(completed by Kristin Eberman)

• What were your team’s prioritized goals and deliverables for this phase?

  • Ultimate goal was to catch the backend development up with the frontend by tapping into the Kadena Blockchain and feeding that data into the K-Block app. We learned that this requires setting up a node to run on the Kadena blockchain (hosted on Flux), which will store a copy of Kadena’s database and allow for more efficient data processing in order to display that data on K-Block.
  • The above goal could not be reached due to the technical levels of the development team for this phase. We instead turned this into a “discovery and learning phase” to get more familiar with blockchain and web3 technology, as well as read documentation on how to set up a node and access the Kadena blockchain data.

• What did your team complete throughout the phase?

  • We were able to complete some of the outstanding frontend changes and tweaks, yet those changes have not yet been integrated with the official K-Block GitHub repo due to not having access. (Once this is resolved, I can share the code with anyone who needs. It’s currently stored in a private repo on my personal GitHub account).

• What work is still in progress?

  • The entire backend environment has still not yet been created. The first step is getting a Kadena node hosted on Flux (which Morgan Denner plans to help with). This requires a paid account and more advanced technical knowledge. Once that is in place, the team will have a much better understanding of how to proceed with feeding the Kadena data to K-Block. It’s also possible that some APIs Amir is working on can be used for this project to help simplify things.
  • As far as frontend changes, there is still (at least) one outstanding issue… when the user hovers over the menu bar on the homepage, there is a delay for the submenus to display. This delay isn’t as bad on the other pages, so hopefully an easy fix.

• What would you recommend future phases do to continue these initiatives?

  • For new members joining, a solid understanding of how blockchain works would be super important to grasp some of these concepts. (This free codecademy course is a good start!). It’s a bit of a challenging project technically and I think more advanced tech leads would help make things go smoothly and provide a faster way forward.

• What work would you hope to complete if given more time?

  • I ideally would love to have the Kadena node setup so our team could see how the data is stored and how to access it. Once that initial setup is figured out, I think the dev team (even at an associate level) would have more confidence and ability to start setting up code and a backend environment to process the data and feed it into the K-Block frontend.

Reflection & Future Recommendations

• What were some blockers that your team faced and what would you recommend for the next phase to avoid these situations?

  • The biggest blocker was not having the Kadena node setup nor having the knowledge or experience to get this up and running on our own (plus a paid Flux account is needed).
  • Getting Morgan and/or other more technical leads involved on a regular basis would help immensely.

• Looking back, are there changes you would have made to the way things were done with your team, collaborating with other teams, etc.?

  • It took a while to really grasp what was needed for this project and to fully understand what our blockers even were. I think this stems from low retention on the project and a lot of knowledge leaving at each phase. I’m not sure what to change, but having detailed handover notes is a good starting point.

• What recommendations do you have for the team taking on your work from here?

  • Get Morgan involved early and often - he is hard to pin down! Amir could also be a good resource and is usually very responsive, but short on time.

• What would you suggest the next team do as first steps?

  • Meet with Morgan (and possible Amir) to start setting up the Flux node (and therefore getting access to the Kadena database which is needed for this project). Morgan is happy to do this setup together with the team, but he is hard to get a hold of and find time to meet. I’m hopeful that once this blocker is resolved, moving forward after that will be easier and make more sense.

• Please leave directions for navigating the current Notion setup for any necessary materials for the next team.

  • There isn’t a ton to navigate through in Notion for this phase. Everything should be documented and linked in the Development section, so as another starting point, reviewing all the info there would be helpful!