Introduction
Project Name: Lume Web
Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal: Hammer Technologies LLC
Describe your project:
Lume Web is our way of stitching together the vast web3 landscape. We’re building a hub for everyone to access decentralized content easily without relying on any central power.
Our aim with Lume is to be that one-stop gateway for all decentralized content in a genuinely decentralized way.
Our goals for 2024:
- Multi-protocol Sia Portal Software Development
- Rewrite MVP software to support multiple decentralized protocols.
- Begin with S5 protocol implementation in Golang; collaborate with @redsolver.
- Use subdomains for each protocol to serve as API servers.
- Add support for IPFS, with plans to include more protocols.
- Aim for portal software enabling paid hosting and competition with large closed-source firms, maintaining democratic/decentralized access.
- Introduce a single subscription service for diverse data management.
- Billing and Subscription Integration
- Add billing support, initially incorporating Stripe, avoiding crypto transactions for users.
- Web Dashboard and Portal Frontend
- Develop a web dashboard for web portal.
- Develop a front end webapp for web portal.
- File Sharing Functionality between Portals
- Implement hypercore technology for a decentralized file metadata-sharing system.
- Focus on on-demand contract creation for file imports and redundancy vs. pre-creating contracts like skyd did.
- Keep P2P logs/blockchains public to ensure data persistence and resilience.
- This approach intends to expose the sector data to the community for redundancy and ensure the portal can track who is accessing the data. S5’s network takes a different approach to this, which may make tracking user usage more complicated and does not currently share sector data.
- OAuth Integration with Ticket System
- Enable linking accounts to a 3rd party ticket support system with SSO.
- API Documentation
- Create full documentation of the supported portal API’s.
- Community Hosting Service Management
- Set up a robust hosting service utilizing Sia’s decentralized storage, offering both paid tiers of storage services and a free but limited storage plan.
As the dashboard will be the most significant frontend effort, we are looking to get the following designed and implemented:
- Account Management
- Login Screen (username/email, password fields, two-factor authentication)
- Account Dashboard (profile and security settings, notification settings, account status)
- Password Recovery Process
- Account Creation/Sign-Up Process
- Account Deletion/Closure
- Design and User Experience Considerations (user-friendly interface, responsive design, security, accessibility)
- Subscription Process with Stripe Integration
- Plan Selection Screen (overview of subscription plans, plan details)
- Stripe Redirection for Payment (Stripe checkout integration, pre-filled information)
- Confirmation Before Redirection (review and confirm plan selection, terms of service)
- Post-Payment Processing (success and failure handling, email confirmation)
- Subscription Management (dashboard for subscription status, modify/cancel subscription)
- Design and User Experience Considerations (simplicity in plan selection, seamless Stripe integration, responsive design)
- IPFS File Management (powered by Sia)
- File Explorer Interface (navigation pane, main viewing area, breadcrumb trail)
- File and Folder Operations (upload, create, delete, rename, move)
- IPFS-Specific Features (pin files/folders, retrieve IPFS hashes)
- Search and Filter Functions (search by name, type, metadata; filter by size, date, etc.)
- File Previews and Details (previews for specific file types, detailed file metadata display)
- Design and User Experience Considerations (intuitive layout, responsive design, performance optimization)
- S5 File Management (powered by Sia)
- File List Interface (displays file name, size, type, last modified date, flat file listing without traditional folders)
- Manifest-Based Navigation (virtual folder structure navigation for directories/apps)
- File Operations (upload, download, delete, rename files, manage manifests for virtual directories)
- Search and Filtering (search by name, type, metadata; filter by size, date, etc.)
- File Previews and Details (previews for specific file types, detailed file metadata display)
- Public Key Management
- Key Registration and Setup (key upload interface, key verification process)
- Key Management Dashboard (list of registered keys, add/delete key options)
- Admin Panel
- Dashboard (overview and statistics, quick access panel)
- User Account Management (subscriptions, billing)
For more information, you can visit https://docs.lumeweb.com/ or check out a snapshot of the documentation at the time of writing at https://git.lumeweb.com/LumeWeb/docs.lumeweb.com/src/commit/e5520d24023895d14d3f950f9f3f45b7d34b265a.
Additionally, as the Lume project is slowly maturing, we are attempting to be more structured and organized in project management.
Who benefits from your project?
The project benefits:
- Sia community/users by:
- Enabling an L2 portal software that gives access to multiple decentralized protocols and stores data on the Sia network.
- Starting a hosting service for users who do not want to run a node themselves.
- Evangelize the Sia network and spread awareness that it is the data backbone of web3.
- Data hosters by:
- Providing cheap, reliable, decentralized storage via multiple distribution protocols to the broader community.
- Democratizing access to FOSS file portal software that will enable pinning on multiple protocols, ensuring censorship resistance.
- DApps/Web Apps by:
- Enabling web apps to be hosted on the Sia network through several distribution protocols, which should ensure censorship resistance and grow network demand.
How does the project serve the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data?
For 2024’s focus, it provides a reliable platform for Sia users to host their data for both S5 and IPFS-based protocols. It also creates a community service based on the software built.
The web needs paid data storage to ensure things stay online and censorship-resistant and users need private data storage that retains their privacy and self-sovereignty.
Grant Specifics
Amount of money requested and justification with a reasonable breakdown of expenses:
Total Budget Request: $79,000
Upfront Budget Request: $19750
The initial funding needed includes:
- Derrick Hammer’s Q1 Salary: $13,750
- Project Budget for Q1: $6,000
Detailed Expenses Breakdown
1. Salary Expenses: $55,000
- For Derrick Hammer
- Justification: This represents an inflation-adjusted increase from the previous year.
2. Annual Project Budget: $24,000
- Design and Development Work: $19,000
- Portal dashboard - Design and development of a portal dashboard with both user and admin access.
- Frontend portal app - Design and development of a frontend webapp for the portal.
- Server Infrastructure Costs: $4,000
- Note: This is subject to change based on testing and scaling needs.
- Sia Network Subsidy for Storage: $1,000
- Contingency: Additional funds may be necessary if demand exceeds expectations.
Notes:
- The progression and timing of milestones may be adjusted or reordered in light of emerging risks, unforeseeable events, or community input.
- The dashboard will be built gradually throughout the year as milestones are hit.
- A hosting subsidy for running the community service will be requested in a grant for 2025.
Timeline with measurable objectives and goals
Q1: Build core portal: $19,750 (Paid as part of up-front payment)
Goal: Complete architectural redesign with support for multiple protocols. Start with S5 support and DNSLink
Validations:
- Should be able to upload and download small files
- Should be able to upload and download large files over TUS
- Should be able to login/register with S5’s account API’s
- Should be able to import a file from another peer and store in the portal’s contracts
- Should fully support all S5 HTTP node APIs. Admin APIs may be skipped or mocked until they can be routed internally for the dashboard functions.
- Should fully support the S5 registry
- Should have API documentation, in collaboration with redsolver as needed
- Should support serving a webapp over DNSLink
Milestone Progress: Will create a video showing uploading/downloading, login/register, S5 registry, DNSLink, and file import in the monthly report
Q2: Integrate hypercore for file syncing: $19,750
Goal: Integrate hypercore for metadata sharing
Validations:
- Portal should be able to import metadata from a dead portal
- Portal should be able to import a file from another live portal
- Multiple peers should be able to seed the logs of portals
Milestone Progress: Will create a video showing the validations in the monthly report
Q3: Add IPFS protocol and billing: $19,750
Goal: Integrate IPFS into the portal
Validations:
- Should be able to browse Sia-stored IPFS content from public gateways
- Should be able to upload files to the portal
- Should be able to download files from the portal
- Undecided: Implement hypercore sharing of IPFS files. This will be determined when implementing if it makes sense to do so.
Goal: Complete integration of Stripe billing for subscriptions
Validations:
- Ensure basic billing and subscription functions work
- Ensure support SSO works with ticketing system
Milestone Progress: Will create a video showing in the monthly report:
- Browsing IPFS content pinned on the portal
- Upload and download from the portal
- Subscription sign up
- Logging into ticket system
Q4: Community Hosting: $19,750
Goal: Set up hosting environment and monitoring systems
Validations:
- Should have monitoring setup of the portal usage metrics based on existing grants
- Should have any possible alerts setup, storage, or money, based on existing grants, and implement if needed, assuming the required webhooks exist
- Should have devops infrastructure created and documented for others to setup a portal
- Should be successfully stressed tested that large data can be both uploaded and downloaded
Milestone Progress: Will have a portal service ready for the community to test and use
Potential risks that will affect the project’s outcome:
- The S5 development might encounter technical hurdles in the transition to Golang, causing project delays and increased complexity.
- Operational challenges with Stripe for payment processing might force a shift to alternative payment processors, affecting transaction handling.
- Unanticipated complications with renterd could arise, which have yet to be specified but could affect the project’s storage or networking functions.
- The ABAO support might not be ported over from Rust to the required platform by @nemo within the necessary timeframe, as discussed in Bao Tree Support · Issue #17 · lukechampine/blake3 · GitHub, potentially affecting cryptographic or hashing functionalities.
- Developmental difficulties with IPFS on the portal could hinder incorporating support for its protocol, leading to potential problems.
- If data is served anonymously over web2 from the portal directly, there might be a need to implement anti-abuse measures to ensure data integrity and compliance with regulatory standards.
Development Information
Will all of your project’s code be open-source? Yes
Leave a link where the code will be accessible for review.
Do you agree to submit monthly progress reports? Yes
Contact info
Email: The email the Foundation already has on file.
Any other preferred contact methods: Discord @pcfreak30
Early submission
We are aware that we are submitting this about 1-1.5 months before our current grant is completed. Our justification is that we need to ensure continued funding in 2024 (Jan) and cannot afford to have a large gap, as we have no other significant active income at this time. Lume is our full-time mission.
Additionally, our plan is for the end of our 2023 grant to finish with the web3.news MVP as a deliverable.