Request for funding @i1skn (Ironbelly wallet)

Governance
1

TL;DR

My name is Ivan Sorokin (https://i1skn.dev/). I’m a Software Engineer and the author of Ironbelly – an open-source mobile wallet for Grin (https://ironbelly.app/). In order to dedicate more energy to improving the project, I’d like to request funding for a period of 4 months (September to December 2020) at €4k/month.

Preface

I first got involved with Grin in spring 2018, when I began learning Rust in order to contribute to Grin’s codebase. I quickly found that Grin lacked a mobile wallet, and this made me want to build one for both myself and the community. I decided to build on top of the original Grin codebase, because I could reuse already implemented crypto-related logic.

Around the same time, I also started speaking about Grin at multiple events (https://i1skn.dev/talks/) and co-organizing Grin meetups in Berlin. This led me to co-establish Berlin’s first ever Grin conference – Grincon0 – which was completely free and open for everyone. I presented Ironbelly (the name I eventually gave to my project) at this conference in Nov 2018, and it was the first mobile wallet for Grin that stored private keys on a device.

Now, Ironbelly is available on both iOS and Android with 3.6k+ installs. It’s been a long journey for me so far, but I would like to keep it going. This is where I’m asking for your help.

(If you’re interested, you can learn more about Ironbelly by watching my talk at Grincon1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCnIVctRLgk.)

Why am I asking for funding?

Initially, my motivation to build Ironbelly was fueled by my passion for Grin and the belief that users needed a mobile wallet. But soon after I released the first beta version of the app on iOS, the work became more routine and I struggled to keep up the same pace of development. Nevertheless, I still wanted to add some more features as well as release an Android version of the app, so I began to look for solutions.

One approach I explored was to get funding for the project. This is how I ended up receiving a 3-month grant from Binance to continue working on Ironbelly. Looking back, I think it worked out great. I managed to take the iOS version out of beta and release an Android version, with extended features such as TouchID/FaceID authentication, interactive initial sync, and the ability to use your own node. After the grant from Binance ended, I continued to keep Ironbelly up-to-date so that users remained always able to transact without delays even after hard forks.

As the sole maintainer of Ironbelly, I spend a lot of time on issues that aren’t necessarily fun to do all the time–debugging Rust libraries so that they work properly on iOS and Android, looking for workarounds to replicate desktop functionality on mobile, catching bugs in React Native libraries for specific Android/iOS versions, etc… The latest hard fork also introduced, among other things, a new standard for sending and receiving Grins via Tor and Slatepack. Bringing these new changes to Ironbelly will require significant research and development effort from my side. I’d like to make this happen, but right now I struggle to dedicate the necessary time and energy to the project. Getting funding would help me to solve this problem and bring development pace up-to-speed.

How am I planning to spend these funds?

Here are the improvements that I would like to work on throughout the funding period:

  • Allow sending and receiving funds over Tor and Slatepack.

  • Allow sending and receiving funds using QR codes when possible.

  • Increase security of the app by minimizing places where sensitive data is exposed to the JavaScript runtime.

  • Add ability to choose Grin node configuration before starting use of the wallet.

  • Make it possible to show cancelled transactions and remove already confirmed ones from the list.

  • Make it possible to paste 24 words during the restore phase instead of being able to only type them manually.

  • Choose words from a list instead of typing them manually, when verifying that a user has written a backup phrase correctly.

  • Implement change password functionality.

  • Add support for dark theme.

This list is open to change depending on community feedback.

22 Likes
2

we use ironbelly…only mobile wallet for Grin ecosystem so far…Thats extremely important for a cryptocurrency,a mobile wallet.Should be enhanced most.

1 Like
3

cant wait sending and receiving funds over Tor and Slatepack :slight_smile:

2 Likes
4

Good job …

1 Like
5

Well deserved funding request. Long overdue. Totally justified.

2 Likes
6

Great. I support this idea.

2 Likes
7

Would love to see this funding request go through.!

2 Likes
8

Great list of planned new features. Worthwhile investment.

1 Like
9

I support this idea :+1:

Would it be possible to continue doing this past December (with additional funding requests of course)? I’m asking because I think that it would make sense for wallet funding to also keep the wallet updated with the future features since there will probably be new wallet changes after the last hard fork e.g. lock-free transactions and a bunch of other things related to transaction building are opened as RFCs and could be added.

1 Like
10

en
Dear Ivan. If the community needs development, we can do without you. You came here not for help, but for earning money.

ru
Дорогой Иван. Если сообществе понадобится разработка, мы обойдемся без Вас. Вы пришли сюда не из-за помощи а для заработка.

Многие разработчики тут на волонтерских началах, чем Вы лучше?

Ходишь по форумам и цыганишь работу… Еще и 4k уе. в месяц. Едь на галеры за 900$ в месяц.

1 Like
11

i am not sure whether this fund request will be filled or not. because in my memory, Grin++ and Niffler, wallet dont get fund support from core fund. of course,even though, this doesnt mean you ironbelly cant be the first one.

but i still suggest you request a donation from grin community if this fund request is not filled in a few days.

respect for your effort on grin.

good luck

12

I recall Daniel saying in TG that he now thinks different about that. David could also write a proposal and it should get funded. There are three wallets that are doing well and have earned some financial gratitude.

13

I approve this message

1 Like
14

May I ask what are your plans if the funding request doesn’t go through? Are you simply not going to implement Slatepack, thus making Ironbelly wallet obsolete past HF4?

15

I highly support this funding request!

16

I get why you’re asking, but I think this is the wrong attitude (feel free to disagree). The original, not very official forum posts by Igno about the fund talked about using funds to reward contributors, among other things. So we should be asking whether he has earned this opportunity, and whether we trust him to complete the work.

Imho, Ivan has indeed earned this opportunity, as have a number of different ecosystem and core devs. So then the question is, if approved, are we willing to fund requests by all of the trusted ecosystem devs if they decide to submit them? How do you pick and choose which projects to fund, if we aren’t willing to fund all of them? Or is it first come, first serve?

The decision needs to take this all into consideration, because I’m sure there will be additional requests, and we need to make sure we’ve made clear the criteria for ecosystem funding requests to be accepted. Otherwise, we risk choosing favorites, and further centralizing development.

13 Likes
17

Well said @david, I agree 100% with everything you wrote.

1 Like
18

a request is not shameful

everyone can make a fund request if they need it, which is not shameful even though they wanna make money through it. That’s totally reasonable and I will totally support them if they can contribute to Grin.

but great consideration shall be made for every request like David wrote.

19

In support of this funding request.
A mobile wallet is a must for adoptation of Grin and slowly Grin is getting to the point that, side by side with the technicial innovations being implemented by the core, spending some money to support usability of Grin is money well spend.
I think especially payment using QR codes, combined with payment via one time use addresses that skip the finalizing steps would be great since this would provide a user experience that is exactly the same as paying with any other cryptocurrency.
For any non face to face payments, payment over Tor using Slatepacks is a must.

Regarding whether someone deserves to paid or not, I think we should look appart from the contribution history also at what the community needs. At this moment Grin only has Ironbelly as mobile wallet, therefore, some investment to have a functioning mobile wallet for the community is money well spend. Indeed it would be good to have some criteria like David sugested. Currently there is not really competition in the Grin ecosystem but it is only a matter of time for such cases will come up.

4 Likes
20

I am all for this funding request! A much needed tool for the ecosystem. It would be great if node developers could help by creating a secure way to connect to your node without having to put it behind a domain and use a trusted 3rd party certificate issuer.

1 Like