HandlePay is an all-in-one easy-to-use Android and iOS mobile application that utilizes Handles for transacting on the Cardano and Bitcoin blockchain.

Our goal is to build an application that resembles Venmo/CashApp/Splitwise. In other words, an intuitive application with built-in chat to allow users to efficiently communicate about specific transactions.

We at ADA Handle are already building HandleChat that will enable communications utilizing $handles. HandlePay will integrate HandleChat to enable the communications layer for this new application.

Key Features:

Cross-Chain Handle Creation: Users can create personalized handles linked to their specific blockchain addresses (Bitcoin or Cardano). Handles can be customized to reflect usernames, business names, or any preferred identifier.

Seamless Transactions: The app allows users to send and receive ADA and Bitcoin, Cardano-native tokens, and at some point fiat. Handle Marketplace: Users can buy, sell, and trade custom handles within the application, creating an additional economic layer. High-value, rare, or brand-relevant $handles can be monetized directly from HandlePay.

Integration with Cardano dApps: The app will integrate with DEX’s on Cardano, allowing users to buy and sell digital assets from DeFi platforms.

Enhanced Security: Leveraging the Cardano blockchain’s robust proof-of-stake protocol, transactions via $handles remain secure, decentralized, and immutable.

Cross-platform Availability: The app will be available on both iOS and Android devices, ensuring accessibility for a broad audience.

Imagine this: millions of people are excited to dive into the world of Cardano, a blockchain with incredible potential—sustainability, scalability, and a vision for decentralized finance. But when they download a mobile wallet to get started, they’re hit with a wall of complexity. Buttons everywhere, jargon they don’t understand, features piled on top of features—stake pool delegation, DApp connectors, governance voting, token swaps. It’s overwhelming. The average person doesn’t want a crypto PhD just to send some ADA to a friend or buy a coffee. They give up, and Cardano’s adoption stalls. That’s the problem: the current Cardano mobile wallets are built for enthusiasts, not everyday users.

Now, picture a Web 3 version of CashApp—a sleek, simple, intuitive solution. Think of how CashApp disrupted payments: no cluttered menus, no banking degree required—just a clean interface to send, receive, and manage payments. A CashApp for Cardano would do the same. It strips away the noise and delivers the essentials: send ADA, receive ADA.

The kicker here is it will also be Bitcoin compatible.

This simplicity solves the problem by lowering the barrier to entry. It invites the masses, not just the crypto-savvy, to adopt Cardano for everyday use. Less friction means more users, more transactions, and a thriving ecosystem—which translates to growth and returns.

$handles are the leading naming service on Cardano. We have sold nearly 260,000 Handles to nearly 70,000 unique wallets. An application that creates an open-source solution for $handles to transact with ease is, therefore, something that we believe that will significantly benefit the Cardano community.

Phase 1

During this initial phase our goal is to develop the software blueprint that will determine precisely how HandlePay will work. The purpose of this document is to outline all the requirements for the framework.

Outputs: Software blueprint.

Acceptance criteria: Delivery of the software blueprint.

Evidence of completion: Complete software blueprint that will demonstrate the HandlePay accessible from https://docs.handle.me.

Milestone 2:

Phase 2

We have developed an OAuth that will allow the community to use Handles to authenticate access to dApps and other services. We are presently on an alpha release of this OAuth.

The purpose of the second phase of this proposal is to test the integration of HandlePay with our OAuth, via a Proof of Concept application.

Outputs: OAuth integration.

Acceptance criteria: Proof of Concept of HandlePay integration to existing $handle OAuth.

Evidence of completion: Video showcasing the integration of the Proof of Concept HandlePay and the existing $handle OAuth.

Milestone 3:

Phase 3

The purpose of the third phase of this development is to create a Proof of Concept for the integration of HandlePay with Handle's API. The $handle API is accessible from: https://api.handle.me/swagger. We will develop a Proof of Concept application that will demonstrate the integration between our API and the new HandlePay app.

Outputs: $handle API integration

Acceptance criteria: HandlePay integration to existing $handle API.

Evidence of completion: Video demonstrating HandlePay integrated to the existing $handle API (https://api.handle.me/swagger).

Milestone 4:

Phase 4

The fourth phase of this proposal will focus on integrating $handles to HandlePay via a Proof of Concept application. The goal of this phase will be to demonstrate that both the new application (this proposal) and existing $handles (MainNet) can successfully be used together.

Outputs: $handle Integration

Acceptance criteria: HandlePay integrated to existing $handles.

Evidence of completion: Video demonstration of HandlePay integrated to existing $handles on MainNet.

Milestone 5:

Phase 5

The fifth phase of this proposal will be our marketing efforts to document, demonstrate and communicate with our partners and the Cardano Community. We will use this phase to schedule 1:1 calls with relevant partners and the community to showcase HandlePay and its capabilities.

Outputs: Marketing efforts and partner communication.

Acceptance criteria: Delivery of marketing efforts and partner communication.

Evidence of completion: Video demonstrating a sample of our marketing efforts and partner communication.

Final Milestone:

The purpose of the final milestone of the HandlePay proposal is to launch the application and make it accessible to the community.

