Koios Evolution: Enhancements, Infra Support & Maintenance

[GENERAL] Name and Surname of Main Applicant

[GENERAL] Email address of Main Applicant

Additional Applicants

Ola

Greg

Priyank

Michael

Boris

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

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

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

[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.” in this field.

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project outputs be fully Open Source?

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

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Koios Evolution is a comprehensive endeavor to advance the current ecosystem, supplementing it with powerful features and a progressive architecture.

Below is a broad category of development activities that will be funded together with the proposal:

• Koios Lite: Introduce a new way to run an instance that is light on resources, and combine with the existing gRest query layer providing a historical view of the chain. Help onboard new instance providers to give a balance of queries catering to different needs and resources.
• Ongoing development activities on gRest: As new projects are introduced to the ecosystem, so does the requirement to query data from chain. This has already been happening (but a bit passively) for the past year. But these updates often require development, extensive performance testing, coordination, discussions with projects, as well as current implementations etc before changes can be accomodated.
• Infrastructure: Continue serving multiple public instances across networks for a while, until koios is self sustainable as part of a proposal to work towards self sustainability.
• Support: Across different Koios (and previously guild-operators) projects, tools, etc - especially ones that are open-source & free, there has been extensive hours of support provided, this communication medium is core to the value addition provided by Koios teams
• Plugins for AI platforms (min. GPT): Expand reachability in the AI world by powering real-time blockchain data, allowing users further to interact with on-chain data reducing the learning curve for new entrants to the ecosystem.

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

Since the first catalyst proposal (round 6) where Koios was funded for initial public infrastructure, usage of Koios data from blockchain has increased vastly - used across wallets, explorers, dApps as well as marketplaces. Accordingly, there are newer requirements, optimisations, new branch of tools - that help not only improve performance and resource usage, but also help sustainability of exponentially increasing chain history.

Usage of Koios query layer has been quite varied - some have preferred local cluster of instances, some have relied on public instances, etc. Accordingly, there is a wide spectrum of combination of queries desired, and while doing so - we also need to try and cater for compatibility with professional API query layers.

In addition, we ourselves start expanding product/feature development for various use cases powered by Koios (an example that will definitely be worked upon being a plugin for ChatGPT users to consume)

Above mentioned value additions will help indirectly all the user-facing tools across domains that are powered by Koios behind-the-scenes.

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

While we have already listed quite specific outcomes that will be delivered, we believe the measurement of ‘success’ of those will be directly visible with releases including those features, as well as ongoing interactions on our github repository.

In addition, at higher level - Koios will be able to provide metrics using below:

1) Adoption:

The number of developers, instance providers, consumers (be it via products , integrations or anonymised data access) for Koios Lite Node. A higher adoption rate indicates that our solution is meeting the community's needs.

2) Completion of above listed outcomes:

Each point mentioned above will be converted into github project and trackable publicly in real-time on https://github.com/cardano-community/koios-artifacts/projects

3) Traffic Volume:

The amount of traffic handled by Koios Lite Node applications. An increase in traffic volume indicates that our solution is contributing to the Cardano network's scalability and efficiency.

We continue to collect qualitative feedback from users to learn about their experiences with the Koios gRest as well as Koios lite wrt ease of setup, performance, and overall impact on their development process. This will allow us to continuously improve the solution and keep it relevant and useful to the community.

The Koios Lite Node will boost Cardano's productivity in the short term by making it easier for developers to build and scale applications. In the long run, it will help Cardano grow by attracting more developers to the ecosystem and encouraging a wider range of applications and services.

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

To maximise the impact of the Koios project on the Cardano ecosystem, we continue to widely and transparently share its outputs and results.

1. Open Source Code: The Koios Lite Node's source code will be made available on GitHub. Developers and operators will be able to freely use, modify, and contribute to the project as a result of this.
2. Documentation: Extensive documentation will be created to assist users in setting up and using the Koios Lite Node. This will be available on our website and in our GitHub repository.
3. Community Engagement: We will keep the Cardano community up to date on our progress via blog posts, forum posts, public calls and social media. We also intend to hold webinars and workshops to demonstrate the capabilities of the Koios Lite Node and educate users on how to best use it.
4. Partnerships: To encourage the adoption of the Koios Lite Node, we will actively seek partnerships with other projects in the Cardano ecosystem. Collaborations with wallet providers, dApp developers, NFT Marketplaces and other infrastructure projects could fall under this category.

