Cardano as one of default Verifiable Data Registries for Hyperledger Aries and CL Anoncreds

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Alexander Shcherbakov

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

alexander.sherbakov@dsr-corporation.com

Additional applicants

Sergey Minaev

DSR Corporation Decentralized Systems

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

6

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

The project goal is to contribute Cardano based DID and Anoncreds to Hyperledger Aries, and, in particular, Hyperledger Aries Javascript.

1. We are going to send the corresponding PR(s) to the Hyperledger Aries Javascript repository. We expect that our contributions should be accepted as
2. DSR has good visibility in Aries and Aries JS community and is one of contributors to Indy and Aries JS.
3. There is existing relationship established between Aries JS and Cardano communities by the RootsID team.
4. There is a similar integration of PoS based VDR in Aries JS (cheqd) present in the main branch.
5. We are going to finalize the Cardano Anoncreds specification started by RootsID

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

Identity Solutions

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Summary

• Hyperledger Aries and CL Anoncreds are one of the most mature and adapted solutions for SSI.
• Hyperledger Indy ledger is still a default VDR (ledger) for many Hyperledger Aries projects.
• Athough Hyperledger Indy and the corresponding Sovrin deployment addresses a number of use cases as a permissioned ledger, Aries community is looking for a multi-ledger support and broader adaption with other VDRs.
• DSR team, as one of the core authors, maintainers and contributors of Hyperledger Indy and Aries standards and code, as well as initial co-authors of CL Anoncreds spec and reference implementation, is proposing to integrate Cardano and Cardano Anoncreds into Hyperledger Aries.
• The goal here is to have Cardano as one of the default options for anyone who uses Hyperledger Aries without a need to look for additional plugins.
• We are going to start with Hyperledger Aries Javascript as one of the most popular frameworks in Aries supporting many modern SSI standards (Aries, W3C VC, CL Anoncreds, W3C DID, OIDC4VC, etc.)
• We are going to continue the great work started by RootsID team with the end goal to have Cardano based did:PRISM and Cardano Anoncreds available in Hyperledger Aries Framework upstream repository for any Aries user.
• It will increase adaption of Cardano and Atala PRISM a lot, while having a clear benefit for Aries community by providing more choices for VDR out of the box.

Scope

• Participation in corresponding Working group calls (Hyperledger Aries JS, CL Anoncreds, etc.) being a bridge between Aries and Cardano communities.
• Finalization of Cardano Anoncreds specification. 
• A new reference implementation of did:PRISM and Cardano Anoncreds in Rust and a JavaScript wrapper.
• Automated tests (unit, integration, end-to-end)
• Integration of the reference implementation (JavaScript wrapper) to Hyperledger Aries Javascript.
• A series of Demos and presentation of the new approach

Solution Benefits and Importance

• Adaption
• Adaption of Cardano and Atala PRISM as the whole Hyperldger Aries community will have an option to use Cardano blockchain as a VDR
• A possibility for adaption by both open source and commercial projects
• Quality
• The end goal is to implement the software ready for real usage and adaption
• Automated tests (unit, integration, end-to-end)
• Extensibility
• The core SDK will be written in Rust which allows to create a number of language specific wrappers on top of it
• This means that the proposed SDK can be integrated to practically all Hyperledger Aries frameworks, as well as to non-Aries SSI projects
• Interoperability
• Hyperledger Aries <-> Atala PRISM
• Supporting of modern SSI standards (Aries, W3C VC, CL Anoncreds, W3C DID, OIDC4VC, etc.)
• Visibility
• Better visibility of Cardano and Atala PRISM in Hyperldger Aries SSI community
• Open Source 
• The solution will be fully open source and ready for broad adaption 

Solution Uniqueness

• The end goal of the proposed solution is not just creation of series of Demos, but writing the software with a quality allowing to use in real applications
• DSR team is one of the core players in SSI and have significant and unique experience, expertise and visibility in SSI and Aries community, as well as in blockchain community.
• DSR team is one of the main authors of CL Anoncreds spec and reference implementations
• Proposed solution continues the work started by RootsID by providing the access to the reference implementations and Cardano VDR right from the upstream Hyperldger Aries projects, which will increase the adaption significantly.
• Proposed solution will contain implementation of a Rust-based reference implementation of did:PRISM and Cardano Anoncreds, so language specific wrappers can be created and integrated to other SSI projects (Aries Cloud Agent Python, Aries VCX, etc.) which will increase the adaption even more.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

