Talisman Wallet - Retroactive Proposal #3
Dates: Oct 2023 - Sep 2024
Requested Funds: $690,600 USD, denominated in USDT on Polkadot Asset Hub
Short description: Talisman Wallet is a user-friendly, GPL3-licensed open-source wallet designed for the Polkadot ecosystem. It offers advanced portfolio management, account organization features, and supports transaction signing on Substrate and EVM blockchains. Complementing the wallet, Talisman Portal is a "one-stop-shop" web application that enables users to discover and access Polkadot ecosystem activities with simplicity and ease of use. Integrated with Talisman Wallet and accessible to other ecosystem wallets like Polkadot.js, Enkrypt, Subwallet, and Nova Wallet, these products work synergistically to enhance user experience. This proposal seeks $690,600 USD in USDT for retroactive funding for maintenance and new feature development (from Oct 2023 to Sep 2024). Since launch, Talisman has achieved approximately 130,000 active installs and garnered contributions of over 8 million DOT to its nomination pools.
Links to full proposal:
<ul>
<li>🖥️ <a href="https://www.figma.com/deck/eefH8OUATL53qpbzn5ODYH" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Summary deck </a></li>
<li>📄 <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p_fjA_CeIgLlM9zxQYFzEKurRhBFUtikbB5UFcS2FnE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full proposal</a></li>
</ul>
Context of the proposal
<img src="https://i.ibb.co/GH3Nj8c/trepro.jpg" alt="Jon giving a talk at Sub0" width="640" height="360" />
Talisman (talisman.xyz) is a multi-chain wallet and web application that enables users to &ldquo;Traverse the Paraverse&rdquo; with ease. We believe in a future where everyone has freedom via true agency over their financial activities, and we believe that the Polkadot ecosystem will bring this to fruition.
For more on Talisman&rsquo;s mission and approach, please see the following recent talks
<ul>
<li>Warp Lizard and Natti on Polkadot Spaces, Sep 2024: <a href="https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1zqJVYkqPrnGB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Talisman's Cross-Chain Swaps</a></li>
<li>Nipsey at Polkadot Decoded 2024: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g10ehroz5es" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Conquering Browser Based Substrate Development With Talisman</a></li>
<li>Polkadot insider interview @ Thailand blockchain week: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g10ehroz5es" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unveil What Next For Talisman In 2024 w/ Jonathan Dunne</a></li>
<li>Nipsey at Sub0 Asia 2024: The Application Layer: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIJfshY60rk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Conquering Browser Based Substrate Development with Talisman</a></li>
</ul>
Polkadot&rsquo;s multi-chain implementation, though powerful, can lead to a confusing user experience for end-users. It&rsquo;s our goal to solve these challenges with design, storytelling, and engineering. We abstract away the complexity of the underlying implementation and provide a friendly user experience when using Polkadot and a way to discover new applications and services available to end users, while keeping them safe and educated about the actions they are taking. Talisman has two products: a <a href="https://docs.talisman.xyz/talisman/talisman-products/talisman-wallet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">browser extension wallet</a> and a <a href="https://app.talisman.xyz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">user-friendly web application</a>. Since launching in early 2022, Talisman has been able to achieve the following:
<ul>
<li>Talisman&rsquo;s DOT Nomination pools driven by one click staking in the Portal web application, and more recently inline staking in the Talisman Wallet, have garnered over 8 million DOT since launch, and are among the largest and most trusted pools in the ecosystem.</li>
<li>Our wallet has recently reached 130,000 active installs, as measured by the Chrome and Firefox app stores</li>
<li>We have over 17,000 users in our <a href="https://discord.com/invite/talisman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Discord community</a>, as well as a highly engaged &ldquo;Spirit Key&rdquo; community with over 600 active contributors Thousands of weekly users of Talisman&rsquo;s web app (app.talisman.xyz), a dapp that works with any Polkadot wallet</li>
<li>Our users frequently mention that they would recommend Talisman to users new to the Polkadot ecosystem because alternatives, particularly Polkadot.js, are too complicated</li>
</ul>
Talisman was founded in 2021 and now consists of a team of 12 people with deep experience in crypto, finance, development, UI design, and product management. The team was previously founded by Agyle, Nipsey, Swami, and Hood, and is now led by Nobyte and Warp Lizard, who have been with Talisman since near Talisman&rsquo;s founding. There are no conflicts of interest between the team and governing bodies for Polkadot or Kusama.
Simple for Beginners, Powerful for Pros
User experience is central to all of our design and development. Not only do we focus on providing the easiest Polkadot experience for beginner users, we also have emphasised developing features for advanced Polkadot ecosystem users. Our aim is to be the first entry point for users into Polkadot, and also the primary option for all those developing in Polkadot.