Every new tool/product consuming Koios often brings their unique patterns which are studied on our ends to improve the feature set as well as bring in - as well as end up benefiting all other projects too by automatically building their efficiency. Furthermore, the knowledge gained from this project continues to inspire new projects aimed at improving the Cardano infrastructure.

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

Our team is made up of seasoned IT professionals with a track record of completing high-quality projects in the Cardano ecosystem. We created the original Koios node, which is now widely used and trusted in the community. This demonstrates our in-depth knowledge of the Cardano infrastructure as well as our ability to create solutions that meet the needs of its users.

In terms of trust and accountability, we have always approached our work in a transparent and open manner. All of our code is open source and can be found on GitHub. We communicate with the community on a regular basis about our progress and actively seek feedback to ensure that our solutions meet the needs of the community.

We have a clear and detailed budget plan for the project that outlines how the funds will be used in terms of fund management. To ensure transparency and accountability, we will provide regular updates on the expenditure of funds. Any budget changes will be communicated to the community in advance and justified based on the project's needs.

We are also committed to completing the Koios Lite Node project on time and within budget. We have a detailed project plan with clear milestones and deliverables, and we will keep you updated on our progress toward these objectives on a regular basis. The community will be able to hold us accountable for keeping our promises.

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

Our project's key objectives are as follows:

Create Koios Lite: Our goal is to provide a new approach to run instances while maintaining a current view of the chain while tightly integrating with gRest for a historical view of the chain. This will aid in the onboarding of new instance providers by balancing requests to cater to various needs and resources. This target will be validated by tracking the successful development and deployment of Koios Lite, as well as the number of new instance providers we can onboard.

Ongoing gRest Development Activities: As more projects are introduced to the ecosystem, the need to query data from the chain grows. We intend to accommodate these modifications through development, rigorous performance testing, coordination, and project discussions. The effective integration of new projects and the performance of gRest will confirm the viability of this goal.

Infrastructure: We intend to continue serving several public instances across networks (a part of this proposal will help fund those costs) until Koios is self-sufficient. This goal's success will be assessed by the durability of our infrastructure and the transition to self-sufficiency.

Support: We aim to provide comprehensive assistance for all Koios projects and tools, particularly those that are open-source and free. The degree of help offered and the comments obtained from users will be used to determine the success of this goal.

Create AI platform plugins: We want to broaden our reach in the AI world by enabling real-time blockchain data from the chain, allowing users to engage with on-chain data, and lowering the learning curve for new entrants to the ecosystem. The achievement of this goal will be determined by the successful development of the plugins and the number of AI platforms with which we can integrate.

Our strategy for attaining these objectives is based on our team's competence in blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and project management. We will employ Agile approaches to ensure that we can respond to changes while still producing high-quality solutions. We will also interact with the Cardano community to solicit input and verify that our solutions fulfil their requirements.

[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.

Our project will be separated into significant milestones, each with its own set of duties, deadline, and success criteria:

Milestone 1: Develop Koios Lite (3 months)

Tasks:

• Design and build the Koios Lite architecture.
• Integrate Koios Lite with gRest to see the chain's history.
• Koios Lite should be tested and debugged.
• Accept additional instance providers.

Criteria for Success:

• Koios Lite was developed and deployed successfully.
• gRest integration is working and stable.
• A number of new instance providers have been added.

Milestone 2: Create AI platform plugins (3 months)

Tasks:

• Determine the most important AI platforms for integration.
• Create and maintain plugins for these platforms.
• Plugins must be tested and debugged.

Install plugins and connect to AI platforms.

Criteria for Success:

• Successful plugin creation and deployment.
• The number of AI platforms that have been incorporated.

Milestone 3: Ongoing gRest Development Activities (12 months)

Tasks:

• Identify new initiatives that have been introduced into the ecosystem.
• Changes for these projects must be developed, tested, and integrated.
• Perform performance testing.
• Coordination and discussion with projects are required for successful integration.

Criteria for Success:

• Integration of new projects is completed successfully.
• gRest's performance is consistent.

Milestone 4: Infrastructure (12 months)

Tasks:

• Maintain and track many public instances across multiple networks.
• Create and implement plans.

