Grant Proposal - tProof

Project Title
tProof

Description
tProof is a service to generate decentralized proof of timestamp. With our dApp anyone can certify a file exists prior to a given date. This is particular important in different areas, for example:

  • Courts and lawsuits: if challenged to prove a certification was made before a certain date, you can either rely on central entities, or on a decentralized solution like tProof
  • IP Protection: while filing a patent, or to record that a document was owned by you, you can generate a tProof and store it with you
  • dApp UI deployments: every time a new dApp UI build is completed, a tProof of the build files can be made. If a DNS hijacking happens, with a simple browser plugin we could perform a check and avoid users being scammed

Manifesto/Vision
tProof wants to create a reference among proof of timestamps management, becoming a reference point with its unique way of handling generated proofs, entering the multi billion dollars space of certifications.

Problem
Certify that a digital document (any file) existed at or before a given date. This problem is often crucial in legal causes, when a party has to demonstrate a document or a digital resource was in his possession at or before a given date.

Solution
We certify a file exists at a given time by publishing the hash of a given file on chain. When the block containing the hash is minted, the timestamp of the block identifies the date at which the certification has been approved.
For what concern the hash, we have adopted the standard SHA-256 hash, so that the risk of collision is negligible.
To simplify the management of generated proofs, each one is treated as a standard ERC-721 token (NFT). In this way the proof is tradable, movable and easily viewable.
The hash says nothing about the actual content of the file. While the file can be stored privately, it can also be made public (on a permaweb, currently supported Arweave). In this way the public URL of the public file is added to the NFT proof metadata. Due to the decentralized approach, to make sure the file at given URL matches the hash, a Chainlink Oracle is used.

Product Features

  • Decentralized: anyone can interact with our smart contract to generate a tProof
  • NFT based: this makes the management of proofs easier and more practical, while integrating in multiple existing tools
  • Multi-chain: the protocol is studied to support multiple chain, while keeping unique IDs among the different chains. Initially Ethereum and Polygon will be supported
  • File management: files can be kept private or public, based on the needs

Validation
While the project has been created by us due to a need we encountered (publish a DAO agreement), we’ve been talking with different people from different areas. Most interesting talks have been from lawyer firms, saying that this could be the first real life use case that can massively enter their space.

Progress
Currently a fully working beta is available on Goerli testnet.
we’re now raising funds to bootstrap the project.

Differentiation (from other projects)

  • Better standard management of generated proofs by adopting ERC-721 standard
  • Single contract managing multiple certifications, rather than deploy your own contract every time
  • Ability to publish a file while keeping the solution decentralized (thanks to Chainlink Oracles)
  • Multi-chain support with the same standard

Team

  • Aleixo - Solidity developer since 2 yrs and endless curious about new things, currently working as freelancer. Previously 8 yrs as Cloud Solution Architect, mainly on AWS services.
  • Frenk - Solidity developer and Cloud Architect. Passionate about performances, fine-tuning and big data analytics. Currently working as freelancer, previously worked as Cloud Architect for 4 yrs.

Grant Request $
97,000$

What the Funds Are For
Bootstrap the project, finding the

Help Requested
We would love to discuss further with members of the MolochDAO about anything activities that could make us more known in the space, like taking part to Twitter spaces, podcast, etc.

Additional Resources, Links, Portfolio
Website: tproof.io
Working Demo (Goerli Testnet): app.tproof.io
Medium: @tproofio
Twitter: @tproofio

Missing the full answer about:

What the Funds Are For
Bootstrap the project, finding the right audience:

  • Team & Development - 31,000$
  • Communication and marketing - 35,000$
  • Events and promotion activities - 21,500$
  • Lawyer & Basic legal stuff - $9,500

These funds are needed mainly for two reasons:

  • Project launch on mainnet and initial adoption
  • Prove business model is sustainable

While these funds are planned to last 4-6 months, we’re planning to raise more funds through a decentralized sales of tokens (NFT collection). Benefits of the token holders:

  • % of product earnings, paid directly to holders wallet
  • participation in the further development of the project (community)

This will be the first step towards a DAO management of the solution.

Another update is that we successfully participated in the last Gitcoin Grant GR15 ( tProof | Grants | Gitcoin ).

From the product side, we’re approaching the release in mainnet (min-end Oct) and we’re talking to potential early adopters. Great interest among those businesses that needs to certify documents (ex. medial records).