We build in an open, community-driven way and we are committed to building for the community, including users, teams, institutions, infrastructure providers, and other ecosystem stakeholders.
Prior Proposals
Talisman has a stellar track record of executing on treasury proposals:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100.073%; height: 847px;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;">
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 21px;">Proposal</td>
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 21px;">Details</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 322px;">
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 322px;">
Business-Friendly MultiSig UI
Approved: March 2023
Links: <a href="../motion/342" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Proposal,</a> <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t7MeqH51Y82ZUJoqZzvuSiUmyXuaT2r9-OWDIuJnCas/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Final Report</a>
</td>
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 322px;">
This proposal was for a business-friendly multisig frontend to lower the difficulty for teams and businesses when running their financial operations on Polkadot. Teams currently face many difficulties when trying to perform these operations, risking mistakes along the way, and leading them to choose convenience over security. We applied Talisman&rsquo;s UX and design philosophy to create improvements for standard workflows for Polkadot multisig usage (based on the current multisig pallet), and eventually integrated upgrades when improvements to the multisig pallet itself are available.
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 364px;">
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 364px;">
Talisman Portal Milestone 1
Approved: April 2023
Links: <a href="../treasury/262" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Proposal</a>, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T6rU7F2UVwghXkARWod55WAROEPlRrXgw2H3GTPoku8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Final Report</a>
</td>
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 364px;">
In this proposal, we were seeking to fund improvements to Talisman Portal, Talisman&rsquo;s &ldquo;one stop shop&rdquo; web application that enables users to discover and access Polkadot ecosystem activities with a focus on simplicity and ease of use. This is an open source dapp that supports multiple Polkadot Ecosystem wallets, including: Polkadot.js, Talisman, SubWallet, and Enkrypt. Talisman Portal (<a href="https://app.talisman.xyz)">https://app.talisman.xyz)</a> is a great entry point for new users who are coming to Polkadot from other ecosystems, as well as advanced users who would like an intuitive experience for their day to day needs across portfolio management, staking, NFTs, dapp discovery, crowdloans and more.
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 119px;">
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 119px;">
Talisman Wallet - Retroactive Proposal #1
Approved: December 2023
Links: <a href="../treasury/547" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Proposal</a>
</td>
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 119px;">
This proposal sought retroactive funding for feature development, UX improvement, QA testing and Audit fixes for Talisman Wallet over fourteen weeks (Feb-May 2023).
&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;">
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 21px;">
Talisman Wallet - Retroactive Proposal #2
Approved: March 2024
Links: <a href="../treasury/714" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Proposal</a>
</td>
<td style="width: 47.8764%; height: 21px;">
This proposal sought retroactive funding for feature development, UX improvement, QA testing and Audit fixes over 31 weeks, for Talisman Wallet from May to Sept 2023, and Talisman Portal from Mar to Sept 2023.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Overview of Talisman Products
Talisman Wallet
Talisman Wallet is directly aimed at supporting retail usage of Polkadot by providing an outstanding experience in a multi-chain context, without sacrificing security. The tools that users choose to access Polkadot have a direct impact on their experience of the ecosystem as a whole, and Talisman endeavors to create a first class user experience for ecosystem participants.
<img src="https://i.ibb.co/Sr3s3zW/wallet.jpg" alt="Talisman Wallet graphic" width="640" height="360" />
Talisman Portal
The Talisman Portal is a &ldquo;one stop shop&rdquo; for Polkadot ecosystem activities. As an open source dapp hosted at <a href="https://app.talisman.xyz,">https://app.talisman.xyz,</a> it supports wallet connections from all Polkadot ecosystem extension wallets. The Talisman Portal is a quick way for users to quickly orient themselves and manage their activities in the Polkadot ecosystem, including :
<ul>
<li>View token portfolio</li>
<li>View NFT portfolio</li>
<li>Manage staking</li>
<li>Perform cross-chain swaps</li>
<li>Explore Polkadot ecosystem dapps</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://i.ibb.co/KqTznpw/portal.jpg" alt="Talisman Portal Graphic" width="640" height="360" />
Actively Advancing the Polkadot Ecosystem
While working hard to improve our product experience, Talisman has also continued to contribute to the Polkadot ecosystem at large. We highlight some of our contributions below.
<img src="https://i.ibb.co/6PsmPv5/advancing.jpg" alt="Talisman Advances graphic" width="640" height="360" />
Day 1 support for Polkadot Generic Ledger app
