Last updated a week ago
Adoption, governance and interoperability are important themes for both Polkadot and Cardano. The future is multichain but not many are equipped to build solutions that extend beyond their own bubble.
This is the total amount allocated to Polkadot-Cardano uniFires. 3 out of 4 milestones are completed.
1/4
Milestone 1
Cost: ₳ 35,000
Delivery: Month 1 - Apr 2024
2/4
Milestone 2
Cost: ₳ 35,000
Delivery: Month 2 - May 2024
3/4
Milestone 3
Cost: ₳ 35,000
Delivery: Month 3 - Jun 2024
4/4
Milestone 4
Cost: ₳ 35,000
Delivery: Month 4 - Jul 2024
NB: Monthly reporting was deprecated from January 2024 and replaced fully by the Milestones Program framework. Learn more here
All applicants listed below:
Web3 Adoption
Open Governance
Cross-Chain Interoperability
Design, Planning & Coordination
Onboarding & Engagement
We onboard participants to thematic working groups to discuss, research, experiment and gather best practices for Cardano and Polkadot communities, sharing the results via far-reaching channels.
There are no dependencies, prerequisites or legal obligations.
PROGRESS REPORTS
All project progress is communicated clearly and in timely manner.
AUTONOMOUS WORKING GROUPS
The working groups can decide to record some or all of their meetings, in which case the generated outcomes will be published to the community.
OPEN-SOURCE RESULTS
The final report is going to be distributed widely and discussed openly in various channels.
INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATION
Individual working group participants should, in principle, freely and openly share the fruits of their collaboration, but if some decide to keep parts of their code unpublished or proprietary, we cannot and don't want to stop them from doing so.
N/A
Please take a look at the uniFires presentation to view the same in more visual format.
Summary
Engaging the technologically advanced yet sometimes misunderstood Web3 communities to compare notes, to share best practices and to co-create solutions to common issues.
What is Polkadot?
Unlike traditional blockchains, Polkadot is a protocol and a network that consists of multiple blockchains. It is designed for a future where all blockchains can operate seamlessly together. It is built on a framework called Substrate that also Cardano Partner Chains are going to utilize. Polkadot features a unique governance system known as OpenGov, which operates fully on-chain. It also supports native cross-chain communication. While there are many aspects to Polkadot, its core is the interconnected network of blockchains.
Together towards multichain
Many agree that “future is multichain” but we don’t have many who are equipped to build solutions that extend beyond their own bubble. Both Polkadot and Cardano are seen as leading third generation blockchains by their own communities but questioned by others. To do that, and to build the multichain future, we need to initiate cross-chain conversations, learn from one another and utilize the best practices from each chain. Going beyond the chain-specific echo chambers in Web3, this will foster a culture of open and transparent knowledge sharing culture—preserving, celebrating and developing the uniqueness of both Polkadot and Cardano.
Laying the foundation
Inspired by the Project Based Learning framework, our team of Polkadot and Cardano ambassadors will onboard a cross-chain group of participants to build their background knowledge, to be able to specialize and dig deeper in the topics of mutual interest. We facilitate the formation of cross-chain working groups who discuss, research, experiment, and gather learning points and conclusions in their respective topics. Real-world adoption and impact, decentralized governance and cross-chain interoperability are common themes for all communities in the Web3 space, and these topics are generic enough to allow for self-organization around the participants’ know-how and interest. These self-organized groups consist of community participants from both Polkadot and Cardano ecosystems.
The working groups’ findings, learnings and best practices are captured and synthesized in a concise report that is disseminated to both ecosystems. The participants will then educate the Cardano and Polkadot communities by hosting discussions and sharing the results with selected content creators. This all should lead to helpful camaraderie between the chains and function as a steady basis for further collaboration.
Adoption Working Group (Coordinators: Linda & Peter)
The adoption working group aims to find ways to increase real-world adoption and impact of each chain. It focuses on finding ways to bring developers, entrepreneurs and users into the Web3 space, to increase the size of the pie for everyone involved. We share the existing success stories and explore new ideas to co-create, save and transfer value on blockchain.
Governance Working Group (Coordinators: Viktor & Felix)
The governance working group sheds light on different ways that the chains have taken to address the challenge of decentralized decision making, treasury management and funding. Practices varying from conviction voting to sub-treasuries can be discussed and unforeseen solutions arrived at together.
Interoperability Working Group (Coordinators: Frank & Mark)
The interoperability working group allows for improved understanding of each other’s tech stacks, emergence of new technological solutions and a possibility for bridges to be built, both metaphorically and literally. The group engages in an iterative process to build common ground, explore common issues and see if there is a possibility to build common solutions that benefit both. Underlying philosophy is to start small and grow from there. The end result is an open communication channel for people who are able to think multichain.
Sharing solutions and best practices
Both Polkadot and Cardano have a set of industry-shaping, highly unique features, tools and facets that the other community can learn from. This should guide each of the working groups. They are all about sharing best practices and finding out ways to utilize them in new ways.
Examples of Web3 Adoption Best Practices
Decreasing time to market: There are solutions being built such as Apillon and Tanssi Network that remove some of the developer burden and make things fast.
Future economy: Decentralized Knowledge Graph by OriginTrail, access to machine learning models by Bittensor, DePin solutions by peaq, IoT from Robonomics, decentralized computing from Phala and storage by Crust form the basis for an impressive array of future-proof services.
Corporate partnership: Astar’s partnerships with NTT Docomo, Toyota and Sony, adoption of EnergyWeb solutions and the KILT-Deloitte collaboration are just some examples of enterprise level interest.
RealFi: Cardano native assets like World Mobile Token (internet connectivity) and Empowa (affordable housing) are making waves in the area of real world impact.
Other use cases: Cardano has contributed to Web3 adoption in e.g. credential verification for academic certificates, anti-counterfeiting initiatives, supply chain tracking and identity verification. It has notable projects such as Book.io (Books), Cornucopias (Metaverse) and NMKR (NFTs), Clarity (DAO tooling), Muesliswap (DeFi) and Indigo (stablecoins).
Examples of Open Governance Best Practices
OpenGov: An automated on-chain mechanism for the community to discuss, propose and vote on proposals that suggest changes in the way the blockchain operates or outline use cases to receive funding from the treasury. Used via interfaces like Polkassembly and Nova Wallet.
Technical Fellowship: An on-chain collective of skilled individuals who can focus their efforts on developing Polkadot due to salary they receive from the chain.
Project Catalyst: Balanced innovation funding via Categories and Community Review before proposals are put to vote.
Liquid Democracy: A proposed model to organize decentralized governance to be run by the Constitutional Committee, Delegated Representatives and Stakepool Operators.
Examples of Cross-Chain Interoperability Best Practices
XCM: A format that allows seamless cross-consensus messaging.
Polkadot SDK: Substrate is a flexible, modular and customizable framework that Polkadot is built on and that is used by upcoming Cardano Partner Chains as well. Substrate-native chains can use bridge pallets to connect two chains.
Ouroboros: The PoS consensus protocol adopted by both Cardano and Polkadot.
eUTXO: Cardano’s extended unspent transaction output model combines the best of account-based and UTXO models.
Cardano Bridges: Wanchain released a solution to bridge Cardano to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Astar, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Optimism, Polygon, Tron, and other prominent public networks.
Working Group Structure
In the working group structure, each group:
Working Group Processes
What is common for each working group is that:
Dissemination of results
Outcomes of the collaboration are communicated in a timely manner to the Cardano and Polkadot communities, ensuring that both sides benefit from the gained knowledge and insights. Trusted podcast hosts, content creators and influencers with large audiences, reaching beyond the two ecosystems, will help disseminate the results of this unprecedented voyage of shared discovery.
Cherry on top
Throughout the process we generate content that can be utilized afterwards by anyone who wishes to initiate collaboration between the two ecosystems. We explore our options to create an open-source learning management system (LMS) to onboard more people more efficiently and allow them to learn in a structured way, as they build their cross-chain solutions. As a tangible outcome of this proposal, we will create a Proof of Concept for this Project Based Learning environment.
Impact in a nutshell
Polkadot and Cardano ambassadors create and facilitate a process to onboard a cross-chain group of participants, to enhance their knowledge and to dig deeper in mutual interest areas of Web3 adoption, decentralized governance and cross-chain interoperability.
Long Term Vision
Establish a center of gravity for effective and long-lasting cross chain collaboration that reaches beyond the initial two ecosystems.
Feasibility in a nutshell
The core team is kept somewhat small in the beginning to ensure efficient preparation and alignment between the working groups. The autonomous and self-organizing nature of each working group guarantees an approach that is both tailored to the select participants and methods that are a good fit for each working group's theme.
For instance, due to its technical nature, the interoperability working group might benefit from hands-on tinkering, building and sharing of code, whereas the open governance working group might rely more on qualitative research and the adoption working group might organize brainstorming sessions with actual businesses and entrepreneurs.
The financial sustainability of the initiative does solely rely on funding from Project Catalyst. If this initial experiment proves successful, we will develop the unifFires initiative further and actively work with other treasuries and fundings sources beyond the Cardano ecosystem. Polkadot OpenGov is the logical next step to scale the operations in 2024 and beyond.
Due to the evolving and emergent nature of the cross-chain initiative and the autonomous operation of the working groups, we don't want to dictate numerical goals at this point. However, the KPIs that we measure include (but are not limited to):
March 2024
Project management setup, participant recruitment & team coordination.
Deliverables:
Budgeted: 35,000 ADA
April 2024
Working Groups engage cross-chain participants in action.
Deliverables:
Budgeted: 35,000 ADA
May 2024
Working Groups dig deep in peer-to-peer learning.
Deliverables:
Budgeted: 35,000 ADA
June-July 2024
Comprehensive report and related discussions with podcasts, influencers and content creators.
Deliverables:
Budgeted: 35,000 ADA
The Core Team
To do all this, we have summoned a core team of highly experienced and well-networked individuals from the involved ecosystems who help educate and engage their respective communities. The core team will design, plan, guide and facilitate the process to reach mutually satisfying and beneficial outcomes. As the coordinators of the working groups, these dedicated ambassadors will create spaces for the participants to meet, connect, open up and collaborate.
Web3 Adoption
Open Governance
Cross-Chain Interoperability
Design, Planning & Coordination
Onboarding & Engagement
Dissemination of results:
Please note: Top notch participants are at least as important as funding. If you wish to stay informed and become part of the working groups in March 2024, join our Discord now!
The budget consists of the following line items, based on delivering the four milestones:
Onboarding (20,000 ADA)
Planning, Facilitation, and Coordination (20,000 ADA)
Working Group Incentives (30,000 ADA)
Dissemination of Results (20,000 ADA)
Other costs (50,000 ADA)
Total: 140,000 ADA
Please note: Naturally, we cannot predict the dollar value of ADA in March-July 2024. Therefore, the budget is our best estimate regarding how much is needed to incentivize participation, to produce quality results and to create long-lasting positive impact. The budget line items correspond with the team roles and the roles of potential external service providers.
Value for money in a nutshell
We can pick up learning points and ideas from the participating chains, avoid pitfalls others have faced and help build innovations that cater to a larger cross-chain audience.
This proposal ideally sparks and initiates a long-term initiative, dubbed uniFires, that helps build, maintain and grow a strong Polkadot-Cardano Hub. It can also extend to unforeseen areas of cross-chain collaboration.
Outcome #1: Recommendations
We produce a concise and easy-to-read paper where we outline the findings of each working group and share the best practices from both chains, including recommendations for future collaboration.
Outcome #2: Public Discussions
Based on the results, we host events, inform content creators and initiate a wider discourse on Polkadot-Cardano collaboration and the chosen unifying themes: Web3 Adoption, Open Governance and Cross-Chain Interoperability.
Outcome #3: Project Based Learning Environment (Proof of Concept)
Successfully developed Proof of Concept for a Project Based Learning Environment, laying the foundation for transforming the gathered knowledge into a publicly accessible, reusable learning framework. This enhances practical cross-chain education possibilities after the initiative.
Kickstarting the initiative: It is our humble wish that Project Catalyst voters step up and initiate this collaboration from Cardano side, showing both Cardano and Catalyst in a good light.
Maintaining the initiative: As our goal is to provide value to both ecosystems, should this initial collaboration prove successful, we hope to get support also from the Polkadot treasury to maintain and further develop the uniFires initiative.
Make sure you check the presentation.