment for developers to test their applications with the API without affecting the live blockchain network.

  • Integrate webhooks to enable real-time notifications to third-party applications.

  • Implement rate limiting to prevent abuse and ensure fair usage of the API.

  • Provide analytics and usage metrics to developers to help them understand how their applications are using the API.

  • Enable CORS to allow cross-origin requests and enable more efficient data transfers.

  • Host the API on a scalable and reliable infrastructure to ensure high availability and performance.

  • Learning Deliverables

Create 4 comprehensible video tutorials in French and English on:

  • The deployment of a Renterd server

  • Use of renterd for rent storage on the network

  • Installation of a mining server on the Sia network

  • Provide storage space on the Sia marketplace

Create a docusaurus website with comprehensive tutorials:

  • Sia Development on Js and python
  • Learning courses about Sia Network, Sia Funds and Siacoin
  • Embed French developer community

Organize 3 online meetups in partnership with the French-speaking developer community in Africa GDG and FaceBook Developer (more than 2000 members).

Budget

Our detailed Spending budget :

Milestone 1 : 14000$

  • Blockchain and Backend develloper (3 months Salary) = 6000$

  • Frontend develloper (3 months Salary) = 6000$

  • Community management + Video creation (9 months Salary) = 1500$

  • AWS/Linode Cloud Services = 500$

Milestone 2 : 12500$

  • Blockchain and Backend develloper (3 months Salary) = 6000$

  • Frontend develloper (3 months Salary) = 6000$

  • Aws/Linode Cloud Services = 500$

Milestone3 : 5350$

  • Blockchain and Backend develloper maintenance and updates (6 months Fees) = 1800$

  • Frontend develloper maintenance and updates (6 months Fees) = 1800$

  • Community management + Video creation (9 months Salary) = 750$

  • AWS Cloud Services = 1000$

Total Budget: 31 850$

~#Risks and Technical Feasibility

Risks:

  • Development and maintenance costs may exceed the budget.
  • Technical challenges may arise that could delay the project.
  • There may be difficulties in securing API access and ensuring fair usage.
  • Adoption of the API may not meet expectations, leading to a lack of interest from developers.
  • It can be difficult to convert Learner in permanent users of the sia blockchain technology

Technical feasibility:

  • The technical feasibility of this project relies on the ability to create a scalable and reliable infrastructure to host the API. This will require a robust backend and frontend development team with experience in developing APIs.
  • Implementing OAuth2 authentication, RESTful architecture, webhooks, rate limiting, analytics, and usage metrics will require significant technical expertise.
  • The use of AWS Cloud Services will be essential for hosting the API and ensuring high availability and performance.

Development Information

Will all of your project’s code be open-source?: Yes it’s fully open source

Leave a link where code will be accessible for review.

SIA API : GitHub - kttm25/siafrench

Sia Learning website: https://siafrench.cotradechain.com

2

Thanks for the proposal, quite interesting. A few questions, though:

  • The core team will develop a comprehensive API documentation once the software will be released (at least in beta). Will your task boil down to just translating it into French?
  • Any translation needs to be maintained together with the mainstream documentation. What is your standpoint on that?
  • There is already an existing service that provides a lot of network-related information and API endpoints (https://siastats.info). What will be different in your project?
  • Could you specify what the Milestones 1, 2, and 3 will include?
3

Thank you for your interest in our proposal. We apologize but an error caused the publication of an incorrect version of our grant proposal. An update with corrections has been made.
To answer your questions:

1- The task is not limited to a simple translation but to a complete and detailed writing of the API documentation of the software including response models, tutorials on its use and examples of use in 3 different languages (javascript, java and python)

2- Concerning the maintenance of translations and especially of all of our work, we will ensure it in a constant manner while following the technological evolution of the Sia teams.

3- It is true that siastats includes a good number of queries to facilitate access to data, but thanks to the SiaFrench public node, users will be able to:

  • Have well-structured status queries on the entire network accessible by dates.
  • Be able to check its use of Sia network data using the SiaFrench nodes dashboard
  • Have an access path in Socket for certain requests facilitating the creation of real time application

4- The different deliverables by milestones:
Milestone 1:

  • Hosted public API module to help user easily interact with the Sia Core Network (SiaFrench Node). The main routes developed are presented here: Miro | Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration
  • Detailed documentation on the Siafrench node module in French and English
  • Tutorial suite on Siac and Renterd to learn its use, its deployment and especially how to use it as a development base for applications based on Sia
  • Resumption of Renterd’s public documentation in French with detailed examples on its use with its API module in different programming languages
  • Creation of the suite of descriptive courses of the sia network and its various actors as well as the first suite of tutorials on its use
  • Creation of 3 dev videos on the Sia project
  • Organization of the first online metup for the French-speaking community on Sia technology
  • Manage French Sia community

