MLabs Core Tool Maintenance & Enhancement: Plutarch and Ply
MLabs LTD
ID: 69fae404f9ebc26d057f51bf
This proposal seeks annual funding for the maintenance and enhancement of Plutarch and Ply. Plutarch is a Haskell eDSL for creating efficient Cardano smart contracts via controlled compilation into UPLC. Ply helps serialize Plutarch scripts to and from CIP-57 blueprint-style artifacts with inferred types, protecting the on-chain/off-chain boundary without forcing users to manage low-level type details. Both tools have been extensively used throughout the Cardano ecosystem. During a recent internal audit, MLabs counted at least 26 teams building with Plutarch and Ply. Their continued maintenance is crucial for project teams that require reliable smart contract tooling that tracks protocol evolution. Plutarch also remains efficient and performant. In MLabs’ public cross-language benchmarks (https://mlabs-haskell.github.io/uplc-benchmark/comparison.html), Plutarch scripts rank among the smallest in the benchmark suite while requiring comparatively low on-chain compute and memory. The next funding period is expected to cover ongoing Cardano ledger, Plutus, and tooling evolution, including protocol-era compatibility for major ledger updates such as the Dijkstra era, if relevant changes land during the funding period. Because upstream timing and scope cannot be fully known in advance, this proposal uses a quarterly maintenance model with a clear priority hierarchy. We will allocate proposal resources toward: 1. Critical breakages and serious vulnerabilities 2. Protocol-era and hard-fork compatibility 3. Bug fixes, correctness improvements, and optimizations 4. Documentation, examples, technical blog posts, and developer-experience improvements Overall, this budget will keep Plutarch and Ply reliable, compatible, and useful for Cardano builders while giving maintainers the capacity to respond to real ecosystem needs. The proposal aligns with Cardano 2030 by strengthening open-source smart contract tooling.
Scorecard
How this score works
Each criterion is worth between 1 and 4 points. The score is the points earned out of the points on criteria that have been answered — shown as a percentage. Green is 75% or higher, Amber is 50–74%, and Red is below 50%.
Some criteria are checked automatically against the proposal data (open source, doxxed team, treasury return clauses, etc.). Others are human-judgment calls — value for money, public good, whether the deliverables are realistic. Those stay blank until a DRep ticks them.
Criteria can also be marked Not applicablewhen they don't fit the proposal — for example, "open source" doesn't apply to a DAO governance proposal with no software output. Those are excluded from the score entirely, neither helping nor hurting.
Green requires 80% coverage. If less than 80% of the applicable criteria (by points) have been answered, the verdict stays at Amber — "pending review" — even when every answered criterion passes. This proposal's coverage is currently 68% (13 of 19 applicable criteria answered). The auto-calculated band would have been Green, but coverage is below the threshold so the verdict is shown as Amber to flag that judgment criteria are still pending.
Vote intent
Export & audit
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{
"_meta": {
"schema_version": "1.2.0",
"proposal_id": "69fae404f9ebc26d057f51bf",
"proposal_title": "MLabs Core Tool Maintenance & Enhancement: Plutarch and Ply",
"proposer": "MLabs LTD",
"filename": "hydra-mlabs-plutarch-ply-maintenance.json",
"processed_date": "2026-05-11",
"title": "MLabs Core Tool Maintenance & Enhancement: Plutarch and Ply"
},
"ask": {
"ada_amount": 1144433,
"usd_amount": 205998,
"ada_usd_rate_assumed": 0.18,
"usd_peg_vs_market": "conservative",
"duration_months": 12,
"milestone_payments_disclosed": true,
"milestone_schedule_disclosed": "amounts_only",
"milestone_notes": "4 quarterly milestones (13 weeks each), each with quarterly maintainer review report + technical walkthrough video. Single line-item engineering hours, milestones don't break out per-tranche ADA explicitly."
},
"identity": {
"doxxed": true,
"doxxed_notes": "MLabs LTD is a registered company with extensive public Cardano dev track record; primary Plutarch/Ply maintainers since inception."
},
"metadata": {
"open_source": "yes",
"has_prior_delivery": true,
"prior_delivery_notes": "Plutarch/Ply primary maintainers since Catalyst Fund 8. Prior funding: Catalyst Fund 9 ($73,040 USD), Fund 13 (487,679 ADA + 57,370 ADA), Intersect 70,000 ADA for Conway-era upgrade. 26 teams cited as building with Plutarch/Ply per MLabs internal audit. Cross-language UPLC benchmarks at mlabs-haskell.github.io/uplc-benchmark/.",
"admin_model": "intersect",
"admin_notes": "Intersect administers with 3% fee (33,333 ADA); MLabs suggests independent reviewers, final selection by Intersect.",
"duplicate_of_existing_solution": {
"value": "no",
"confidence": "high",
"set_by": "ai"
}
},
"treasury_return": {
"has_return_clause": false,
"treasury_favourability": "weak",
"return_notes": "Proposer answered 'No' on returning unused funds to Treasury."
},
"relationships": {
"competes_with": []
},
"ecosystem_demand": {
"evidence_level": "strong",
"evidence_level_confidence": "high",
"evidence_level_set_by": "ai",
"active_users_known": true,
"active_users_examples": [
{
"name": "26 teams cited as building with Plutarch/Ply per MLabs audit (Indigo, Liqwid, SundaeSwap, Minswap, Optim and others listed in proposer track record)",
"kind": "integrator"
},
{
"name": "Plutarch among smallest scripts in public cross-language UPLC benchmark suite",
"kind": "user"
}
],
"developer_demand_signals": [
"26 teams using Plutarch/Ply per internal audit (named integrators in MLabs track record)",
"Multiple production Cardano dApps depend on Plutarch tooling",
"Active need for protocol-era compatibility through Cardano ledger evolution including Dijkstra era",
"Public cross-language benchmark suite at mlabs-haskell.github.io shows Plutarch competitive efficiency"
],
"adoption_risk_notes": "Strong evidence of existing user base — 26 named integrator teams across Cardano DeFi. Maintenance of core developer infrastructure has clear demand given live production dApps depending on these tools. Quarterly priority hierarchy (critical breakages > protocol-era compat > bug fixes > DevEx) is sensibly structured."
},
"incumbents": {
"has_existing_solution": "no",
"has_existing_solution_confidence": "high",
"has_existing_solution_set_by": "ai",
"existing_solutions": [],
"differentiation_claim": "MLabs is the original creator and primary maintainer of Plutarch/Ply; no transfer of maintainership being proposed.",
"differentiation_credibility": "high"
},
"risk_flags": {
"aggressive_peg": false,
"self_administered_no_oversight": false,
"incumbent_already_delivering": false,
"no_evidence_of_demand": false,
"competes_with_in_batch": false,
"concentration_risk": true
},
"id": "hydra-mlabs-plutarch-ply-maintenance",
"source": {
"hydra_id": "69fae404f9ebc26d057f51bf",
"channels": [
"hydra"
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}