[2508 Grant Proposal] PingPay

PingPay — Grant Proposal


1. Project Name & Description

PingPay captured the RIF Economy reward from Rootstock at ETHGlobal Prague hackathon. It is the first end‑to‑end digital product sales platform powered by the x402 payment standard, enabled for USDRIF on Rootstock via LayerZero’s OFT token standard.

Creators sell digital files, tools, token-gated content, or subscriptions using wallet-based checkout. Buyers pay in USDRIF on Rootstock; payments are bridged trustlessly to USDC on Base, unlocking x402’s instant, decentralized payment flow. Sellers receive protected content access, analytics, and do not require traditional providers like Stripe or Lemon Squeezy.

ETHGlobal Credential: https://ethglobal.com/showcase/pingpay-vdknr


2. Team Background

Kadir Metehan Caliskan – Blockchain Developer
Blockchain developer and entrepreneur for over 4 years. Bilkent University Electrical and Electronics Engineering graduate. Prev-Nethermind, ETHGLOBAL finalist and co-founder of the Bilkent Blockchain Community, specializes in tokenomics design, smart contracts development.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/metehancaliskan/

Ekim Cem Ulger – Product Developer
Holds a Master’s degree in Engineering Management from METU. Previously, as software lead at placemaking.ai, E-Pixel, 300,000 interactions in 3 months. With 6+ years of experience in startup ecosystems, he developed and launched 30+ products.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekimcem/

Alp Kumbasar – Fullstack Developer
Bilkent University Electrical and Electronics Engineering graduate. For the last 4 years, he’s been developing AI powered mobile app products at Bronix.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abidin-alp-kumbasar-7b424719a/

Omer Basar Ozguven – Fullstack Developer
Bilkent University Mechanical Engineering graduate. Senior full-stack developer with 4 years of experience in startups. Previously published an award-winning paper on robotics systems.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omerbasarozguven/

Hazal Oyku Cengiz – Marketing
Marketing manager at Bronix for over 1.5 years. Creates content across TikTok and X, and leads social media strategy and community engagement campaigns.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hazal-öykü-cengiz-1b9a7a206/

Bertan Kofon – Head of Product
Bilkent University Electrical and Electronics Engineering graduate. 3+ years in blockchain, 1 year as product owner at moonshot, co-founder of the Bilkent Blockchain Community, specializes in DeFi, and smart contracts development.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bertankofon/


3. Total Grant Amount

$14,830 USD total

Requesting $5,550 for Milestone 1. The utilization of funds explained under each milestones.


4. Milestones & Deliverables

Milestone 1: Bridge USDRIF on Rootstock → USDC on Base via batch tx

  • Completing batch transection aggregator on Rootstock mainnet to find best route.

  • Implementing LayerZero OFT contracts on Rootstock & Base

  • Conversion logic (USDRIF →RBTC → USDC.e → USDC on BASE)

  • Bridge monitoring dashboard

KPIs:

  • Batch aggregator active

  • 5+ bridged payments completed on mainnet

  • Dashboard operational

Duration: 2 weeks

Milestone 1 Budget Breakdown:

Workstream Cost (USD) Description
Engineering (2 devs × 60 hrs x $35/h) $4,200 Core dev of bridge logic, OFT contracts
Infrastructure (RPC, Vercel, domain) $150 Hosting, bridge dashboard infra
Bridge mainnet test (Gas Fees) $200 Testing on Rootstock/Base mainnets
Bridge Monitoring Dashboard $1000 UI/UX + integration with backend for bridge monitoring
Total $5,550

Milestone 2: Core Platform & x402 Checkout

  • Launch x402-powered sales platform

  • Enable creation of payment links (e.g., pingpay.app/pay/abc123) for digital assets

  • Build a public digital asset listing page

  • Activate payments using USDRIF via x402 standard

  • Trigger a webhook for digital product access upon on-chain confirmation of payment

KPIs:

  • 20+ x402 purchases

  • 10+ products created

  • Payment links tested and accessible publicly

  • Listing page showing all active digital products

Duration: 3 weeks

Request: $4,680

Milestone 2 Budget Breakdown:

Workstream Cost (USD) Description
Frontend Dev (1 dev x 60 hrs x $35/h) $2,100 UI/UX for checkout page and listing portal
Backend Logic (x402, 1 dev x 50 hrs x $35/h) $1,750 Checkout smart contract interaction, webhook logic, building backend architecture for pingpay
QA & Bug Fixing $800 Ensure functionality across payment scenarios
Hosting/Infra $300 Ongoing Vercel, Supabase, RPC usage
Total $4,680

Milestone 3: Marketplace, Refunds & Advanced Analytics

  • Public marketplace with trending, search and profiles

  • Manual on‑chain refund feature (Expiration data: a week after payment)

  • Best‑selling leaderboard

KPIs:

  • 50+ marketplace purchases

  • 10+ seller profiles

  • 3 successful refunds

  • Leaderboard live & accurate

Duration: 2 weeks

Request: $2,500

Milestone 3 Budget Breakdown:

Workstream Cost (USD) Description
UI/UX for Marketplace $1,000 Product exploration, trending, filters
Refund Smart Contract $500 Expiry-based manual refund logic
Analytics Dashboard $800 Backend tracking of seller stats and leaderboards
QA & Security $200 Refund validation and stress tests
Total $2,500

Milestone 4: Marketing Campaign, Demo Video & Community Growth

Deliverables:

  • Launch of official demo video explaining how PingPay works

  • Run social media marketing campaigns (X, Telegram, Discord) to drive early users

  • Engage with at least 1 influencer or creator to list a product

KPIs:

  • Demo video published on at least 2 platforms (e.g., X & YouTube)

  • 20+ onboarding threads/posts shared on social media

  • 100+ new followers/subscribers across platforms

  • 10+ new seller signups from marketing efforts

Duration: 2 weeks

Request: $2,100

Milestone 4 Budget Breakdown:

Workstream Cost (USD) Description
Marketing Kit (product video, contents for social media etc.) $600
Social Campaigns (X, TG) $500
Influencer Partnership $1,000
Total $2,100

5. Overall Timeline

Phase Dates Duration
Milestone 1 Aug 25 – Sep 10 2 weeks
Milestone 2 Sep 11 – Oct 2 3 weeks
Milestone 3 Oct 3 – Oct 18 2 weeks
Milestone 3 Oct 19 – Nov 3 2 weeks

6. Technical Specifications

  • Frontend: Next.js, Wagmi (wallet auth), TailwindCSS, TypeScript

  • Backend: Node.js, Supabase (PostgreSQL), LayerZero SDK, x402 logic

  • Smart Contracts: Solidity (OFT contracts) on Rootstock & Base

  • Bridge: LayerZero OFT + transaction router

  • Hosting: Vercel for frontend; AWS


7. Value Proposition for Rootstock

  • First x402 implementation using USDRIF, native to Rootstock

  • Increases utility and demand for $USDRIF as a means of payment

  • Attracts developers to monetizable tools and assets on Rootstock


8. Demo & GitHub Repo


9. Video Pitch

1 Like

The concept of leveraging the x402 payment standard with USDRIF on Rootstock is innovative and could meaningfully expand USDRIF’s utility.

That said, we’d like to raise a point on KPIs versus grant sizing. The requested budget of $14.8k seems reasonable, but the current KPIs (e.g., 20 purchases in Milestone 2, 100 followers in Milestone 4) feel modest relative to the spend. As structured, most success criteria emphasize technical delivery, while providing limited signals on user adoption or real demand.

We’d encourage the team to recalibrate KPIs toward more meaningful adoption milestones and consider tying disbursements to traction, so the grant drives both technical delivery and ecosystem impact.

4 Likes