Besides having played a pivotal role in the wallet-side implementation of the Zondax generic Ledger app, Talisman committed significant development resources to delivering Generic Ledger support from day 1, enabling our users to migrate with ease. During the planning and development phase of the Generic Ledger application, Talisman engineers gave up their Friday evenings every week for several months in order to be present at planning meetings regarding the API design. During this time, our engineering team found several critical issues with proposed designs and provided crucial feedback to ensure a better outcome for the ecosystem.
Native cross-chain swaps
One of the key pain points of the Polkadot ecosystem has always been moving assets to/from Polkadot and other ecosystems, particularly between Ethereum and Polkadot, which has limited liquidity in the ecosystem. We have built a super convenient way for users to swap natively across chains, by integrating two swaps providers into our aggregator, and will continue to support additional paths.
Easy Polkadot staking
We support and continue to support easy staking of assets across the entire Polkadot ecosystem, enabling our users to generate yield with just a few clicks of a button, both in the Portal and in the Wallet. We&rsquo;ve recently integrated nomination pool staking functionality focusing on convenience in the wallet, and will continue to expand those features. Polkadot ecosystem Portal The Talisman Portal makes it super convenient for users to get started quickly in Polkadot: including tokens, NFTs, crowdloans, staking, and ecosystem explore. Bring any Polkadot wallet to the Portal, we don&rsquo;t discriminate.
Going above and beyond with Talisman Support
Talisman users don&rsquo;t just use the wallet, they need to interact with dapps throughout the Polkadot ecosystem. Manned by both Sentinels and our core devs, our Discord help desk has always been there to guide them with the intricacies of the Polkadot ecosystem. Many of the common support issues raised in our Discord don&rsquo;t relate directly to Talisman, but to Polkadot in general - for example, issues with the existential deposit, address formats, and (until recently) Ledger application incompatibility. The Talisman support team provides a crucial service to the ecosystem by educating users on Polkadot in general.
About this Proposal
This proposal consists of retroactively funded Wallet and Portal work completed between Oct 2023 and Sep 2024, during which time there were 34 software releases.
This proposal covers features across the following main feature areas:
👛Wallet
<ul>
<li>In-wallet Polkadot staking</li>
<li>Generic Ledger app support</li>
<li>Advanced Polkadot Ledger support</li>
<li>Support of chain-specific Ledger apps</li>
<li>Talisman Substrate developer mode</li>
<li>Signet / Polkadot Multisig account import</li>
<li>Foreign assets support</li>
<li>Manifest V3</li>
<li>Polkadot ecosystem support</li>
<li>Ongoing UX/UI and performance improvements</li>
</ul>
🌀Portal
<ul>
<li>Native cross-chain swaps</li>
<li>XCM improvements and fixes</li>
<li>Polkadot ecosystem NFT improvements and fixes</li>
<li>New Polkadot ecosystem staking assets</li>
</ul>
⛓️Chaindata
Talisman Chaindata is an open source repository of all Substrate and EVM chains supported by Talisman. Chaindata requires constant maintenance as new chains are supported and existing chains undergo changes.
Open Source Repositories
The end product has been be released and integrated into Talisman&rsquo;s GPL3 open source repositories:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/TalismanSociety/talisman">https://github.com/TalismanSociety/talisman</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/TalismanSociety/talisman-web">https://github.com/TalismanSociety/talisman-web</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/TalismanSociety/chaindata">https://github.com/TalismanSociety/chaindata</a></li>
</ul>
Relevant Team
<ul>
<li>Warp Lizard - Co-CEO / Head of Engineering</li>
<li>Nobyte - Co-CEO / Head of Product</li>
<li>Nipsey - CTO</li>
<li>Glide - Product Manager</li>
<li>Diogo - UX/UI Designer</li>
<li>Kheops - Software Engineer</li>
<li>Chris - Software Engineer</li>
<li>Alec - Software Engineer</li>
<li>Will - Software Engineer</li>
</ul>
Timeline
The timeline of the wallet section of this proposal covers 1 work milestone spanning approximately 48 weeks of calendar time from Oct 2023 - Sep 2024.
Payment Details
We are requesting $690,600 USD to be paid upfront for this proposal, as this work has already been completed. Please see the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p_fjA_CeIgLlM9zxQYFzEKurRhBFUtikbB5UFcS2FnE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">full report</a> for the cost breakdown.
This will be requested in the form of USDT on Polkadot Asset Hub, in order to underline our commitment to development rather than speculation on DOT prices.
Beneficiary Information
Fund recipient address: 16q8a9V8qSVscHMi6HoobBjMpBe23HzhYW9DDNgFLyBgAQT (Talisman Proposals, Polkadot Asset Hub). Please note, this is a proxied multisig address, not a single signatory account as Polkassembly indicates.
Fund manager contact: Nobyte and Warp Lizard (exec@talisman.xyz)
Comments, Q&amp;A: Please comment below! We will also appear on AAG Thursday 17 October.
Suggestions and Improvements:
We are dedicated to continuing to improve our features and user experience for our users. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you have suggestions for future improvements. You can do this directly on our <a href="https://discord.gg/talisman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Discord</a>.
We appreciate your interest and support.

