CHARLI3: Oracle Data Hub for Feed Consumers and Node Operators (application, onboarding, and analytics)

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Robert Hever

[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 propose transforming the existing Charli3 Developer Portal into an "Oracle Data Hub" with personalized customer and node operator sections that include relevant data, information, and analytics.

[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.”

We have only a single fullstack developer who can develop front-end applications. In order to deliver this project, we will need to hire a contractor or contracting team with front-end web3 experience.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

No

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

The front-end solution will be closed source web2 application with a web3 wallet connect.

The back-end architecture and integration with the front-end will be closed sourced. This is to protect the privacy of our customers.

The Node Software is planned to be Open Sourced.

[METADATA] Horizons

Oracles

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Summary and Description

In 2025, Charli3 wants to migrate to a self-service solution. As part of that initiative we propose personalized sections on our charli3.io website where different user groups can access personalized data, documentation, and notifications relevant only to them.

Current Developer Portal

portal.charli3.io current shows all push-based oracle updates and includes every node update, every API call, every on-chain aggregate current price update, every historical aggregate price update.

SOLUTION

Node Operator Section on portal.charli3.io

This deliverable requires both a front-end and back-end component with integration between them. As a user of portal.charli3.io, I can find a section on the Charli3 Developer Portal delivering only node operator information and data:

• As a Public User
• Application process details to become a node operator for Charli3
• Documentation including system requirements and reward details
• Download open-source Node Software
• As a Node Operator
• Secured access through wallet-based authentication
• View a Dashboard with active data feeds
• Performance Analytics and historical performance data (costs/gas fees, feed updates, number of servers, rewards, and more as we scale)
• Self-service management (apply to run more feeds, terminate contract for an active feed, and dispute a reward)
• Auto-generate and export node config for existing feeds (onboard new operators)

Login-gated Customer Section

Charli3 customers will specific an admin wallet. As a Charli3 customer, there will be a private personalized Customer section on portal.charli3.io that contains the following information and data:

• Secured access through wallet-based authentication
• Dashboard containing:
• Status of active feeds contracted by customer
• Historical data (consumption, costs, and any delays issues with feeds recorded with incident reports)
• Tracking and retrieval of invoice reports
• Information to pay invoices if applicable
• Record of incidents and relevant notifications

Additional Features: 

This segregation also enables the Charli3 team to manage communication and send targeted maintenance updates to the relevant user group.

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:

Phase 1: Database Design

This includes designing a master database schema to store key information about node performance, customer usage and other relevant data points including identifying the data that can be queried from on-chain and what can be stored in the database for meaningful analytics.

Phase 2: Backend API Service Development

This service interface will be responsible for querying and delivering all the required information from the database and on-chain data via secure and access-restricted endpoints.

Phase 3: Node Operator Dashboard (Frontend)

Develop the Node Operator interface, allowing operators to access performance analytics, reward reports, profits, and on-chain update costs. Ensure that operators can monitor their node operations, with easy access to key metrics and historical performance data.

Phase 4: Customer Dashboard (Frontend)

Design and develop customer interface that allows them to view their personalised data, including feed usage, consumption records, associated costs, and invoices.

Integrate the front-end with the API to deliver customer-specific data securely.

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

1 Increasing adoption of oracle use is a good thing for Cardano end-users

Cardano never had smart contract functionality and complex Dapps like DeFi protocols during the last bull run in 2021. Functionality only rolled out in mid September 2021 and protocols only launched during the bear market. In short, Cardano Dapps haven't faced the pressures of a bull market yet.

There is a good reason there is a culture of using Oracles in other ecosystems that have gone through a bull market. Price volatility stresses the data infrastructure of Dapps. A decentralized oracle solution like Charli3 is a dedicated solution so founders/builders/developers don't have to constantly monitor the health of their data solution during such tumultuous times. The result of less adoption of Oracles is end-user losses.

2 Customer Self-Service makes it less of a hassle to adopt Charli3

As much as we enjoy discussions with our customers and sharing data, it takes time and energy from both customer and Charli3's team to do so. By having a section populate with rich data, customers can easily access information to share with their teams or DAOs without waiting on the Charli3 team to generate custom datasets. Customers can track usage, understand costs, and receive notifications from the Charli3 team.