• Adaption
• Adaption of Cardano and Atala PRISM as the whole Hyperldger Aries community will have an option to use Cardano blockchain as a VDR
• A possibility for adaption by both open source and commercial projects
• Quality
• The end goal is to implement the software ready for real usage and adaption
• Automated tests (unit, integration, end-to-end)
• Extensibility
• The core SDK will be written in Rust which allows to create a number of language specific wrappers on top of it
• This means that the proposed SDK can be integrated to practically all Hyperledger Aries frameworks, as well as to non-Aries SSI projects
• Interoperability
• Hyperledger Aries <-> Atala PRISM
• Supporting of modern SSI standards (Aries, W3C VC, CL Anoncreds, W3C DID, OIDC4VC, etc.)
• Visibility
• Better visibility of Cardano and Atala PRISM in Hyperldger Aries SSI community
• Open Source 
• The solution will be fully open source and ready for broad adaption 

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

• Right after the completion of the proposal the key criteria of the success is availability of open-source codebase integrated to one of the most adapted Aries Frameworks (for JS).
• Optionally: acceptance of the contribution by Hyperledger Aires community to upstream repositories may serve as extra metric of the success.
• In long-run the impact can be measured by adaption of the created libraries by community and various projects.

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

• All work will be done in public space under appropriate licenses which allow future adaption and community engagement for future development.
• In case of updating existing codebases and/or specification, the required changes will be published in a forks first.
• Reasonable activities will be done to prepare contribution of the changes to the upstream repositories.
• Key deliveries will be accompanied by Demo videos shared on public YouTube channels. The sources of the video can be provided to the Cardano community upon request.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

DSR unique expertise with Hyperledger SSI technologies

• CL Anoncreds and Hyperledger Ursa
• DSR team is one of the main authors of CL Anoncreds spec and reference implementations.
• Hyperledger Ursa: DSR team is one of the main initial authors and maintainers of Hyperledger Ursa and implemented the first version of CL Anoncreds (Indy) verifiable credentials cryptography there. DSR team is the author of more than 200 commits and more than 65K lines of code there.
• DSR team was participating in creation of first CL Anoncreds papers and specification.
• Hyperldger Aries and Indy
• DSR is not just a user, but one of the main authors, contributors and maintainers of such core projects as Hyperledger Indy and Hyperledger Aries
• Hyperledger Indy: DSR team is not just a contributor or a user, but one of the main authors and maintainers of Hyperledger Indy codebase. Most of Hyperledger Aries frameworks depend on Hyperledger Indy and use it under the hood.
• Indy SDK: DSR team is the author of ~90% of commits and edited ~90% of lines of code in Hyperledger Indy SDK repository during the first year of the project, and the author of more than 65% of commits there in total.\Indy Ledger: DSR team is the author of more than 75% of commits and edited ~70% of lines of code in Hyperledger Indy Ledger (indy-node and indy-plenum) repositories.
• Indy VDR: DSR team contributed to Hyperledger Indy VDR repository (more than 50 commits and ~20K lines of code edited).
• Indy CLI: DSR team is the main author of the initial Indy CLI as part of Indy SDK. DSR team is also the main author of a new dedicated Indy CLI (100% of commits). 
• Indy Test Automation: DSR team is the author of more than 95% of commits and edited more than 60K lines of code in indy-test-automation.
• Sovrin: Sovrin is based on Hyperledger Indy and is in production since 2017. DSR team helped with the public networks maintenance and updates. Hyperledger Indy Ledger code is so stable, that Sovrin network successfully runs in production for many years with almost no maintenance/support/updates.
• Aries RFCs: DSR team has contributed and is one of the authors to more than 10 Aries RFCs
• Aries Framework Javascript: DSR team has used Aries Framework Javascript for a number of Pilots. DSR team has also contributed DIDComm V2 support to Aries Framework Javascript.
• Aries Framework Go: DSR team has used Aries Framework Go for a number of Pilots. DSR team has also contributed CL Anoncreds / Indy support to Aries Framework Go.
• Aries Bifold (Mobile Agent React Native): DSR team has used Aries Bifold for a number of applications including SSI/crypto wallets. DSR team has also contributed Verifier capabilities to Aries Bifold and BCGov’s BC Wallet.
• Aries VCX: DSR team was one of the main contributors to libvcx which later transformed to Aries VCX. DSR team is the author of more than 1.5K commits and more than 1M lines of code there
• DIDComm V2: DSR team is the main author of DIDComm v2 reference implementation (Rust, Javascript, Python, JVM). DSR team is also one of the authors of DIDComm v2 specification. 
• did:peer: DSR team is the main author of did:peer reference implementations. DSR team is also one of the authors of did:peer specification. 

