The Cardano Builder Support System (BSS) is a single platform where Cardano builders can access critical services (audits, marketing, and interop integration) — and get help covering the costs through subsidies.

This works through two dedicated parts:

• A dedicated builder marketplace that connects Cardano teams with trusted, pre-vetted providers for critical services—like audits, marketing, and interop integration—all in one place.
• A $1M subsidy fund that removes cost barriers for high-potential teams, covering essential services and unlocking faster progress.

The Cardano BSS integrates seamlessly with Catalyst, offering a streamlined platform for accessing high-quality builder services, including:

• Security Audit Services: Top priority for builders and Cardano as an ecosystem alike, security audits are essential to launching safe, trusted applications. We focus on connecting teams with vetted providers to reduce risk and improve speed to deployment.
• Marketing Services: Many Cardano builders struggle with go-to-market strategy and visibility. Accelerator programs are on part of the solution. We help teams access experienced crypto-native marketing support to build awareness, grow user bases, and attract strategic partners.
• Interop Integration Services: Seamless cross-chain functionality is key to long-term ecosystem growth. We connect Cardano projects with the right tools and support to integrate interop protocols—enabling collaboration, liquidity sharing, and greater use case reach.

We refined the service set based on Catalyst Explorer data and feedback from Michiel and Pierre at the Cardano Foundation. This selection will be further shaped by builder interviews and insights from deeper collaboration with Intersect. Given the expertise within the Intersect community, our goal is to leverage and co-develop this initiative with the right contributors from Intersect.

Specifically, the Cardano BSS facilitates the entire process, from matching projects with trusted providers to ensuring transparency and efficiency throughout service execution. In practice, the services marketplace shortens the procurement process from weeks to days, increasing the average number of quotes per builder from 1–2 to 6 on average, thereby improving selection quality and pricing power for builders.

The following process flow provides some insight into how the marketplace works:

1. Centralised Discovery: Projects access a curated list of whitelisted, high-quality service providers through a single platform.
2. Request Submission: Teams submit a request for services by providing relevant details about their project, timeline, and scope.
3. Direct Quote Matching: Approved auditors respond directly with pricing, timelines, and availability—allowing for real-time quote comparison.
4. Facilitated Price Discovery: Multiple providers competing for the same request enables more transparent, competitive pricing.
5. Streamlined Communication: All discussions, updates, and negotiations between projects and service providers are managed within the platform.
6. Progress Tracking: Teams can track the status of their service requests, engagements, and deliverables through a centralized dashboard.
7. Reporting & Documentation: The platform also offers reporting tools for compliance, milestone tracking, and post-service documentation.

Calling back to aggregation theory, we see that platforms that offer superior experience - speed, simplicity, price transparency - naturally attract more users. As user demand grows, more suppliers join the platform to tap into that demand, which in turn improves supply quality and variety. We saw this play out in our pilot for Uniswap, and are keen to create a similar dynamic for Cardano.

Subsidy Fund Operations

Areta will manage the end-to-end operations of the Subsidy Fund. This includes:

• Development and management of the application process for projects;
• Creation of a “Means Test” to assess how “valuable” a project is for the Cardano ecosystem, and hence, its eligibility for a subsidy;
• Application reviews and selection of projects alongside experts from Intersect;
• Stakeholder management, including fielding queries from projects and providers across communication channels, onboarding projects, determining payment flows, coordinating KYC/B, tracking payments, and collecting feedback from projects to improve the program;
• Ongoing communication with the Cardano ecosystem;
• Progress and outcome reports for accepted projects;
• Marketing, i.e., efforts to attract projects to apply by creating and posting marketing collateral, sourcing projects and providers to apply individually and with the help of other stakeholders, and communicating the success of the fund publicly.

We will work closely with subject matter experts from Intersect to define the Means Test, review applications, and ultimately select subsidy recipients.

Future Flexibility & Co-Development

The BSS marketplace is built to grow with Cardano’s needs. While we’re starting with core services like audits, indexing, and interop support, the model is flexible by design. We can also facilitate service procurement through structured RFPs, expanding the platform to support new types of collaboration and more complex projects.

