Ledger Apps Maintenance Proposal (Polkadot, Kusama, Statemine, Statemint)

Proponent: 1fN87Fgj5BUhezFgbLiGbXTMrBVggnmYBX9anzMBky8KaJ5

Date: 07.06.2023

Requested DOT: 1 year budget ~ 173473,98 DOT (exact amount of DOT will be calculated on the day of the on chain treasury proposal)

Short description: Maintenance of Ledger Apps for Polkadot, Kusama, Statemine and Statemint.

Project Category/Type: Software development

Previous treasury proposals: none

Overview and Context

Zondax has created and currently maintains the Polkadot, Kusama, Statemine, and Statemint Ledger Apps, which offer users a secure and effortless way to interact with the substrate chains mentioned using their Ledger devices.

Maintenance has been funded by the Web3 Foundation until now. The current contract expires at the end of June 2023. For the sake of continuity and to promote further decentralization, we are glad to request funding to the treasury to continue our services.

Our goal with this proposal is to enhance the apps functionality and ensure its continuous compatibility with runtime upgrades and major modifications. We are committed to delivering a high-quality Ledger app that meets the evolving needs of the community.

In order to keep the apps up to date, every time there is a breaking upgrade development work is required and a security code audit review is conducted before any new release. These steps are crucial before the official release of the upgraded version in Ledger Live.

Most of our contributions to the blockchain ecosystem can be found in our GitHub organization:

Over the last few years, Zondax has been involved in a large number of projects for most of the key players in the blockchain industry. For this reason, we are confident that we can provide a long term commitment.

About us

Zondax is a growing and distributed team with experience and projects for more than 50 blockchains. Zondax has been contributing to the Substrate ecosystem since 2018-2019. The team has received and completed a large number of W3F grants and currently maintains most Ledger apps for the ecosystem. Apart from the substrate ecosystem, Zondax participates and contributes to other large ecosystems such as Cosmos, Avalanche, Algorand, Filecoin, ICP, etc.
Our team includes experts in most blockchain aspects, cryptography and programming languages.

Proposal objectives

Our goal with this proposal is to enhance the app functionality and ensure its continuous compatibility with runtime upgrades and major modifications. We are committed to delivering a high-quality Ledger app that meets the evolving needs of the community.

In order to keep the Ledger apps up to date, every time there is a breaking upgrade development work is required and a security code audit review is conducted before any new release. These steps are crucial before the official release of the upgraded version in Ledger Live.

The secure code audit used to be conducted by Ledger, however today, in order to be listed on the Ledger Live “My Ledger” section, all embedded apps must go through an integration process that includes a security audit performed by one of the selected trusted partners of Ledger as stated in their developer portal

Full proposal can be found here

Legal structure

Zondax AG

Dammstrasse 16

Zug 6300

Switzerland

UID CHE-491.796.576

(Post edited to incorporate feedback and restructure to follow template