Milestone 2:

  • Creation of the Siafrench dashboard web interface to be able to display the various network metrics, generate the API authentication keys for the
  • Completion of the SiaFrench Node module by integrating analytical queries, the token authentication system for public nodes and the rest of the queries.
  • Creation of 3 additional tutorial videos on the use of the different tools of the Sia network
  • Maintenance and updating of public repositories
  • Manage French Sia community

Milestone 3:

  • Maintenance and updating of Git repositories with the various technological advances on Sia
  • Manage french Sia community
  • Creation of public analytical models to facilitate the analysis of the evolution of the network
4

Update: We have today put online pipelines to be able to make accessible the first versions of the api for the data of the network and also the educational and informational website on the Blockchain sia.

They are accessible via the links:
API: http://api.siafrench.cotradechain.com/
Website: https://siafrench.cotradechain.com/

The links to the github repositories are as follows:
API : GitHub - kttm25/siafrench-api
Website : GitHub - kttm25/siafrench

5

Hello Mick,

The committee has reviewed your proposal, however, we need additional time to discuss a few details. Unfortunately, this means that we will not have an answer for you by the end of today but rest assured we are working diligently to get one finalized.

Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee

6

Hello SiaFrench team! Thanks for your proposal.

Due to your updated proposal being submitted just a couple of days before the committee meeting was held, we decided to officially review SiaFrench at the next meeting on April 4th, 2023.

The committee did, however, have a chance to skin over the proposal and we recommend dropping the community management section of the proposal, as we are not currently interested in approving grants of that nature. We also recommend splitting up the API work as one proposal, and the videos/docs as a second proposal in the future for cleaner evaluation.

Below we have provided a template for you to use should you update your proposal. The more detail you can provide in any section, the better:

Grant Template

(you can copy this section and paste it into the forums and will automatically format properly)

**Introduction**
Project Name: 

Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal: 

Description of your project, who benefits, and how the project will serve the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data:


**Grant Specifics**
Amount of money requested and justification with a reasonable breakdown of expenses:


Timeline with measurable milestones and goals:
*[The Foundation will provide up to $20,000 in funding before an MVP is delivered by milestone 1 or 2.]*


Potential risks that will affect the outcome of the project:


**Development Information**
Will all of your project’s code be open-source?
[*Projects can use closed-source components, but can’t develop closed-source code. If any of your project’s code is closed-source, please describe what code and why.*]

*Leave a link where code will be accessible for review.*

Information about your team that will provide confidence in your ability to complete the project:


Do you agree to submit monthly progress reports?
[*Progress reports must be submitted monthly here in the forum.*]

Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee

7

Hello Kinomora,
Thank you for the consideration that the Sia team has for our proposal to improve the ecosystem. We would like to apologize if the update made may have disrupted the verification of our grant proposal.

We are going to improve our grant proposal and the dedicated to the realization of the public API node coupled with a dashboard allowing a visualization of the metrics of the Sia network as well as all the interactions. We will also continue to improve the draft API that we have already made to make it more robust while adding more queries to make more data accessible.

We understand that the Sia team does not yet wish to dedicate funds to community management activities and we will therefore remove this aspect from our proposal. Despite everything, we want to make known this great technology that is Sia and will continue activities to popularize the technology of decentralized storage.

We will take into account the requested changes and offer an update as soon as possible.

8

Introduction

Project Name: SiaFrench

Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal:

Cotradechain is a tech startup specializing in the development and incubation of Blockchain projects across French-speaking Africa.

Description of your project, who benefits, and how the project will serve the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data:

By browsing the Sia network as well as all the tools offered, we found that it was difficult to be able to access network data without necessarily having deployed a Sia node. In addition to that, it seemed quite complicated for a neophyte to be able to obtain the data from Siad or even renterd because it did not give direct access to global data. We then became aware of the siastats data explorer but encountered certain problems both on the availability of access to the data and on their structures globally returned in JSON. To be able to overcome this problem and thus allow the various actors to easily access the data of the Sia network, we have decided to set up the SiaFrench project which is a software overlay which makes data available on the Sia blockchain network while facilitating the onboarding of new developers in the Sia community.

