Proposal: RFP: Block Explorer with FVM / FEVM support - Zondax

[ainhoa-a]

RFP Proposal: The ultimate Filecoin Devs Scaffold

Name of Project: The ultimate Filecoin Devs Scaffold : Block Explorer + Dev Tools + Mempool with FVM & FEVM support

Link to RFP: (Block Explorer RFP)

RFP Category: devtools-libraries , app-dev

Proposer: ainhoa-a

Do you agree to open source all work you do on behalf of this RFP and dual-license under MIT and APACHE2 licenses?: Yes

Project Description

The arrival of Filecoin Virtual Machine (FEVM / FVM roadmap) opens the doors to a new generation of block explorers for Filecoin.

We aim to provide for all filecoin ecosystem participants, whether storage provider, storage client, developer, token holder or another type of user, a clear visibility and observability over the state and the activity of the network and the chain, both real-time and historical.

We want to build a fast, reliable and real-time block explorer that displays activity and interactions with FEVM smart contracts.

Not just another Filecoin block explorer, but the block explorer that could be also used as a reference for developers that are building custom actors on Filecoin or dApps.

This tool should put together dev tools for decoding FEVM actors, a block explorer and a mempool with real time streaming.

As a Data source we will employ our own public Data API and indexer.

Development Roadmap

Milestone 1 - Dev tools first - The ultimate FEVM Actor decoder PoC

Technical Scope and Timeline

Given the ambitious and tight roadmap for integrating the FEVM we propose to focus at the beginning of this project on what developers need and have been asking for the most: dev tools to decoding actors.

During this short phase we will focus on creating an actor introspection tooling frontend (Dev tool).

Deliverables

• PoC capable of decoding information about FEVM actors and related transactions.
• Dev Tools Tab with the PoC implementation
• Initial design mockups of the Block Explorer (Web + Mobile responsive).
• Running staging site with some UI elements implemented

Funding for this Milestone

provided by email to Grant committee.

Estimated Milestone Delivery

provided by email to Grant committee.

Milestone 2 - Design finalization and Initial implementation of the block explorer

Technical Scope and Timeline

This phase will focus on the finalization of the design and implementation of most of the basic features of the Block explorer in addition to the Dev-Tools PoC capability (see M1).

This phase will put a big focus on the design and its scope will consist of representing the look and feel of the Block explorer and defining in high level of detail its features, how everything is connected and how users will interact with it. The following roles will be fundamental during this phase:

• UX/UI Designer: will define the “skin and soul” of the product and collaborate in the creation of the high fidelity mockups.
• Backend Engineer: will work together with the product manager and the UX/UI Designer to make them better understand the possibilities of the Filecoin Indexer and Database. This person will have a deep understanding of the Filecoin Database.
• Frontend Developer: will start creating the skeleton of the app and implementing some of the UI elements This person will collaborate intensively with the Backend Engineer and the Product Designer.
• Technical Lead: this person will collaborate to share expertise on how Filecoin Blockchain specifically works. This person will have a deep understanding of Filecoin and FVM.
• Product Manager: Will manage from an holistic product perspective the development and evolution of the app.
• Project Manager: will coordinate all team members in an agile way making sure everyone has the information they need and keeping the team motivated. Will coordinate times and resources ensuring these are being used in the right way to meet expectations.

For the ideation phase we will employ a Design Thinking based process and iterate using rapid prototyping.

We will use Figma to create both, initial low-level wireframes and high fidelity designs. We will also implement some simple animations to better understand the product behaviour.

Once we have validated the initial look we will start implementing some UI elements. For the Frontend part we will employ:

• HTML
• CSS (SCSS as a framework)
• Typescript (NxtJS as framework)

To retrieve the data from the Filecoin Blockchain we will use our own public Data API and indexer.

Deliverables

• Functional block explorer (internal release, pw protected) hosted and maintained by us.
  • Responsive design - Web + mobile support (browser based)
  • Real-time updates based on changes in the network
  • Fast to load
  • Good UX and visual design
• High-fidelity design mockups

Funding for this Milestone

provided by email to Grant committee.

Estimated Milestone Delivery

provided by email to Grant committee.

Milestone 3 -Block explorer additional features FVM and release

Technical Scope and Timeline

During this phase we will focus on testing, bug fixing and documentation of the code base. At the end of this phase will go live and make the project deliverables public and open sourced (live website, documentation, explorer codebase).

Deliverables

• Fully functional block explorer website, hosted/maintained/managed by our team
• Publicly accessible via a https:// site.
  • Must also work on mobile and be mobile-friendly
  • Real-time updates based on changes in the network
  • Fast to load
  • Good UX and visual design

Funding for this Milestone

provided by email to Grant committee.

Estimated Milestone Delivery

provided by email to Grant committee.

Milestone 4 - Iterative improvements with native FVM updates

Technical Scope and Timeline

We will provide a tentative list of additional features that we would like to prioritise with the FVM core team. eg, Dashboards, faucet integration or verification of smart contracts). Future developments on FVM will highly depend on the roadmap and definition provided by the FVM core team.

Deliverables

Continuous integration and Deployment

Funding for this Milestone

provided by email to Grant committee.

Estimated Milestone Delivery

provided by email to Grant committee.

Documentation, Education, and Community

Before official release we will invest time and effort in providing a high quality documentation of both, the code base and user facing documentation.

We will use the FVM channels, programs like the FVM Early builders, conferences and events to promote the application and collect feedback from the community.

Milestone Summary

provided by email to Grant committee.

Total Budget Requested

provided by email to Grant committee.

Maintenance and Upgrade Plans

We would like this application to become the best and most complete dev environment for the Filecoin ecosystem. If it is in Filecoin’s interest we would like to keep maintaining this tool and contribute to the community and ecosystem growth. We offer Ongoing maintenance updates with long term support

Team

Contact Info

This has been shared per Email.

Team Members

• 1 Technical Project Lead
• 1 Product Manager
• 1 Project Manager
• 1 Backend developer
• 2 Frontend developer
• 1 UI /UX Designer
• 1 DevOps Engineer

Team Website

Zondax

Relevant Experience

We have been collaborating with Filecoin for several years and have/or are currently contributing to the following projects: Signing Tools (WASM/Typescript and FFI support, Secp256k1 and BLS support) Filecoin Indexing, Filecoin GPU Scheduler, Exchanges & Custodian technical support among others.

We have recently taken part in the FVM Early Builders program and delivered an SDK for FVM in Assemblyscript. https://github.com/Zondax/fvm-as-sdk

Besides this we specialize in the following areas:

• Security. By mastering innovative algorithms such as post-quantum cryptography and zero-knowledge cryptography to guarantee bullet-proof safety. Focusing on validator security and using TEEs (Trusted Execution Environment)
• Data and Integration. Specifically Chain indexing, Mobile and web wallet integration, and Exchange integration, for Industry leaders.
• Core and Protocol engineering. with focus on Distributed systems, GPU scheduling, MILP solver and Post-quantum cryptography,
• Ledger Apps. We have built and delivered over 35 applications for the leading projects in the blockchain industry.

Team code repositories

Zondax Github

Additional Information

We expect to save lot of time in the development thanks to our high quality Filecoin backend infrastructure. Additionally, thanks to our multidisciplinary team we have already a team that we could allocate immediately to this project to start asap without interfering with other on-going developments.

[BlocksOnAChain]

adding @eshon and @raulk for visibility, so we can review once @ainhoa-a populates this RFP.

[ainhoa-a]

Hi @BlocksOnAChain , @raulk @eshon we have sent you and extended updated proposal by E-mail.

[BlocksOnAChain]

@ainhoa-a Hey, I just wanted to check if you are ok with adding the ability to "Track Token issued on Filecoin" to the scope of our Beryx explorer since I know you are working on a PR that will include all the changes we made over time. This would be an easy and cool thing to add since it's a great metric.

CC: @longfeiWan9 for visibility of this request for Beryx.

[ainhoa-a]

Hi @BlocksOnAChain are you referring to erc-20 tokens supply created via smart contracts? Happy to sync on slack to discuss details around it. We have few questions.

[ainhoa-a]

Hi @BlocksOnAChain as discussed I've updated the shared document.

[BlocksOnAChain]

We can close this RFP since the contract is signed, and we already have approval on M1. CC: @smagdali @ErinOCon for visibility