Integration Grants Application '24: Ginseng Swap

#1

Integration Grants Application '24: Ginseng Swap

Application Introduction
Currently Ginseng Swap is deployed on conflux testnet and it is productionized to start getting feedback/build email list to engage followers with updates/product feature launches. (https://ginsengswap.vercel.app/). This will also be used for demoes to help build investor interest in product.

Stablecoins represent a huge opportunity - we are seeing increasing adoption of USDC and USDT and their ability to cross-borders. The growing acceptance of stablecoins for on-ramp and off-ramp means that it is possible to make the cost of remittances at low cost with quicker settlement on the blockchain. There remains a lack of full-suite solution that can guide a customer from on-ramp to off-ramp while taking advantage of blockchain technology to swap between tokenized stablecoins.

Ginseng Swap aims to tackle this - by introducing a DEX focused on stablecoins and then working on financial partnerships that will help customers with remittances and cross-border swaps.

Ginseng Swap

  • Currently swaps on Swappi are higher cost than v3 and Ginseng Swap’s DEX will focus on stablecoins which will have low 0.05% trading fees
  • We have seen on Uniswap whereby the lower trading fees has allowed Uniswap to build on stablecoin volume and surpass stablecoin volume on Curve. v2’s trading fees of 0.30% are not commensurate with the risk/volatility of stablecoins but concentrated liquidity and 0.05% on v3 are much more suitable. Ginseng Swap attends to address this and attract stablecoin trading/swapping

Benefit to the Conflux Ecosystem:

  • Stablecoins represent a huge opportunity to bridge between blockchain and real world economy. A DEX focused on stablecoins and focused on on-ramp/off-ramp partnership will allow for a payment/remittance app. There are billions of dollar of remittance that can be done on blockchain settlement and as institutions accept stablecoins for conversion to fiat, a blockchain app that can swap and guide customers from on-ramp/off-ramp will be valuable as it allows for self-custodial over assets between swaps, lower transaction costs, and quicker settlement through the tokenization of currency.

Economic benefit:

  • More transactions will occur between stablecoin pairs (lower transaction cost vs. swappi) and Ginseng Swap will be pushing towards consumer use-age to make swaps on Ginseng Swap for remittances to increase on-ramps/off-ramps onto/off Conflux. This reduces the barrier/friction from using a blockchain for real world purposes and also allows institutions to recognize stablecoins on Conflux

Demonstrate a competitive edge that differentiates it from other projects

  • Ginseng Swap currently allows for concentrated liquidity and different fee ranges. We have seen stablecoins increase transactions on Uniswap and surpass curve when v3 allowed for 0.05% transaction fees on stablecoins on concentrated ranges. There is low volatility between stablecoin pairs and the lower fees is commensurate with the risk (allowing for higher volume).
  • Ginseng Swap will also focus on a roadmap that will work towards a full-suite integration between onboarding and offboarding. For example, it is currently difficult to set-up a wallet on Conflux eSpace using metamask for non web-3 users. As an idea, a custom hardware wallet (i.e. every passport has NFC) and can be hashed to create a private key/public address pair. Ginseng Swap will explore integrations like these to allow customers to login through their passport and access the Conflux blockchain for their stablecoin balances and swapping.

Links to the projects webpage, DApp, socials and chat groups

Conflux eSpace grant recipient wallet address: To be provided at later date

Are you an incorporated startup?

  • Yes - incorporated in Canada. I would like to see what possibilities exist to move the start-up to Hong Kong Cyberport. There seems to be a push in incentives to attract start-ups to Hong Kong

Technical Introduction

Two core contracts govern Ginseng Swap.

Ginsengv3Factory

Pool

There is a bunch of periphery contracts that help with interacting with core contracts (i.e. constructing the SVG for the NFT that is issued to represent the liquidity position added). A full list of contracts are found in the FAQ and it is contract verified on conflux scan. https://ginsengswap.vercel.app/faq

For the roadmap, we aim to:

  • further features found on uniswap v3 (i.e. using the increaseLiquidity and decreaseLiquidity functions)
  • visualize liquidity positions
  • make it easier to onboard consumers, for example, consumers should be able to create or login to a generated wallet with NFC data of their passport. this would effectively be a hardware wallet for Ginseng Swap
  • partnerships with institutions to on-ramp and off-ramp to attract remittance users

Refer back to problem statement

  • currently the main dex on conflux is v2 with a uniform 0.3% fee that is unsuitable for stablecoins. swappi also serves all tokens and ginseng swap will be focused on remittances/stablecoins for easier onboard/offboard ramp

Purpose of the system

  • allow users to send remittances by using a dex on conflux espace and have stablecoins on conflux recognized by financial insitutions for easier on/off-ramp

Scope of the system

Objectives and success criteria of the project

  • more transactions on blockchain/ginseng swap
  • partners with ginseng swap to on-board/off-board stablecoins
  • consumer app that makes blockchain friction less difficult from web2 using easier onboard/offboard flow of stablecoins

Functional overview of your system

  • contracts are all open-sourced on testnet
  • liquidity is held in pools and created from the factory
  • swaps are routed and leverage uniswap v3 contract structure
  • https://ginsengswap.vercel.app/faq

Identify all of the core aspects of your system and elements to uphold its functionality
Legal/licensing aspects

  • none needed. uniswap v3 license limits use of the v3 source code in a commercial or production setting until April 1st, 2023. After this, the license will convert to a general public license. This means anyone can fork the code for their own use — as long as it is kept open source.
  • Ginseng Swap will be open source

Usability

  • we intend to launch new product features that will make ginseng swap similar to use as uniswap v3. the focus will be on remittances and stablecoins

Reliability

  • we intend to build a backend on supabase for events/logs to provide quick information about liquidity positions for users. everytime an event is emitted, we intend to log it

Performance

  • the contracts are optimized and battletested on many different chains. ginseng swap will also go through a contract audit to ensure users are comfortable with ginseng swap’s contracts

Implementation

  • roadmap includes further work on making ginseng swap mobile compatible / easier on-ramp through wallet creation / partnering with institutions for on-ramp/off-ramp

User interface

  • we have launched testnet app to play around with the user interface but we realize it is a work in progress on UX.
  • we have launched it so that we can start interacting with community, get community feedback, iterate and launch a better product on mainnet

Total Budget

  • we would like to cover costs for contract audit on Ginseng Swap contracts. A quote has been provided and we can leverage the subsidy from Ginseng Swap’s hackathon ($2,000 credit)
  • there is also opportunity to more fully explore incentives by Hong Kong for web3 companies. A budget will allow Ginseng Swap to more fully produce better demoes/presentation materials to advance the project and get startup funding

Grant Size:

  • $18,500 USD
  • A non-binding Letter of Intent on providing liquidity on Stablecoin Pairs (i.e. $400,000 on liquidity pairs USDC/USDT or HKD/USDC), conditional on Conflux further due diligence, to assist Ginseng Swap with seeking early investors to help fund additional development of Ginseng Swap.

Justification:

  • There is about $10,000 in credits/prize that Ginseng Swap would like to convert to a more upfront grant and re-purpose for working capital needs (vs. waiting for mainnet deployment and needing to spend on specific vendors). This represents $8,000 in new grants to help support continued development
  • $3,500 of the $8,000 USD will be needed to cover contract audit of Ginseng Swap. This covers both the core and periphery contracts.
  • This leaves about $5,000 USD to further focus on development of Ginseng Swap
  • For context, currently Ginseng Swap has $4,000 prize that can be claimed from U-Hack upon deployment onto mainnet. However, this will take some time since there is a lot more development work that needs to be done. Ginseng Swap also has credits of $4,000 USD from RAK DAO which it would like to re-purpose for examining start-up opportunities in Hong Kong. Ginseng Swap also has credits of $2,000 USD from Google Cloud which it has not claimed but would like to re-purpose to explore other hosting for subgraphs (i.e. Supabase).
  • Would like to request this for earlier payment to support working capital needs.
  • Hong Kong has fintech week in October 2024 which Ginseng Swap would like to attend and promote demo and seek further assistance from startup ecosystem. There is also Token2049 in September 2024 which Ginseng Swap would like to attend.

