Earlier this year, we were very excited to become the first project to submit a Melon funding proposal and see it accepted by the Melon Council DAO. Shortly afterwards, we published our one year roadmap. After completion of phase I (April-August), we published the first milestone report. We are happy to announce that we are now finishing Phase II (September — December) and want to share what we’ve achieved in the last couple of months as well as some insights into what comes next.

Milestones report

1. Development & open sourcing of mobile & desktop interface

i. Remodel Ash interface as generic version for mobile

As mobile-first is conquering fin-tech design, we deem it crucial to foster mobile application development on top of Melon. Our open source contribution is a mobile interface for Melon that is ready to use for developers who want to further develop existing use cases or create their own mobile applications for Melon. All proprietary Ash app elements have been removed and calls have been switched from the Ash API to direct Ethereum/Melon protocol calls. We implemented a systematic modular architecture that enables developers to adapt, customize and expand the functionality according to their needs. The present implementation provides a basic set of features, namely: setup Melon fund, fund or portfolio, “home view”, and manage fund i.e. buying and selling assets. Our thorough documentation on Github facilitates access to hacking on the Melon protocol and provides interested developers with a ready-to-go kit for developing Melon-based mobile use cases.

ii. Develop generic Ash interface version for desktop

In order to facilitate the development of mobile applications and provide full range support to Melon-based applications, we developed a desktop interface based on the Ash app design. Set up as a browser app interface it allows to stay as flexible and modular as possible and should help to encourage diverse stand-alone desktop app implementations. Similar to the mobile interface, this is a ready-to-go tool kit for developers who want to implement their own use cases. The systematic modular architecture allows easy customization and expansion for example by integrating our Giveth impact investment module. The present implementation provides a basic set of features, namely: setup Melon fund, fund or portfolio, “home view”, and manage fund i.e. buying and selling assets.

iii. Set up a design system

This white-label design system provides developers with easy access to the modular interface design and guides them through basic rules of interface element usage. This is supposed to make development fast and frictionless so that developers can focus on the functionality they want to implement. The following excerpt gives on overview of the provided elements. Full documentation on Github here.

iv. Documentation

Mobile: See the README file on Github here.

Desktop: See the README file on Github here.

Design system: See summary on Github here.

v. Published on Github

All open interface contributions on Github here.

2. Development & open sourcing of Giveth module

i. Module to invest in the Giveth DAC

To provide users with a simple way to transform their mix into an impact investment fund we need to integrate a module that enables connections of a Melon fund to the Giveth smart contracts, so users can browse through NGOs and charity projects, connect them to their mix and setup a one time donation or a standing order to create true impact investments on Ethereum. For now, the Giveth model allows users to make donations to Giveth Decentralized Altruistic Communities (DAC) directly from Melon funds. We are going to publish a separate “How to” on the module which will follow.

ii. Documentation

Read full report on Github here.

iii. Published on Github

See all Giveth-related open source contributions on Github here.

3. Main Milestone 3: Ash Hackathon — Open Interface Integrations

The Ash Hackathon is now live! Signup is available via the Ash website. After the signup period of four weeks the hackathon takes place as online event and runs from 13th January until 15th March. The overall topic of the hackathon is “Open Interface Integrations” and aims at the development of new features and integrations for the Ash open source interface. Midas Technologies will provide a total of 1,500 MLN as prize money that will be distributed among the categories: Financial Products & Gamification, and Impact Investing. More info about the hackathon you will find in this blog.

3. General Development:

i. Copy-trading module R&D

This module enables users to copy portfolios of other Melon managers. This protocol-level feature is an elementary building block of financial instruments and will add one further key function to the protocol: to further push the inclusion of retail investors by providing users with a decentralized and compliant way of copy-trading.

Completed:

Conceptualization of back-end architecture

Design of decentralized copy trading system

In progress:

Research on legal implementation of copy-trading

Drafts and mockups for the front end integration into Ash app

ii. Multi-Manager Funds module R&D

This module enables users to manage Melon funds as a group. This feature can mitigate key-person risk, and enables the integration of policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities into the protocol. Further, retail investor groups like families get the chance to share the management responsibilities of their funds.

Completed:

Conceptualization of back-end architecture

Process design of Multi Manager fund creation

Conceptualization of authentication module

In progress:

First (smart contract) design of a multi manager fund

Expansion on only-manager functionality

Trading cue

Design of voting/quorum on cue

Integration into Ash back end API

Drafts and mockups for the front end integration into Ash app

iii. Challenge module & XP token R&D

Every user joining Ash will use the Melon smart contract functions setupFund, requestInvestment & executeRequest, at least once to open a fund and make an initial investment. An additional driver for the Melon engine will be the transition of the challenge functionality from our back-end to the challenge module which manages challenges on-chain. Through this module, a slice will be taken from every challenge fee and forwarded to the Melon engine.

Completed:

Design of challenge adapter

In progress:

Design of challenge platform smart contract (as third party folder on Melon) to handle and track challenge IDs, stake, escrow, challenge duration, check fund prices before and after challenge

Conceptualization of amgu payment mechanism

Drafts and mockups for the in-app shop for XP sale

iv. Development of fiat payment integration

After discussing fiat onramp approaches with several providers we have come across a suitable partner. We are currently setting up the scope of partnership. We seek to provide our users with:

KYC and fiat onramp through online video identification

Digital IBAN service which allows user to deposit fiat and use it to buy ETH (WETH to stack their mix)

Fiat-ETH exchange

Digital payment and credit card integration

v. Legal groundwork in preparation for main-net launch: social trading license

We were delighted to announce that we now have an in-house legal consultant who will lead the further research in this field in order to provide a comprising legal report (milestone in phase III) on licenses and categorization for Melon-based applications in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The first Beta tournament Midas Technologies will not need any sort of license since no crypto assets are traded on main net through the interface.

vi. Beta maintenance

During the last months the Ash beta has been continuously updated. Technical problems during signup as well as heavy bugs in the trading functionality have been solved. By the time of submitting this report we have registered a total of 134 active users who manage assets on Kovan through their asset mix and challenge other users in the Versus mode. Similar to the takeaways from Alpha testing, in the first 6 weeks of Beta testing a total of 3.7 challenges were played per user per day. At the end of November a user feedback survey was sent out to all registered users. A total of 27 user surveys have been answered until today. The most important take away from the survey was:

App is not “self-explanatory” enough; missing tutorial Calculation and logic behind Versus is not clear/transparent enough Challenge duration times should be possible to be set by user manually 70% of the participants would love to see a Multi Manager function The first 100 ERC 20 assets should be included for the tournament

Based on the feedback received, we have updated our backlog for the Beta Tournament. The next Beta updates will be pushed out in Q1 2020. You can still sign up here.

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The next milestone report will be due by end of April 2020. Stay tuned!