**Tagline:** Polkadot-native .frm naming + KILT-verified membership + XCM USDC escrow, with Web2 DNS mapping for familiar storefronts. #2647
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bpiggott1978
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Thanks for the application and interest in our grants program. But why are you focusing on an agricultural namespace? What is the key problem that you are trying to solve? There are also already a couple of pallets that focus on creating a name service: https://wiki.polkadot.com/general/build-open-source/
Hello, Thank you for the question. I am focusing on an agricultural namespace (.frm) because farming has unique needs that generic name-service pallets cannot address. While existing Polkadot pallets provide name-to-account resolution, agriculture requires a mission-specific trust, identity, and commerce layer that builds on these tools but extends them for the food system. The key problem is that small farms remain digitally invisible and under-resourced. In Michigan, there are 44,000 farms on 9.4 million acres, many earning under $10,000 annually (USDA NASS). Across the U.S., 86% of farms are small family operations, yet they generate only 17% of production value (USDA ERS; Zulauf). Globally, 570 million smallholders, often on less than 2 hectares, produce 28–35% of the world’s food (FAO; Lowder et al.). Despite feeding much of the world, these farms lack affordable, trustworthy digital infrastructure to sell directly, prove authenticity, and connect to consumers. Generic namespaces like .com only whitewash agriculture, burying farms among 150 million other domains — nearly 37% of all registrations worldwide (Hostinger). By contrast, .frm creates a vertical identity where farms stand out, giving consumers immediate recognition and trust. Demand for meaningful domains is already growing, with new gTLDs expanding 13% in a year (Hostinger). A dedicated agricultural namespace ensures farms are not lost in the noise of generic branding. The companion .maha namespace and app addresses the health side of the problem: millions of people are prescribed special diets — for diabetes, kidney disease, heart health, and anti-inflammatory needs — yet they face a universal problem: the foods recommended by healthcare providers are rarely accessible, affordable, or aligned with local supply chains. This disconnect leaves patients struggling to follow medical guidance, despite the critical role nutrition plays in treatment and recovery. .maha solves this by connecting dietary prescriptions directly to verified .frm farms, surfacing local products aligned with medical and nutritional needs. By anchoring .frm and .maha on Polkadot, we extend existing pallets with farm verification, provenance data, health-aware discovery, direct sales, and peer-to-peer trading. Crucially, free tiers guarantee equity, ensuring even the smallest farms and poorest families can participate. As a founder with agricultural roots and decades of IT/security leadership, I am committed to building this — but like many early-stage entrepreneurs, I need assistance with funding to acquire the namespaces, develop the infrastructure, and launch the MVP. With Polkadot’s support, this project can move from concept to reality, empowering farmers, patients, and communities worldwide. Best Regards, Brian |
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Hi @bpiggott1978,
Thank you for your application.
On a lighter note before heading into the weeds:
Why .frm rather than .farm for memorability?
There are also already a couple of pallets that focus on creating a name service: https://wiki.polkadot.com/general/build-open-source/
I don't think your prior comment addressed this point from David that I echo:
Please check the Name Service section of https://wiki.polkadot.com/general/build-open-source/#chains-and-pallets: there have been at least 5 projects working on Name Systems/Services. I'd suggest that you check out their implementations, since I feel that what you're proposing for milestone 1 will duplicate their effort, and while these projects may no longer be maintained, bringing one of them up to speed will likely be much less effort than re-inventing the wheel. You bring up the argument that
On a more general note: the fact that all of these are no longer maintained does not exactly give me confidence that yet-another-name-service - whether yours or another effort - will not meet a similar fate.
I suspect this is because, even with an existing name service operational, the primary challenge is integration into browsers. ENS & Unstoppable Domains are supported in Brave, and your grant proposal outlines no path towards such an integration (which I also would not consider sufficient - I would not expect most farmers or their clients to be running Brave/Opera, and asking them to install another browser for this purpose is unreasonable - the overhead more than offsets the UX benefits from having a TLD like .frm).
Of course, as you're proposing with M3.1, this can be worked around with a gateway like eth.link (operated by Cloudflare), but this both
- nullifies the decentralization benefits (in fact bears more risks than going with a domain on a TLD managed by IANA since the gateway operator might not faithfully resolve),
- is likely optically worse than just using another tld like .com, .org ... without the presence of /need for a subdomain.
The key problem is that small farms remain digitally invisible and under-resourced.
In summary: I'm ready to accept this assertion at surface level, yet even so I'm unconvinced that a gTLD that will require a gateway to be easily accessible by web2 users materially improves:
- the visibility of farmers nor
- the trust in their domains
As outlined above, I fear the opposite would be the case for both.
| | Number | Deliverable | Specification | | ||
| | -----: | ----------- | ------------- | | ||
| | **0a‑0e** | License/Docs/Tests/Docker + Article | Publish a technical article explaining design decisions, integration steps, and demo. | | ||
| | 1. | **Gateway Service** | Open‑source reverse‑proxy/indexer that maps names to IPFS/IPNS or on‑chain data and serves them under a conventional Web2 subdomain pattern; includes NGINX config templates. | |
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are you proposing hosting a gateway as well yourself, and if so, where would this live?