To start, we’re inviting the community to test the model through the $1M subsidy fund. If it proves valuable, we can evolve it together—adding features like RFP facilitation and scaling new verticals such as liquidity incentive design and management.

We see areas like liquidity and interop support as especially promising and underdeveloped in Cardano today. These are services we’d like to co-develop with the community and iterate on together through real-world use and feedback.

Our focus is to stay specialized, flexible, and complementary—offering targeted support where it’s most needed, and doing it in a way that’s uniquely tailored to Cardano.

Intro

Cardano holds the largest community-governed treasury of any Layer 1 blockchain, offering a unique opportunity to fund the infrastructure and services that builders need to thrive. With increasing alignment between decentralized governance models and U.S. policy direction — Cardano is well-positioned to lead by example, showing how community-driven capital can be used strategically to grow a resilient, builder-focused ecosystem.

Catalyst and early accelerator programs are doing important work by funding ideas and innovation. But there's still a big opportunity to support builders with their operational needs — the things that help them actually launch and grow their projects.

That’s where the Builder Support System comes in. We’re complementing Catalyst’s focus on innovation funding, with a sharp focus on operational support: helping teams afford the services they need like audits, marketing, and interop integration.

We’re also trying a focused approach. Through Intersect funding, we’re exploring how to fund a specific vertical — builder services — with clear accountability and impact. It’s a small, specialized piece of the bigger puzzle, but one that can make a real difference and show how targeted support can unlock more growth across the ecosystem.

Problem Statement

The Cardano ecosystem has laid strong foundations for innovation, with a growing builder community and active support channels. At the same time, there’s immense opportunity to strengthen support across the full builder journey — from idea to launch and beyond. The Cardano Builder Support System (BSS) is designed to help unlock that potential, by making it easier for over 1,900 builders to access the critical services they need to grow. This leads to stronger projects, more onchain activity, and long-term value for the entire ecosystem.

The builder journey relies on access to a range of services at different stages. Today, some of those touchpoints are underdeveloped, and addressing them presents a real chance to attract more builders, increase project success, and boost ecosystem outcomes like liquidity, transaction volume, and onchain activity.

Looking closer, Project Catalyst — Cardano’s flagship capital allocation initiative — plays a vital role in supporting early-stage ideas. Other initiatives, such as accelerators and Emurgo-led efforts, also contribute important pieces to the builder journey. Together, they form a strong starting point. At the same time, there’s a valuable opportunity to complement these efforts with more targeted operational support, helping ensure builders have what they need not just to start, but to scale and succeed.

We entered the Cardano ecosystem through our engagement with DexHunter and took a deep dive into the current builder support landscape—both independently and in collaboration with the Cardano Foundation—to better understand the ecosystem’s needs. We’ve also worked across leading ecosystems like Uniswap, Arbitrum, and Safe, speaking with over 100 builders to gain a broader market perspective. Below are the key challenges we've identified that need to be addressed:

• Lack of pricing transparency makes things harder for builders: It’s often unclear how much essential services like audits should cost. Builders can get wildly different quotes—sometimes up to 3–4x difference—for the same quality of work, which makes it hard to budget or negotiate fairly.
• High service costs and slow processes are major pain points: Getting critical services is not only expensive but also time-consuming. Many builders rely on referrals or word-of-mouth because there’s no easy way to compare providers or pricing.
• Most builders face delays: Around 80% of builders say they’ve had to wait weeks just to secure the services they need—mainly because of unclear pricing, slow referrals, or not knowing where to look.
• Builders often only get 1–2 quotes: Without structured support, teams usually only get one or two service quotes. That means less room to compare, negotiate, or find the best fit—and a higher risk of overpaying or ending up with a lower-quality result.
• Other ecosystems are competing hard to attract builders: To grow, ecosystems need to make it easy and attractive for builders to succeed. Services like audits are one of the top three challenges for teams—right up there with capital and distribution. The networks that solve this best are the ones winning new projects.

[Link to: Proposal deck]

Marketplaces are a proven solution for fragmented, inefficient systems — and builder support is no exception.

The Cardano Builder Support System (BSS) applies this model to match Cardano builders with trusted, whitelisted providers for critical services like audits, marketing, and interop intergration—all through a single, easy-to-use platform.

