RilDil

I took on the challenge of building a decentralized supplier marketplace that competes with its data-rich Web2 counterparts. And I gave it features that stays true to the ethos of the space, like harnessing game mechanics to bring a trustless way for people to come together to fill a shared need, as well as introducing identities and reputation that can be verified across different protocols.

A Supplier Marketplace that Enables Composable Reputation

Crowdfunding is incredibly cheap to do in the blockchain. There are no intermediaries and payment processors that will add to the cost of selling to the small-fry market. And because it's cheap, it can radically lower the entry for anyone who would like to harness the power of pooled money.

This leads to us reimagining an untapped use case for crowdfunding that can only be possible through DeFi: Wholesale Marketplaces

Why hasn't it been done before? Having people fragmented across different chains makes it difficult to unite them to pool their funds. And then there's the added risk of dealing with nameless adresses whose credibility they can't verify. So I came up with using cross-chain messaging and supplier scoring based on attestations to remove this friction.

How it works:

1. Supplier lists their project on RilDil
2. Once funding period has started, the users can escrow their pledges in USDC
3. The USDC from connected chains are pooled together
4. Once the funding period has ended, there will be two outcomes: --goal is reached, then the funds can be claimed by the supplier to fund the project --goal is not reached, then the funds can be claimed back by their respective pledgers
5. Pledgers of the projects can make an attestation on whether the experience with the supplier is good or bad. This attestation can then be used by anyone or any protocol to evaluate businesses

RilDil is deployed on six chains: Optimism, Base, Zora, Mode, Avalanche, and Arbitrum. This means it will accept listings and payments from all six networks whichever is convenient for the user.

The challenge with bringing crowdfunding to supplier marketplaces is that you never know who is actually a reputable contractor. So I implemented a reputation scoring based on the reviews of the pledgers. To attest that a supplier is legitimate, I used EAS to verify them. They can also bring this reputation with them across different protocols for future use.

Deposits from Optimism, Arbitrum, and Avalanche are consolidated together through Chainlink CCIP. All the smart contracts on three chains can communicate with each other, and depositing on any chain updates the size of pooled funds on the dApp.

Throughout the development process, I was using new tools and had to embrace the uncertainty on whether it will all work together by the end. With the limited time given, I had to weigh which features are absolutely necessary and which can be done later.

I am glad with what I have made through this hackathon, but the platform will continue to develop even after this hackathon. There are still many features to improve this dApp. To mention some:

-The Graph Protocol's Subgraphs to enable suppliers to query a list of their pledgers based on contributions for reward distribution.

-A ZKML-powered verification system for legally-binding contracts and proofs of shipment

-Enabling a milestone escrow for the listings that have reached way beyond their goals.

-Integrating an attestation-gated messaging chatbox where supplier and contributors can communicate.