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LEOS - Web3 learning platform with On-chain Verification
APPLICANT
Type: Direct Application
Email: [email protected]
Discord: fanjum#5889
Twitter: blockchain092
Stacks Forum: fanjum
GRANT BASICS
Grant Name: LEOS - Web3 learning platform
Total Budget: 100,000.00
Total Duration: 1,400
Funding Stream: Developer Grants
Grant Type: Open Source Dev Repeat Grantees
Grant Track: Stacks Education & Community
Grant Goal: Strengthen Community
Grant Audience: End Users (Consumer)
Specific Audience: 1) A course focused on Stacks newbies 2) Platform focused on course creators
Grant Team: fanjum, jiga
Previous Grants: We were awarded grant #339 on the stacks grant dashboard that was recently retired. We successfully fiinished a PoC based on this $25,000 support and deployed at https://app.leos.guru/app
Ecosystem Programs:
GRANT MISSION, IMPACT, RISKS & REFERENCE
Grant Mission: This project will be focused on two main enhancements to the existing Proof of concept available at https://app.leos.guru/.
These are
- seamless Stacks 101 course with enhanced UI/UX compared to existing.
- platform for course creators to create Stacks-related courses explaining the different Stacks projects to the users. Every one of the courses will provide support for on-chain verification of exercises in addition to quizzes to verify learning.
Thus, this set of courses on the LEOS platform will speed up learning and use of various projects in the Stacks ecosystem. Thus LEOS will enable the march towards a user-owned internet.
The Stacks 101 course is targeted toward Stacks newbies. Based on discussions with various people currently in the ecosystem, we believe that the Stacks 101 course will be a game changer when it comes to onboarding newbies to Stacks.
No more having to coordinate time with your friends to have them explain and show the NFT creation on Stacks or smart contracts on Stacks etc.
In addition to this, the course creation tool will allow us to add in the functionality so that anyone can use the LEOs platform to create courses explaining their Stacks projects. And the authors can also verify the learnings on-chain. This should also help expand the usage of these Stacks projects. This feature can also be used to create courses focused on teaching Clarity. This should make it more efficient to get more Clarity programmers into the Stacks ecosystem.
Grant Impact: 1) how many Stacks newbies get onboarded using Stacks 101 course 2) How many other programs (Mintery, Clarity Camp etc) use Stacks 101 as a tool to filter out applicants 3) How many other courses are created using the LEOS course authoring tool with on-chain verification and credentialing
Grant Risks: Risks are related to the availability of developers we will be hiring to implement this project.
To address this, we expect 2 people on our team (fanjum and jiga) to cover the coding and testing needed if required. This will increase the time to finish this project and hence is a backup plan.
Support Link: This is a google drive directory; it contains several files in their subdirectories; one subdirectory is about the new UI/UX; another subdirectory is related to the linsk to the code repository; third subdirectory contains files showing support from the community
GRANT ROADMAP & DELIVERABLES
MILESTONE 1:
Deliverable: 1) New UI/UX files for Stacks 101 course
MILESTONE 2:
Deliverable: 2) Upgrading Stacks 101 course implementation at app.leos.guru with the new UI/UX
MILESTONE 3:
Deliverable: New UI/UX for the course creators even without requiring the creators to have any coding skills
MILESTONE 4:
Deliverable: Implementing the design of part 3 so that anyone without technical skills can create a course
FINAL DELIVERABLE
Deliverable: 1) Stacks 101 (new UX) 2)Stacks course creation tool with on-chain verification
Thank you for your application. We will let you know if we have any questions. In the mean time please refer to our review schedule here for a timeline on a formal response.
Best,
Will
I am excited to see this project growing and think it is a great implementation of web3 learning, which is a much needed tool for bringing adoption as well as new developers.
LEOS is evolving nicely, and really like the on-chain validation part of their guided learning process. The options/possibilities for integrating/extending this to specific applications, and the progress we've seen so far makes me bullish on this project. Fully support what the teams are doing here.
I meet with Farooq today and he showed me what they've built. It's awesome. We would LOVE to use this at frens to create courses, strongly support having a tool like this with onchain verifications (and I would add: NFT or token rewards on completion would be bomb!).
Hi @fanjum11
Thank you for your application. Earlier this week when we kicked off the review cycle with the Grants Review Committee we brought them up to speed on the top three objectives we are prioritizing for this cohort:
- Support grants that improve Stacks-Bitcoin integration.
- Support grants that improve the Clarity developer experience and attract new Clarity developers to Stacks.
- Support grants that improve the attractiveness of Stacks as a place to build for founders and attract founders to Stacks.
Currently, we have funding for 40-50% of the applications received in this cohort. We are reaching out to teams that have exciting applications, but feel less aligned with those objectives to comment on how/if you feel your project is consistent with one or more of these objectives and let us know how and why.
Thanks! Will
There are two parts to this grant proposal as indicated earlier
- Stacks 101 course
- Course creation platform to allow anyone to create courses on LEOS.
The Stacks 101 course is targeted towards newbies - we expect some of these newbies to become Clarity developers. In addition, we believe this course will be very useful for new developers starting out in cohorts such as Clarity Camp. This is because the Stacks 101 course gives a quick overview of the capabilities of Stacks that the developers can dive deeper into. Having graduated from Clarity Camp ourselves, we would have liked to have a course like this when we were starting out in the camp.
With respect to 2) above, we expect to use the course creation platform to create Clarity courses targeted for different levels of developers. Developers who start the Clarity courses on the LEOS platform will have to complete the code and deploy the code. The LEOS platform will verify the deployed code on-chain. This is a novel approach toward teaching Clarity with on-chain verification. Of course, this approach can be gamed by developers to deploy code created by someone else if one wants to use this tool to certify developers.
To address this we have been discussing sandbox-like approaches that can be leveraged to verify the skills of Clarity developers and to provide certification to the Clarity developers. These approaches that build off 2) above though are not the focus of this grant request.
Part 2) of this grant proposal can also be used by developers of dapps and their teams to create a 101 version of the dapp to teach users all about the dapp. this while verifying that the users complete the dapp exercises successfully. So this is very attractive for the developers since it provides another channel for marketing and customer acquisition for the products that the developers build. We have already received interest from some dapp developers about using such a tool once it is available.
Hi @fanjum11
We have identified the projects we will be awarding grants as part of Stacks Foundation Grants Program Cohort 18. I'm sorry to have to inform you that your project was not among those selected.
This is no way means that we do not see the value of the work you proposed. We're lucky to have so many talented independent researchers, developers, and community leaders like yourself building on Stacks. Unfortunately, we receive many more proposals than we can actually fund with our limited means, so competition is extremely tough. While we generally support innovation in all forms, we tend to prioritize projects that have the potential to advance and differentiate the broader ecosystem from other blockchains, as well as projects that meet critical needs of the community at the time. These constraints mean that in several instances, several excellent projects may not make it into a cohort.
We very much appreciate the time and effort you've put into this process and encourage you to continue watching this repo and consider submitting a new application if and when you feel your project better aligns with the current priorities of the Grants Program.
If you should have any questions, please let us know in the comment section below.
Best, Will Stacks Foundation Grants Program Manager