gOuroboros: Cardano Ouroboros protocol server support in Golang

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Blink Labs

[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)

4

[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)

We will continue developing the gOuroboros open source Golang library for speaking the Ouroboros protocol with a Cardano node and reading the ledger data structures, including server side messages

[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.”

Completion of Conway era support and Peer sharing protocol support will require that support to be solidified either in an IOG implementation or spec document.

[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

The project is and will continue to be open sourced under the Apache 2.0 license

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

The gOuroboros library provides the building blocks for communicating with a Cardano Node as a client in Golang. Our previously funded proposal from Catalyst Fund 9 led to the development of the client side of the protocol.

This proposal intends to complete the loop and support the NtC and NtN server side. Server side support for the Ouroboros protocol will allow the library to be used to build active participants in the network. The capability to decode the messages into usable transaction types opens up the ability to build software which can perform actions based on certain events being observed on the network, such as blockchain indexers or trading bots.

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

Golang is an extremely popular programming language. GitHub Language Statistics from GitHut 2.0 (code: https://github.com/madnight/githut ) show that in Q3 2023, the number of pull requests on Golang repositories grew 10.817% and Haskell repositories grew only 0.162% (source: https://madnight.github.io/githut/#/pull_requests/2023/3/Go,Haskell ) while the number of repository stars on Golang repositories grew 12.215% and Haskell repositories grew only 0.203% (source: https://madnight.github.io/githut/#/stars/2023/3/Go,Haskell ). The Golang developer community is over 4x the size of the Haskell developer community, based on the number of Github repos with code for each. Since it’s hard to judge community size, we’re using these numbers as a proxy. We hope to bridge the gap between Golang developers and the Cardano blockchain and attract more developers to Cardano.

Creating a Golang library for interacting with Cardano nodes and reading the ledger will allow tapping into a much larger pool of developers than the existing Haskell libraries generally allow. This will also lower the barrier for entry into the Cardano ecosystem.

The gOuroboros library provides low level primitives for Golang to communicate the Cardano on-the-wire language. This is the basic building block for creating both client and server applications in Go.

[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?

Blink Labs has decades of experience delivering open source software. We have a proven track record of delivery and have successfully completed two previous Catalyst Fund 9 proposals. Our work is open source and public for all to view. Our team is highly cohesive and have worked together for years, allowing us to provide accurate time and cost estimates to our work. The gOuroboros project has been in constant development for 18 months, both with and without funding. Funding allows us to dedicate engineering time to an open source project, rapidly accelerating its development.

Our goal is for gOuroboros to be the building block upon which a Golang ecosystem on Cardano can thrive. To accomplish this goal, we will build the gOuroboros library functionality to support a diverse capability set, allowing for creation of an entire ecosystem of downstream projects.

Completion of the server side capabilities of gOuroboros will enable this. We have broken this into 4 deliverable milestones to reach this goal.

Client completion and automated testing

Era support

Transaction attributes

Server support

Blink Labs has created GitHub issues for the individual items of work and will track those items using a project Kanban board on GitHub.

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

Milestone 1 will cover the client side of the various NtN (node-to-node) and NtC (node-to-client) mini-protocols. This will include:

PeerSharing protocol client support

Additional tests for the Handshake protocol client

Additional tests for the KeepAlive protocol client

Additional tests for the ChainSync protocol client

Additional tests for the BlockFetch protocol client

Additional tests for the LocalTxSubmission protocol client

Additional tests for the LocalStateQuery protocol client

Additional tests for the LocalTxMonitor protocol client

Support for additional LocalStateQuery protocol queries and responses

Milestone 2 will cover completing support for the various eras. This will include:

Byron era transaction input and output support

Conway era block and transaction support

Shelley protocol params support

Allegra protocol params support

Mary protocol params support

Alonzo protocol params support

Babbage protocol params support

Milestone 3 will cover completing support for all transaction attributes. This includes:

Certificates

Staking reward withdrawals

Protocol parameter updates

Auxiliary data hash

Validity interval start

Mint operations

Script data hash

Collateral inputs

Required signers

Collateral return

Total collateral

Reference inputs

Voting procedures (new in Conway)

Proposal procedures (new in Conway)

Our 4th and final milestone will cover the server side of the various NtC (node-to-client) and NtN (node-to-node) protocols. This will include:

KeepAlive server side support

ChainSync server side support

BlockFetch server side support

PeerSharing server side support

LocalStateQuery server side support

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

The project development will be completed by the Blink Labs engineering team. Our team includes Principal / Staff Engineers, with more than 40 years combined experience. This project will be primarily assigned to Aurora Gaffney (https://github.com/agaffney ) for development completion, with Chris Gianelloni (https://github.com/wolf31o2 ) providing code review, documentation, and support.

Blink Labs has previously completed two Catalyst Fund 9 proposals:

Ouroboros network (NtC) in Golang (predecessor to this proposal)

Cardano Submit API in Golang

Additional Blink Labs staff may be used for administrative functions, such as project management and community reporting.

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

Funding will primarily pay for engineering time. There is also a small piece set aside for paying administrative staff for project management.

The project budget is 46250 ADA per month to pay for Engineering (40000) and Project Management (6250). Each milestone corresponds to a month, and time is allocated to take approximately 75 percent of a full time software engineer or 120 hours and approximately 10 hours of project management.

No additional funding is necessary for third party products or services.

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

Costs are estimated on a 333.33 ADA per hour rate for a senior golang blockchain software engineer working remotely within the United States (~ $192k USD annually) and 150 ADA per hour rate for a project manager working remotely (~ $86k USD annually)

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund 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