Wolfram Cross-Chain Framework

Develop programmable functions to experimentally connect Cardano NFTs/tokens/transactions/smart contracts to other blockchains.

We have already integrated several UTXO and account-based blockchains into Wolfram Language over the past four years. This experience has positioned us to begin working on cross chain experimentation immediately.

[IMPACT]

Impact Key Points

• We host multiple blockchain MainNet and TestNet nodes already including ARK, Bitcoin, Bloxberg, Cardano, Ethereum, Filecoin, Tezos and more.
• We have cross-chain experience having integrated blockchains into a single interface through Wolfram Language
• We have four potential cross-chain use cases to test immediately with the experimental framework
• Link to Supplemental Information (Text & Visuals): https://wolfr.am/Cross-chain

Introduction

There are three phases to this proposal. Progress reports and communications are included at the end of each phase.

1) Research

2) Cross-chain Experimentation

3) Wolfram Cross-chain Framework

I. Research (Phase 1)

The initial phase focuses on research. This phase has two components: 1) Wolfram feedback and 2) Catalyst Community feedback. 

Wolfram Research (parent company to Wolfram Blockchain Labs) has a long history and wide array of domain expertise. It's important for Wolfram Blockchain Labs to listen and learn from our own experts. This serves two roles; 1) To understand more of the spectrum of possibilities in a cross-chain environment and 2) to offer a critical eye on what is executable within the time frame, funding amount, and community centered requests. 

The second part is about collecting Catalyst Community feedback. We must align the desired outcomes of the Cardano community with our main project objectives. We want to focus on specific use cases and then experiment on them. This requires collecting research externally via community generated inputs.  

This too will be interesting feedback for the Catalyst Community.

Several important questions to research:

• How many cross-chain use cases are important to the Catalyst Community?
• How many cross-chain use cases are important to the larger decentralized community?
• What is the most important, immediately requested, cross-chain use case?
• What cross-chain use case already exists and what problem does it solve?
• What cross-chain use case is solvable within a 9-month time frame?
• Who is working on cross-chain use cases that we should know about?
• What cross-chain use case will engage the most users in our community?
• What cross-chain use case will bring the most users into our community?

After completion of this initial discovery/research phase, we expect to have a clearer understanding for what actions to take in the Experimentation Phase.

II. Experimentation (Phase 2) 

This phase is about experimentation. 

Experimentation is important because we have several ways to use cross-chain functionality and it requires experimentation to find the most useful solutions. We have identified several cross-chain use cases ourselves:

A. NFT Import/Export 

Functionalities to import non-Cardano blockchain NFTs into Cardano as native tokens. Also, exporting CNFTs to other blockchains.

B. Tokens Import/Export

Functionalities to import non-Cardano blockchain tokens into Cardano as native tokens. Also, exporting Cardano native tokens to other blockchains.

C. Cross-chain Transactions

Support for transactions to be sent between blockchains.

D. Cross-chain Oracles

Oracles that can execute actions in blockchains triggered by events in other blockchains.

III. Wolfram Cross-Chain Framework (Phase 3)

After we've completed the discovery/research gathering and experimentation phases, we will create a "Proof of Concept" oracle framework. 

This phase would enable sharing Cardano blockchain data through oracles. Importantly, because we have integrated Cardano into the Wolfram Language and built infrastructure with multiple blockchains, it is possible to extend the Proof-of-Concept framework over time. 

Please see Wolfram Language documentation (to look at publicly available blockchains):

(https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/Blockchain.html ) 

A. Smart Contract Templates

The third phase is time to reflect and understand the results of our experimental cross-chain solutions. In addition, we will create smart contract templates. These smart contract templates will be useful to experiment with on additional Catalyst projects as well. We will begin adding functionality with additional blockchains that are favored by the Cardano community over time through additional Catalyst Fund projects. A library of templates could be used to connect different blockchains to Cardano. 

Based on the use cases mentioned in the previous section, here are some basic ideas:

1. NFT Import/Export

Reading CNFT data and deploying it as smart contracts on other blockchains. This can potentially be done using the existing read/write Wolfram Language blockchain functions.

2. Tokens Import/Export

Creating a small catalog of common smart contracts and standards used for tokens on other blockchains and use Wolfram Language blockchain functions to read the contracts and convert them to its equivalent form as Cardano native tokens. In the same way, reading token data on the Cardano chain and deploying data on other blockchains. 

