The problem Apt Fund solves

Popular crowdfunding platforms like Gitcoin ensure that everyone receives fair funding by using a Quadratic Funding algorithm. This algorithm allocates funds in a round based on the number of unique donors rather than the total amount of money a project is receiving. While this method ensures that every project gets a share of the overall funding, it doesn’t guarantee that the share will be sufficient for the project to fully achieve its goals.

For example, let’s say a project has a goal of raising 100k USDC to reach a specific milestone. After participating in a quadratic funding round, the project may receive only 20k USDC, even though they now have funds, this amount falls short of what’s needed to achieve their milestone.

To address this issue, we’ve taken an extra step by introducing a Dominance Assurance Contract (DAC). This contract ensures that if a project doesn’t meet its funding goal after the quadratic funding round, the money will be refunded to donors with a bonus as a reward for their support.

Here’s how it works: DAC divides donors into two groups—early donors and late donors. Early donors receive a complete refund with an additional bonus, while late donors receive a partial refund. This structure encourages more donations, as early donors are incentivized by the promise of a full refund with a bonus, while late donors are motivated to help the project reach its goal to avoid only receiving a partial refund.

In this way, we’ve taken the best practices from the crowdfunding world and implemented our own unique approach to ensure everyone’s success.

Challenges we ran into

We faced multiple challenges while working on this project. The primary hurdle was working with a programming language we had no prior experience with, all while needing to complete the project within a tight five-day deadline. We used the Move programming language to write our smart contracts for Aptos EVM, despite having no previous knowledge of Move.
Furthermore, we encountered significant challenges when integrating the frontend with the smart contract using the Aptos SDK. This integration process proved to be quite complex and time-consuming.