# Aragon Flock Proposal: Frame

## 1. Summary

The [Frame](https://frame.sh) team is hard at work on an open accounts platform for web3. One of our main goals since starting Frame was to support the Aragon ecosystem with this platform and to handle the account and provider needs of the Aragon stack.

As part of this effort we're rolling out deeper Aragon integrations in Frame. This is the main focus of our v0.2 release. In Frame v0.2 you'll now find the ability to create Aragon smart accounts!

With these smart accounts you can add your DAO to Frame and use it just like any other account to login to dapps and sign transactions. This enables your DAO to interact with outside dapps and protocols by using your DAO's agent functionality.

We're very excited to provide this functionality for the Aragon ecosystem and we will continue working to expand the reach, flexibility and usability of Aragon DAOs. Aragon smart accounts and agent functionality opens the door to endless possibilities using your DAO to interact with the decentralized web.

In addition to smart accounts, we're expanding Frame's underlying infrastructure to allow users to run services locally. Instead of relying on centralized gateways, users can now create their own connections through a simple interface in Frame.

This means anyone, regardless of technical ability, will be able to use Aragon in a truly decentralized way with Frame. This infrastructure could replace the need for Aragon Desktop as we make more of these services easy and available. We will continue to improve this infrastructure and provide unstoppable access to Ethereum, ENS, IPFS and APM within the Aragon stack.

We're also working to improve onboarding for all account types. As we continue to deepen the integration with Aragon, users will be able to launch Aragon and create DAOs easily from Frame. We're committed to the mission of making Aragon DAOs more powerful and usable via provider level integrations.

As a team, we've had great success in the Nest program delivering on our milestones and releasing mainnet ready account and key management tools along with easy-to-use provider interfaces. We released our mainnet ready version of Frame earlier this year at Aracon 2019. We now want to double down on this success and accelerate our growth and progress. We're committed to the Aragon ecosystem and we're confident Frame's vision will support DAO usability and adoption.

This grant will provide us with the resources to bring our current team members on full time and to fill key positions we very much need.

### Initiatives

#### **:: Aragon Smart Accounts**

Aragon smart accounts are an integration of Aragon DAOs in Frame that allows you to use DAOs like any other account and interact with external dapps and protocols.

#### **:: Decentralized Infrastructure**

Frame allows users to easily connect to Ethereum and IPFS without using centralized gateways. We want to push this as far as possible so the Aragon stack has a truly decentralized and unstoppable foundation for all users.

#### **:: User Onboarding**

We're working to make it as easy as possible for new users to create Aragon smart accounts. In the near future, you'll be able to launch Aragon and create DAOs easily from Frame.

#### **:: Core Provider Functionality**

We will continue working towards wider ecosystem adoption as well by building out and improving core provider and accounts functionality. It's still too difficult for new users to get up and running using the decentralized web, and Frame is working relentlessly to lower the barrier to entry. Here are some items in our near-term roadmap on this front:

**Hot Signers:** In v0.2 you will have access to non-hardware signers that are stored locally on your machine and can be backed by a mnemonic seed, private key or keystore.json file.

**First-class Hardware Support:** We will continue to work on our first-class hardware integrations, including the addition of BLE signers like the Nano X.

**Persistent Accounts:** In v0.2 accounts are now persistent. This means you can use your accounts even when your signer is asleep or disconnected. You’ll only need your signer to be available when signing a payload. This is also a usability building block that enables smart account UX.

**Activity Monitor:** The initial version of our activity monitor was released in v0.1.2, but that's just the beginning. We plan to push this feature much further to provide users with more insightful and reliable account activity data.

**Gas Controls:** We will add the ability for users to adjust gas before signing a transaction. This control and flexibility is necessary due to fluctuations in the gas market.

**Payload Recognition:** - Add support for `eth_signTypedData` and radspec integration. We plan to contribute to standalone tooling mentioned in [#58](https://github.com/aragon/nest/issues/58) similar to how we spun off [`eth-provider`](https://github.com/floating/eth-provider) which is now gaining traction from users outside of the Aragon and Frame communities.

**Token Support:** We will add deep understanding and display helpful data when interacting with various token standards.

**ENS/IPFS Resolver:** We will give users the ability to easily resolve ENS/IPFS via Frame + companion extensions and app launching.

**Frame Mobile:** We're experimenting with Frame on mobile and plan to release a PoC with desktop account syncing later this year.

## 2. Scope

- Enable DAOs to interact with external dapps and protocols
- Unstoppable decentralized infrastructure for the Aragon stack and ecosystem
- Aragon on-boarding and app launching
- Account/key management for the Aragon stack and ecosystem as a whole

We plan to complete an initial implementation of our initiatives within Q3 2019. Most of them will be included in v0.2 which is undergoing an audit from July 8th - July 16th and will be released shortly after.

#### **:: Aragon Smart Accounts**
##### Deliverables

In Frame v0.2 all users will have the ability to add their Aragon DAO as an account in Frame.

##### Background

Current DAOs have limited ability to interact with protocols outside of internal dapps. The landscape and availability of dapps and protocols will always move faster than the ability to replicate that functionality internally.

##### Vision

Smart accounts will change the way we use the web. Aragon smart accounts allow Aragon DAOs to interact with the rest of the decentralized web the same way externally owned accounts do.

#### **:: Decentralized Infrastructure**
##### Deliverables

In v0.2 of Frame all users will have the ability to easily toggle on/off Ethereum light clients and local IPFS gateways.

##### Background

We believe Aragon should be truly decentralized and unstoppable. Any user, regardless of technical understanding, should be able to pilot Aragon without relying on centralized services. Frame is the platform to make this a reality.

##### Vision

In Frame v0.2, users will be able to run Ethereum light clients and IPFS gateways with the flip of a switch. This effort could replace the need for Aragon desktop as we make more of these services easy and available. We will continue to improve this infrastructure and provide unstoppable access to Ethereum, ENS, IPFS and APM within the Aragon stack.

#### **:: User Onboarding**
##### Deliverables

Users will have the ability to create Aragon smart accounts without an existing DAO and will be able to launch Aragon from within Frame.

##### Background

Getting new users to participate and use DAOs is still a big hurdle.

##### Vision

We want to make creating and participating in DAOs easier than using the best web services that exist today. We hope to be a big piece of the puzzle that makes DAOs accessible everywhere and to everyone.

#### **:: Core Provider Functionality**
##### Deliverables

- Hot signers will be included in v0.2 after our security audit
- Persistent accounts will be included in v0.2
- BLE hardware support will be added shortly after our v0.2 release
- The initial activity monitor is available in the v0.1.2 release but this feature will expand to the point that you will never need to link to Etherscan
- Gas controls will be added to give users the ability to adjust gas before signing transactions
- Payload recognition adds support for `eth_signTypedData` and radspec. We plan to contribute to standalone tooling mentioned in [#58](https://github.com/aragon/nest/issues/58) similar to how we spun off [`eth-provider`](https://github.com/floating/eth-provider) which is now gaining traction from users outside of the Aragon and Frame communities
- Token support will add deep understanding and display helpful data when interacting with various token standards
- The ENS/IPFS resolver will give users the ability to easily resolve ENS/IPFS via Frame + companion extensions and app launching
- Frame Mobile PoC planned for later this year with desktop account syncing

##### Background

Frame is an open accounts platform for the web. It lives at the OS-level and isn’t dependent on a browser or extension store and works with any type of dapp be it web, desktop or command line. It was built to deliver truly unstoppable account and application infrastructure to everyone.

##### Vision

We will continue development on important features that extend Frame’s usefulness and exponentially widen its positive impact. We will continue to lower the barrier of entry for users by creating the world’s most seamless, secure and transparent interface to decentralized networks.

## 3. Capacity

| Initiative | Capacity |
| - | :-: |
| :: Aragon Smart Accounts | 20% |
| :: Decentralized Infrastructure | 20% |
| :: User Onboarding | 10% |
| :: Core Provider Functionality | 50% |

## 4. Grant Size

We are requesting 6 months of funding for a total of 364,000 DAI, which budgets for 6 full-time contributors, ongoing security audits and operation costs. We have subtracted the remaining funding of our Nest grant (62k DAI) from this total.

Total: 364,000 DAI
Payroll: 334,000 DAI
Security Audits/Contractors/Legal: 30,000 DAI

ANT Package: 30,000 ANT

## 5. Team

### Jordan Muir - Project Lead

Jordan is the creator of [Frame](https://github.com/floating/frame) and many other projects, most recently [Restore](https://github.com/floating/restore), a predictable and observable state container for React apps. Jordan has extensive full stack experience, including design, with a focus on real-time apps and architectures. He loves discovering new technologies and trying to create impactful experiences that unlock value for users and humanity. He's driven by projects that contribute to the acceleration of human innovation and believes open decentralized networks are an important step. He hopes to contribute to the ecosystem in meaningful ways that increase the use and adoption of these networks. ([GitHub](https://github.com/floating), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ffloat))

### Philip Prophet - Senior Engineer

Philip is a developer and architect who loves working in small teams to solve big problems. Before joining Frame he worked with Swedish electromobility startup Bzzt to help combat climate change and improve city air quality around the globe. He has been involved in the Swedish crypto/blockchain scene for many years, organizing events, teaching dApp development and working on open source projects. Nothing inspires him more than helping to bring decentralization to tech, finance and politics so when asked to join the Frame team and the wider Aragon family he had absolutely no doubts. ([GitHub](https://github.com/monkybrain), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/monkybrain_))

### Simon Emanuel Schmid - Senior Engineer

Simon has worked for more than 10 years as a Software Engineer where he gained a profound and extensive knowledge on how to develop user interfaces that are fascinating and comprehensible to use. His enthusiasm for programming got him into building several digital products and he co-founded a startup where he gained entrepreneurial experiences on how to design and develop amazing digital products from scratch. He then joined Melonport to build a fully decentralised front-end for digital asset management. During that time he realized that the current main need of the blockchain ecosystem are solid tools that make the technology more accessible for users and developers alike through a great user experience. And that is what Frame is about. ([GitHub](https://github.com/schmidsi), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/schmid_si), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidsi))

### Matt Holtzman - Operations/Communications/Engineering

Matt brings over 12 years of experience working on technology in capital markets. He previously worked as lead engineer for a startup providing social sentiment metrics for equity trading as well as buy and sell side engagements across the globe, working up and down the tech stack. When he gets some free time he spends it biking or staring opponents down at the poker table. He’s excited to be a part of Aragon ecosystem and to help build the decentralized organizations of the future. ([GitHub](https://github.com/mholtzman), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattholtzman))

**We're in the process of bringing on more full-time engineers. If you'd like to work on Frame please reach out to [e-mail]**

## 6. Requirements

- Use of the Aragon trademark to represent Aragon features within Frame and to promote ourselves as an Aragon Flock team
- Blog access to publish Frame updates

No additional requirements

## 7. Organization Structure

Currently an LLC, alternatives under consideration.

## 8. Due Diligence Materials

**AraCon Presentation:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlZWLiy2GD0
**Frame Mainnet Release:** https://medium.com/@framehq/frame-mainnet-alpha-update-f0e4a9b89e1e
**Our Initial Audit:** https://medium.com/@framehq/frame-security-audit-frm-01-7a90975992af
**Nest Grant 1:** https://github.com/aragon/nest/pull/25
**Nest Grant 2:** https://github.com/aragon/nest/pull/146