3. Cross-chain Transactions

With these templates, on-demand cross-chain oracles could be deployed. Both the templates and deployment could be done using the Wolfram Language blockchain functions.

4. Cross-chain Oracles

To support cross-chain transactions, a particular set of oracle templates can be made that listen to transactions in other blockchains and execute the equivalent ones on Cardano.

Interaction Phase

At the end of each phase we will have regular communications with the Catalyst and extended Cardano community. 

This will serve several purposes: 

1. Educate our Catalyst Community of what occurred over the past three phases (total - nine months) 
2. Provide the useful outcomes of our experiments so that the community is empowered with new blockchain tools 
3. Evangelize cross-chain data usage with other chains so we can continue building a robust multi-chain ecosystem
4. Consistently interact with the Catalyst and Cardano Community. We expect this will take the form of additional content in the future via blogs, videos and other services.

Additionally, the exploration, discussion and creation of cross-chain templates are all good topics to organize workshops and community events around. The goal of these events would be to discuss the most useful or relevant templates found in the three phases, and to create standards and prototypes that can then be promoted to production grade versions by the community. In this way, we are reengaging the Catalyst Community at the governance level to help push the next steps forward.

All of the data and feedback we get from the community will be processed and analyzed and shared with the community.

The challenge asks: “how we will create connections and collaborations between Cardano and other blockchains in the next six months.” 

Wolfram Blockchain Labs has already integrated a number of UTXO and account-based blockchains into our language. 

Hosting these chains has positioned us to begin working on experimentation immediately. And, in notebooks you can already create bespoke cross-chain workflows. So, we are well positioned for the challenge. 

Moreover, our proposed project will address the challenge in these ways: 

1.Discovery (Research and educational use cases) 

One of the most important aspects of the project will be to gather research on cross-chain use cases for multiple communities. We have another proposal submitted for DeFi academic research from our Wolfram Blockchain Labs economist, Leanne Ussher. 

This proposal was approved in Fund 7, but not funded. 

The research and education requires communicating with the larger decentralized community in order to broaden our perspective on the task. There are a significant number of blockchains for which we can create connections immediately and the research/community collaboration we're doing will only accelerate this outcome. Importantly, we have already learned a great deal by interacting with chains like Topl (a UTXO alliance member based in Austin, TX). 

2.Experimentation (Proof of Concept Cross-Chain Framework)

The creation of the cross-chain experimental framework that will serve as an initial Proof of Concept. 

In the future, we imagine expanding this framework into a product that can be used across multiple chains that Wolfram Blockchain Labs supports and serve as a basis for discussions with additional blockchain ecosystems targeted by the community. 

3.Interaction (Cross-Chain Collaboration Discussions)

Given the wide-array of blockchains available as target interests for collaboration, once we have strong examples, WBL can help attract cross-chain collaboration candidates. During the execution of this proposal, we will include the potential blockchains that we believe serve as the most ready and available connections to Cardano. 

First and foremost, we need to know that the Cardano Catalyst community has the desire to support this project with a strong vote in Project Catalyst.

In addition, we need to ensure there are adequate use cases (discovery/research phase) that will allow us to create useful offerings for cross-chain data usage, not just theoretical use cases. 

An educated Cardano community is one which has insight into Wolfram projects and can help guide desired outcomes. 

Wolfram can commit to continued ecosystem engagement so we can move beyond the Proof of Concept stage to further, larger, and broader stages of development in future Catalyst projects.

[FEASIBILITY]

We have created a nine-month timeline for the execution of all items in the plan, assuming a start on Monday, May 16, 2022.

1. Initial Research Mapping Phase
2. Month 0 - 2
3. Conduct research
4. Map out the cross-chain framework
5. Virtual Seminar sharing results
6. Experimentation Phase
7. Months 2 - 8
8. Experiment with available data
9. Create templates and proof-of-concept
10. Determine viable solutions from Research phase
11. Select compelling solutions for broader community
12. Presentation Seminar
13. Month 9
14. Demonstrate the framework
15. Share analysis of research findings
16. Plan for moving templates forward
17. Create a library of templates to be shared
18. Explain the process

We’re requesting $75,000. 

Team Costs - $50,000 USD (labor)

1. Technical Team

• A technical team of 6, lead by CTO Johan Veerman and Director of Connectivity Christian Pasquel, have already begun with experimentations. 
• We're considering the costs of data collection, cleaning, organizing and making computatable in Wolfram Language. This includes the creation of the dashboards that will complete the project.

