Canton Dev Fund Strategy
DPM Debug:
Grant Proposal Strategy
Analysis of approved Canton Dev Fund proposals and a strategy for Lazer's first grant submission, a visual debugging plugin for Daml.
Lazer Technologies · Internal Strategy Deck · April 2026
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Contents
What's In This Deck
01
Approved Proposals Overview
What got funded and for how much
02
Patterns and Insights
What gets approved and why
03
Our Opportunity
Why a debugger, why now
04
Budget and Milestones
750,000 CC over 12 weeks
05
Differentiation and Next Steps
How we stand out and what to do next
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Part 1: Approved Proposals
What the Foundation Has Funded
Eight approved PRs from the Canton Dev Fund, analyzed at $0.15 per CC.
PR Proposal Proposer CC Amount USD Value Timeline
#159 CCTools Community Toolkit 0xScoutr 500,000 $75,000 5 months
#130 Daml Package Analyzer Certora 2,010,000 $301,500 5 months
#53 ISS-Based BFT Ordering Digital Asset Undisclosed Est. $500K+ 8 months
#49 Daml OS Maintenance Digital Asset 1,000,000/mo $150,000/mo Recurring
#48 Canton OS Maintenance Digital Asset 2,000,000/mo $300,000/mo Recurring
#47 Splice OS Maintenance Digital Asset 1,000,000/mo $150,000/mo Recurring
#32 Daml3 Training Program Obsidian Systems 5,290,000 $740,600 34 weeks
#24 Multi-VM Canton (EVM) Zenith 2,000,000/mo $300,000/mo 12 months
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Part 1: Approved Proposals
How They Structured Milestones
CC
CCTools (#159)
3 milestones, front-loaded: 200K CC (40%) in M1 for core learn-to-earn platform. 175K for infra and DeFi dashboard. 125K for API and mobile PWA.
⚙
Certora (#130)
4 milestones, back-loaded: 335K CC each for M1 and M2 (build + initial adoption). 670K each for M3 and M4 (tied to 5+ production deployments each).
★
Obsidian (#32)
4 milestones over 34 weeks. 5,290,000 CC total (revised down 20% from original $927K ask). Modules, certification exams, and 12 coding videos.
↻
DA Maintenance
PRs #47, #48, #49: rolling monthly milestones. 1M to 2M CC/mo for ongoing repo maintenance. Acceptance: response times, release cadence, PR reviews.
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Part 2: Patterns
What Gets Approved and Why
Structure
3 to 5 Milestones
Fixed-scope projects use 3 to 5 milestones with explicit, testable acceptance criteria. Not vague deliverables, but conditions like "5 production deployments" or "API accessible with validator tier active."
Framing
Public Good Infra
Every approved proposal is framed as public-good infrastructure or core protocol work. Dapps and use-case demos are borderline. Open-source licensing (MIT or Apache 2.0) is table stakes.
Champions
Named Sponsor
Every proposal has a champion from the Foundation or committee. Jatin Pandya offered to champion ours and review drafts before submission.
Credibility
Prove It First
CCTools had 20K users before applying. Obsidian voluntarily cut scope by 20%. The strongest proposals show cost discipline and traction, not just ambition.
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Part 2: Patterns
Grant Budget Landscape
Where our $112.5K ask sits relative to approved proposals.
CCTools
$75K
Ours (DPM Debug)
$112.5K
Certora Analyzer
$301K
Obsidian Training
$741K
DA / Zenith (monthly)
$150K to $300K/mo
$112.5K is modest and credible for a first proposal. Above the floor, well below specialized tooling asks. 80% unlocked in the first two milestones.
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Part 3: Our Opportunity
Why a Debugger, Why Now
"A really, really good debugging experience is what lacks on top of Canton. If you ask me personally what I would love to see in the ecosystem, I would say a really good debugging experience."
Jatin Pandya, Canton Foundation
Call with Lazer, April 14, 2026
Foundation DX survey flagged "visual debugging" and "transaction visibility" as top missing tools
Jatin offered to champion our proposal and review drafts before submission
No Overlap with Existing Proposals
Certora = Compile-Time Static Analysis
Security auditing of .dar files. Finds potential issues before deployment.
Ours = Runtime Dev Debugging
Visual transaction trees, structured test output, debug logs. Helps developers during active development.
DA Maintenance = Keeps DPM Working
We extend DPM with a plugin. Adds capability, doesn't duplicate effort.
Obsidian = Training Content
Educational modules. Our tooling makes learning-by-doing faster.
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Part 4: Budget and Milestones
Proposed Grant Structure
12 weeks, 3 milestones. 80% unlocked in M1 and M2.
Duration
12 weeks
Grant Ask
750,000 CC (~$112.5K)
Payout
Milestone-based in CC
Milestone Focus Duration CC USD
M1 DPM plugin scaffold, structured CLI test output, assertion diffs, source linking 5 weeks 300,000 $45,000
M2 Visual transaction tree (web UI), debug/trace log panel, filter and search 5 weeks 300,000 $45,000
M3 Snapshot/replay, end-to-end docs, walkthrough video, 1.0 release 2 weeks 150,000 $22,500
Total 12 weeks 750,000 $112,500
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Part 4: Budget and Milestones
12-Week Delivery Timeline
Wk 1-2
Wk 3-4
Wk 5-6
Wk 7-8
Wk 9-10
Wk 11-12
M1: Plugin + CLI
300,000 CC ($45K)
SCAFFOLD
PARSER
TEST OUTPUT
M2: Visual Debugger
300,000 CC ($45K)
WEB UI
TX TREE
M3: Polish + Release
150,000 CC ($22.5K)
1.0 RELEASE
Champion Reviews
Jatin Pandya
ONGOING FEEDBACK + ACCEPTANCE REVIEWS
Deliverables
DPM Plugin
CLI Debugger
Web UI
Snapshot/Replay
Docs + Video
MIT License
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Part 5: Differentiation
Why This Wins
▶
Builds on DPM
Jatin specifically recommended this architecture. Extends the tool the Foundation already funds (PR #49) rather than duplicating infrastructure.
★
#1 Cited Gap
The Foundation's own DX survey and Jatin's direct feedback both identify visual debugging as the single biggest missing piece in the Daml developer experience.
⚙
Complementary
Runtime debugging (ours) complements Certora's compile-time static analysis. Different layer, different users, zero overlap.
✓
Credible First Ask
$112.5K ($9.4K/week over 12 weeks), with 80% unlocked in M1 and M2. Positions Lazer for larger follow-up proposals after we deliver.
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