Standard Grant: Sirkl, the Wallet to Wallet Whatsapp

Grants Rejected
1

Standard Grant: SIRKL x Sia – Decentralized Storage Integration

Introduction

Project Name: SIRKL – Decentralized Messaging Layer
Organization: SIRKL.io

Describe your project:
SIRKL is a multichain, privacy-first messaging app that allows users to chat wallet-to-wallet, store encrypted messages onchain, and join token-gated groups without the friction of wallets or seed phrases.

With this grant, we aim to integrate Sia as the default decentralized storage layer for message history on SIRKL. This will give users and DAOs a secure, cost-efficient, censorship-resistant backend for chat data.

Who benefits from your project?

  • Web3 users seeking private, sovereign messaging
  • DAOs needing token-gated or onchain-native communication
  • Developers looking to build on top of encrypted storage infrastructure
  • The Sia community, which gains a high-usage consumer messaging app powered by Sia

How does the project serve the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data?
SIRKL empowers users to control and store their chat data themselves. Integrating Sia allows us to anchor that data to a decentralized, redundant, and permissionless storage layer—aligned perfectly with Sia’s mission.

Are you a resident of any jurisdiction on this list?
No

Will your payment bank account be located in any jurisdiction on that list?
No

Grant Specifics

Amount of money requested: 40,000 USD
Justification:

  • Backend integration of Sia via Skynet SDK or custom uploader
  • UI work to allow users to choose between onchain/offchain (Sia) message storage
  • QA, testing, and bug-fixing
  • Community testing + feedback from Sia and SIRKL users
  • Documentation and deployment

Timeline with measurable milestones

Milestone 1: Sia Integration Architecture

Timeline: June 1 – June 15, 2025
Funding: 10,000 USD
Goal: Define and implement the storage flow between SIRKL and Sia
Deliverables:

  • Storage adapter module (Skynet or API-based)
  • Encryption compatibility layer
  • Internal testing of message uploads to Sia

Milestone 2: UI/UX & Community Testing

Timeline: June 16 – July 15, 2025
Funding: 15000 USD
Goal: Add user control for Sia storage, launch test version to private group
Deliverables:

  • Toggle to store messages via Sia
  • Sia-only group chat setup
  • Testing with select DAOs and feedback form

Milestone 3: Public Rollout + Docs

Timeline: July 16 – August 15, 2025
Funding: 15000 USD
Goal: Launch full support in main SIRKL app + dev documentation
Deliverables:

  • Live in production (on mobile + web)
  • Public guide for using Sia storage
  • Final bug fixes and optimizations

Potential risks that will affect the outcome of the project:

  • Latency or message delivery tradeoffs when routing data to/from Sia
  • UX complexity with decentralized vs. onchain storage choices
  • Maintaining encryption integrity during uploads/downloads

Development Information

Will all of your project’s code be open-source?
The backend Sia integration module will be fully open-source, licensed under MIT.
The app UI and chat logic will remain closed-source to protect user data and proprietary design.

Link where code will be accessible for review:

Do you agree to submit monthly progress reports?
Yes

Contact info

Email: [email protected]
Preferred contact: Discord – @bobskos / Telegram – @bobskos
Website: https://sirkl.io

2

Hello. Based on your proposal it seems there is still content on Google that gives the impression Skynet is a still thing.

It is a dead and deprecated effort. While your proposal wording somewhat accounts for this, your best routes are the P2P nets S5 (funded by Sia) and IPFS, both of which have eco support at different layers of the stack.

I would recommend looking at https://docs.s5.pro/ and GitHub - ipfs/helia: An implementation of IPFS in TypeScript, though, what you use will depend on tech stack.

Kudos.

3

Hi @Bobskos, thanks for your first proposal to the Sia Foundation grants program. As @pcfreak30 mentioned, Skynet is dead and deprecated for about 2.5 years now. A proposal including Skynet shows a lack of current knowledge of the Sia ecosystem.

Additionally, your proposal is for $40,000 over 2.5 months, which comes out to about $16,000 per month. As mentioned in our proposal guidelines, the limit for Standard grants is $8,333 per month.

Please update your proposal using live technologies and we’d be happy to reconsider it. This version will be rejected. Thanks.

4

This is a revised version of our initial proposal (original thread), updated to reflect current Sia technologies. We’ve removed Skynet, integrated the modern Sia stack using renterd, and adjusted the scope to fit the monthly grant cap. The revised proposal is now focused, technically aligned, and budget-compliant. We look forward to your reconsideration.

Standard Grant: SIRKL v2 – Decentralized Messaging with Sia Storage

Project Name:

SIRKL – Encrypted Wallet-to-Wallet Messaging with Native Sia Storage

Organization:

SIRKL.io – https://sirkl.io

:small_blue_diamond: Project Description

SIRKL is a multichain, privacy-first messaging app that allows users to chat wallet-to-wallet, join token-gated communities, and store encrypted messages either onchain or offchain—without requiring wallets or seed phrases. Already deployed on Ethereum, Polygon, and Skale with 35K+ users and 300K+ interactions, our vision is to give users full sovereignty over their communication data.

This proposal focuses on integrating Sia’s live decentralized storage infrastructure (via renterd) into SIRKL to allow users to choose Sia as the backend for encrypted message storage. This provides users and DAOs with a redundant, censorship-resistant alternative to onchain storage, aligned with Sia’s mission of user-owned data.

:small_blue_diamond: Who Benefits

• Users looking for privacy and data control

• DAOs and token-gated communities needing sovereign messaging

• Developers seeking to build on encrypted, decentralized infrastructure

• The Sia ecosystem, by gaining a real-world, high-frequency messaging use case

:small_blue_diamond: Alignment with the Sia Foundation’s Mission

SIRKL puts encrypted chat data directly in users’ hands. By integrating with renterd, we offer a trustless, decentralized option for storage, making chat history censorship-resistant, verifiable, and not reliant on centralized APIs. This extends Sia’s mission into a daily-use messaging layer.

:small_blue_diamond: Jurisdiction

• We are not residents of restricted jurisdictions

• Our payment accounts are not located in restricted jurisdictions

:small_blue_diamond: Requested Grant Amount

$25,000 USD over 3 months ($8,333/month compliant with guidelines)

:small_blue_diamond: Grant Justification

This grant will fund:

• Backend integration using renterd and Sia.js

• UI work to let users toggle between onchain and Sia storage

• QA, DAO testing, and UX feedback loop

• Final deployment and documentation

:small_blue_diamond: Timeline & Milestones

:white_check_mark: Milestone 1: Sia Storage Adapter (June 1 – June 30, 2025)

Funding: $8,333

Goal: Build message encryption + upload pipeline via renterd

Deliverables:

• Sia uploader module

• Encryption + encoding compatibility

• Internal test suite

:white_check_mark: Milestone 2: UI Integration + DAO Testing (July 1 – July 31, 2025)

Funding: $8,333

Goal: Add toggle in app + run feedback loop with DAO users

Deliverables:

• In-app Sia toggle

• Testnet feedback form & DAO onboarding

• Performance logs

:white_check_mark: Milestone 3: Public Release + Docs (August 1 – August 31, 2025)

Funding: $8,334

Goal: Full rollout + developer documentation

Deliverables:

• Production launch (web & mobile)

• Public storage guide

• Bug fixes & UI polish

:small_blue_diamond: Potential Risks

Risk Mitigation

Latency on renterd uploads Prefetch/cache encrypted messages

UX friction with toggle Walkthrough UI and default storage suggestion

Encryption failure on storage QA pipeline with full test coverage

:small_blue_diamond: Development & Open Source

• The renterd integration module will be open-source (MIT license)

• UI/chat engine remains closed-source for user privacy and anti-abuse protection

• Code repo: Airking26 · GitHub

:small_blue_diamond: Reporting

We commit to submitting monthly progress reports and logs, including completed deliverables and technical updates.

:small_blue_diamond: Contact

Email: [email protected]

Telegram/Discord: @bobskos

5

Please move this proposal to a new thread.