Archived PIVX and BlockDX alliance - Front End Build

[sh_rn]

- Title: PIVX and BlockDX alliance - Front End Build
- Name: pivx-blockdx-ui-dev
- Term: 1
- Cycle Amnt: 40000
- Total Amnt: 40000
- Author: Shorn
- Receiver: Shorn
- Address:
- Created: 30-01-2023
- Status: Active
- Vote hash: 8fe8ebe01447d6d5e991f0f672d1b964b0c8adb27d5b1416bae0e7ed93f78a8c

Hi all,

This proposal aims to continue the BlockDX and PIVX alliance in order to put the DEX development back on track.

The benefits of this alliance for the PIVX community have been discussed before and I think everyone understands that having PIVX listed and trading on an unstoppable, user-friendly DEX is essential for the long-term success of PIVX.

For an overview of the BlockDX project roadmap please see the PDF attached to my previous post here: https://forum.pivx.org/attachments/block_dx_roadmap_-_features_development_overview-pdf.773/

Here is a summary of the UI build task, taken from the roadmap PDF:

Problem Statement:

Block DX is currently written in the Angular framework. With our stated and agreed upon goal of building a lightweight desktop dapp that can also serve as the foundation for a web3.0 version, rewriting Block DX in React JS will enable us to deliver this. The app will be cleaner, lighter, easier to maintain and less bug-prone compared to the existing angular version.

Target Environments:

Modern web browsers (including mobile), linux desktop, windows desktop, mac desktop (standalone apps).

The designs and higher-level planning have been completed, so I'm now hoping to move on to building the new UI. This will significantly improve the user experience and also provide our PIVX marketing team with fresh and exciting content to promote.

Development milestones and goals for this proposal:​

1. BlockDX UI v2.0 - build the new UI in ReactJS

The new UI design is 95% complete and recently I started onboarding an experienced ReactJS developer to the project. This developer is getting familiar with the BlockDX code and understands the goal for this phase. They are ready to start work as soon as we have the funding secured. I recently worked with this developer on another project and found their work to be of excellent quality. They are also very communicative and knowledgeable.

Benefits:

Building the new UI for BlockDX will enable us to relaunch the DEX and start pushing some new marketing campaigns. It not only kickstarts the next phase of the development, but it will also enable us to cross-promote across PIVX and Blocknet socials, and our intention is to feature PIVX prominently in all marketing material.

Funding:​

Total funding requested for this stage: 40,000 PIVX for 1 cycle (4 weeks of full-time dev, part-time PM / QA)

75% - to the front-end developer - I will arrange liquidating the payments weekly as they have asked to be paid in USDC or BTC (they are very new to crypto)
25% - paid to myself for PM and QA, including:

• creating the Github tasks and maintaining the project board
• design QA
• task/code review and QA
• coordination with PIVX marketing team

What’s next?​

Once this UI rebuild is successfully funded and delivered, then the following items will be next on the development roadmap:

• Integrate XLite with BlockDX - combining features into one app (ReactJS, Python, RPC, APIs etc)
• Research support for ERC20 tokens in XBridge (some code already exists for this)

More info to follow for this once the first item is completed.

Important points to note:

1. The timeline for this UI build phase is expected to be no more than 6-8 weeks. It is estimated that the funding requested above will cover most, if not all, the work needed to deliver the front end code. If, however, the project is not completed within this budget then a detailed report of the remaining items will be presented before requesting any further funding.
2. The expected timeline for all the items identified in “Phase 1 - Development Milestones” of the product roadmap document is approx 6 months (at this early stage it is impossible to give a more precise date).

 

[Pivianx]

BEST wishes

 

[PIVX Labs]

AWESOME proposal in terms of having PIVX "pick up" the development funding for a great DEX platform.

There is one thing I'd like to add, though, and apologies if I've missed anything; but from what I see, the only DIRECT benefit PIVX will get from this, is cross-promotion and using PIVX as primary marketing material on Blocknet's side.

If PIVX is funding (part of) BlockDX development, I'd personally like to see a few more benefits to this, some suggestions:
- Encouraging / Incentivising the use of PIVX on Service Nodes.
- Giving PIVX a far higher, if not highest; priority for XLite, in terms of both integration and stability.

Open to discussion about this, and by no means is this a NACK to the proposal, I back it! I just feel the benefits for PIVX are rather insignificant, aside from the obvious gain of an amazing Atomic Swap DEX with an improved UI.

 

[Cryptosi]

95% complete? I know you have some saxxy Screenshots to tease us with. Would love to see them.

I remember we had a UI/UX build for a similar fee about 4 years ago, so this is VERY good value. Also I like that the person incharge of PIVX brand is heading this up as it ensures continuity.

Finally I really like the 25% for PM and QA, I feel this should be the standard way proposals are put forward when the proposer and the 'dev' are seperate so that both are incentivised.

Great work, looking forward to seeing this in the wild - GOOD JOB

 

[Jeffrey]

AWESOME proposal in terms of having PIVX "pick up" the development funding for a great DEX platform.

There is one thing I'd like to add, though, and apologies if I've missed anything; but from what I see, the only DIRECT benefit PIVX will get from this, is cross-promotion and using PIVX as primary marketing material on Blocknet's side.

If PIVX is funding (part of) BlockDX development, I'd personally like to see a few more benefits to this, some suggestions:
- Encouraging / Incentivising the use of PIVX on Service Nodes.
- Giving PIVX a far higher, if not highest; priority for XLite, in terms of both integration and stability.

Open to discussion about this, and by no means is this a NACK to the proposal, I back it! I just feel the benefits for PIVX are rather insignificant, aside from the obvious gain of an amazing Atomic Swap DEX with an improved UI.

I agree with this 100%. If PIVX is funding the development and essentially the creation of this amazing DEX, a priority should be given to everything PIVX related.

 

[Gerrald]

Gotta agree with everyone's comments. No incentive for pivx to pay for a platform which will hopefully have lots of coins and tokens on including pivx.

 

[Eric_Stanek]

Gotta agree with everyone's comments. No incentive for pivx to pay for a platform which will hopefully have lots of coins and tokens on including pivx.

That statement makes no sense. Everyone else agrees that PIVX should do this. You say there is no incentive. That is a contradiction.

Imagine getting to the point, where every single coin, has PIVX as a trading pair, allowing those coins lacking privacy, to jump into and then out of PIVX to break the trail. It will dramatically increase trading volume, and expose many people to PIVX. Heck, they may decide that holding PIVX to earn rewards is a great idea. That will increase demand.

Would love to hear other ways to tightly integrate with PIVX, like connecting it to MPW so that inside MPW itself, a user can exchange to another coin, or perhaps pay for something using PIVX, when the 3rd party actually only accepts BTC etc. letting MPW or another app, just exchange in the background.

 

[Gerrald]

"If PIVX is funding (part of) BlockDX development, I'd personally like to see a few more benefits to this"

"I agree with this 100%. If PIVX is funding the development and essentially the creation of this amazing DEX, a priority should be given to everything PIVX related."

OK most of the posts bar Carl's.

Imagine? There's no need to imagine as that is not what is being proposed. Pivx will not be the main trading coin and multiple coins and tokens will be added aswell.

PIVX is just footing the bill to finish off the platform which is questionable it will actually be worthwhile for PIVX. I see no benefit bar being added to a dex that isn't finished at a huge fee.

 

[Eric_Stanek]

You may be right. It may fail. But, should we just get onto ONE DEX then and hope it will be a popular successful one? Our plan is to do what it takes to get listed on MANY DEXs. Right now, there are only 3 or 4 true DEXs. More will come.

There is much not mentioned in the proposal, because it is one step of many. Please see the Road Map linked in the proposal and the 'Important Points' at the end.

 

[sh_rn]

Thanks for the feedback and comments everyone. I appreciate the time you’ve taken to ask questions, and the suggestions being made.

First, on @PIVX Labs point of “Encouraging / Incentivising the use of PIVX on Service Nodes.” There is currently not much of an incentive for someone to run a SNode, given that the fees earned from trades on the platform are pretty much zero. But it wasn’t always like this ofc. The BlockDX has seen over $3 million in total trading volume since it was launched, and my goal with this proposal is to kickstart the development again so we can start seeing those kind of numbers again.

The direct incentive for SNode owners to run PIVX is simple in that whenever PIVX is being traded, a random SNode earns the fees. With enough volume, its a decent incentive to fire up a SNode and make sure PIVX is available on it.

And we are also enabling SNode owners to deploy PIVX a lot easier by including it in the SNode “auto-deployer” tool. We have recently been working to update the tool to support v5.5.0 and it will soon be available to all SNode ops to easily update.

In regards to “Giving PIVX a far higher, if not highest; priority for XLite, in terms of both integration and stability.” I’m not sure this is technically possible, nor would it really achieve anything for PIVX. The wallet only has 7 supported assets, and PIVX being one of those shows the Blocknet teams intentions already! When XLite is finally back online again, and the wallet is running on the SNode network, then PIVX will be able to be traded for BTC without having to download the PIVX or BTC core wallets.

Cross promotion will definitely benefit both teams, that’s for sure, but PIVX equally has a lot to gain here by simply being able to promote a real-world product that has a huge potential reach, and one that actually has very low development costs, given that a lot of the work has already been done by the Blocknet team.

Hey @Jeffrey , “the creation of this amazing DEX” was actually done more than 3 years ago! It had tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on it by the previous Blocknet team (yeah I know it still looks and feels clunky even after that!), but the money was arguably not prioritised in the right places. Development has also really slowed down in the last two years due to some technical debt (in the XBridge protocol) and Blocknets focus on a new product.

My hope with this “kickstart funding” from the PIVX treasury is that the Blocknet DAO is also able to contribute more funding, as the interest in BlockDX starts to grow again. We’ll have to wait and see if that happens of course, but PIVX will always be foremost in our plans when we are discussing how to promote and market the progress we are hoping to make.

If anyone has any other suggestions on how to improve the positioning and marketing of PIVX with this funding proposal, then please let me know, either here or in the PIVX Discord (shorn#3406).

Thanks everyone!

ps @Cryptosi here's the latest screens prepared for the React developer so you can check them out too! https://scene.zeplin.io/project/63bc19e1d8ec139181f954b7/screen/63bff2fa6b3e650d5d92ed17
pps @Gerrald it might seem like a "huge fee" but in my experience this is actually a low and reasonably priced proposal for a UI build of this complexity and quality. If you have suggestions on where this money would be better spent I'm happy to hear them

 

[Eric_Stanek]

Posting this here, in case people think getting on other DEXs is 'easy'.

Summary: The Shape Shift system is incredibly complex, and I am guessing it is a YEAR before PIVX gets added.

So, we have learned a lot about getting added to ShapeShift.
PIVX Labs spent a tons of time doing work to be added. They have a PR ready.
We were ignored in their Discord. We politely asked again. Then again.
They did explain that there is some additional infrastructure that needs to be setup.
The implication was, we could pay them to do it, or we could do it for them.
Well, when asked, we were given zero feedback about the cost for them to do it, or where there was documentation for us to do it.
We politely asked again. Then again.
Finally I 'poked' them, and we got a response.
Turns out there is very little that is 'decentralized' about getting listed.
Sure - there is a vote for what gets done next, but they have so much on their roadmap, it is hard to even see what coin/token projects are next, let alone being able to see that the road map items relate to a crypto exchange.

If anyone has further questions, probably best you join the Shape Shift Discord and go to the 'Partner-Potential' channel and the PIVX thread inside there.

 

[Cryptosi]

Posting this here, in case people think getting on other DEXs is 'easy'.

Summary: The Shape Shift system is incredibly complex, and I am guessing it is a YEAR before PIVX gets added.

So, we have learned a lot about getting added to ShapeShift.
PIVX Labs spent a tons of time doing work to be added. They have a PR ready.
We were ignored in their Discord. We politely asked again. Then again.
They did explain that there is some additional infrastructure that needs to be setup.
The implication was, we could pay them to do it, or we could do it for them.
Well, when asked, we were given zero feedback about the cost for them to do it, or where there was documentation for us to do it.
We politely asked again. Then again.
Finally I 'poked' them, and we got a response.
Turns out there is very little that is 'decentralized' about getting listed.
Sure - there is a vote for what gets done next, but they have so much on their roadmap, it is hard to even see what coin/token projects are next, let alone being able to see that the road map items relate to a crypto exchange.

If anyone has further questions, probably best you join the Shape Shift Discord and go to the 'Partner-Potential' channel and the PIVX thread inside there.

The Issue is, Shapeshift has volume, BlockDX does not, and that is the KEY factor. We had similar issues with regular Cexs also, we could get onto the ones with no volume easily, but gettin onto Poloniex was impossible.

The counter argument is that we pushed BITTREX to becoming a decent exchange almost single handedly by providing the majority of their volume for days/weeks/months. However when its all said and done, Bittrex now owes us nothing and will do nothing to benefit PIVX. At best we are in a similar situation now, perhaps more should be discussed about how to maintain some of the value we are creating within our own project? https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/dif-election-2023-candidate-q-a-thread.53524/ this is how DASH have formalised an investment foundation perhaps something similar could be done here, with a portion of BLOCK being given to a PIVX focused treasury of some kind? BLOCKDX will have their own whales, where are they in all of this?

 

[Eric_Stanek]

BlockDX has had HUGE PIVX volume in the past. ShapeShift never has.
Just today, a BlockNet Whale came forward to fund this proposal. So, we can re-evaluate our involvement when it is complete.
A 'formalized an investment foundation' is a legal entity, which is centralization. Really doubt that would fly in PIVX.

 

[Cryptosi]

BlockDX has had HUGE PIVX volume in the past. ShapeShift never has.
Just today, a BlockNet Whale came forward to fund this proposal. So, we can re-evaluate our involvement when it is complete.
A 'formalized an investment foundation' is a legal entity, which is centralization. Really doubt that would fly in PIVX.

There can always be more than 1. PIVX can have multiple investment foundations, in which case its, distributed at worst, decentralised (with a little pinch of salt)