To further enable builders with access to critical services, we’re launching a $1M subsidy fund, lowering barriers and unlocking progress where it’s needed most.

Backed by our experience of successful pilots in Arbitrum and Uniswap, we’ll run streamlined funding cycles and manage provider matching. The platform will be open to all projects and individuals developing on Cardano, providing access to a wide range of valuable resources.

Looking ahead, we’ve identified critical growth areas like liquidity management and incentives as a next major area of focus—an urgent need for many teams and a category that currently lacks strong service coverage in Cardano. With a successful pilot, we plan to help build out this and other underdeveloped but essential service areas that are key to unlocking ecosystem growth.

Beyond serving as a central access point and clear counterparty for Cardano builders, the BSS delivers:

• Cost Saving: Reduces service costs by 20–30% by increasing visibility and competition in a historically opaque landscape. This enables better price discovery, preferred pricing, and improved access to high-quality providers.
• Process Efficiency: Streamlines complex and time-consuming key service procurement by connecting builders with trusted, pre-vetted providers. This significantly reduces the time and effort required to find, assess, and secure essential services.
• Awareness & Builder Attraction: A strong organic marketing opportunity, positioning Cardano as a credible, builder-first ecosystem. By publicly showcasing structured support for developers, the BSS drives ecosystem visibility and network growth.

We’re fully committed to bringing that experience to Cardano. We see this proposal not as a one-off initiative, but as a first step toward becoming a long-term partner in the ecosystem.

Our goal: co-develop this initiative with Cardano-native expertise, leveraging Intersect’s deep ecosystem knowledge to build something that truly fits Cardano’s needs.

Months 1-6: Milestone: Subsidy Fund Allocation

• Funds are used to subsidize builder services - builders apply for a subsidy on booked services and receive co-financing from the fund.
• Deliverables:
  • Subsidy Fund Operated
  • Funding Dispersed

Months 1-2: Milestone I: Scoping & Beta Testing

• Execute Builder Support System scope, full technical requirements, initial services, and features.
  • Deliverable: Scope document
• Draft UI/UX designs for platform core workflows.
  • Deliverable: Design mockups
• Develop basic marketplace features for testing
  • Deliverable: Beta platform (incl. user dashboard, quote, messaging UI)
• Conduct closed beta testing with select ecosystem service providers and projects.
  • Deliverable: Beta feedback report

Milestone II: V1 Launch

• Launch platform to Cardano ecosystem.
  • Deliverable: v1 platform launch with basic functional features (logins, user dashboards, quotes & messaging UI)
• Conduct whitelisting process for service providers
  • Deliverable: Whitelist of 5–10 vetted providers with ecosystem specific expertise
• Prepare and distribute awareness and comms materials for v1 launch
  • Deliverable: Awareness campaign (incl. outreaches, info sessions, onboarding calls)
• Maintain live support for marketplace users
  • Deliverable: Weekly office hours
• Expand whitelisted partners to ≥10 providers.
  • Deliverable: Whitelist expanded to ≥10 providers.
• Pilot operations for marketplace incl. facilitating matching for projects and other operational elements
  • Deliverable: Matching & Monitoring of quotes
• Develop user guides and provider onboarding playbook.
  • Deliverable: v1 Documentation Suite (user guides, onboarding playbooks)

Months 2-6: Milestone III: Ongoing Management & Optimization

• Develop review functionality / logic for service providers
  • Deliverable: Ratings UI
• Add reporting and tracking capabilities for providers and projects using the marketplace
  • Deliverable: Reporting & tracking features
• UX / UI Feedback collection from marketplace users
  • Deliverable: Concise Mid-point Feedback Summary Report
• Maintain live support for marketplace users
  • Deliverable: Bi-weekly office hours
• Implement critical fixes and UX improvements from v1 launch / feedback
  • Deliverable: Optimized platform with priority bug fixes and UI updates from collected feedback

Month 6: Milestone IV: Review and Planning

• Gather insights from projects on their experience
  • Deliverable: Developer Report
• Prepare detailed report on entire operations and impact
  • Deliverable: Outcome report
• Outline vision and roadmap for v2 of the marketplace with additional features and improvements
  • Deliverable: V2 Roadmap

Amount in preferred currency: $1,060,000 (of which $1m Builder Subsidy Fund)

Subsidy Fund Allocation

Months 1-6 / 1,000,000 USD Subsidy Fund [90% to builders, 10% to Areta when matched successfully]

• Funds are used to subsidize builder services - builders apply for a subsidy on booked services and receive co-financing from the fund.

Milestone I – Scoping & Beta Testing

Months 1–2 / 30,000 USD [reduced rate due to CF onboarding support]

• Execute Builder Support System scope, full technical reqs, initial services, and features
• Develop UI/UX designs for platform core workflows
• Whitelist initial set of providers and conduct beta testing with select service providers
• Launch a dedicated BSS website displaying program info

Milestone II – V1 Launch

Month 2 / 15,000 USD

• Launch platform to Cardano ecosystem, incl. evaluation framework, project matching
• Launch awareness campaign and communications for v1 launch
• Maintain live support for marketplace users, incl. onboarding material
• Expand whitelisted partners to ≥10 providers

Milestone III – Ongoing Management & Optimization

Months 2–6 / Included in 10% Subsidy fund allocation [reduced rate due to CF onboarding & ops support]

• Operating Security Subsidy Fund, incl. awareness, applications, and cohorts mgmt
• Manage reporting and tracking for providers and projects using the marketplace
• Maintain live support for marketplace users and stakeholders
• UX / UI Feedback collection from marketplace users, incl. critical fixes and UX

Milestone IV – Review & Planning

Month 6 / 15,000 USD

• Prepare detailed report on entire operations and impact, to educate extension decision
• Gather insights from projects on their experience, incl. builder and stakeholder surveys
• Outline vision and roadmap for v2 of the marketplace with improvements

Resources

Areta will have a dedicated team of three core members: one project lead, one manager, and one product analyst to oversee the Cardano Builder Support System. The development team will consist of one full-time full-stack developers during the build and launch phase, with an additional part-time developer supporting ongoing iterations over the 6-month operational period.

Timeline

The initial Beta of the Builder Support System is expected to be delivered within 4 weeks post-approval. Following the launch, the team will continue to expand functionality and service coverage throughout the year.

Areta is uniquely positioned to execute effectively on the Cardano Builder Support System given our experience leading the industry-first marketplace for Uniswap.

Specifically, we designed and are currently managing the Uniswap Foundation Security Marketplace and Subsidy Fund (UFSF) which employs a customized, proprietary marketplace of vetted security audit providers, ensuring that projects within the Uniswap Protocol receive tailored support for secure development. The UFSF was initially a $1M initiative which after a successful pilot testing and proving the benefits - from cost to process streamlining to ecosystem awareness - was extended for another 2 years allocating an additional ~$5m in subsidies.

More broadly, Areta has deep experience with designing and managing ecosystem growth initiatives:

• SafeDAO – Contributor Efficiency System

  Designed and implemented a governance framework to improve contributor transparency and operational efficiency, elevating DAO process standards.

• Arbitrum DAO – RWA Innovation Grants

  Launched and currently lead a 300k ARB grants program to grow Arbitrum’s RWA ecosystem across deployment, analytics, and token standardization.

• Uniswap – Capital Allocation Programs

  Developed and executed a cross-ecosystem grants and meta-governance program using Uniswap’s Arbitrum airdrop, with 9 months of ongoing operational support.

• Polygon – Delegate Incentive Program

  Created and manage a 12-month incentive program distributing ~$250k to boost delegate participation, awareness, and voting power in Polygon governance.

A dedicated team from Areta will oversee the Cardano Builder Support System from initial development through ongoing operations. Areta will serve as the primary point of contact for service providers, projects, and the community, managing feedback and leading continuous improvements. A committed development team will support ongoing platform maintenance and iteration.

The Cardano Foundation has been a key counterpart throughout our proposal development process — providing valuable feedback and facilitating connections to the right stakeholders across the Cardano ecosystem. We have been in touch with Alex, Pierre, and Michiel.

The BSS proposal has the following dependencies:

• Technical Development: Following proposal approval, the development for the BSS would begin with a targeted 8 week lead time to v1 launch
• Budget Approval: Approval of the proposed Intersect budget by the ADA holders through the on-chain treasury governance process