TapDano: From Nintendo's NFC Problem to Petrobras's Mainnet

This report is part of a 12-part On-Chain Impact Study funded under Project Catalyst grant #1300150. The study analyses the measurable on-chain outcomes of Catalyst-funded projects from Funds 9–12, assessing how voting behaviour, fund distribution, smart contract deployments, and transaction activity shape the Cardano network. By focusing on blockchain-native signals, the series offers a clear, data-driven perspective on how Catalyst funding translates into ecosystem growth and network utility.

Each case study applies a consistent research framework, combining transaction data, milestone verification, and correlation analysis between project delivery and network metrics. This structured approach enables comparisons across project categories, highlighting patterns in voter engagement, project efficiency, and ecosystem impact that can guide future funding strategies and governance decisions.

This edition covers TapDano (Fund 10, ₳487,095), a hardware authentication infrastructure project that solved a structural problem in NFC security: how to cryptographically prove that a physical object is authentic without relying on any centralised backend. Funded through Project Catalyst, the team implemented Ed25519 asymmetric signatures on Java Card 3.2, deployed an Aiken smart contract to the Cardano mainnet, and produced an open-source NPM SDK covering four communication protocols. The project completed all six milestones and culminated in Petrobras’s first live use of the Cardano mainnet at the ExpamdLAB 2024 event, the first Fortune 500 deployment on the network.