Orcfax API - on-demand publications

[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)

Orcfax will make available its real time price data off-chain for integrators to query and develop an on-chain component allowing requests and payment for publication of that data.

[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 deliverables under an Apache 2.0 license.

[METADATA] Horizons

Oracles

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

To date, Orcfax has promoted two publications models but only able to implement one: the heartbeat model, which gives integrators the ability to access data at regular intervals and can be parameterized according to their needs (e.g. every 5 minutes, once per hour, based on deviation, etc.).

The second publication model, on-demand publication, is the focus of this proposal.

On-demand publication will allow complete flexibility fir integrators by providing more control to their dApps; integrated dApps will be able to request data collection, validation, and publication whenever it’s needed by their smart contracts

Orcfax will complete the following:

1. Creation of a secure API with the following functions
2. Can be accessed by integrators to search for off-chain price data
3. Can be accessed by integrators to monitor off-chain prices.
4. Creation of a plutus script to enable request for new price feed publications.
5. Creation of a plutus script to enable payment for a new price feed.
6. Creation of off-chain tooling to receive a new feed request and trigger its publication via the Orcfax validator.

These deliverables will enable orcfax to meet the needs of integrators with projects that require on-demand publication of more granular price data for emergent Cardano DeFi use cases.

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

The Cardano ecosystem is desperate for viable oracle service providers. In the absence of trustworthy, audited oracle providers we lag behind other Layer 1 blockchains in DeFi adoption and expansion. Orcfax has become a key player in the Cardano oracle landscape. Our Orcfax API will provide an additional interface for feed integrators and expand our available publication models.

Oracle data needs to be up-to-date and reliable. Orcfax’s current model offers a heartbeat publication as well as publication of data given specific deviations. Integrators need to read the last published value on-chain to determine if financial decisions need to be made at greater granularity, but alternative sources will not use Orcfax’s triangulation approach and so skew is anticipated between the data integrators can access and that which Orcfax publishes. Orcfax wants to make its triangulated data more available for de-fi and to do that it needs to make that data available in an off-chain API for reliable decision making and then enable an on-demand feed to allow for ease of updating data-points on-chain. This solution provides greater control for integrators and finds the right balance between cost and performance for the 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: Plutus scripting to receive payment for an on-demand request and tx building.

b. Criteria: A plutus script is able to receive funds for publication and the specific price-pair can be determined to enable publication. 

c. Evidence: A transaction can be built and is visible on-chain on preview.

Milestone 2

a. Output:  Off-chain tooling to monitor on-demand requests.

b. Criteria: On-demand request transactions are monitored and visible off-chain. Requests then trigger the publication of a price-pair. 

c. Evidence: A transaction can be built and its submission monitored and the offline trigger processed.

Milestone 3

a. Output:  Off-chain publicly available API endpoints.

b. Criteria: Integrators can request up-to-date information from the Orcfax off-chain API.

c. Evidence: The API will be publicly visible and can be queried externally with the use of authentication, e.g. a previously requested JSON Web Token.

Milestone 4

a. Output:  On-demand request integration with Orcfax explorer.

b. Criteria: The orcfax explorer clearly indicates how to make an on-demand request for a price-pair.

c. Evidence: On-demand will be clearly signaled for each CER price-pair in the Orcfax explorer.

Milestone 5

a. Output: End-to-end integration of on demand publication.

b. Criteria: Price feeds can be requested on-demand by external integrators.

c. Evidence: A transaction can be built on Preview or Preprod that submits an on-demand request and the request shows up on-chain in the form of an Orcfax formatted datum. Transition to mainnet will be evaluated based on security, ability to support, and readiness.

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/

Lead developer: Ross Spencer

Ross is Orcfax’s senior systems architect and leads the development and implementation of the Orcfax architecture infrastructure. Ross has over two decades experience developing and maintaining open-source digital preservation software that is in use at major memory institutions worldwide.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-spencer-b6b9b758/

Frontend Developer: Gabriel Chartier

Gabriel is the Orcfax teams’ front-end 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 == 105 hours

M2: 15d == 105 hours

M3: 20d == 140 hours

M4: 20d == 140 hours

M5: 10d == 70 hours 

M6: 6d == 43 hours

Contingency: 20% (avg task size) == 100 hours 

Total hours: 603 hours + 100 = 703

Total budget: 703 * 375₳ (avg cost) == 263,625₳

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

The Cardano community is lagging behind other Layer 1 blockchains in its oracle infrastructure. The Orcfax project has delivered its CEX and CNT data feeds on Cardano mainnet in mid-2024 as promised. We have implemented a unique approach to data provenance verification and have introduced the most cost-effective model for publishing oracle data in Cardano’s eUTXO model.

Oracle data becomes more granular for all integrators and represents the real-world much better. The strength of the audit trail of Orcfax’s data increases with potentially a greater number of prices being put on-chain and recorded in archival packages in permanent decentralized storage.

Our new Orcfax API will allow integrators to leverage our services for additional use cases and will thereby contribute to maturing oracle infrastructure within Cardano.