Siafrench API Nodes allow different software systems to interact with the SIA network and easily retrieve data without deploying a new node. It allows developers to build new applications and services on top of the Sia network. APIs can be used to access on-chain data, file management features, or services from other applications, and can be built using a variety of programming languages and technologies.

Grant Specifics

Amount of money requested and justification with a reasonable breakdown of expenses:

Our detailed Spending budget :

Milestone 1 : 12500$

Blockchain and Backend develloper (3 months Salary) = 6000$

Frontend develloper (3 months Salary) = 6000$

AWS/Linode Cloud Services = 500$

Milestone 2 : 7700$

Blockchain and Backend develloper (3 months Salary) = 3600$

Frontend develloper (3 months Salary) = 3600$

Aws/Linode Cloud Services = 500$

Milestone3 : 4800$

Blockchain and Backend develloper maintenance and updates (6 months Fees) = 1800$

Frontend develloper maintenance and updates (6 months Fees) = 1800$

AWS Cloud Services = 1000$

Total Budget requested for One year of activities and devellopment: 25000$

Timeline with measurable milestones and goals:

  • Milestone 1 :

  • Create a developer portal that provides API keys, sample code, implementations models for different language, Datas dashboards about the current Sia Network State.

  • Develop and publish a comprehensive documentation for the Sia API, including information on endpoints, parameters, and responses.

  • Create a developer portal that provides API keys, sample code, implementations models for different language, Datas dashboards about the current Sia Network State.

  • Implement OAuth2 authentication to secure API access and provide different levels of access to users.

  • Use RESTful architecture to make the API easy to use and integrate with other systems.

  • Host the API on a scalable and reliable infrastructure to ensure high availability and performance

  • Milestone 2 :

  • Create a testing sandbox environment for developers to test their applications with the API without affecting the live blockchain network using the Sia Zen testnet.

  • Integrate webhooks to enable real-time notifications to third-party applications.

  • Implement rate limiting to prevent abuse and ensure fair usage of the API.

  • Provide analytics and usage metrics to developers to help them understand how their applications are using the API.

  • Enable CORS to allow cross-origin requests and enable more efficient data transfers.

  • Milestone 3

  • Keep all API requests up to date with the updates reported on the different Sia software

  • Keep all API node services and functions online

  • Apply all security updates to ensure the integrity of the SiaFrench data system

Potential risks that will affect the outcome of the project:

  • Development and maintenance costs may exceed the budget.
  • Technical challenges may arise that could delay the project.
  • There may be difficulties in securing API access and ensuring fair usage.
  • Adoption of the API may not meet expectations, leading to a lack of interest from developers.
  • It can be difficult to convert Learner in permanent users of the sia blockchain technology

Development Information

Will all of your project’s code be open-source?

All the project are fully open source and under MIT Licence

Leave a link where code will be accessible for review.

SIA API : GitHub - kttm25/siafrench 4

Information about your team that will provide confidence in your ability to complete the project:

Its main members are:

  • Mikhael Kamdem: CTO, Backend developer and Blockchain, he is an expert in software development and architecture specialized in Backend.

Expert. With more than 5 years of experience in the software development. He is multi certified AWS, Azure, Cisco and is specialized in Javascript / nodejs, Java, python development and also on database architectures.

He will be in charge of the realization of the whole backend of the system and has already set up a draft of the perfectly functional API and already available on the Github repository that we provided for the project.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikhael-kamdem-34034b17/?originalSubdomain=cmt

  • Njoya Pokam ABDELAZIZ: COO, Software architect and cloud developer. Developer for over 6 years. Proud of a great experience in successful startup development Ejara.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abdelaziz-thierry-njoya-pokam-4666a4146/

Do you agree to submit monthly progress reports?

We agree to submit monthly and reports here in the forum and bi-weekly progress reports on the website of the project.

[Progress reports must be submitted monthly here in the forum.]

9

Hello Kinomora and thank you again for the attention that the committee gives to our project. We have just updated our grant proposal while respecting the canvas provided. Hoping that this meets your expectations and can help the SIa developer community.

10

Thanks SiaFrench team for your updates. The committee has approved this proposal!

We were pleased to see you refine the scope of the proposal to just the API work and updating the budget to reflect the removal of the community-management items. The committee is hopeful that your work will help diversify the tools available to the Sia community.

The committee has recommended that each team be reminded of the importance of gauging progress against milestones. The Foundation reserves the right to hold further funding if sufficient progress is not made.

Please provide an email address that we can use to reach your team and begin the grants onboarding process!

Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee

11

We have still not received an email concerning to the operations related to this grant request. The email has already been sent to you in private message but here it is: [email protected]

12

Thanks Mick! We’re re-organizing a couple things on our end here - apologies for the delay! We’ll reach out with that email today.

13

Thanks @steve. We’ve got the email yesterday and have sent you all the informations this morning.

14

During these first 2 weeks of work for the Siafrench Grant, we worked mainly on the redesign of the architecture and the definition of the elements of different routes linked to our API node.
What has been done:

  • Add new functions to get directly the data of activities on the network (transaction blocks, transactions linked to a wallet address, activities on file contracts)
  • Finish the design of the core system to make the API redundant and high availability and compatible with a Renterd instance
  • Finish with the technological choices related to the server host and the use of a serverless framework for the REST API requests
  • Start the design of the web interfaces related to the dashboard displaying the AIS network status data

For the month of May to come, here is what will be done:

  • Finish with the design of the interfaces and start with the realization of the dashboard in ReactJs
  • Setup a CI/CD pipeline to manage our dev environment
  • Develop all the routes referenced in the miro board and studied during the first 2 weeks
  • Start the deployment on site for the API system and make available to the public all the routes developed
  • Make at least 2 Git releases for our API system
15

Hello @mick,
It is June 13th and we still have not received May’s progress report. Your previous report posted on May 2nd was for the month of April.

Please provide us a project progress report at the beginning of each month so that we are able to ensure that your grant project is operating smoothly.

Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee

16

Hello Kinomora,We apologize for the delay in delivering the project progress report. We preferred to finish with the main work of building the API before making an update on the SIA forums.
This was done during the previous month of May:

  • We completed the design of the dashboard interfaces and finished with the production of the first network status data display interfaces.
  • We set up a CI/CD pipeline between our dev environment and the future prod environment based on Github actions and AWS code deploy.
  • With high difficulty, we completed all the routes described on the miro board. The difficulties were felt because many of the elements to be exploited on the Sia network are only present on the Siad software and not yet on Renterd. On top of this, there are still a few shortcomings when it comes to using Renterd for data analysis.
  • At last, we’ve put the first releases of our API system online on Github.
    This is scheduled for June:
  • Complete the dashboard web interfaces and connect them to the application backend.- Set up the API key management system for the various users
  • Make available a first web version of the dashboard displaying data.
17

JUNE PROGRESS REPORT

What has been Done :

  • We improved the structure of data requests to the Siad node
  • We set up a developer area to enable API Keys to be obtained.
  • We have created a web site presenting the data implementation models of our api
  • We continued work on the dashboard displaying data on the Sia network.
    Here are a few images showing the already-developed dashboard:

WhatsApp Image 2023-07-08 à 17.35.59
WhatsApp Image 2023-07-08 à 17.35.591366×666 98.6 KB

WhatsApp Image 2023-07-08 à 17.23.47
WhatsApp Image 2023-07-08 à 17.23.471358×696 134 KB

What remains to be done to complete the first Milestone :

  • Deploy the first version of our dashboard via the link: https://siafrench.cotradechain.com/dashboard
  • Deploy the documentation website and make it accessible to the Sia develloper community.
  • Finish with the Oauth2 implementation of the API response system
  • Patch the deployed and implemented system.
18

Hello @Mick,

It is August 7th we still have not received July’s progress report. Your previous report posted on July 10th was for the month of June.

Please provide us a project progress report at the beginning of each month so that we are able to ensure that your grant project is operating smoothly.

Additionally, the Committee has voted to create a progress report template which should make it easier for both you, the Grantee, to provide monthly updates as well as to enable the Committee to quickly review progress without spending too much time on minute details.

For your late progress report, which should be submitted ASAP, please follow the template outlined in this post: About the Grants category - #8

Thank you for your help and cooperation.

Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee

19

Hello @Mick and the SiaFrench team.

Progress reports are a critical part of the transparency required for the Grants program to work. Unfortunately, you’ve missed two reports in a row - July (due Aug 2) and August (due Sep 2). Future payments will remain on hold.

We’ll give you an opportunity to provide an update filling in all the gaps between your last progress report and now, and explaining why you missed the last two. Should you provide this, the committee will review it and your overall progress to determine if we will continue your grant.

After a third missed progress report your project will automatically move to Abandoned status, at which point the grant agreement between you and the Foundation will terminate.

Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee

20

Hello @Mick and SiaFrench team,

You have missed the deadline to submit your third consecutive progress report. As noted in our last response to you this project is now considered abandoned and your grant agreement is terminated.

Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee