Nighthawk Wallet Maintenance and Self-Funding Improvements

Community Grants Applications
1

Title:

Nighthawk Wallet Maintenance and Self-Funding Improvements

Applicant name:

Nighthawk Apps

Team member name:

Aditya Bharadwaj

Team member name:

Matthew Watt

Team member name:

Mandeep Bhalothia

Team member name:

Dmytrii Gonchar

Pitch: A one-liner elevator pitch version of your proposal

1 Year Nighthawk Wallet Maintenance and Self-Funding Improvements

Total Request (USD):

$180000.00 USD

Have you previously received a grant from Zcash Community Grants (formerly called ZOMG) or ZF?

Yes

Please provide details:

Nighthawk Apps has been working on developing the updated Nighthawk Wallet & Public Infrastructure

Are you seeking or have you received funding from other sources for this proposed project?

No

Applicant background:

We are Nighthawk Apps, the creators of Nighthawk Wallet and public goods for the Zcash ecosystem - lightwallted.com and ZcashBlockExplorer.com

The Wallet developers’ backgrounds are as follows:

Matthew Watt https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgwatt/

Mandeep Bhalothia https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandeepbhalothia/

Dmytrii Gonchar https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgonchar/

Description of Problem or Opportunity:

As a Zcash-focused native wallet for Android and iOS platforms, Nighthawk must remain updated with the evolving mobile ecosystem and deliver exceptional end-user support. This proposal aims to fund one year of maintenance, app updates, and user support/help, ensuring the continued success and satisfaction of our users.

Additionally, we propose to build a self-funding feature that will allow Nighthawk users to fund its developers by tipping a part of the transaction amount(customizable).

Last year, we successfully delivered several app updates, fixes, and new developments without any external funding:

  • Released 9 app updates with bug fixes on both Android and iOS platforms.

  • Conducted a prototype and user study involving Zcash-based currencies, including ZEC, DECIZEC, CENTZ, MILLIZEC, ZED, and MICROZatoshi.

  • Implemented the integration of Unstoppable Domains support.

  • Enabled translations from contributors by setting up CrowdIn.

  • Added support for Android 13 and iOS 16.

  • Published the iOS app on the Mac App Store, allowing it to be used on ARM-based computers.

  • Implemented a secure PDF wallet backup feature for Android users.

  • Provided comprehensive end-user support through public channels (such as Twitter) and private channels (such as email and z2z).

This year, our team has undergone a thorough onboarding process for native app developers and kickstarted development, focusing on revamping wallets in accordance with our roadmap. Funding these items will ensure continuous development and support for the wallet apps even after the release of the final milestone.

Proposed Solution: Describe the solution at a high level.

A) 1 Year Maintenance of Nighthawk Wallet covering (but not limited to):

  • Support updated Zcash Protocol / Network Rules

  • Support for Android 15 & iOS 18 platforms (mid-2024)

  • Minor Improvements e.g. Dynamic Island on iOS, SideShift deep integration in the wallet

  • Responding to audit reports and fixes, if necessary

  • User Support on Twitter and Email

  • Bug-fixes

  • App updates

It does not encompass substantial modifications to the SDK, except for bug fixes through pull requests, nor does it include the development of new features such as support for a new pool, ZSAs, or Shielded Swaps.

B) Utilize ZIP-321 to allow users to show their support for the wallet developers by providing an option to make a payment as a tip when conducting outgoing fund transfers.

The funding will be contingent upon the successful release of Nighthawk Wallet’s final milestone by September 2023.

Solution Format: What is the exact form of the final deliverable you’re creating?

We will provide monthly updates on the forum, addressing bug fixes and implementing additional improvements, following the monthly cadence established in 2022.

Technical Approach: Dive into the how of your project. Describe your approaches, components, workflows, methodology, etc. Bullet points and diagrams are appreciated!

A combination of native Android development in Kotlin and native iOS development in Swift.

Dependencies: What external entities is your project dependent on? What involvement is required from ZF, ECC, and/or other external organizations? Who would have to incorporate your work in order for it to be usable?

Any required custom modifications to the SDK will be integrated by forking the ECC Mobile SDKs, thereby reducing dependency.

Execution risks: What obstacles do you expect? What is most likely to go wrong? Which unknown factors could jeopardize success? Who would have to incorporate your work in order for it to be usable?

To avoid the potential challenges of publishing on US-based stores and potential regulatory policies impacting crypto wallets, we can ensure the ongoing availability of our work through the F-Droid Store.

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2

just saw on twitter that finally after 10 months of no wallet update (sad) the new wallet version seems to be coming out. excited to try it out soon then. hope its well done as the screenshots seem nice.

i thought you got the funding at beginning of year for the whole 2023 or was it for less time?

