DotShield - Take back control of your community

Introducing DotShield, a Web3-native bot designed to improve moderation, verification, and scam prevention in Telegram and Discord communities within the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem.

Currently, existing Telegram bots lack customizable Web3 verification, relying instead on captchas that are easily bypassed. While some Discord bots support Web3 verification, there is no Polkadot-native solution.

DotShield solves this problem by enabling dynamic chain state verification, allowing groups to set their own desired criteria, such as balance thresholds and membership conditions, including but not limited to council membership, validator and other on-chain attributes.

Why This Matters

Telegram & Discord groups are primary communication hubs for Web3 communities but suffer from spam, bot invasions, and scam attempts.
Existing bots do not use cryptographic verification for users, meaning scam bots can easily bypass security measures.
No Polkadot-native bot exists that integrates with the ecosystem for seamless verification.
Expanding DotShield ensures better security, community discussions, and fraud prevention across the entire Polkadot ecosystem.

The Story Behind DotShield
I've been a moderator/admin of several Telegram group chats and have been searching for an effective solution to combat spam and bot invasions for years. Existing solutions, such as Rose and Shieldy, rely on traditional Web2 captchas, which are no longer effective. Frustrated with the lack of viable options, I decided to teach myself how to code and build my own solution. After countless all-nighters debugging and researching, I finally created DotShield—designed specifically to meet the needs of the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem.

Core Features

Dynamic Chain State Verification: Group admins can set criteria based on on-chain balances, governance roles, or other identity markers.
Single Sign-In for Web3 Users: No need to constantly sign transactions; DotShield seamlessly verifies users if they save their wallet as default.
Flexible Moderation: Admins can override verification, allowing them to manually add or remove members.
Scam Prevention & Fraud Mitigation: Dotshield is capable of implementing automated detection, user reporting mechanisms, and external scam database collaboration.
Expansion to Discord: Addresses the lack of a Polkadot-native verification bot for Discord, ensuring Web3 security across both platforms.

Funding Request & Milestone-Based Payment Structure
I am requesting treasury funding to support both the initial deployment and expansion to Discord. Payments will be structured as follows:

First Instalment – Covers completed milestones (Telegram bot, core verification, UI, performance upgrades). Total hours: 460
Second Instalment – After successful completion of Discord expansion and verification. Total projected hours: 470

Total hours: 930

I am seeking USD$60/hr to cover:

Development Server & Infrastructure Costs
Ongoing Maintenance & Feature Requests
Security & Scam Prevention Enhancements

Full Proposal

Feedback
I’d love to hear your thoughts on how DotShield can be improved, whether additional features should be included, or if the funding structure needs adjustment.

Here’s a summary of recent user feedback:

Average Overall UX Rating: 8.8 / 10
Average UI Satisfaction (DotShield.app): 8.9 / 10
Average Ease of Understanding Instructions: 9.1 / 10
Common Bug Reports:
Minimal bugs reported. Some mentioned minor onboarding issues, such as unclear steps for setting up a supergroup.
Comfort Linking Wallets:
While some users expressed initial skepticism about connecting wallets (due to common web3 security concerns), many gained confidence thanks to positive community reputation.
Transparency Requests:
Users would like clearer communication about how DotShield handles data, including open-sourcing certain elements or publishing technical documentation to build further trust.
Recommendation Likelihood:
The majority of respondents would recommend DotShield to others, citing the value in protecting Polkadot ecosystem communities from scams and spam.
Improvement Suggestions:
Provide more detailed onboarding guides and user-facing documentation
Increase transparency around wallet connection and data handling
Enhance first-time user experience, especially for non-technical audiences
Polkadot Ecosystem Adoption:
Users are highly supportive of DotShield becoming a standard security layer across Telegram and Discord for the Polkadot ecosystem.
Likelihood to share with other community managers:
Average score of 8.1 / 10

Here are some group chats I’ve set up for testing purposes:
https://t.me/DotShieldOfficial
https://t.me/wndtester
https://t.me/Polkadot_Sign_Only

DotShield is a new Web3 bot designed to improve security in Telegram and Discord communities within the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem. It helps with moderation, verification, and scam prevention. Here are some key points about DotShield:

It solves the problem of existing bots that use easy-to-bypass captchas instead of Web3 verification.
DotShield allows groups to set their own criteria for membership, like balance thresholds and council membership.
It is important because it helps protect Web3 communities from spam, bot invasions, and scams.
The creator of DotShield learned to code to make this solution after being frustrated with existing options.
DotShield has features like dynamic chain state verification, single sign-in for Web3 users, flexible moderation, scam prevention, and expansion to Discord.
The creator is asking for funding to support the deployment and expansion of DotShield.
Users have given DotShield good feedback, with suggestions for improvement like more detailed guides and better transparency about data handling.
Many users would recommend DotShield to others and support its adoption across the Polkadot ecosystem.