DRep Integration by $handle.

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Kora Labs, LLC

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

Entity (Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Co-proposers and additional applicants

Additional applicants:

Additional applicants:

KoraLabs, LLC

KoraLabs, LLC is a USA-based company. All 4 partners of the company are USA-residents and are actively building The Handle Standard. Although we prefer to utilize our avatars, the team is fully doxxed and ownership of KoraLabs, LLC demonstrates this. Article of Incorporation and Operating Agreement for the Limited Liability Company are available upon request.

Website: https://koralabs.io/

Discord: https://discord.gg/sYkFgRQFwG

Twitter (Kora): https://twitter.com/labskora

Twitter (ADA Handle): https://twitter.com/adahandle

Address:

9255 Center Street S 300B

Manassas, VA 20110

The Team:

PapaGoose, CIO

Co-Founder & Senior Engineer at ADA Handle.

25+ years TradFi experience.

GitHub: https://github.com/papag00se

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PapaGooseCrypto

Email: papagoose@koralabs.io

Big Irish Lion, CTO

Co-Founder & Senior Engineer at ADA Handle.

20+ years building systems.

GitHub: https://github.com/bigirishlion

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigIrishLion

Email: bigirishlion@koralabs.io

Conrad, COO

Co-Founder at ADA Handle and BLADE Pool operator.

20+ years of InfoSec and Infra experience.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/conraddit

Email: conrad@koralabs.io

Mr. Goose, CEO

Co-Founder at ADA Handle.

CEO of KoraLabs; leading the team.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GooseOfCrypto

Email: goose@koralabs.io

Board & Legal Team

Our team also includes a board of directors, with a plethora of skills that range from the most competent developers on the Cardano ecosystem to Decentralized Identity professionals who not only understand the future of on-chain DIDs but have vast experience on building and delivering identity systems. Our legal team is also second-to-none and have been assisting us since our inception, by helping us navigate through the complex waters of building blockchain-based products during these times when laws and procedures have not yet been clearly defined for our rapidly evolving industry.

Please feel free to reach out to any of us and we will promptly respond to any and all questions.

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

200000

[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)

$handles are the leading naming service on Cardano and the logical next step is to integrate DRep IDs into the ADA Handle protocol via a secure on-chain solution to further empower the Voltaire era.

[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

The entire DRep integration code will be made open source.

[METADATA] Horizons

Identity & Verification

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

DRep and Constitutional Committee identifiers are public key hashes of HD wallet derivations (see CIP-105), and as such can be translated into an address using the same key hash. CIP-129 offers additional ID type and credential type information in the header byte similar to addresses. Handles will make use of this information to send Handles to these addresses so they can “resolve” as DRep/CC IDs.

The solution will deliver these resolution steps:

1. Resolve to bech32 address that the Handle resides in. This is how $handles presently resolve to their underlying addr1 addresses.
2. Extract from it the payment key hash and key/script header.
3. Bech32 Encode the payment key hash using the 'drep1' prefix.
4. preserve the key/script header in CIP129 version.
5. [Optional] Double check against known registered DReps.

Our systems will execute the following steps to set up a $handle to include their DRep ID:

1. Bech32 decode the 'drep1' ID.
2. If CIP129, preserve the key/script header.
3. If CIP105, use prefix to create the key/script header.
4. Bech 32 encode the header and key hash using the 'addr1' prefix.
5. Send the Handle to that address.

DRep Handle Setup:

1. Light wallet registration (see CIP-95).
2. Supports CIP-8 signing using DRep ID or “DRep address.”
3. CLI registration (see docs).
4. DRep created by CLI will need to do offline signing.
5. Sign message + nonce with vkey.
6. Verify signature.
7. Use above process to send the Handle to the DRep address.
8. Claiming a DRep Handle.
9. Optional. Not required.
10. Used if a Handle already resides at a DRep address, but the Handle ecosystem hasn’t associated it with your wallet.
11. Once associated with the wallet, Personalization and other features are possible.
12. Create TX for any assets/lovelace sent to DRep address.
13. Since DRep IDs are HD wallet derivations, it is possible to send lovelace and assets to the equivalent address. The Handles website will accommodate this by helping to create transactions to move that lovelace and assets to other wallet addresses.

API:

1. DRep Handles will have the “drep” holder type in API.
2. New “drep” section in Handle API response:

{

   drep: {

       type: "drep",

       cred: "key",

       hex: "8ee224ce211dd966764e08f81471482cce277582c2621df2aaa3500a",

       cip_105: "drep13m3zfn3prhvkvajwprupgu2g9n8zwavzcf3pmu425dgq5e892jm",

       cip_129: "drep1y28wyfxwyywajenkfcy0s9r3fqkvufm4stpxy80j4234qzsl80wwe"

   }

}

Constitutional Committee Hot/Cold IDs:

1. The same process applies
2. The context of the user action suggests the correct bech32 prefix.
3. For example:
4. When asking a user to delegate to a DRep using a Handle, then the prefix is `drep1`
5. When asking the user to reference the CC Hot hash/ID, then `cc_hot` is the prefix, etc.