3 Node Operator Self-Service makes running a node more accessible and will increase adoption while improving the security of the Charli3 ecosystem

Across all Oracle solutions, node operator onboarding usually falls into two camps: an exclusive club of insiders and larger companies who generate significant profit who get hand-selected by the Oracle provider or an expensive sale of node "lottery tickets" whereby regular users must fight the market to get the opportunity to even apply. Charli3 believes a middle-ground exists, with this project anyone can apply to be a node operator and receive the information that is required to run one. The portal will act as a hub for users to get info, apply, and stay engaged with Charli3. Once selected, the hub becomes the data analytics homepage for node operators to check performance, profit, costs, etc in a glance. They can see new jobs coming up and bid on doing them. We believe making everything easy and accessible for everyone is the first step to onboarding significant numbers of new node operators to takes advantage of the lucrative rewards.

Many of our operators are experienced engineers who are as comfortable using command line as navigating through a GUI. But when it comes to tracking the data of running a node, it is up to them currently to do so. When historical data on rewards, costs, profits, number of updates, and etc. are easily available, then operators can make clearer decisions with taking on more or less feeds. Additionally, we plan on onboarding significantly more node operators in 2025 and a dedicated section means we can make the onboarding process smoother. Operators can get data on where they are at in the onboarding process. Although data on the status of their onboarding won't be included in this project as we don't know the specific data yet.

4 Web2 Customers expect this self-service level, Self-Service will increase adoption of Charli3 and Cardano

Unless you are enterprise solution or dealing with a top tier bank etc., most software solutions in the web2 world rely on self-service portals to engage with customers. It is cumbersome for prospective Charli3 customers coming from web2 who approach us wanting to build something on Cardano and we need to have multiple discussion on different channels to share information (e.g. Discord, Slack, Email, Calls). By providing a place for customers to sign-up and receive relevant documentation they may be more inclined to onboard as a customer with Charli3 and use Cardano. Anecdotally, an Oracle is frequently the first stop for a new project looking to migrate to Cardano; they come asking us data related questions which are often the biggest concern when migrating and building new on Cardano.

[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?

Charli3 launched in 2021. We have multiple active solutions. We are the first oracle solution on Cardano, launching in 2022. During that time, our core development team has stuck around while we've partnered with numerous high quality labs including but not limited to Anastasia Labs (Audit), CertiK (Audit), Metalamp, Mlabs, Plank, Txpipe, and more.

-> We're an established team with good relationships with the top developers in the ecosystem and we've stuck it out through the bear market delivering value.

We've had 10 catalyst proposals awarded to us. 3 have been successfully completed. In particular, our Oracle Developer Portal project resulted in the portal.charli3.io section of our site. This is a similar project in scope.

Currently there are 5 funded projects from Fund11 ending in the next 30 days, and 2 currently just beginning.

--> In short, we have a high success rate in completing catalyst projects.

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

Milestone 1: Project Initiation and Database Design

A: Milestone outputs: 

Finalised project team assembly including on boarding of additional resource (s) required.

Database schema designed for node operators and customers.

B: Acceptance Criteria:

Team members set for project

Database setup with mock data populated for both: node operators and customers. 

C: Evidence of Completion:

ER diagram

Medium article describing team and project deliverables made public on charli3.io

Demo video of database populated with test node operator and customer data

Milestone 2: Backend API Development

A: Milestone outputs: 

Develop secure API endpoints for data retrieval

Implement data querying from on-chain and database sources

B:Acceptance Criteria:

API successfully retrieves data for node operators and customers

Data security measures implemented and tested

C: Evidence of Completion:

API documentation

Demo of API functionality with test data

Milestone 3: Frontend Design and Implementation for Node Operators

A: Milestone outputs: 

Design and build Node Operator front-end interface

B:Acceptance Criteria:

Node Operator interface in test website completed

C: Evidence of Completion:

Video walkthrough of Node Operator section on a test website showcasing the display of relevant metrics

Milestone 4: Frontend Design and Implementation for Customers

A: Milestone outputs: 

Design and build Customer interface

B:Acceptance Criteria:

Customer interface in test website completed

C: Evidence of Completion:

Video walkthrough of Customer section on a test website showcasing the display of relevant metrics

Milestone 5: Launch and Onboarding Process creation

A: Milestone outputs: 

Finalise both front-end dashboards/sections integrations with backend and deploy to charli3.io

Create onboarding process for new users

B:Acceptance Criteria:

Customer and Node operator section is live on charli3.io

Documented onboarding process for node operators and customers

C: Evidence of Completion:

Live demo of completed Oracle Data Hub

Onboarding guide document

A: Milestone outputs

• Write Close out report
• Film Close out video

B: Acceptance criteria

• Close out report complete
• Close out video complete

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Close out report accepted
• Close out video accepted

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

Robert Hever, Cofounder Charli3 is the project lead

Technical Advisor for Charli3 is George Flevorsky

Talha Hussain from Charli3 will lead database design and front-end integration. He is formerly from the IAGON team.

We will hire 2 contractors to support him on the project. 1 graphics designer and 1 database expert. Currently Charli3 is contracting Txpipe, Anastasia Labs, and Metalamp. It is likely we will go with one of our established contractors for the hires.

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

Using ADA/USD exchange rate of 0.34 from Oct 15 2024

Phase 1: Database Design (Milestone 1)

This includes designing a master database schema to store key information about node performance, customer usage and other relevant data points including identifying the data that can be queried from on-chain and what can be stored in the database for meaningful analytics.

• Back-end database specialist USD$100 hourly full-time for 4 weeks (16k)
• 1 full-stack developer USD$100 hourly full-time for 4 weeks (16k)

Delivery time: 4 weeks

Budget: 90,000 ADA

Phase 2: Backend API Service Development (Milestone 2)

This service interface will be responsible for querying and delivering all the required information from the database and on-chain data via secure and access-restricted endpoints.

• Back-end database specialist USD$100 hourly part-time for 40 hours (4k)
• 1 full-stack developer USD$100 hourly full-time for 3 weeks (12k)

Delivery time: 3 weeks

Budget: 45,000 ADA

Phase 3: Node Operator Dashboard (Frontend) (Milestone 3)

Develop the Node Operator interface, allowing operators to access performance analytics, reward reports, profits, and on-chain update costs. Ensure that operators can monitor their node operations, with easy access to key metrics and historical performance data.

• Back-end database specialist USD$100 hourly part-time for 40 hours (4k)
• 1 full-stack developer USD$100 hourly full-time for 3 weeks (12k)
• Graphic Designer / Front-end Developer USD$75 hourly fulltime for 3 weeks (9k)

Delivery time: 5 weeks

Budget: 70,400 ADA

Phase 4: Customer Dashboard (Frontend) (Milestone 4)

Design and develop customer interface that allows them to view their personalised data, including feed usage, consumption records, associated costs, and invoices.

Integrate the front-end with the API to deliver customer-specific data securely.

• Back-end database specialist USD$100 hourly part-time for total of 1 weeks (4k)
• 1 full-stack developer USD$100 hourly full-time for 3 weeks (12k)
• Graphic Designer / Front-end Developer USD$75 hourly fulltime for 3 weeks (9k)

Delivery time: 5 weeks

Budget: 70,400 ADA

Phase 5: Launching, documentation, and other content (Milestone 5)

Launch involves documentation creation, testing, and deploying to production the final versions of everything followed by more testing. Additionally we are committing to creating onboarding documentation to help users navigate and use the new sections.

• Back-end database specialist USD$100 hourly part-time for 60 hours (6k)
• 1 full-stack developer USD$100 hourly full-time for 3 weeks (12k)
• Graphic Designer / Front-end Developer USD$75 hourly part-time for 40 hours (3k)

Delays and Risks:

There could be issues during deployment that require bug fixing and further testing. Adding an additional buffer of 80 hours (one sprint two week sprint of testing and bug fixes) for 1 full-stack developer full-time and a back-end part-time.

Delivery Time: 3 weeks

Cost: 60,000 ADA

TOTALS

Project Timeline: 20 weeks (4.5 months)

Project Budget: 335,800 ADA

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

This project will cost about the same as our Oracle Developer Portal project (https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/8/f8-dapps-and-integrations/oracle-developer-portal). Since launching it we've acquired 10x the customers. We believe this project will have a similar impact. The more projects building on Cardano who choose to use an Oracle, the better the ecosystem and end-users are going to be in the long run. As I stated in the impact section, Cardano's Dapps really haven't been tested yet. The easier it is for those Dapps to switch to an oracle provider the better it is for end-users. We are preparing for the storm and believe self-service is the route to increasing adoption.