Project Name: City Whispers
Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal: Arslan Bilecen
Describe your project.
City Whispers is a full-featured mobile application that allows users to capture and share personal memories—text, thoughts, and photos—anchored to real-world locations via a dynamic map interface. The application prioritizes emotional expression, privacy, and user data ownership, using Sia’s decentralized storage network to store all media and written content.
City Whispers offers a nostalgic design theme, inspired by nature and storytelling, encouraging users to engage meaningfully with places. Users can leave “whispers” on any location and decide who can see them: the public, a private audience, or just themselves. All memories are encrypted on the user’s device and stored on Sia’s decentralized network, ensuring content is censorship-resistant and fully user-controlled.
This grant proposal focuses on delivering a complete, production-ready mobile application for Android and iOS, along with all core features, privacy settings, and decentralized storage integration.
Who benefits from your project?
- General users documenting personal experiences, travels, or emotions through place-based memories.
- Writers, travelers, and creatives inspired by urban and natural landscapes.
- Privacy-conscious users who want to own and control their digital memories.
- The Sia ecosystem, by demonstrating a high-quality, consumer-facing app use case for decentralized storage.
How does the project serve the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data?
City Whispers is fundamentally aligned with the Sia Foundation’s mission to return control of data to users:
- User-Controlled Data: All media and text are encrypted client-side and stored on Sia. Users hold the keys to their data—no central authority can access or remove it.
- Decentralized Infrastructure: No centralized database is used for storing content. Metadata is minimal, and the storage is entirely decentralized.
- Private by Default: Anonymity and selective sharing are built-in features. Users can choose who sees what, reinforcing trust and autonomy.
- Sia Ecosystem Expansion: The app demonstrates Sia’s potential in real-world storytelling and memory archiving, unlocking new audiences and developer interest.
Are you a resident of any jurisdiction on that list?
No
Will your payment bank account be located in any jurisdiction on that list?
No
Grant Specifics
Amount of money requested and justification with a reasonable breakdown of expenses:
Total Requested Budget: $29,000
- Full Mobile App Development (React Native)
- Duration: 6 Weeks
- Budget: $14,000
- Details: Develop all core app functionality including map interface, memory creation, geotagging, filters, and offline support.
- Sia Decentralized Storage Integration
- Duration: 3 Weeks
- Budget: $3,500
- Details: Implement client-side encryption, Sia network integration for media storage, renterd management, and privacy controls.
- Advanced UI/UX Design
- Duration: 2.5 Weeks
- Budget: $3,000
- Details: Design a nostalgic, nature-inspired interface with strong visual identity and accessibility compliance.
- User Profile, Privacy & Moderation Tools
- Duration: 2 Weeks
- Budget: $3,000
- Details: Build support for anonymous and pseudonymous profiles, memory visibility settings, and basic content moderation options.
- QA Testing & App Store Deployment
- Duration: 2 Weeks
- Budget: $3,000
- Details: Perform cross-platform testing, fix bugs, optimize UX, and ensure successful deployment to Google Play and Apple App Store.
- Project Management & Reporting
- Duration: Throughout the project
- Budget: $2,500
- Details: Coordinate team tasks, track milestones, and submit monthly progress reports to the grant committee.
Potential risks that will affect the outcome of the project:
- Risk: User Adoption Barriers
- Mitigation:
- Simplify the onboarding experience to make decentralized concepts more approachable.
- Develop clear, engaging educational content (e.g., tutorials, tooltips, FAQs) to guide new users.
- Risk: Technical Complexity
- Mitigation:
- Allocate sufficient resources and time for thorough testing and debugging.
- Implement modular development to isolate and address integration issues quickly.
- Conduct internal audits and stress tests to validate storage and breach monitoring reliability.
Team Description
The City Whispers team is composed of three core members with complementary skill sets in cybersecurity and full-stack development. Together, they bring the technical and strategic expertise needed to build a secure, user-friendly, and fully decentralized mobile application.
Core Team Members:
- Arslan – Cybersecurity Engineer
Arslan is responsible for securing the platform’s infrastructure and ensuring the protection of user data. With deep expertise in cybersecurity, he will design and implement a comprehensive security strategy for City Whispers. His work includes identifying potential vulnerabilities, defending against cyber threats, and ensuring that encryption and data handling practices meet the highest standards of privacy and integrity—especially critical given the use of decentralized storage. - Sinem – Full-Stack Developer
Sinem leads frontend and backend development for the platform. She will contribute to all aspects of the application, from designing an intuitive and emotionally engaging user interface to building the backend services that power user accounts, location tagging, and memory retrieval. Sinem will also collaborate on integrating decentralized storage and ensuring smooth performance across devices. - Ozkan – Full-Stack Developer
Ozkan works alongside Sinem in managing the full-stack development cycle. He will co-develop the map-based interface, optimize mobile performance, and assist in creating the backend logic that securely interacts with the Sia network. Ozkan is also responsible for implementing new features based on user feedback and ensuring the platform evolves to meet the needs of its community.
Development Information
Will all of your project’s code be open-source?
Yes. The app, storage logic, and mobile components will be fully open-source
The repository will be shared upon grant approval and project kickoff.
Do you agree to submit monthly progress reports?
Yes
Contact info
Email: a.bilecen00[at]gmail.com