Important note: We have extensively tested the solution proposed in this section of the Catalyst Proposal. Thus, we have confirmation that the steps above will work.

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

The Cardano Voltaire era is what sets Cardano apart from all other blockchains. Cardano is the first blockchain to implement governance and bestow its community with full ownership. This means that the founding entities no longer have keys that are capable of making changes to the blockchain.

DReps will play a vital part in the future of Cardano. DReps will receive delegation from the Cardano community to vote on and propose changes for the blockchain.

However, presently, DReps can only be identified by their complex cryptographic hash addresses preventing the community from having memorable addresses to identify their favorite ones.

$handles are the leading naming service for Cardano, with nearly 250,000 Handles minted to date. The next logical step is to include DRep IDs within the Handle Protocol.

We believe that the impact will be significant given the importance of governance for Cardano's future. The community will cast their delegation with a lot more ease if they can do so from memorable $handles. E.g., $john and $mary.

[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?

Our team is composed of highly skilled engineers that joined Cardano specifically to build ADA Handle. Our C-level team is composed of BigIrishLion (https://twitter.com/bigirishlion), Papa Goose (https://twitter.com/papagoosecrypto), Mr. Goose (https://twitter.com/gooseofcrypto) and Conrad (https://twitter.com/conraddit), in addition to a number of contractors and board members. Combined, we have over 100 years of development experience.

ADA Handle was created from an idea. We did not have any experience building on Cardano. But we got the job done. We started building ADA Handle in June 2021 and by December 2021 we launched our Beta sale. Within 12 hours we sold out the 15,000 beta-sale assignments that we had set as our initial goal. Since then we have launched our public sale and have sold nearly 250,000 Handles. Our minting engines operate 24x7, with an uptime of 99.99%.

In the process of launching ADA Handle, our team learned how to program with Plutus V1, V2 and V3, Helios, Aiken. We built our own multi-sig wallet. Our team has launched a public API, that is available free-of-charge for the entire Cardano community, on the three public blockchains: Preview, PreProd and MainNet. The community can attest to this by accessing their corresponding endpoints:

Preview: https://preview.api.handle.me/swagger

PreProd: https://preprod.api.handle.me/swagger

MainNet: https://api.handle.me/swagger

Our API was developed in an open-source distribution, available for the community to download and run a local copy, should they wish to, instead of running our public endpoints. We understand that some projects might have this need, of running the API within their own systems and infrastructure, and for this reason we also made it open source, including examples of deployments, for all 3 blockchains. The public API is available from this GitHub Repository: https://github.com/koralabs/handles-public-api.

In addition to making available to the Cardano community a free and open-source API endpoint, we have also developed clear and concise documentation explaining the resolution process for Handles, utilizing the current and old standards, CIP-68 and CIP-25, in addition to the soon-to-be-delivered subHandle standard. This documentation can be viewed from this link: https://public.koralabs.io/documentation/HandleResolution.pdf.

Our minting portal, for all three blockchains, with an uptime of over 99.99%, can also be verified from these links:

Preview: https://mint.handle.me

PreProd: https://preprod.mint.handle.me

MainNet: https://mint.handle.me

We have also concluded the first phase of our Marketplace, as per the Fund10 Handle Marketplace, which can be verified from these links:

Preview: https://preview.marketplace.handle.me/backgrounds

PreProd: https://preprod.marketplace.handle.me/backgrounds

This was the first Milestone of the Catalyst proposal from Fund 10, and, as per the proposal, only Preview and PreProd would be launched by now, which we delivered on-time and within the stipulated budget. MainNet is also mostly ready as well, and we'll launch it soon.

This document is another evidence of our capabilities to develop and build solutions within Cardano, as it contains all the parameters and settings for the community to utilize our marketplace and background-development tool to create their own backgrounds, matching the requirements to make them compatible with Handles: https://public.koralabs.io/personalization/Handles+Background+Creator+Defaults.pdf.

subHandles are now live on all 3 blockchains (Preview, PreProd, MainNet), with the general public minting virtual and NFT-based Handles from: https://handle.me.

We have, therefore, demonstrated our capabilities in building systems, developing Cardano-based technologies, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to engage with the Cardano community and generate traffic to our protocol and solutions.

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

Phase 1

The purpose of the first phase is to build the Proof of Concept confirming the possibility to associate DRep IDs with $handles in a manner that is safe for the Cardano community.

Our current research demonstrates, as per above, that it is possible to do so, by extracting the hash/key from DRep ID, converting it to the payment address (addr1) and moving the $handle to that payment address before creating the association with the DRep ID.

This phase will focus on demonstrating this via a Proof of Concept.

Outputs: DRep Proof of Concept.

Acceptance criteria: Demonstration that Handles can integrate to the DRep architecture.

Evidence of completion: Video demonstrating the Proof of Concept.

Phase 2

The second phase of this development will focus on setting up the DRep integration to $handles on the Preview network.

The successful delivery of this phase will be verified on-chain, directly from Preview.

Outputs: Preview launch

Acceptance criteria: Live integration of $handles to DRep IDs on the Preview blockchain.

Evidence of completion: Video showcasing the live integration of $handles and DRep IDs on Preview.

Phase 3

The third phase of this development will focus on setting up the DRep integration to $handles on the PreProd network.

The successful delivery of this phase will be verified on-chain, directly from PreProd.

Outputs: PreProd launch

Acceptance criteria: Live integration of $handles to DRep IDs on the PreProd blockchain.

Evidence of completion: Video showcasing the live integration of $handles and DRep IDs on PreProd.

Phase 4

The fourth phase of this development will focus on setting up the DRep integration to $handles on the MainNet network.

The successful delivery of this phase will be verified on-chain, directly from MainNet.

Outputs: MainNet launch

Acceptance criteria: Live integration of $handles to DRep IDs on the MainNet blockchain.

Evidence of completion: Video showcasing the live integration of $handles and DRep IDs on MainNet.

Final Milestone

The final milestone of this proposal will focus on tidying up all code and making it ready for the community to start associating their $handles on all networks with their DRep IDs.

Outputs: Preview, PreProd and MainNet DRep Integration

Acceptance criteria: DRep IDs and $handles integrated on all blockchains.

Evidence of completion: Video demonstrating DRep integration to $handles live on all 3 blockchains.

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

PapaGoose – Master Platform Engineer (25+ years experience)

With a wide-ranging career that includes a decade of fintech experience, PapaGoose has become a specialist in enabling developers to self-serve over the entire application lifecycle. Providing workflows, standards, and automations, from concept origin, through application and security design, to infrastructure management, including production deployment and maintenance cycles.

Recently exited TradFi, in favor of blockchain and now guides projects in the Cardano community. Currently holding an executive position at Kora Labs - with the intent to build out a standard for NFT-based digital identity.

Conrad – InfoSec and Infrastructure Engineer (20+ years experience)

Information Security and Infrastructure management are Conrad's expertise. For over 15 years he has been supporting companies from the financial sector and for the last 10 years running his own business in New York. Hedge funds and private-equity firms were his main focus before transitioning to Cardano.

Conrad operates BLADE, a top 10 Cardano stake pool, on MainNet and TestNet, with over 60M ADA staked. Conrad was elected as a SundaeSwap Scooper and selected as a Milkomeda C1 validator. Conrad is a Co-Founder at ADA Handle and works full-time in implementing The Handle Standard.

Goose – Co-Founder @ ADA Handle / CEO @ Kora Labs

With a near decade-long stint in commercial lending in Silicon Valley Goose has sourced, structured, and executed a number of high-profile loans to some of the largest tech companies in the world. Managing relationships with financial institutions, credit agencies, and competing financiers in order to provide the most cost-efficient, desirable and prompt loan lifecycles for clients has primed Goose for the fast-paced, community-focused, and technologically cutting-edge product management lifecycle that Web 3 has to offer. 

Big Irish Lion – Co-Founder / CTO @ Kora Labs / Master Platform Engineer (20+ years experience)

Big Irish Lion is a veteran developer, with over 20 years of experience with web and software development. Big Irish Lion is an Atala PRISM pioneer. Lion has hands-on experience building video-game platform and mobile applications. The Irish Lion is a server-less evangelist and is proficient with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.

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

Research and development: 50,000 ADA.

Marketing and partner communication: 50,000 ADA.

Development and coding: 50,000 ADA.

Hardware resources: 25,000 ADA.

Project management: 25,000 ADA.

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

Cardano is set to become the largest blockchain. Governance is what will get us there. Governance can only succeed if it is user friendly. DRep IDs create a barrier to adoption given how complex it is to remember your favorite DRep IDs. Thus, $handles create a memorable and inexpensive solution for community members to identify and delegate their voting power to.

$handles are relatively inexpensive. The least expensive $handle can be purchased for 25 ADA. Thus, a DRep would only need to invest 25 ADA to gain access to a memorable name to share with their community members.

There are nearly 250,000 $handles that have already been minted. Once we implement this DRep upgrade onto the Handle Protocol all existing Handles will be made compatible with it. Thus, empowering over 60,000 community members (the number of wallets that hold at least 1 Handle) to become a Cardano DRep with a memorable name.

Based on the above, it is our understanding that given the importance of the Voltaire era and how inexpensive Handles are, this DRep upgrade will bring the best possible value for the community moneys.