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Don’t get me wrong, I have zero experience in blockchain development/writing wallet apps, but as a dev myself, how on earth can maintaining an already developed app cost 180k/yr?

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  • User Support on Twitter and Email, ofc! :laughing:

It also seems like this grant is a “us too” response to @hanh 's recent proposal: YWallet Maintenance and Minor Improvements

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5

nasty

The biggest lapse of ZCG decision making was approving NightHawks outrageous grant.

Has the new updated wallet shipped yet that your require 1 year maintenance?

I put forward my own proposal to ZCG:

Can ZCG formally withdraw funding for NightHawk as they have proven to be a bad faith contributor to the Zcash eco-system and dont add any value?

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This has been one of the only shielded wallets for quite some time now. There were times when ZecWallet was not working and this was. It’s has been a useful tool for Zcash power users

What about Thor Chain integration what is the status on this ?

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7

I’ve always found Nighthawk to be completely unusable. Sync times were horrendous (over 4g, 5g, or Wifi) even before the spam issue.

It’s even painful to sync a 12 month old wallet with Ywallet over Wifi on a mobile device.

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If you use the wallet often sync becomes less of an issue. I get where you are coming from, its can be slow on data connection but for me WiFi works much better now days.

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Also takes up HUGE amount of storage space

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While we are on this topic, I have been trying to find the latest updates on the Thorchain project that @NighthawkApps is building AFAIK. The proposal I saw looked great and I have been really excited about the propsect of connecting Zcash to more chains.

Unfortunately I think the timeline of the original proposal has now passed already, but I still have hope there has actually been work done behind the scenes - would love to have it open sourced!

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Hi everyone. Just a reminder to please treat grantees with respect and provide constructive feedback on grant proposals. ZCG wants to ensure the forum is a welcoming place for prospective and current grantees. Please review our Communication Guidelines for more information:

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Hey @zerodartz, I appreciate your enthusiasm in following our updates! After working on a significant revamp of the app architectures, we are nearing the completion of our final milestone for this year. The funding we received earlier this year covered the development and deployment of the product. This proposal aims to support maintenance and user assistance until October 2024, including the development of a self-funding mechanism that allows users to directly tip wallet developers for ongoing maintenance.

Thank you for your question, @chmod. In today’s market, an experienced mobile developer can cost up to $180k per year, and there are additional onboarding costs associated with familiarizing developers with crypto and Zcash. Having a dedicated team of experts who are already contributing to the wallet is a significant advantage when it comes to providing app updates and resolving user-reported issues. As outlined in the proposal, supporting newer operating system releases, adapting to changes in publishing platforms such as the App Store and Play Store, and providing regular security updates are crucial for mission-critical software like Zcash. We are committed to ensuring our users can rely on the ZEC apps, and these efforts require dedicated developer time. Our team is ready to serve on a part-time basis considering the prevailing market conditions.

@pkr, Yes! Twitter and Email have been the primary channels where most of our user base (especially those new to ZEC) feel comfortable seeking product support. Given the presence of various ambassador groups and Discords, it’s essential for us to be accessible and address any issues users may encounter while using Nighthawk Wallet.

@Blazin8888, we appreciate your feedback. I have reached out to our engineers for an update, and we look forward to sharing the status of Thorchain development in the upcoming Nighthawk Q2 Report. To stay up to date with the latest developments, I recommend joining the Thorchain Discord and engaging in discussions in the #zcash channel.

At a high level, as a team with long-term plans for Zcash, our incentives align with seeing ZEC swaps go live on Thorchain rather than simply fulfilling the milestone requirements and submitting the necessary Pull Requests to Thorchain repositories. With Milestones 3 and 4 in progress parallelly, our timeline has been affected by an increasing list of dependencies, the disruption caused by the spam attack, and losing access to open Zcash APIs provided by sochain, so we extended ZcashBlockExplorer.com to support testnet and mainnet services required by the integration. We had to shift our focus to finalize the ZIP-317 transaction fee proposal to ensure ZEC swaps happen as expected on the Thorchain network, ultimately improving the user experience. We have taken responsibility for this integration, along with all the comms with the Thorchain developer ecosystem, validators, and integrators, and have ongoing research to offer swaps within the Nighthawk Wallet.

@JoakimEQ , I understand your interest in finding Zcash projects to contribute to. Are you attending Zcon4 in person or virtually? Make sure to check out my wallet working session with Pacu, where we will discuss opportunities for developers to step up and contribute. There is a lot of tooling that needs to be built out to make ZEC integration easier. Also, great job on completing the UniFFI work!