Outputs: Delivery of the mobile application.

Acceptance criteria: Framework operational within a Proof of Concept application.

Evidence of completion: Video demonstrating the Proof of Concept application operating with the framework.

These are broken down with today's (March 27th, 2025) ADA-USD conversion rate ($0.73).

Software blueprint: 25,000 ADA / 18,325.00 USD Research and development: 175,000 ADA / 128,276.00 USD Development and coding: 250,000 ADA / 183,251.00 USD Marketing and communication: 50,000 ADA / 36,650.00 USD

Kora Labs consists of 4 full-time employees and 5 full-time contractors.

This proposal will take 12 months to be completed.

PapaGoose – Co-Founder @ ADA Handle - Master Platform Engineer (25+ years experience) With a wide-ranging career that includes a decade of fintech experience, PapaGoose has become a specialist in enabling developers to self-serve over the entire application lifecycle. Providing workflows, standards, and automations, from concept origin, through application and security design, to infrastructure management, including production deployment and maintenance cycles. Recently exited TradFi, in favor of blockchain and now guides projects in the Cardano community. Currently holding an executive position at Kora Labs - with the intent to build out a standard for NFT-based digital identity.

Big Irish Lion – Co-Founder / CTO @ Kora Labs / Master Platform Engineer (20+ years experience) Big Irish Lion is a veteran developer, with over 20 years of experience with web and software development. Big Irish Lion is an Atala PRISM pioneer. Lion has hands-on experience building video-game platform and mobile applications. The Irish Lion is a server-less evangelist and is proficient with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.

Conrad – Co-Founder @ ADA Handle - InfoSec and Infrastructure Engineer (20+ years experience) Information Security and Infrastructure management are Conrad's expertise. For over 15 years he has been supporting companies from the financial sector and for the last 10 years running his own business in New York. Hedge funds and private-equity firms were his main focus before transitioning to Cardano. Conrad operates BLADE, a top 10 Cardano stake pool, on MainNet and TestNet, with over 60M ADA staked. Conrad was elected as a SundaeSwap Scooper and selected as a Milkomeda C1 validator. Conrad is a Co-Founder at ADA Handle and works full-time in implementing The Handle Standard.

Goose – Co-Founder @ ADA Handle / CEO @ Kora Labs With a near decade-long stint in commercial lending in Silicon Valley Goose has sourced, structured, and executed a number of high-profile loans to some of the largest tech companies in the world. Managing relationships with financial institutions, credit agencies, and competing financiers in order to provide the most cost-efficient, desirable and prompt loan lifecycles for clients has primed Goose for the fast-paced, community-focused, and technologically cutting-edge product management lifecycle that Web 3 has to offer.

Our team is composed of highly skilled engineers that joined Cardano specifically to build ADA Handle and will maintain the application post-development.

Our C-level team is composed of Aaron McKinney (https://twitter.com/bigirishlion), Jesse Anderson (https://twitter.com/papagoosecrypto), Jonah Peralta (https://twitter.com/gooseofcrypto) and Conrad Cordeiro (https://twitter.com/conraddit), in addition to a number of contractors and board members. Combined, we have over 100 years of development experience.

In the process of launching ADA Handle, our team learned how to program with Plutus V1, V2 and V3, Helios, Aiken. We built our own multi-sig wallet. Our team has launched a public API, that is available free-of-charge for the entire Cardano community, on the three public blockchains: Preview, PreProd and MainNet. The community can attest to this by accessing their corresponding endpoints: Preview: https://preview.api.handle.me/swagger PreProd: https://preprod.api.handle.me/swagger MainNet: https://api.handle.me/swagger

Our API was developed in an open-source distribution, available for the community to download and run a local copy, should they wish to, instead of running our public endpoints. We understand that some projects might have this need, of running the API within their own systems and infrastructure, and for this reason we also made it open source, including examples of deployments, for all 3 blockchains. The public API is available from this GitHub Repository: https://github.com/koralabs/handles-public-api.

In addition to making available to the Cardano community a free and open-source API endpoint, we have also developed clear and concise documentation explaining the resolution process for Handles, utilizing the current and old standards, CIP-68 and CIP-25, in addition to the subHandle standard. This documentation can be viewed from this link: https://public.koralabs.io/documentation/HandleResolution.pdf.

Our minting portal, for all three blockchains, with an uptime of over 99.99%, can also be verified from these links: Preview: https://mint.handle.me PreProd: https://preprod.mint.handle.me MainNet: https://mint.handle.me

We have also concluded the first phase of our Marketplace, as per the Fund10 Handle Marketplace, which can be verified from these links: Preview: https://preview.marketplace.handle.me/backgrounds PreProd: https://preprod.marketplace.handle.me/backgrounds

SubHandles are now live on all 3 blockchains (Preview, PreProd, MainNet), with the general public minting virtual and NFT-based Handles from: https://handle.me.

We have, therefore, demonstrated our capabilities in building systems, developing Cardano-based technologies, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to engage with the Cardano community and generate traffic to our protocol and solutions.

No dependencies.