Development Roadmap

  • Continue with product features of Ginseng Swap (add/decrease liquidity) and demoes / marketing materials

Timeline and milestones

  • Go to Singapore (September for Token 2049) and Hong Kong (October for Fintech Week and Chainlink SmartCon) to seek venture funding to continue developing a remittance app using money raised to hire developers to improve UX and speed development —> Travel to Singapore and Hong Kong to be completed by October 31
  • Additional product features on testnet app (increase/decrease liquidity on existing positions) --> To be completed by October 31
  • Visualization of positions / liquidity pools --> To be completed by December 31
  • Build team if venture capital funding achieved to bring mobile compatibility and build financial partners

Requested funding per milestone

  • $10,000 USD repurpose of future-dated awards/credits - Go to Singapore (September for Token 2049) and Hong Kong (October for Fintech Week and Chainlink SmartCon) to seek venture funding to continue developing a remittance app using money raised to hire developers
  • The earlier funding is needed to start building relationships with institutions that can partner with onboard/offboard stablecoins and also work on raising venture capital to help with additional runway to hire developers to build protocol
  • To be completed October 31
  • $3,500 USD contract audit of Ginseng Swap contracts deployed on mainnet (verified on mainnet) - Revised quote came in at $3,500 To be completed in 13 days by auditor as soon as funding approved
  • $2,500 USD Additional product features on testnet app (increase/decrease liquidity on existing positions) (Completion Anticipated October 31)
  • $2,500 USD Visualization of positions / liquidity pools (Completion anticipated December 31)

Specification of software/deliverable

$10,000 USD

  • (1) Preparation of marketing materials/powerpoint/demoes to get booth with InvestHK for Startup HK or at HK’s Fintech Week as Canadian Pavilion delegate.
  • (2) Attendance of HK fintech week
  • (3) Attendance of Chainlink SmartCon
  • (4) Attendance of Token2049 / ETHGlobal Singapore
  • Completion October 31

Goal is to start building relationships with on-ramps/off-ramps, and seek venture funding to have more runway to hire developers to build out protocol. The funding will help go towards demoes/marketing material/powerpoint presentations, and improving the protocol that is currently deployed on testnet. This will repurpose the $10,000 in future-dated credits from U-Hack hackathon to be used for working capital earlier.

  • $3,500 USD for contract audit of Ginseng Swap contracts deployed. The $3,500 USD takes into consideration the $2,000 credit that was won. (i.e. $3,500 is remaining price for audit of both core and periphery contracts)

  • $2,500 USD Additional product features on testnet app (ability for users to increase/decrease liquidity on existing positions)

  • $2,500 USD Visualization of positions / liquidity pools (ability for users to see liquidity positions depth and also the NFTs) - the grant will also support backend development of subgraphs

  • KPIs tracked will be followers on twitter, TVL, liquidity positions created on testnet, # of swaps tested

Team
Currently the team is only Tony Lau - founder of Ginseng Swap. In 2024, I have continued to build on my web3 skillset.

  • Completed Uniswap v4 Incubator successfully - with a v4 hook
  • Based in Toronto but attended multiple developer workshops in Brussels, NY, and Greece specifically for web3
  • Joined multiple hackathons using various protocols which could potentially be incorporated into Ginseng Swap in the future. Winner of several.
  • Produced developer content for Alephium, a layer 1 blockchain
  • Attended buildspace (in San Francisco) with Ginseng Swap - a demonstration of continued commitment to build Ginseng Swap over the last few months
  • Attended conflux workshops in the past and contributed to documentation
  • Twitter: https://x.com/intrepid_crypto

Terms of Use
Confirm that you agree to the terms of use for applying to a Conflux Ecosystem Grant by including the entirety of the following statement and conditions:

I agree to all of the following terms of use in applying to a Conflux Ecosystem Grant

[x] I have read and understood the Conflux Grants Ecosystem Overview
[x] I have read about and understood that the Conflux Technical Grants are subject to a No-Sale rule
[x] I agree to provide KYC information to the Conflux Foundation for the sake of overall ecosystem security
[x] I understand that I will be required to follow public grant reporting requirements

1 Like
【ConfluxNews】2024.9.6 阿里云官宣与Conflux公有链达成合作
#3

Revised video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et9X_D8ZCTk

#4

Some additional revisions on the proposal:

#6

Hey @Ginseng_Swap,

Thanks for you submission and updates.

After reviewing your proposal, I believe that introducing a Uniswap v3 fork could indeed bring value to our ecosystem. However, there are a few points in the current proposal that I think should be reconsidered:

  • The Foundation’s preference is not to allocate funds for testnet deployments. We encourage projects to target mainnet deployment as part of their first milestone.
  • We typically expect grant funds to be directed towards activities that drive direct growth (i.e.: incentives) or building, rather than pre-seed financing.
  • It’s also important to note that LP requirements should not be included as part of a grant proposal.

Given these considerations, we recommend revising your submission before it proceeds to a vote.

#7

Awesome! Thanks I’ll revise based on the above

1 Like
#8

Hi there,

See revised milestones/time-line and grant request. As proposed previously, would be re-purposing/migrating all the remainder of the UHack credits (~$11,000 USD) and it would be replaced with the below. Happy to hear any feedback you may have.

Thanks

Budget

A. Pre-Mainnet Launch ($3,500 USD) - Contract Audit

Milestone A.1 Successful completion of Contract Audit

  • Report to be shared publicly (Complete by October 2024)

B. Mainnet Launch ($30,000 USD broken out to the below)

Milestone B.1 - $4,000 USD - Mainnet Production

  • Listing on Defi Llama
  • Marketing Plan Provided
  • All contracts deployed on mainnet with the functionality to swap, mint/transfer liquidity position, increase/decrease liquidity of existing positions
  • ETA End of October 2024

Milestone B.2 - $1,000 USD

  • +500 followers on X
  • Funds for initial deployment marketing and to support server costs for storing events

Milestone B.3 - $15,000 USD - Liquidity Incentives

  • Once Milestone B.1 has been reached, look to deploy B.2 liquidity incentives. Proceeds of liquidity incentives go directly toward rewarding users/liquidity providers and/or marketing.

Milestone B.4 - $10,000 USD - Additional content production / Marketing to Increase customer base

  • Average monthly transactions of $5M made over 3 months
  • TVL of at least $1M for 3 months
  • Working capital for marketing / events
#9

Thank you for revising your milestones, timeline, and grant request. There are a few areas that would benefit from further clarification:

  • Could you specify which parts of the proposed development elements would be funded by the remaining UHack credits (approximately $11,000 USD), and how these credits will be utilized in the development process? This will help create a more organized picture of how the actual grant funds will be allocated across the milestones.
  • I believe the milestones should be adjusted to better reflect the overall success of the project, rather than just its development progress. In its current form, it’s difficult to track the milestones effectively since KPIs and corresponding grant allocations are not clearly defined. Please provide a more detailed breakdown, including additional milestones and specific details where needed, along with relevant performance KPIs (such as TVL, user base, and transaction #) and timelines. This will offer clearer insights into the project’s progress. I suggest refining this aspect further.
  • Could you expand on your planned marketing activities and explain how the liquidity incentives will be managed? Please outline the objectives and performance KPIs tied to these activities, with a particular focus on user acquisition and TVL growth at each milestone.
  • Are you planning to launch a token?
#10

Thanks for the response.

See below answers:

Could you specify which parts of the proposed development elements would be funded by the remaining UHack credits (approximately $11,000 USD), and how these credits will be utilized in the development process? This will help create a more organized picture of how the actual grant funds will be allocated across the milestones.