@gottabeJay :heart_hands: We’re working hard to make it available soon. Stay tuned for updates! Thank you for your patience! :pray:

Hey @kowalabearhugs, Thank you for your feedback! I understand the frustration caused by the spam attack, slow sync, and large disk space requirements over the past year. We are determined to deliver a polished, open-sourced, community-run wallet that differs from what the Zcash user base is accustomed to. We strive to meet the expectations of new users by adhering to mobile design standards and incorporating the high-security standards established by ECC driven Wallet App Threat Model. The new version of the app works much better with the updated Zcash SDKs, even on a wireless LTE connection, the download and sync mechanisms have been improved. The full spectrum of DAGSync improvements is yet to ship; for now, the syncing occurs while downloading, with 10 blocks streaming at a time. The experience is much smoother, and we can’t wait to release the app and see it in the hands of Zcashers!

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Here is an email sent out by Google Play Developer Program today. Reviewing and responding to such demands is an example of publishing-related tasks that will be covered under this grant.

Hello Google Play Developer,

We strive to make Google Play the safest and most trusted experience possible. To that end, we regularly update our policies. You can find the details of the latest changes to our policies, including deadlines, in our Policy Center.
You’ll have at least 30 days from the date of this notification, unless noted otherwise here, to comply with the following policy changes:
New policies

To give developers more control over where their apps appear, we’re updating our Device and Network Abuse policy to state that all apps running On-device Android Containers, which simulate all or portions of the Android OS, must respect the new REQUIRE_SECURE_ENV flag. Apps can add this flag to their manifest to indicate they don't want to be run in an On-device Android Container.
We’re introducing the Blockchain-based content policy that states developers must complete a declaration for apps that enable users to transact blockchain-based digital content. Additional requirements apply for NFT gamification to promote user transparency and safety.
We’re adding new guidelines to our Deceptive Behavior policy to provide guidance on “non-transparent behavior.” Developers must make the app’s functionality clear to users. We’re also emphasizing that techniques to evade app reviews are not allowed.
We’re introducing new requirements under our Personal Loans policy to state that personal loan apps operating in Thailand must provide documentation demonstrating their capacity to offer or assist with personal loans within the country.

Policy updates

To boost trust and transparency on Google Play, we’re updating our Play Console Requirements policy to expand what developer verification is required to publish apps. Developers must verify their account information to make their app available to users. If registering as an organization, developers must ensure their account information is up to date and consistent with the details stored on their Dun & Bradstreet profile. This update will roll out to new developer accounts first. Existing developers will receive more information in October.
To keep Google Play safe and secure for users, we’re updating our Financial Services policy to mandate that any app containing financial features must submit the financial features declaration form, along with supplementary information and documentation.
We're updating the list of example APIs or SDKs that are not approved for use in apps that solely target children as part of our Families APIs and SDKs policy.
We’re updating the Request Install Package Permission policy to expand the permitted functionalities to include companion apps used to sync Android phones to wearables or IoT devices.
We’re updating the VPN policy to emphasize that VpnService cannot be used to engage in ad fraud.
We’re updating our Real-Money Gambling, Games, and Contests policy to reflect completion of the Online Crane Games pilot program in Japan. Beginning July 12, 2023, Online Crane Game apps may be listed on Google Play globally subject to applicable law and certain requirements, including a declaration form.

Additionally, we’ve added clarifications to some of our existing policies. Because this policy isn’t new or updated, our enforcement standards and practices for this policy remain the same.

We’re updating our SDK Requirements to include guidelines for a recently announced Deceptive Behavior policy update.
We’re updating the examples in our Tobacco and Alcohol policy to clarify our existing policy.
We’re centralizing existing ads requirements to make it easier for you to find this information.

Reminders

As of August 2, 2023, all new apps must use Play Billing Library version 5 or newer. By November 1, 2023, all updates to existing apps must use Play Billing Library version 5 or newer. Learn more
As of August 31, 2023, new apps and app update submissions must target API level 33 (Wear OS must target API 30). Existing apps must target API level 31 or newer to remain available to new users on devices running Android OS higher than your app's target API level. To save time and effort, you can use the new SDK Upgrade Assistant in Android studio. You will also be able to request an extension to November 1, 2023 if you need more time to update your app. Learn more
The declaration form for apps that target Android 14 and above to declare foreground services (FGS) for appropriate use cases will now be available in October. You’ll have until January 31, 2024 to receive feedback and make adjustments. Learn more
We introduced a new account deletion requirement earlier this year. If your app allows users to create an account, then it must also allow users to request for their account to be deleted in the app and through a web resource. All developers must update their Data safety form in Play Console, where some information may be displayed on your app’s Data safety section on Google Play. You have until December 7, 2023 to comply. If you need more time, you can request an extension to May 31, 2024. Learn more and watch our RePlay video.
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Thank you for the response! --what is their Discord link? I cant find an active one anywhere

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@aiyadt, At the most recent meeting, the @ZcashGrants Committee unanimously voted to reject this proposal. The meeting minutes will contain more details on how the decision was made and will be posted by early next week.

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