Gov Action

This Budget Info Action asks DReps and the Cardano community to signal support for a **₳1,500,000, 6-month budget** to harden and scale **DeltaDeFi**, a Hydra-based, low-latency order-book exchange aiming to become core **trading infrastructure for Cardano**, focused on ADA and Cardano native tokens (CNTs). The requested budget is intended to: * Bring the current **Hydra spot DEX** from beta to a production-ready venue for both API traders and everyday users; * Scale the **Hydra and data infrastructure** so Cardano has at least one CEX-grade venue for ADA and key CNT pairs; and * Deliver a **Vision 2030 KPI Measurement Programme** (baseline report + live dashboard + progress report) that tracks DeFi infrastructure contribution to ecosystem goals. Within the ₳1,500,000 total: * 80% is dedicated to engineering, operations and security for the Hydra trading infrastructure; and * 20% is dedicated to the **Vision 2030 KPI Measurement Programme**: * an initial **"State of Cardano DeFi" baseline report**, * a public **Vision 2030 KPI dashboard**, and * a final **6-month progress report**

## Why this matters for Cardano, ADA and CNT holders Cardano currently lacks a **low-latency order-book venue** that can: * Support **API-driven trading, arbitrage and market-making** at scale; * Offer **tight spreads and low slippage** in key ADA–stable and ADA–CNT markets; and * Provide a clear, measurable picture of how competitive Cardano is as an L1 for trading compared with other ecosystems and CEXs. Today, most Cardano trading happens on AMM-style DEXs. They are great for simple swaps, but they are not optimised for: * **Low-fee, low-slippage execution at size** in core ADA and CNT pairs; * **Instant, predictable fills** for API and bot-driven strategies; or * **Professional market-makers and arbitrageurs** who expect CEX-like order-book behaviour. DeltaDeFi is designed to fill this gap: a **Hydra-based, low-latency order-book** with **tight spreads, fast matching** and **first-class API support**, so that ADA and CNT liquidity can be deployed efficiently and Cardano can compete more directly with order-book venues on other chains and on CEXs. A performant, observable exchange is therefore not just another dApp, but part of Cardano’s **core infrastructure**. It supports the Constitution’s emphasis on **future development of the ecosystem** by making Cardano a more attractive base layer for capital, traders, and applications built around ADA and CNTs. ## Why Hydra and why DeltaDeFi Hydra offers the latency and UX profile needed for modern trading but is still under-represented in production-grade, user-facing protocols. DeltaDeFi is: * A **Hydra-based, low-latency order-book DEX** already live in beta on mainnet; * Built by a team with an existing track record in: * high-frequency trading tooling, * Cardano SDKs and infrastructure, and * Project Catalyst delivery; and * Focused on **spot trading and API-driven participants**, where reliable execution and transparent metrics matter most. Earlier Project Catalyst funding helped bootstrap the current codebase and beta deployment with relatively modest budgets. This proposal is intended to take that work from "working beta" to **robust, measurable infrastructure** for the whole ecosystem. ## Team Background DeltaDeFi is built by the same team behind **SIDAN Lab**, with a multi-year track record in the Cardano ecosystem: * **MeshJS Core Maintainers**: The team maintains [MeshJS](https://meshjs.dev), the largest TypeScript SDK in the Cardano ecosystem, used by numerous dApps and developers for wallet integration, transaction building, and smart contract interaction. * **Stake Pool Operators & DReps**: Single SPO (SIDAN) since 2021 and an active DRep in Cardano governance. * **Cardano Hong Kong Community**: Active contributors to the Cardano HK community, organizing meetups, workshops, and developer education initiatives. * **Open Source Commitment**: Consistent delivery of open-source tooling and infrastructure, with MeshJS serving as critical developer infrastructure across the ecosystem. * **Extensive open source footprint** - 47 public repositories on [GitHub](https://github.com/sidan-lab) including multi-language Cardano SDKs: Whisky (Rust), Vodka (Aiken), Rum (Go), and Gin (Python), all Apache-2.0 licensed * **Project Catalyst Track Record**: Multiple successfully delivered Catalyst projects spanning SDK development, developer tooling, and infrastructure. This background in developer tooling and infrastructure directly informs DeltaDeFi's approach: building robust, well-documented, API-first trading infrastructure that other projects can integrate with. ## Direct relevance to ADA and CNT holders From the point of view of ADA and CNT holders, the key questions are: * **How expensive is it to move size on Cardano?** Slippage plus fees for 1k / 10k / 100k ADA trades in core pairs such as ADA/USDM. * **How well aligned are ADA and major CNT prices across DEXs and with CEX prices?** Price gaps between on-chain venues and a simple CEX reference. * **How fragmented and inconsistent are CNT markets across Cardano DEXs?** Differences in price, depth and execution quality for the same tokens on different venues. Today, answering these questions requires stitching together multiple tools and APIs. As part of this budget, DeltaDeFi will: * Deliver **tighter, deeper markets** on at least one Hydra-based venue; and * Publish a **Vision 2030 KPI dashboard** so ADA and CNT holders can track, in numbers, whether Cardano is progressing toward its DeFi vertical goals.