This is how the $12,000 USD in remaining UHack credits/awards are planned to be spent

A. Pre-Mainnet Launch

  • $2,000 USD in credits for contract audit - this will be spent alongside the remaining $3,500 USD to complete the contract audit
  • $2,000 USD in google cloud credits - the plan is to use Supabase instead to collect event logs and run an indexer so that users can retrieve their positions quicker. Google Cloud has not been responsive in providing credits for Ginseng Swap and therefore, there is no plan to use Google Cloud vs. Supabase.
  • $4,000 USD in RAK DAO Digital Nomad License for setting up a corporation. RAK DAO has not been responsive in this area with claiming the credits. As such, Ginseng Swap has looked to other jurisdictions and Hong Kong seems interesting. The plan currently is to set up a HK corporation. This is needed for Cyberport and Ginseng Swap has submitted an application for the Cyberport Creative Micro Fund ($100K HKD seed funding). The results of the micro fund are not expected until December 2024. Upon successful application, there would be access to resources to continue growing Ginseng Swap as well as the higher probability of applying to the Cyberport Incubation Programme which includes additional funding and rent-free working space.

B.1 Mainnet Launch

  • $4,000 USD in deploying Ginseng Swap to mainnet. This matches the proposal for Milestone B.1. The plan is to use this for working capital purposes to continue building Ginseng Swap. The proceeds are expected to help offset some of the costs of completing software development, listing on Defi Llama, etc.

The above is the current plan for the remaining $12,000 USD in UHack credits.

I believe the milestones should be adjusted to better reflect the overall success of the project, rather than just its development progress. In its current form, it’s difficult to track the milestones effectively since KPIs and corresponding grant allocations are not clearly defined. Please provide a more detailed breakdown, including additional milestones and specific details where needed, along with relevant performance KPIs (such as TVL, user base, and transaction #) and timelines. This will offer clearer insights into the project’s progress. I suggest refining this aspect further.

Milestone B.2 is to assist with initial marketing costs and ongoing Supabase costs as more events are stored. With $1,000 USD, the main results/success is to increase awareness. The spend of $1,000 USD is planned to be on marketing materials / videos. The issue with tracking social performance is there is often a lot of bots on Discord/Telegram/Twitter that are not representative of actual use. At the same time, number of twitter followers and/or telegram users could be an indicator of the project’s progress. I have increased this to 1,000 followers on X and 500 users on telegram.

Milestone B.2 - $1,000 USD for marketing

  • +1,000 followers on X
  • +500 users on telegram

Could you expand on your planned marketing activities and explain how the liquidity incentives will be managed? Please outline the objectives and performance KPIs tied to these activities, with a particular focus on user acquisition and TVL growth at each milestone.

As it relates to Milestone B.3.

There is a periphery contract for Uniswap v3 that allows you to distribute ERC20 tokens to staked LP positions. For people that have provided liquidity, see contract https://docs.uniswap.org/contracts/v3/reference/periphery/staker/interfaces/IUniswapV3Staker

The plan is to deploy this contract when the liquidity incentive program is ready which allows LP position to be staked and rewards to automatically accrue/and be claimed.

The marketing plan is to promote the liquidity incentives. In general, because the goal of Ginseng Swap is to continue building on the DEX to allow for full-suite stablecoin solution (from off-ramp/on-ramp/interoperability to explore the best infrastructure for redeeming USDC/USDT, etc.), the marketing plan is to have Ginseng Swap at various blockchain events. There are many free side-events for blockchain events but also support programs that Ginseng Swap tends to apply for. For example, HK fintech week is opportunity for partnerships and Ginseng Swap plans to attend. This helps continue building Ginseng Swap as well as marketing.

To make it easier to track project progress, propose to combine Milestone B3. and B4 since they are similar in goal.

Milestone B3 - $15,000 USD - Liquidity Incentives

Success of the liquidity incentives would be as follows:

  • Average monthly transactions of $5M made over 3 months
  • TVL of at least $1M for 3 months

As mentioned the liquidity incentives would be distributed through a periphery staker contract that allows users to deposit their LP positions in return to claiming ERC20 tokens.

Are you planning to launch a token?

Not at the moment. Once the v3 is all set-up, I want to focus on the on-ramp/off-ramp partnerships and making the app mobile friendly.

Hopefully the responses above helps! In summary, the grant proposal is revised to the below with the following KPI. The total grant requested is $23,500 of which the bulk are liquidity incentives for users staking on Ginseng Swap.