Talisman (<a href="https://talisman.xyz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talisman.xyz</a>) is a multi-chain wallet and web application that enables users to &ldquo;Traverse the Paraverse&rdquo; with ease. We believe in a future where everyone has freedom via true agency over their intentions and finances, and we believe that the Polkadot ecosystem will bring this to fruition.
This proposal requests $690,600 USDT on Polkadot Asset Hub and covers the retroactive period of Oct 2023 - Sep 2024, covering both Talisman Wallet and Talisman Portal.
About Talisman
Our mission in the Polkadot ecosystem is to design for the user, advocate for the user, and build for the user. This means staying on top of the complex multi-chain functionality being built in Polkadot today, but synthesizing it down to a great experience that allows the user to understand and get the job done quickly and easily, while harnessing the full power of advanced functionality. Besides this, our goal is to facilitate liquidity to flow into Polkadot to the benefit of all in the ecosystem.
As of Oct 2024, Talisman has achieved the following traction:
<ul>
<li>Around 130,000 active installs as measured by the Chrome/Firefox app stores</li>
<li>36,000+ active monthly users on Talisman Portal</li>
<li>Users in 189 countries</li>
<li>8.5+ million DOT in Talisman nomination pools</li>
<li>The two largest nomination pools in Polkadot DOT staking</li>
</ul>
We build in an open, community-driven way and we are committed to building for the community, including users, teams, institutions, infrastructure providers, and any other ecosystem stakeholder. For more on Talisman&rsquo;s mission and approach, please see our latest talks:
Warp Lizard and Natti on Polkadot Spaces, Sep 2024: <a href="https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1zqJVYkqPrnGB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Talisman's Cross-Chain Swaps</a>
Nipsey at Polkadot Decoded 2024: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g10ehroz5es" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Conquering Browser Based Substrate Development With Talisman</a>
Polkadot insider interview @ Thailand blockchain week: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g10ehroz5es" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unveil What Next For Talisman In 2024 w/ Jonathan Dunne</a>
Nipsey at Sub0 Asia 2024: The Application Layer: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIJfshY60rk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Conquering Browser Based Substrate Development with Talisman</a>
About this Proposal
This is Talisman Wallet&rsquo;s third Polkadot treasury proposal. This proposal requests $690,600 USDT retroactive funding for feature development, UX improvement, and QA testing for Talisman Wallet and Portal over Oct 2023 - Sep 2024. We would love to get your feedback on the proposal.
Please see the full proposal here:
<ul>
<li>🖥️ <a href="https://www.figma.com/deck/eefH8OUATL53qpbzn5ODYH" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Summary deck</a></li>
<li>📄 <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p_fjA_CeIgLlM9zxQYFzEKurRhBFUtikbB5UFcS2FnE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full proposal </a></li>
</ul>
This proposal covers features across the following main feature areas:
👛Wallet
<ul>
<li>In-wallet Polkadot staking</li>
<li>Generic Ledger app support</li>
<li>Advanced Polkadot Ledger support</li>
<li>Support of chain-specific Ledger apps</li>
<li>Talisman Substrate developer mode</li>
<li>Signet / Polkadot Multisig account import</li>
<li>Foreign assets support</li>
<li>Manifest V3</li>
<li>Polkadot ecosystem support</li>
<li>Ongoing UX/UI and performance improvements</li>
</ul>
🌀Portal
<ul>
<li>Native cross-chain swaps</li>
<li>XCM improvements and fixes</li>
<li>Polkadot ecosystem NFT improvements and fixes</li>
<li>New Polkadot ecosystem staking assets</li>
</ul>
Work product
The listed features have all been released and integrated into Talisman&rsquo;s GPL3 open source wallet 👛<a href="https://github.com/TalismanSociety/talisman">https://github.com/TalismanSociety/talisman</a> and Portal web application 🌀<a href="https://github.com/TalismanSociety/talisman-web">https://github.com/TalismanSociety/talisman-web</a>&nbsp;over the time period covered in the proposal.
Besides the Wallet and Portal, we also actively maintain Chaindata ⛓️<a href="https://github.com/TalismanSociety/chaindata">https://github.com/TalismanSociety/chaindata</a>, an open source repository of all Substrate and EVM chains supported by Talisman. Chaindata requires constant maintenance as new chains are supported and existing chains undergo changes&nbsp;
Thanks for your interest and reading so far
We will leave the Pre-Proposal Discussion open for one week, followed by the referendum submission. We welcome and appreciate all community feedback, questions and comments, and will request to appear on AAG to discuss further.

