Summary
This proposal is dedicated to re-launching our existing beta and crowdsourced testing platform as a social good initiative with help from the 1inch DAO brand. The platform will allow any team or company from any Web3 ecosystem to run various types of bounties for beta and crowdsourced testing (and crowdsourced audits in future), free of charge, with the only requirement being a deposit to cover tester rewards and a fee, part of that fee would be allocated to the 1inch DAO Treasury. Our team will continue to lead the platform development, maintenance, community growth and inviting new projects.
Abstract
This proposal requests funding for a 4-month development period to transform the existing beta and crowdsourced testing platform into a fully functional SaaS product, launched as a social good with help from the 1inch DAO brand. The platform will enable any Web3 project to create bounties for beta and crowdsourced testing by depositing funds for testers rewards and contributing a fee, and part of that fee would be allocated to the DAO treasury - establishing a new revenue stream for the DAO. The core goal remains unchanged: to help 1inch team and other Web3 projects enhance their products quality. The requested amount is $48,000, to be streamed monthly over four months.
Motivation
The previous proposal [1IP-56] aimed to build the app.xcrwd.io platform and provide beta.1inch.io as a white-label instance. While we did not move forward with launching the white-label version under the 1inch brand at that time - primarily because the 1inch core team was focused on the development and release of key product features, however, we stay in close contact with 1inch core contributors and plan to roll out the integration on the new platform in the future. Since then, we’ve launched app.xcrwd.io in February 2025 as a soft launch and tested our initial hypotheses. During this soft launch, we successfully initiated collaborations with Telegram Apps Center and Tonkeeper, two leading products in the TON ecosystem.
The early traction has confirmed strong interest from the community:
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Over 3,000 applications from testers
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More than 270 issues reported
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5 Web3 products tested via the platform
This validation helped us identify key areas to improve interaction between testers and projects and in what directions we should continue to develop the platform.
Our main goal remains unchanged: to help solve one of the most critical challenges in Web3 - product quality. The stability and seamless release of Web3 products is often hindered by the pressure to ship quickly, leaving teams with limited time for proper testing and QA. As a result, many products go live with undetected bugs, vulnerabilities, and poor user experiences.
After validating our concept, we decided to transform the platform into a social good initiative - making it community-driven and available to any project across the Web3 ecosystems. This shift not only increases the platform’s accessibility and utility, but also aligns with 1inch DAO’s mission to support infrastructure that improves the quality and usability of decentralized applications.
The market opportunity for crowdsourced and beta testing is significant - on par with bug bounties and security audits - and remains largely untapped in the Web3 space. We believe that, together with the 1inch DAO and community, we can build a powerful and impactful platform that delivers real value to Web3 projects and ecosystems, while also generating sustainable revenue for the DAO.
We are already in contact with several notable Web3 projects - including Lido.fi, STON.fi, cyb.ai and others - and are discussing the launch of bounty campaigns for them on the platform. Early conversations with projects validate the growing interest and need for scalable QA support across the Web3 ecosystem, and represent signals for future adoption.
Key Benefits for 1inch DAO and the Web3 ecosystem:
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Establishing a new and potentially stable revenue stream for the 1inch DAO through testing bounties
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Improving the overall quality of 1inch products through structured community-driven QA
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Supporting better release processes and higher quality outcomes across the broader Web3 ecosystem
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Engaging and expanding the 1inch community by involving them in meaningful product testing
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Transferring skills and testing practices that lead to more insightful reports, vulnerability detection, and valuable product suggestions from experienced testers
Specification
Over the proposed 4-month development period, the existing app.xcrwd.io platform will be transformed into a fully functional and SaaS product as a social good. The re-launch will focus on feature completeness, scalability, and transformation into social good iniciative.
The re-launched platform will include the following key components:
Updated bounty creation and management:
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Any Web3 project will be able to launch a bounty campaign by registration on the platform, connecting their wallet and depositing tokens (rewards pool + fee).
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Project owners will be able to run various bounties like - crowd testing, beta testing integrated into release processes, contests, crowdsourced audits in future and others.
Updated tester interface:
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An updated onboarding flow will allow any user to participate in beta and crowdsourced testing.
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Reputation/rank mechanics will be implemented based on participation and report quality.
DAO revenue model:
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Each bounty will include a percentage-based fee, and 5% goes directly to the 1inch DAO Treasury.
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Payments will be handled on-chain by smart contract, for convenience and transparency.
Community driven features:
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Tester leaderboards, gamified contributions, and reward multipliers for high-value submissions.
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Open and closed communities of contributors and company’s members
Roadmap: transforming platform into SaaS
Infrastructure Scaling:
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Set up global CDN for stable file uploads, downloads, and screencast previews (e.g., Google Cloud CDN)
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Improve file security with automated malware scanning (e.g., Google Cloud-based scanning)
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Optimize load balancing to ensure scalable request handling (e.g., Google Load Balancing)
Role and Permission System Redesign:
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Rebuild role management system to support SaaS use cases (i.e., companies managing their own bounties and teams)
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Enable full registration and bounty launch flow for Web3 projects
Smart Contracts for Fund Handling:
- Design and deploy smart contracts for: Reward pool deposits by projects; Optional token swap (e.g., into USDC); Automated fee routing to 1inch DAO Treasury; Tester rewards claims flow; Withdrawal of unused funds for projects.
Core Product Features
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Implement Checklist feature for validating tester work during product releases
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Launch Contest-style bounty format as an experimental engagement type
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Release global search for reports, bounties, and contributors
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Launch contributors leaderboard with public and private views
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Continues platform optimizations
Team
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Danya (founder, pm, front-end): 9+ years as QA Engineer (full-stack); Worked in fields as UGC, social networks, e-commerce, O2O, telecom, foodtech, streaming and now web3; strong experience in developing and optimizing teamwork processes, and setting up release management; experience of leadership in small QA and dev teams; mentoring and educating interns and new employees. https://www.linkedin.com/in/xxai
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Max (smart contracts and backend developer): 4+ years as Blockchain engineer; Solidity, Rust, Node.js, Typescript, Substrate, Soroban; Develop production-ready DeFi products and backend infrastructure; Solo auditor at strongholdsec.io. https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-nabokov-4174221b0
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Bob (full-stack developer): 15 years of experience in web development, e-commerce, life science. Frontend, Backend, DevOps, Cloud technologies. JS/TS stack primarily, also C, Rust, Go, Python. Delivering end-to-end solutions for diverse products.
And part-time contributors: Backend developer, Product designer and Community manager.
Payment structure&costs
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Platform maintenance, updated backend & frontend, smart contracts development: $33k;
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Infrastructure, legal and operational efficiency: $10k;
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Community scaling: $5k.
Budget
The requested budget is 48,000 USDC for 4 months. If the proposal is approved, the total amount will be transferred to the 1inch DAO Operations Multi-Sig wallet (0x45e84e10e8E85c583C002A40007D10629EF80fAF) and paid to the recipient address 0x8881C6a0E80537e2B1C6408EC66f2E0C12dbb6e8 as follows:
15.000 USDC will be transferred immediately as an upfront payment. The remaining 33,000 USDC will be streamed over the following 3 months.
Rationale
The decision to re-launch the platform as a social good and move to SaaS model is based on extensive learnings from the app.xcrwd.io soft launch. We observed clear demand from both testers and Web3 projects, along with a need for a more open, streamlined, and community-oriented model.
Rather than positioning the platform as a standalone business, we believe that transform it into social good and with 1inch DAO help will maximize adoption, impact, and long-term alignment. A branded, shared platform encourages higher-quality collaboration and trust between testers and projects, while also creating a sustainable revenue stream for the DAO.
The 5% fee DAO Treasury contribution model is simple to implement, fair for projects, and scalable. It ensures that incentives are aligned: the more value the platform provides to Web3 projects, the more sustainable revenue the DAO earns.
Our team has already proven execution ability by launching and operating app.xcrwd.io, gathering community traction, and validating demand. With core infrastructure in place, the requested 4-month budget will be used for targeted upgrades and expansion. This proposal reflects a balance of technical feasibility and ecosystem value, that we believe offers the highest net benefit to all stakeholders.
Considerations
Governance Considerations
We request formal approval from the 1inch DAO for:
1. Brand and Domain Use
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Permission to use the 1inch brand and logo in accordance with DAO brand guidelines
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Operation a DAO-approved domain (e.g., beta.1inch.io or beta.1inch.community) for a white-label collaboration
2.Revenue Share Model
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Mandatory contribution of 5% of each bounty’s reward budget to the 1inch DAO Treasury wallet address for 3 years after platform release - 0x7951c7ef839e26F63DA87a42C9a87986507f1c07
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Revenue will be routed transparently by smart-contracts
3. Recognition and Endorsement
- Initial public support for this platform as a social good initiative
In return, we commit to:
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Maintaining brand alignment, product quality, and infrastructure reliability
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Publishing regular transparency reports about platform metrics and updates
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Implement open portal for community for platform features suggestions
The revenue model offers a new and potentially stable income stream for the DAO, directly linked to platform usage. It is lightweight to implement, fair to projects, and scales with adoption. The proposal introduces no new costs to the DAO beyond the one-time requested funding ($48,000 over 4 months).
Final words
With the expertise of our team and the support of the 1inch DAO community, we believe we can transform this platform into a valuable and scalable service - one that is currently unmatched in the Web3 space. It will help improve products quality across the Web3 ecosystem, empower communities through meaningful participation, and establish a new standard for how Web3 products are tested, released and launched.
At the same time, this initiative provides the 1inch DAO with a stable and growing revenue stream. The market for crowdsourced testing is already comparable to that of bug bounty programs and security audits - and it continues to expand alongside the growth of Web3. We’re excited to move forward with the DAO’s support and build a long-term asset that serves both product teams and communities alike.