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are you proposing hosting a gateway as well yourself, and if so, where would this live?
I have access to Azure, AWS, and google to host my applications. I can also host small versions of a gateway from my office,
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are you proposing hosting a gateway as well yourself, and if so, where would this live?
I have access to Azure, AWS, and google to host my applications. I can also host small versions of a gateway from my office,
September 10, 2025 Dear Review Team, Thank you for your thoughtful feedback and for raising important questions about the viability and differentiation of my proposal. I would like to respond directly to the concerns outlined, as they are critical for building a sustainable path forward. You are correct that memorability matters. The “.farm” TLD is already an ICANN-delegated string, which limits its availability for our model. My approach is to use DNS-first domains (e.g., I fully agree with your assessment and have adjusted my plan accordingly. Rather than re-inventing a name service from scratch, I will evaluate existing Polkadot pallet implementations, modernize one for current compatibility, and contribute patches upstream. This reduces risk, accelerates development, and allows me to focus my milestones on agriculture- and health-specific features such as verified farm identities, inventory feeds, payments, and medically tagged diet data. I acknowledge the limitations of relying on Brave/Opera or gateway operators such as eth.link. For this reason, DNS will remain the default mechanism for farmer and consumer access. Web3 integration will be positioned as optional value-adds for provenance, identity, and decentralized data integrity. Where mirrors are desired, I will employ redundant gateways and DNSLink/IPFS so that resolution is never dependent on a single provider. This design preserves decentralization benefits without compromising usability. I could build a mobile app for the .frm mission because almost everyone poor to rich has a smartphone. I recognize that a TLD by itself does not automatically create visibility or trust. The value of this project comes from verticalization: combining DNS websites with SEO and maps integration (visibility), verified farm profiles and certifications (trust), and .maha diet tags that connect medical prescriptions with farm inventories (utility). Previous name services failed because they lacked a vertical go-to-market. By focusing on agriculture and health, I am addressing both the distribution and the adoption challenges. To reflect these revisions, Milestone 1 will explicitly include: (1) evaluation of at least three existing name-service pallets, (2) selection and modernization of one for agricultural use, (3) documentation of results, and (4) contribution of improvements upstream. This ensures efficiency, alignment with the ecosystem, and demonstrable progress beyond what has been tried before. In summary, I believe this approach strengthens the case for a domain and application ecosystem that genuinely empowers farmers and patients. Thank you again for your candid input. I welcome continued dialogue and am committed to making this effort both technically sound and practically impactful. Sincerely, |
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Please see updates |
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If i make the suggested updates will this proposal be allow to next level |
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This is new to me submitting a grant this way. Do I need to just add my comments or update the suggestions into my request. |
Thanks for the guidance. I’ve re-scoped M1 to evaluate, select, and modernize ONE existing name-service pallet (e.g., substrate-names or pns-pallets), contribute fixes upstream, and ship tests/docs/CI. I’ve also made DNS-first the default; the “.frm” label is app/internal only, and any gateway is demo-only. The application file is updated accordingly. |
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bpiggott1978
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Agriculture has been a passion of mine since I was a child. I live in the country side with a lot of sick people. These farmers sell their products through a series of middle men to the store then the sick people couldn't afford the pesticide and steroid filled they were asked to eat and charge them and arm and let for it. Giving a person to choose with a app or website from their neighbor would help them become healthier. There is so much money made from that its sickening because the people ger sicker from grocery food and then buy their prescriptions at the store. Its all greed. I feel that I can give the cutting edge technology to do their jobs that people can be healthier, Web 2 has too many restrictions and laws as well, Again this will give the people who feed us the tech they deserve at a lesser prince. I believer we3 give people a new way to live |
Project Abstract
dotfrm is a Polkadot-native naming and commerce stack for agriculture. A custom Polkadot SDK runtime provides pallets for a .frm name service, farmer membership (KILT DID binding), and per-order escrow; payments settle in USDC on Asset Hub via XCM. Farmer names also map to Web2 DNS so buyers can use normal storefronts while identity, ownership, and settlement live on-chain. Indexers (SubQuery/Subsquid) power fast reads for the User and Admin portals; the Web2 login uses OIDC with MFA (Otp.NET) for a familiar, secure UX.
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project_name.md).@_______:matrix.org(change the homeserver if you use a different oMilestones
Milestone 1 — Domain Infrastructure Setup
.frmand.mahadomain registration & resolution.Milestone 2 — Healthy App & Marketplace MVP
.mahalogin identity..frmfarmer products via the app.Milestone 3 — Community & Adoption Tools
.frmstorefronts..maha..frm/.mahainto other apps.Team
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The team combines experience in blockchain development, mobile applications, and domain infrastructure.
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