DSR Overview

• DSR is a privately owned US company founded in 1998, having 7 divisions, 270+ engineering team and 1000+ completed projects and 12 products
• DSR team has more than 7 years of experience in Decentralised Identity (SSI) and Blockchain
• DSR is a member of 
• Hyperledger
• DIF
• ToIP
• DSR team contributed to more than 50 open source projects
• DSR is not just a user, but one of the main authors, contributors and maintainers of such core projects as
• Hyperledger Indy
• Hyperledger Aries
• Hyperledger Ursa
• Sovrin
• cheqd
• DCL
• DSR team contributed to a number of SSI standards such as DIF’s DIDComm v2, Hyperledger Aries RFCs, Hyperledger Indy HIPE, Hyperledger Ursa RFCs, CL Anoncreds

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

• Participation in corresponding Working group calls (Hyperledger Aries JS, CL Anoncreds, etc.) being a bridge between Aries and Cardano communities.
• Finalization of Cardano Anoncreds specification. A try to move it to Hyperledger for better adaption.
• A new reference implementation of did:PRISM and Cardano Anoncreds in Rust and a JavaScript wrapper.
• Automated tests (unit, integration, end-to-end)
• Integration of the reference implementation (JavaScript wrapper) to Hyperledger Aries Javascript
• A series of Demos and presentation of the new approach

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

M1. MPV Rust SDK for Cardano - in 2 months after the project start

• Design of SDK structure
• Public Code Repository and CI pipelines
• Communication layer with Cardano networks
• Key-management system
• did:prism support

M2. Rust SDK for Cardano - in 3 months after the project start

• Align Cardano Anoncreds specification to the latest Anoncreds community vision
• Implementation of Cardano Anoncreds in the SDK
• Automated tests
• Demo scenarios and user guides

M3. JS wrapper for Rust SDK - in 4 months after the project start

• JS bindings for Rust layer of the SDK
• Automated tests
• Demo scenarios and documentation

M4. Aries Framework JS initial integration - in 5 months after the project start

• did:prism resolver integration
• did:prism registrar integration
• Collaboration with AFJ community to allow future contribution of the changes to the upstream repository

M5. Aries Framework JS Cardano anoncreds integration - in 6 months after the project start

• Cardano anoncreds support in AFJ
• Automated tests
• Demo scenarios and update for documentation

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

M1. MPV Rust SDK for Cardano

• Code repository published under Apache 2.0

M2. Rust SDK for Cardano

• Updates for the codebase under the same license.
• User guides 
• Demo scenarios and recordings

M3. JS wrapper for Rust SDK

• Updates for the codebase under the same license.
• User guides
• Demo scenarios and recordings

M4. Aries Framework JS initial integration

• Contribution to a fork of community-supported Aries Framework JS.

M5. Aries Framework JS Cardano anoncreds integration

• Contribution to a fork of community-supported Aries Framework JS.
• Proposal to AFJ community to merge the changes to the parent upstream repo.
• Note: as it's driven by community, the final merge can't be guaranteed, but all reasonable measures will be done during the defined timeline and effort.
• Demo scenarios and recordings

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Notes:

• DSR Corporation is providing a 25% discount as an investment into this initiative
• The proposal is driven by DSR Corporation, so the price includes all related costs: salaries for developers, project management, accounting, and back-office.
• The proposed solution is not just creation of series of Demos, but writing the software with a quality allowing to use in real applications

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

• Value for Cardano ecosystem
• Once Cardano becomes one of default VDR/Blockchain choices for Hyperledger Aries community and all the clients who depend on it, we expect Cardano adaption will increase which will be good for ADA price and will bring additional value and income to the ecosystem.
• The proposed solution is fully open source, which allows it to be used in any commercial or open source projects
• Development Cost
• The proposal is driven by DSR Corporation, so the price includes all related costs: salaries for developers, project management, accounting, and back-office
• The proposed solution is not just creation of series of Demos, but writing the software with a quality allowing to use in real applications
• DSR Corporation is providing a 25% discount as an investment into this initiative
• DSR team always pays a lot of attention to the estimate and schedule. We carefully estimated the proposed scope of work, and came to the presented breakdown of work, estimate and schedule.
• The estimate was multiplied by the competitive market hourly rate
• Our engineering team is located in Portugal and Uzbekistan with a headquarter in USA
• Many parts of the proposed scope require the high expertise that our team possesses
• DSR team can be considered as a unique boutique providing years of expertise in self-sovereign identity, blockchains, application development and communication with open source communities

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept