Cardano <-> Polkadot Light Client Bridge - Feasibility Study

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

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

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

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language

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

We drive a Feasibility Study and enable further developments for a Polkadot <> Cardano light-client bridge. These results should also drive other bridge developments on both ecosystems.

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

[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?

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

All proposal outcome will be licensed under open-source licenses.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

We run a feasibility study which will follow:  

Research, Anlayse, Summarise and Finalise.

The study will help us to understand what is needed for a bridge. 

Including, but not restricted, to the following themes:

• Technical architecture
• Financial model
• Legal framework

The outcome of the study will provide the building ground for further development through the deployment of an MVP.

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

First of all, this proposal is a direct outcome started with the uniFires proposal in Project Catalyst Fund 11, which is really nice. 

By bringing core contributors from both ecosystems together, we uncover common challenges and co-ideate solutions. In this context, we see the lack of Polkadot <> Cardano interoperability. We want to use our uniFires space to identify problems and initiate solutions. 

This proposal, introduces the beginning of a phased approach project; ideally leading to a fully operational light client bridge for the Cardano & Polkadot ecosystems, starting an impactful contribution to Cardano's interoperability to other blockchain ecosystems. The impact is obvious, having increased interactions of both ecosystems can significantly increase each others growth.

Further, we make everything fully open-source, giving a nice playground for any developer teams to build upon our achievements and to further enrich tools and solutions for the Cardano & Polkadot ecosystem romance. Dot 'n Dano ❤️

Documents

The main outcomes of our feasibility study will be presented via public documents.

Research

The research will be done in two ways

1. Individual research from Team members
2. Team operations to coordinate operations and research outcomes

Peer Review

We will share the document with domain experts to ensure a high quality review on our documents

[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?

UniFires consists of core contributors at the Cardano & Polkadot ecosystem.

It allows us to ensure getting the right knowledge and resource on place.

This ensures having a high likelyhood to successfully implement our Proposals. 

We are developers, community managers, content creators, advisors, ambassadors and whatnot. We are wearing many hats which is an excellent skill for such a project. For everything what we dont have, well ... . 

We know our ecosystems well enough and can easily reach out to missing capacities.

We also employ a peer review process, so our contributions validity is checked by other members in the community.

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

Milestone Name: Research

Milestone delivery month: August 2024

Milestone progress in %: 25

Milestone Bugdet: 25,000 Ada

Milestone Outputs:

• We conduct individual driven Research on main requirements for a light client bridge.
• In addition, we host timely and Topic based "Expert sessions" with relevant domain experts from both ecosystems which we record and upload on the uniFires Youtube Channel.
• We will create a document, outlining initial research learnings and outcomes.
• We will publish the document.
• We will license our documents under an open-source license.

Milestone Acceptance criteria:

• Completed Individual Research 
• Completed Peer Review from domain experts
• Completed Research Outcome document
• Published document
• Licensed document under an open-source license

Milestone Evidence:

• Public link to the Research Outcome document
• Research Outcome document licensed under an open-source license.

Milestone Name: Analysis

Milestone delivery month: September 2024

Milestone progress in %: 50

Milestone Bugdet: 25,000 Ada

Milestone Outputs:

• We analyse the collected research
• Create the recommended and alternative solutions for each of the themes (Technical architecture, Legal framework and Financial model)
• We will create a document, outlining analysis learnings & outcomes
• We will publish the document
• We will license our documents under an open-source license

Milestone Acceptance criteria:

• Completed Individual Analysis
• Completed Peer Review from domain experts
• Completed Analysis Outcome document
• Published document
• Licensed document under an open-source license

Milestone Evidence:

• Public link to the Research Outcome document
• Analysis Outcome document licensed under an open-source license

Milestone Name: Summarise

Milestone delivery month: October 2024

Milestone progress in %: 75

Milestone Bugdet: 25,000 Ada

Milestone Outputs:

• We summarise the conditions of feasibility for each theme discussed
• In the presence of viable alternatives, comparisons should be created
• We will create a document, summarising learnings and outcomes
• We will publish the document
• We will license our documents under an open source license

Milestone Acceptance criteria:

• Completed Individual Summaries
• Completed Peer Review from domain experts
• Completed Summary Outcome document
• Published document
• Licensed document under an open source license

Milestone Evidence:

• Public link to the Summary document
• Analysis Summary document licensed under an open-source license

Milestone Name: Finalise

Milestone delivery month: November 2024

Milestone progress in %: 100

Milestone Bugdet: 25,000 Ada

Milestone Outputs:

• We will create a finalised document, summarising all learnings and outcomes from our feasibility study
• We will publish the document
• We will license our documents under an open-source license
• We create an initial draft proposal to translate concept insights towards a MVP in a future Catalyst Funding Round

Milestone Acceptance criteria:

• Completed Individual Analysis
• Completed Peer Review from domain experts
• Completed feasibility study document
• Published document
• Licensed document under an open-source license
• Ideate and initiate next steps

Milestone Evidence:

• Public link to the feasibility study document
• Shared statement towards next steps of the proposal
• Feasibility study document licensed under an open-source license

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

UniFires members:

Mark - Cardano Software Engineer, formal methods, functional programming, computer languages.  

Frank - Polkadot Software Engineer, Polkadot Ambassador. JavaScript, Rust, German, English. Stuttgart, Germany. I will sell you a shirt with Holograms.  

Felix - Cardano Ambassador, Governance, Open Source & grass roots, often being punk, doing great things with people smarter then me and usually having great fun :)

In addition, we plan to invite and include collaborators who will join us along the way.

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

We make it simple and calculate ADA to 0.50 USD, so that would be around 100K ADA which would enable 50K USD. We will ask additonal funds from the Polkadot treasury to really make this a co-built and co-funded initiative from both ecosystems.

25,000 Ada total per month

Research: 9,000 Ada

Advisory: 5,000 Ada

Operational Budget: 4,000 Ada

Content Creation: 3,000 Ada

Prototyping: 2,000 Ada

Publishing & Outreach: 2,000 Ada

TOTAL - 25,000 Ada per Milestone / per Month

4 Milestones X 4 months = 100,000 Ada

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

The funds invested into this proposal will return its value in:

• fully open sourced feasiblity study on a Polkadot <> Cardano light client bridge, open for anyone to use and to build upon
• Gained understanding and knowledge to ensure further effective development of a MVP towards fully operational light client bridge

What is cool, we will submit this very proposal in Polkadot OpenGov as well, where we ask for additional funds. The goal is to enable funding from both ecosystems as we have core contributors from both communities working on this project. 

Note, this is a pilot project and we'll have to see how this actually plays out.