Criteria for Success:

• Public instances go smoothly.

Milestone 5: Ongoing Support (12 months)

Tasks:

• Provide assistance with various Koios projects and tools.
• Collect and respond to user input.

Criteria for Success:

• The level of assistance supplied.
• Users have provided positive reviews.

Our project will be carried out utilising Agile approaches, which will allow us to respond to changes while delivering high-quality results. We will interact with the Cardano community to solicit feedback and verify that our solutions satisfy their requirements. The budget breakdown will show the expected cost for each milestone depending on the resources required.

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

Milestone 1: Create Koios Lite

Deliverables:

A fully functional Koios Lite system with gRest integration.

The Lite layer will depart from synching historical information (which will continue to be served via gRest branch) and be able to provide instant results for objects with current view of chain.

Intentional outcomes include increased efficiency and lower resource requirements for running instances, which will lead to additional instance providers joining the network.

Metrics: Delivery of Koios Lite alongwith documentation and public instances, API additions & Koios Lite performance metrics.

Milestone 2: Create AI platform plugins

Deliverables include fully functional plugins for various AI systems.

Intended outcomes: Greater AI reachability, allowing users to interact with on-chain data more readily, and lowering the learning curve for new entrants to the ecosystem.

Metrics include the number of AI platforms that have been integrated, as well as user comments on ease of use and functionality.

Milestone 3: Ongoing gRest Development Activities

Deliverables: gRest is often updated to accommodate new projects and changes in the ecosystem.

Intended outcomes: gRest will continue to run smoothly, adapting to the changing needs of the Cardano ecosystem.

Metrics: Catering to various requirements from users, tracked via GitHub projects, also tracking data for existing projects integrated, gRest performance data as well as marked releases with scopes through the year.

Milestone 4: Infrastructure

Deliverables: Stable operation of several public instances across networks, as well as a plan for migrating to self-sufficiency.

Intended outcomes: Reliable service for users, a sustainable model for Koios operation.

Metrics: Uptime and performance metrics for public instances.

Milestone 5: Assistance

Deliverables include regular assistance for users and projects, as well as responses to feedback and inquiries.

Intended outcomes: High user satisfaction, smooth project and tool operation, and continual improvement based on feedback.

Metrics include the number of support tickets resolved, feedback from users and projects, and improvements made in response to input.

Each of these milestones will be tracked using a mix of quantitative and qualitative indicators. We will utilize project management tools to measure progress and ensure we stay on track to fulfil our objectives.

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

Budget:

We did not want to split the proposal and bump up numbers, but instead - focus on hours we’re spending on Koios (our scope will likely cover more than what’s listed, as we have been doing this for ~free for years).

• Development across team of 5 members:
• Hours: 25 hr/week, 52 weeks, 1300 hours
• Hourly Rate: $60/hour
• Total: $78000
• Infrastructure:
• Infra Cost + operations (updates) for Koios Lite + gRest [public] instances across mainnet, preview, preprod & guildnet: $12000
• Support and Maintenance:
• Hours: 10 hr/week, 52 weeks, 520 hours
• Hourly Rate: $45/hour
• Total: $23400/year
• Total Budget: 113400 USD (400K ADA)

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

Koios already is powering large % of projects out there in our ecosystem. By the enhancements mentioned, the value delivery is not only to the strength of this project, but indirectly also to each and every existing/new tool that starts using the elastic query layer.

With the addition of Koios Lite, the bar to entry for an end user is expected to be much lower - which should not only result in strengthening the distribution further, but also help onboard skillsets to decentralise further a larger group for gRest (full instance), resulting in higher participation on development ends.

All the work done by our team has mostly been open-source since day 1, and has been referenced across for other tools as well as to answer queries on social media (forum/stackexchange/github/etc) as ready-to-use example for queries used behind the scenes. Thus, work done on the Koios repositories are also shared across for the Cardano community to benefit from..

Community involvement and Marketing: A portion of the money is set aside for community involvement and marketing efforts. These activities will aid in the promotion of the Koios Lite Node, its adoption, and the development of a more lively and involved community.

In terms of cost justification, our budget is based on the national average income for software professionals as well as normal rates for freelancing work in the blockchain industry. Our budget, we believe, is modest and proportional to the value that Koios provides to the Cardano ecosystem.

[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.