Building a Decentralized Review System ->Cardano & Next.js

Peer review is broken.

It’s slow, opaque, and mostly thankless. Journals gatekeep knowledge. Reviewers work for free. Authors wait months—or longer—just to hear nothing. After watching too many promising papers stall in limbo, I decided to build something better: a peer-to-peer review marketplace.

The concept? Authors post papers. Reviewers earn tokens for quality feedback. No middlemen. Transparent, fast, fair. Built it using Cardano for smart contracts and Next.js for the frontend.

Not trying to reinvent academia. Just fixing its worst part.

Environment Setup

Here’s what the tech stack looked like:

Backend:

Cardano Testnet via Blockfrost
Plutus Lite scripts for token escrow logic
Lucid.js for smart contract interactions
IPFS for document and metadata storage

Frontend:

Next.js 14 App Router
TailwindCSS for fast UI styling
Lucid wallet integration via Wagmi + Nami Wallet
Node.js backend proxy for timestamping and CORS handling

Hosted on Vercel, tested on both MacOS and Ubuntu, and used a dummy “reviewToken” on Cardano testnet for simulations.

Core Workflow

Author Flow:

Upload a paper → stored as IPFS CID
Set a review bounty (e.g., 100 reviewTokens)
Post bounty to the dashboard
Track claimed reviews and confirm payouts

Reviewer Flow:

Claim an open review (locks bounty for 7 days)
Write feedback in a markdown editor
Submit review (CID + wallet signature)
Get payout upon author confirmation

Smart Contract Logic:

Escrows tokens until review is confirmed
Author confirmation triggers payout
7-day auto-cancel if no submission
Manual dispute flag available in v1

Frontend Features

The Next.js dashboard supports:

Listing open review bounties with filters (topic, token amount, deadline)
Wallet connection with status persistence
Upload form for title, abstract, and IPFS CID
Markdown editor with live preview for review submissions
Earnings history + review reputation display

All blockchain transactions (minting, locking, payouts, cancellations) use Lucid.js.

User Experience Highlights

Reviewer UX:

“Claim Review” locks a bounty exclusively
Built-in markdown editor with preview
Submit review as CID + signed proof
Instant payout after author approval

Author UX:

Track each review’s status in real time
Accept or reject reviews manually
View reviewer history + reputation score

Extras and Safeguards

Reputation score is wallet-linked, based on average rating from last 10 reviews
Token faucet available for testnet reviewers
One active review per reviewer to reduce spam
Sanitized markdown stored off-chain—CID only
Auto-rotation of CIDs when reviews are updated
Toast notifications for user actions (connected, claimed, paid out)
Email alerts planned but not yet implemented
Audit trail with timestamps and tx hashes
Dispute system: Manual flag with cooldown before payout
Token floor enforced (no micro bounties like 1 token)

Real-World Testing

Simulated Tests:

3 paper submissions
5 review claims
Payouts occurred within 15 seconds post-confirmation
1 missed deadline auto-canceled and refunded
No wallet bugs or contract errors encountered

Best Practices Learned

Store only CIDs, not review content, on-chain to keep costs low
Use clear retention policies and limit token spamming
Keep wallet sessions alive through refresh
Dispute flow should delay payout to avoid abuse
Sanitize markdown before upload (XSS protection, file size control)
Timestamp every action for long-term traceability

Conclusion

The decentralized peer review marketplace ran smoother than expected. Reviewers finally got rewarded. Authors didn’t wait months. And no one had to trust a centralized journal system.

With Cardano for tokens and Next.js for the UI, it’s lightweight, transparent, and cheap. No gas wars, no vendor lock-in, and no ivory tower gatekeeping.

Next version ideas:

DAO-based curation
Reviewer badges + streaks
Group review mode for large papers

Academia may resist—but the open research community won’t.

Building a Decentralized Peer Review Marketplace with Cardano and Next.js