Pre Proposal Discussion: Talisman Wallet and Portal Retroactive Funding

Treasury

Propose and approve a spend of treasury funds.

## Dispatch Origin

Must be [`Config::SpendOrigin`] with the `Success` value being at least
`amount` of `asset_kind` in the native asset. The amount of `asset_kind` is converted
for assertion using the [`Config::BalanceConverter`].

## Details

Create an approved spend for transferring a specific `amount` of `asset_kind` to a
designated beneficiary. The spend must be claimed using the `payout` dispatchable within
the [`Config::PayoutPeriod`].

### Parameters
- `asset_kind`: An indicator of the specific asset class to be spent.
- `amount`: The amount to be transferred from the treasury to the `beneficiary`.
- `beneficiary`: The beneficiary of the spend.
- `valid_from`: The block number from which the spend can be claimed. It can refer to
  the past if the resulting spend has not yet expired according to the
  [`Config::PayoutPeriod`]. If `None`, the spend can be claimed immediately after
  approval.

## Events

Emits [`Event::AssetSpendApproved`] if successful.

- **Problem Statement:** Confusing user experience in the Polkadot ecosystem due to its multi-chain implementation.
- **Significance:** Talisman Wallet and Portal aim to simplify user experience, with 130,000 active installs and over 8 million DOT contributions to nomination pools.
- **Proposed Solution:** Requesting $690,600 for retroactive funding for maintenance and new feature development from Oct 2023 to Sep 2024.
- **Expected Outcomes:** Enhanced user experience, advanced portfolio management, account organization features, and support for transaction signing on Substrate and EVM blockchains.

#1232 Talisman Wallet and Portal Retroactive Funding

No Active Proposals