2024: The year the world discovered Cardano (thanks to NuFi’s Project Catalyst proposals)

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Happy New Year, Cardano family! As 2023 slips away (and the bear market goes with it), we’re busy building services to accomplish our new year’s resolution — to onboard Cardano’s next 1 million users.

For this, we’re developing two groundbreaking services for Cardano dApps: Web2 user onboarding and MetaMask wallet support (so MetaMask’s 30 million users can connect to Cardano dApps in a matter of seconds).

Development is already underway and, with your support in Project Catalyst Fund11, we can fast-track development and create feature-packed versions of these two services in time for the crypto explosion we all know is coming.

TLDR; you can use your ADA’s voting power to vote for NuFi’s proposals and others you want to see funded in Project Catalyst Fund11 (Cardano’s on-chain decentralized funding initiative).

You’ll need to register before January 15th 2024 (if you haven’t already) and instructions on how to do that are below.

What has NuFi proposed?

Our first proposal — “Google Wallet — Web3 Single Sign-on” — is for a plug-n-play service that Cardano dApps can integrate to onboard Web2 users and crypto beginners. With Web3 SSO integrated into a dApp, anybody with a social account (Google, Facebook, Twitter etc) can connect to a Cardano dApp simply by logging in — no wallet needed!

With nothing to install or set up, and with no seed phrase to write down, any Web2 user can connect to a Cardano dApp in seconds with no crypto knowledge required and no instructions needed. It’ll put Cardano dApps within reach of everyone (even Grandma!) and make Cardano the go-to chain for crypto beginners.

How does it work? Logging in with a social account creates a non-custodial Cardano wallet for the user behind the scenes using Web3auth technology, and connects the user to the dApp instantly in a fully frictionless way that doesn’t include any crypto terminology (so the user may not even realize they’re using the blockchain). There’s also a fiat on-ramp included so users can buy ADA with a bank card, without needing to set up an account with a centralized exchange (or the dApp can sell digital assets to users directly using a credit card checkout).

Read more about our proposal here and try it yourself using the Web3 SSO testing dApp here.

Our second proposal is ‘Cardano in MetaMask’. This is a service for Cardano dApps to integrate that adds MetaMask wallet support to a dApp, enabling MetaMask’s 30 million users to connect to Cardano dApps using just their MetaMask wallet, nothing else required.

How does it work? This proposal uses MetaMask Snap technology to add Cardano wallet functionality to MetaMask wallet, enabling a MetaMask user to arrive at a Cardano dApp, click ‘Connect with MetaMask’, and onboard into the dApp in seconds. After connecting with MetaMask, a Cardano wallet is embedded into the dApp to give the MetaMask user the functionality to manage Cardano tokens and NFTs, purchase ADA with a bank card, and swap EVM assets to ADA inside their wallet.

Read more about this proposal here and try it yourself using the Cardano Snap testing dApp here.

How can I support NuFi’s proposal?

You can use your ADA’s voting power to vote “Yes” for these proposals in Project Catalyst Fund11. Anyone with 500 ADA or more (staked in a single account) is eligible to register and vote on all proposals, meaning you can support NuFi’s proposals as well as other interesting projects that you’d like to see funded. It takes less than two minutes to register and, when voting begins, it takes just seconds to vote for NuFi’s proposals.

What is Project Catalyst?

Project Catalyst is an on-chain governance initiative that allows ADA holders to determine how the Cardano ecosystem grows by deciding how treasury funding is allocated. Once or twice a year, the Project Catalyst team outlines specific goals and invites proposals aimed at achieving these goals; ADA holders then vote to decide which should be funded. You can find more information here.

What is the timeline?

Voting registration is open now and ends January 15th 2024.
Voting begins on January 25th and ends February 8th.
Results are announced February 15th.

I already registered for Catalyst voting. Do I need to register again for Fund11?

Yes and no. You can earn ADA rewards for voting in Fund11 but — if you registered before Fund10 — you’ll need to re-register before January 15th to be eligible to receive voting rewards. If you registered before Fund10, you can still vote without re-registering but you won’t earn voting rewards.

I haven’t registered before. How can I do that?

Though you can’t register for Catalyst using the NuFi wallet, you can register quickly and easily using AdaLite (another wallet operated by the NuFi team). To do that, follow the instructions below (or watch the video walkthrough here).

Please note: You’ll need at least 500 ADA staked in a single account to be eligible to vote.

1️) Visit adalite.io and access your existing Cardano wallet

2) Once inside AdaLite, click the ‘Voting’ tab and download the Catalyst Voting app to your phone as instructed (this app is where all votes are cast):

3) Back on AdaLite, click the Register button below the instructions box.
Choose a 4-digit pin and write it down — you’ll need it to access the voting app later:

4) Next, review and confirm the transaction:

5) You’ll then see a QR code which is shown only once and is not visible again after you close this window. You must store this QR code securely by taking a picture of it, printing it out, or saving it as a PDF before closing the window. You’ll need this QR code later, and losing it means re-registering:

6) Install and open the Catalyst Voting app (Google Play or App Store); press ‘Connect wallet’ and then, on the next screen, press ‘Use voting QR code and pin’’:

7) Scan your QR code (either the one shown on AdaLite or the copy you saved) and, on the next screen, enter the pin code you chose earlier. Done!

The app will tell you when the upcoming snapshot will take place; on this date, please ensure that you have at least 500 ADA staked in the account you just registered in order to be eligible for voting.

What happens next?

Open the Catalyst Voting app between January 25th and February 8th, click ‘Proposals’ at the bottom and search for ‘Google wallet’ (and, after doing the below, repeat by searching for ‘Cardano in MetaMask’). Open each proposal and vote for it by clicking the thumbs-up icon.

When you’ve finished voting for the proposals you want to see funded, be sure to visit the ‘My Selection’ screen and click ‘Cast my votes’, which will submit your votes to the blockchain and make them official. If your voting power is not displayed in the app after January 25th, you should uninstall the app, reinstall it, and then re-enter your QR code and pin.

Where can I get more help?

You can ask questions about NuFi’s proposal or about the Catalyst registration and voting process in NuFi’s Discord server. For Catalyst-related announcements, please follow NuFi on Twitter.

Many thanks,
The AdaLite/NuFi team 🙏