Binocular – Trustless Bitcoin Transaction Oracle

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Alexander Nemish

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

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

100000

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

3

[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)

Binocular uses NIPoPoWs to provide a Bitcoin blocks Merkle tree root in its Oracle datum.

This allows contracts to check a transaction exists in a block on Bitcoin.

[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.”

No dependencies.

[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

MIT license

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

Binocular uses NIPoPoWs to provide a Bitcoin blocks Merkle tree root in its Oracle datum.

This allows contracts to check a transaction exists in a block on Bitcoin.

Binocular is a smart contract that works as follows:

• Prover Pete commits to a chain of Bitcoin blocks a in a form of NIPoPoW superblocks.
• Pete puts a Merkle tree root of those blocks in the Binocural datum.
• Verifier Vicky can challenge Pete by providing her chain of blocks with higher work, and take Pete's deposit if successfull.
• Alice can observe an Oracle contact datum and construct a Merkle proof of certain transaction id inclusion in Bitcoin block.

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

Future is multi-blockchain, and Bitcoin is still the most known.

This project improves cross-blockchain interoperability.

And it's a trustless Oracle!

[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?

I'm a former IOG engineer. I know what I'm doing.

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

A litepaper with high-level protocol description.

A whitepaper with full protocol description, communications diagrams, smart contract state machine description, algorythms etc.

A proof of concept implementation of Binocular smart contract state machine.

A proof of concept implementation of Binocular client code that uses the Oracle.

Tutorial and demo video of how it works and how to use it

As a result we will have:

• the litepaper,
• the whitepaper,
• PoC implementation of Binocular smart contract,
• PoC of a client code,
• tutorial and demo video.

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

The main proposer, Alexander Nemish, will be actively working on the proposal.

I’m a former compiler engineer at IOG, I worked on Marlowe DSL (https://marlowe.iohk.io).

I’m a senior Scala engineer with more than 10 years of Scala development experience with companies like UBS and Deutsche Bank.

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

I estimated it would take about 3 month of work * 35000 ADA each = 100000 ADA.

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

It's a bargain for the first cross-chain trustless Oracle design and proof of concept implementation.

[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