Orcfax advancing Cardano Oracle Transparency: Enable Self-hosting, Real-time Features, and Live Collector Price Data for the Orcfax Explorer

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Christian Koch

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Incorporated)

[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] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

The transparency and verifiability of the Orcfax Explorer will be advanced by packaging all its dependencies, making it easy to self-host, and implementing realtime data features. 

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

No

[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.”

N/A

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

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

We will release the Orcfax Explorer source code under an Apache 2.0 license.

[METADATA] Horizons

Oracles

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

The Orcfax Explorer was launched in 2024 and continuously built on since with enhancements geared towards ease of use for our users, data accessibility, and intelligibility as the driving forces behind development.

The Explorer is a best in class resource for the Cardano community (and beyond) which provides a powerful demonstration of the “Trust but Verify” concept. Each Orcfax fact statement that is published as transaction datum on the Cardano blockchain has a corresponding audit trail that can be easily searched and browsed via the Orcfax Explorer. These audit log packages document how the primary source data was collected and validated. They are formatted according to open industry standards that enable interoperability and digital permanence.

 

This audit trail is made accessible on-chain through TxMetadata but not all oracle data stakeholders are software engineers. The average user needs to be able to trust but verify that the external data their dApps are using to settle major financial transactions are authentic and accurate. The Orcfax Explorer provides a human-readable portal to perform this critical accountability check. The Explorer will also serve as an interface for secondary re-use of this high-quality oracle data.

While navigating through the Orcfax Explorer, users can click on a fact statement card to see the detailed summary for that fact statement. The Explorer widget loads the archival audit log package from the Arweave decentralized storage network and provides the user with an intuitive interface to browse its contents.

We delivered core functionality in the first version of the Orcfax Explorer, including preservation of the the cryptographic links and relationships between:

• Oracle feeds;
• The fact statements published as part of those feeds;
• The sources of those fact statements and feeds;
• The methods of triangulation and calculation that resulted in the final fact statement value;
• The transactions on Cardano and storage networks used;

After this we made enhancements to usability based on user feedback which included:

• The addition of Cardano Native Token (CNT) feeds;
• New centralized exchange (CEX) feeds;
• dashboard visualizations;
• dynamic price charts;
• identification of feed sources;
• audit log package downloads;

This proposal will further the easy verifiability and auditability of the Orcfax Network by:

• Integrating Oura into the Explorer
• Currently, the Explorer checks for updates every 10 mins by querying a remote Kupo endpoint
• Integrating Oura into the Explorer will enable realtime functionality and further feature enhancements by observing and reacting to Orcfax feed publication events on the Cardano Blockchain directly
• Integrating Ogmios and Kupo into the Explorer
• Currently, the Explorer connects to a remote Kupo endpoint that uses Ogmios to connect to a remote Cardano Node. Using this connection, it scans for Fact Statements published by Orcfax and stores them in a SQLite DB for later querying and display.
• Integrating Ogmios and Kupo into the Explorer directly will enable more control over the connection to and communication with a Cardano Node.
• Making the Explorer Easily Self-hostable
• Currently, the Explorer is not easily self-hostable as there are disparate dependencies that are not packaged with it as well as a lack of documentation on how to host it
• All dependencies will be packaged with the Explorer: Ogmios, Kupo, Oura, and optionally a full Cardano Node if not connecting to a pre-existing remote one.
• Easy-to-use CLI install process that deploys everything needed to run an Orcfax Explorer instance
• Step-by-step documentation on how to run an Orcfax Explorer instance
• Adding Realtime Data Features to the Explorer
• Live Orcfax price feed data collector mempool visualization
• Orcfax collects all price feeds every minute but doesn’t necessarily publish them every minute
• Display realtime current pool of unpublished price feed data
• See in realtime which are published and which remain unpublished
• Realtime feed updates immediately as Fact Statements are published
• Countdown to next feed heartbeat update
• Realtime and timestamped Orcfax Network update log

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

Orcfax is implementing a comprehensive solution to the oracle problem using a Cardano-native architecture design. We believe that demonstrating data provenance and accessibility is critical for establishing trust in any oracle protocol that is responsible for triggering transactions with significant financial consequences.

We make the Orcfax Explorer freely available for use by the Cardano community so that users can verify critical DeFi transactions in dApps that use our oracle data. We will grow the Explorer to become an important online destination for verifying the real-world data that gets used on-chain by Cardano dApps. The enhancements delivered in this project will further improve the Cardano community’s ability to understand the flow of data in the Orcfax oracle network and will build upon a critical resource for the Cardano community.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

For more than two years the Orcfax team has researched and developed a comprehensive solution to the oracle problem for Cardano-native dApps and smart contracts. We have developed an open oracle publishing protocol and have been using it to publish an ADA/USD price feed to Cardano Mainnet since Q1 of 2024, and many others (including CNT feeds) since the Q3 of 2024.

We have an active Discord and Twitter community where our ideas, requirements and deployment progress are scrutinized and debated. We participate widely in conferences such as Cardano Summit and Rare Evo; we also frequently take part in live events and interviews in order to raise awareness about our mission and product offering.

We expect to discuss and share the findings and deliverables of this project in the same community-driven way to ensure trust and accountability.

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone 1

a. Output: Integration of Oura into the Explorer  

b. Criteria: Orcfax will enable realtime functionality and further eature enhancements by observing and reacting to Orcfax feed publication events on the Cardano Blockchain directly via Oura.

c. Evidence: Source code will be made available within the open source Orcfax Explorer GitHub repository.

Milestone 2

a. Output: Integration of Ogmios and Kupo into the Explorer 

b. Criteria: Orcfax will enable more control over the connection to and communication with a Cardano Node through integration with Ogmios & Kupo.

c. Evidence: Source code will be made available within the open source Orcfax Explorer GitHub repository.

Milestone 3

a. Output: Making the Explorer Easily Self-hostable

b. Criteria: Orcfax will enable all dependencies to be packaged with the Explorer, to include: Ogmios, Kupo, Oura, and optionally a full Cardano Node (if not connecting to a pre-existing remote one).

c. Evidence: Source code will be made available within the open source Orcfax Explorer GitHub repository along with step-by-step documentation on how to run an Orcfax Explorer instance.

Milestone 4

a. Output: Adding Realtime Data Features to the Explorer 

b. Criteria: Orcfax will enable realtime feed updates as Fact Statements are published

c. Evidence: Source code will be made available within the open source Orcfax Explorer GitHub repository.

Milestone 5

a. Output: Live Orcfax price feed data collector mempool visualization 

b. Criteria: Orcfax will give users the ability to see in realtime which price feed data has been  published and which remain unpublished

c. Evidence: Source code will be made available within the open source Orcfax Explorer GitHub repository.

Final Milestone

a. Outputs: PDF report and MP4 video.

b. Criteria - close-out report and video accepted by Project Catalyst.

c. Evidence: Close-out report shared on Github. Close-out video shared on YouTube.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Project lead & System Analyst: Christian Koch

Christian is an analyst, researcher and information systems professional who holds a Masters Degree in Archival Science with a focus on blockchain technology. Christian serves as the primary liaison between the development team, Orcfax clients and our community management team.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-mk/

Software Developer, Systems Design: Gabriel Chartier

Gabriel is the Orcfax teams’ web developer and leads our Explorer development efforts. Gabriel has significant industry expertise and focusses on projects that improve upon the liberation, accessibility and decentralization of information and knowledge.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-chartier/

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

To accommodate for the fluctuation in ADA price, which creates a conversion risk and a potential budget shortfall, we established a budget base price of $0.25 ADA for calculating our expenses.

We will employ 2 software engineers at part time ($100/hr = 400 ADA/hr) and 1 system analyst at part time ($75/hr = 300 ADA/hr) to complete this work over a six month period. The systems analyst role includes requirements analysis, documentation, user acceptance testing, reporting and community management.

M1. 15d == 84

M2. 20d == 140

M3. 30d == 210

M4. 10d == 70

M5. 30d == 210

M6. 5d == 28

Contingency (10%) = 74

Total hours: 742 + 74 = 816

Total budget: 816 x 375₳ (avg cost) = 306,000

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

Orcfax breaks ground with this proposal by developing first truly open-source and self-hostable Oracle Explorer on Cardano. The additional upgrades we will make to the Orcfax Explorer in this project will allow users to further use our high-quality, standards-compliant provenance audit trails via an open source explorer and our archival formats. The Explorer allows us to demonstrate the significant value that Orcfax’s unique data quality features bring to the Cardano ecosystem.

And these enhancements are desperately needed within the Cardano community as we continue to lag behind other Layer 1 blockchains in oracle infrastructure and maturity.