RFI – Zcash full node DApp on Avado

[bloxster]

Background

Avado is a device that run DApps that don’t need any Command Line Interface, and make available to a large public the possibility of running an own node for a variety of blockchain.

https://ava.do/

Following is a list of already available DApps on Avado:
Blockchain nodes: Mysterium VPN node, Bitcoin Core Node, Monero node, Ethereum node (Geth, Teku ETH2 Beacon Chain validator, Nethermind), Rocketpool node, HOPR client, Swarm node, NEAR validator
Proof of Stake blockchains: Qtum, Gnosis, Avalanche, Ethereum 2.0
Blockchain testnets: Kovan, Goerli
Crypto Tools: Rotki (open source portfolio), MyCrypto Wallet, ENS Resolver.

Note that there are already privacy protocols such as Monero and Mysterium VPN using Avado to improve UX and decentralization.

From Avado Wiki: https://wiki.ava.do/en/developers/building-an-avado-package

“AVADO devices are used in more than 60 countries on all continents. Even though this means a very diverse culture of our users, we do find that our users all share the same motivation why they bought the AVADO. They are looking for privacy and convenience!
Privacy is given by running their own device, but convenience really comes from how easy the DApp is to be used.”

There are active Telegram chats for user support so that anyone can run an Avado device without having any particular skill. The Avado basic unit costs $1’600.

For example, if Tornado Cash had developed an app for Avado, every user using these devices would be able to still use Tornado Cash protocol (without any CLI skill), no matter Infura is not supporting it anymore.

Request

Fund a developer who can create a DApp running Zcashd (in my guessing the best client for this purpose) on Avado and maintain it.

As an additional request, which could help a lot launching this initiative, consider sponsoring a ZEC donation to every new device purchaser. Gnosis did so to promote the Gnosis staking, by paying out 4 GNO to every new unit bought both for Avado and Dappnode.
ZCG could give away some ZEC (e.g. 10,5 ZEC, to own half a 100’000th of the total supply or just 2.1 ZEC) to the people buying a new Avado or Dappnode device.

Benefits

With a Zcash DApp on Avado there would be the following benefits for the users:

• Allowing any individual to run a Zcash full node 24/7 without any hassle;
• Submitting his transaction privately by connecting to his own node without running Zcashd on a PC.

and for the network:

• Contributing to the decentralization and resilience of the Zcash network. There are already more than 2’000 Avado units running around the world (not sure about Dappnode);
• Spreading the word about Zcash to the wide Avado device owners;
• Increase the user base.

Amount of work needed

According to the Avado Telegram it would need 2-3 days to implement a Zcash DApp on Avado. Maintenance must also be considered since Avado users expect to have the latest client release. For reference, here is the official link for building an Avado package using the Avado SDK (link) and some documentation for Dappnode (link).

In total I estimate a 1 week work for a coder + any eventual ZEC donation campaign to new device owners.

Disclosure

I am an Avado device owner.

Oct 2 EDIT: Zcashd is already available on Dappnode, so this RFP is now narrowed to Avado only. Thanks to @hanh for highlighting this package and testing it.

EDIT 2: This RFP might be considered as the application of the official RFP Run Your Own Zcash Node targeting a specific device vendor.

[bloxster]

Hi @ZcashGrants,
a month has passed since this post and yet I haven’t received a single comment from ZCG, wether positive or negative. How does the grant process works? I couldn’t find a link that explain in detail how proposal are evaluated and according to which schedule ZCG meeting occur. Maybe there is a long queue and I am the last one in the line, but any explanation is highly appreciated.

[hanh]

There seems to be a package for zcash already. GitHub - dappnode/DAppNodePackage-zcash: Zcash is a privacy-protecting, digital currency built on strong science.

Are you looking for a maintainer/champion?

[bloxster]

I didn’t know there was already an existing package for Dappnode, looks great!

What I am asking for is:

1. A mantainer, as you suggested, both for Dappnode and Avado
2. A package that is easy to install just out of the box for Avado / dappnode with no need to interact with CLI. Maybe with the above package it is really easy to install Zcash on Avado, but not for a user like me since I need a full tutorial and package ready to install by Avado interface.
3. An opinion about a promotional campaign like Gnosis did.

[aquietinvestor]

Hi @bloxster. Sorry for the delay, and thank you for the feedback. We’re working on improving our communication on the forum and will be more responsive going forward. We will review your RFP submission at our meeting this Friday and follow up with you early next week.

Please see the following link for an overview of how the grant process works: Grant Process | Zcash Community Grants.

Please note that Requests for Proposals (RFPs) follow a slightly different process than grant proposals. RFPs are for specific projects ZCG or community members want to see get funded, and seek to solicit bids from developers interested in working on that project. So, the first step would be for a developer to submit a proposal in response to your RFP, either directly in this thread or via DM @ZcashGrants. If only one submission is received, the review process will be identical to the grant process outlined above. However, if there are multiple submissions, then ZCG will review the proposals and make a selection based on an evaluation of the following criteria:

Criteria	Standard	Weighting Factor
Cost	Does the Grantee(s) provide a cost proposal that is deemed reasonable for the complexity of the work to be undertaken? Does it provide “value for money”?	4
Personnel Qualifications	Do the assigned personnel have the skills and experience to produce the project’s desired outcome? Have personnel demonstrated success in these roles with documented examples of direct experience with this type of work?	3
Project Approach	Does the Proposal approach show an understanding of project constraints and meet the project objectives? Do the proposed work hours accurately reflect the level of effort required to complete each Project task? Does the Proposal approach demonstrate an efficient, reliable plan of progression and achievable timeline?	3

The criteria scale ranges from 1 to 10: 1 is poor, 5 is average, and 10 is outstanding. Criteria will be multiplied by the associated weight to give a weighted score, which will be summed for a cumulative score. The maximum possible cumulative score is 100.

[bloxster]

Hi @aquietinvestor ,
and thank you so much for your answer and for giving me a quick explanation of how the process works. If I understood well now we need one or more capable devs posting some proposal on how he will fulfill the grant, and then ZCG will evaluate who fits the grant best.
I will enter in contact with the Avado community and hope to get someone from their team involved.

Thank you also for your commitment to improve the ZCG communication, it is highly appreciated. All I expect now is a feedback on the RFP submission after your meeting.

[BrunchTime]

Hello @bloxster!

First off, thanks for your thoughtful work on this. We value your energy and appreciate the contribution.

We talked about this in our most recent meeting (and a meeting ~a month ago, sorry for not following up here at the time), and we’re generally positive on the idea, but it’s not a mega priority for us at the moment to get a single home node vendor to support ZEC. That said, it’s on our radar, and something we may target with an RFP in the future.

If you have/make a good contact in the world of Avado, we think that has value and is a great next step. We’d definitely love to see a grant from them.

[bloxster]

Thank you @BrunchTime and all ZCG members for reviewing this RFP. I understand that a single node vendor is not a top priority and I respect any future decision, but let’s not underestimate about 2’000 devices already running around the world.

Anyhow, I made contact with an Avado dev and he should post a proposal in a couple of weeks.

[hanh]

Btw, have you tried the existing package? It seems to work fine and you can install it from the UI.

[bloxster]

hello @hanh ,
unfortunately I don’t own a Dappnode device so I can’t test it, but I am happy to see that you already did it and it’s working. I will therefore remove edit the OP and remove Dappnode from the RFP.

Thank you again for your insight and my apologies for not investigating into this before.

Looks so cool I really want it on Avado too !

[j32804]

Hey @bloxster it’s a really good idea about Avado, pity it’s not a megapriority for the grants thing rn.

I have a question that might be a little bit offtopic, but since the health of the network seems to be your thing: have you tried setting up a zcash node on ARM? I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m planning to. Looking at this: Zcashd & Zcash-cli on Raspberry Pi — Zcash Documentation 5.2.0 documentation it says “best effort supported” so I’m curious to know how tricky it is from the peeps who tried.

[hanh]

Pretty easy. I recommend using another computer for building and initial sync as doing these tasks on the raspberry pi will be extremely slow.

[bloxster]

dear all,
an update about this RFI is due.

I have been in contact with the developer in the past months and he is been quietly building the Zcash package for Avado even before submitting his proposal; basicly because he is more keen on working than doing paperworks.

So the package is running on my Avado device but we can’t figure out how to configure the RPC daemon; I tried to connect my ZecWallet Lite in many ways but none of the addresses I provided could work. Can someone form the community (or even from ECC) help us in figuring how to configure it? Here are the sources:

https://github.com/heeckhau/AVADO-DNP-Zcash

If there is anything I can do to help with my Avado I am fully available.

(Once we get everything working I hope the dev shows up here for some compensation).

[Autotunafish]

I may not be in full understanding of what you’re doing but i would assume you would need a lightwalletd server to talk to the full node and connect your zecwallet lite to lightwalletd.

[bloxster]

yep, that’s what I am trying to do. I have my Avado running Zcashd and Zecwallet Lite running on my PC; when I try to configure a local server and restart Zecwallet Lite to connect to the new server it gives me an error. We don’t understand what is the correct address of the RPC we should use.

[Autotunafish]

Let me get a zecwallet light and lightwalletd server tutorial so you can set it up properly, hang on

[Autotunafish]

Internal addresses start 127 so does 127.0.0.1:9067 work? Thats what the zecwallet cli docs describe it should be

GitHub - adityapk00/zecwallet-light-cli: Zecwallet Lightclient Library and...

[hanh]

This deploys a zcashd node but you also need a lightwalletd server.

[Autotunafish]

Yes zcashd, lightwalletD and zecwallet lite are 3 seperate programs in case there was any confusion