A. Pre-Mainnet Launch ($3,500 USD)

  • $2,000 USD in credits for contract audit from UHack - requesting $3,500 USD grant to complete the contract audit
  • KPI: Completion of successful contract audit and publicly uploaded

B. Post-Mainnet Launch ($20,000 USD)

Milestone B.1 - $4,000 USD - Mainnet Production

  • Listing on Defi Llama
  • All contracts deployed on mainnet with the functionality to swap, mint/transfer liquidity position, increase/decrease liquidity of existing positions
  • The amount of $4,000 USD matches the U-Hack award for deploying on mainnet.

Milestone B.2 - $1,000 USD

  • Use of proceeds for increasing awareness
  • Success factor is increased marketing reach measured by followers/users: 1,000 followers on X, 500 users on Telegram

Milestone B.3 - $15,000 USD

  • Given liquidity incentives are provided upfront, it might be difficult to make the grant conditional on the KPIs. But would measure the success of the liquidity incentive program through the following metrics.
  • Average monthly transactions of $5M made over 3 months
  • TVL of at least $1M for 3 months
#11

Thank you for your follow-up. There are a few points that would benefit from additional clarification:

  • Regarding the requested grant for the contract audit: What specific objectives will trigger disbursement?
  • For milestone B.1, I recommend incorporating initial social metrics alongside the mainnet deployment.
  • For milestone B.2 KPIs, I suggest placing greater emphasis on social KPIs and integrating additional performance-based metrics.
  • For milestone B.3, I advise breaking down the $15,000 liquidity incentives into sub-milestones with measurable performance and user-based KPIs to ensure more effective tracking and verification. Additionally, please clarify the timing for each grant allocation and its intended usage.
#12

Thanks for all the feedback and questions.

Here is the response to the latest.

Regarding the requested grant for the contract audit: What specific objectives will trigger disbursement?

The specific objective that trigger disbursement is a satisfactory contract audit that would highlight no material security vulnerabilities. The report provided would be final and not a draft report.

Timing: Mid-October Completion
Intended Usage of $3,500 grant: Contract audit costs

For milestone B.1, I recommend incorporating initial social metrics alongside the mainnet deployment.

Please find revised metrics required for disbursement ($4,000 USD)

  • Listing on Defi Llama
  • All contracts deployed on mainnet with the functionality to swap, mint/transfer liquidity position, increase/decrease liquidity of existing positions
  • 500 followers on X
  • 250 users on Telegram

Timing: End of October 2024 Completion
Use of Grant Proceeds: Software development costs / server costs / initial launch costs

For milestone B.2 KPIs, I suggest placing greater emphasis on social KPIs and integrating additional performance-based metrics.

Milestone B.2 - $1,000 USD Marketing Costs

  • 1,000 followers on X
  • 500 users on telegram
  • Unique Wallets - 100 wallets (assuming 10% conversion on followers on X)
  • Transactions - 200 swap transactions (assuming each wallet does 2 swap transactions)

Expected Completion: Mid-November
Use of Grant Proceeds: Marketing materials, marketing videos, X give-aways

For milestone B.3, I advise breaking down the $15,000 liquidity incentives into sub-milestones with measurable performance and user-based KPIs to ensure more effective tracking and verification.

Revised: $5,000 USD per each liquidity incentive

Milestone of initial $5,000 USD to bootstrap LP liquidity

  • Success of first liquidity incentive, avg TVL of at least $100,000 in a month, a monthly $200k in transaction volume

Milestone of second $5,000 USD to bootstrap LP liquidity

  • Success of second liquidity incentive, avg. TVL of at least $500,000 in a month, a monthly $1 M in transaction volume

Milestone of third $5,000 USD to bootstrap LP liquidity

  • Success of third liquidity incentive, avg. TVL of at least $1 M in a month, a monthly $5 M in transaction volume

Completion Date: Would anticipate that liquidity incentives starting in January 2024 would allow for continued momentum. Use-age of the liquidity incentives is to bootstrap LPs so that swaps can be facilitated on Ginseng Swap.

Additionally, please clarify the timing for each grant allocation and its intended usage

See above