1. Research Team

• A research and outreach team of 4, led by CEO Jon Woodard and Blockchain Analyst Steph Macurdy, who have already begun research and are joined by Economist, Leanne Ussher and Technical Lead, Jesus Hernandez. This team is in charge of deciding which dashboards to create, via research and feedback, and 

Hardware Costs (Nodes) - $20,000 USD

1. Nodes

• Running the nodes to build a computable and queryable database requires a backend architecture team to purchase the equipment and maintain it. It requires upgrading and storage costs. We are addressing those costs here, based on what we've experienced running a variety of nodes for the past four years, assuming at least a 6 month time frame.

Outreach (Marketing & Communications) - $5,000 USD 

1. Marketing Budget

• How can we promote surveys and feedback opportunities within the Cardano and larger decentralized community? Here we address the cost of promoting survey/feedback systems on social media and other avenues such as panels/conferences (SXSW)/Awards shows (CNFT Awards), etc.
• Engaging inside the community requires attention and energy and that’s represented as a labor cost.

Key People

Jon Woodard – CEO

Jon Woodard is the CEO at Wolfram Blockchain Labs, where Jon coordinates the decentralized projects that connect the Wolfram Technology ecosystem to different DLT ecosystems. Previously at Wolfram Research Jon worked on projects at the direction of Wolfram Research CEO Stephen Wolfram and prior to that was a member of the team who worked on the monetization strategies and execution for Wolfram|Alpha. Jon has a background in economics and computational neuroscience. He enjoys cycling in his spare time.

Johan Veerman – CTO

Johan Veerman is General Manager at Wolfram Research South America and CTO at Wolfram Blockchain Labs. Previously he has been Science Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Peru and Chief Scientist on two Antarctic expeditions. Johan's background is on physics and business management. He enjoys playing soccer and is a certified cave diver.

Christian Pasquel - VP Connectivity

Christian Pasquel works as Connectivity Manager at Wolfram Research. He manages a group focusing on connecting the Wolfram Language to external services and technologies and has been an instructor at the Wolfram Summer programs since 2016. Christian has a background in physics and has done and published peer reviewed research related to computational molecular biology. He enjoys coding generative art and recently worked on an interactive art installation commissioned by the Contemporary Arts Museum in Lima, Peru. He is a cat lover and had the main part in an official music video available online.

Dr. Leanne Ussher – Economist

Dr. Leanne Ussher is Blockchain Research Fellow at Wolfram Blockchain Labs. Leanne is an economist that specializes in monetary theory, complementary currencies, and the history of economic thought. She is a Researcher at the Copenhagen Business School, a Center for Civic Engagement Fellow at Bard College, and an Associate Editor of Frontiers Blockchain. Leanne has spent 17 years in academia as a professor in economics and finance. She has peer reviewed publications in agent based modeling, network analysis of local currencies, and international monetary system. Outside of academia Leanne was a Senior Researcher on blockchain ecosystems at Consensys, consultant to the CFA Institute on international monetary reform, and Securities Analyst at the Reserve Bank of Australia. She is an advisor to start up crypto collaborative entrepreneurs like the Economic Space Agency (ECSA), Open Farming , the Hudson Valley Current and the Thrive On Network in the Hudson Valley. In her spare time Leanne likes to bake bread, compost, and nurture a garden for butterflies, bees and humming birds.

Steph Macurdy - Blockchain Analyst

Steph Macurdy is a Blockchain Analyst at Wolfram Blockchain Labs and has a background in economics, with a focus on complex systems. He attended the Real World Risk Institute in 2019, lead by Nassim Taleb, and has been investing in the crypto asset space since 2015. He previously worked for Tesla as an energy advisor and Cambridge Associates as an investment analyst. Steph is a youth soccer coach in the Philadelphia area and is interested in permaculture.

Karla Santana

Karla Santana is a Technical Project Manager at Wolfram Research. She manages projects at Wolfram Research South America and has been with the company for 6 years. Karla has a background in computer science and has worked in the blockchain initiative since she joined the company. She is a certified aerial arts instructor and enjoys crocheting and spending time with her many pets.

Jesús Hernández

Jesús Hernández is Senior Technologist at Wolfram Research where he helps various business units explore new opportunities and partnerships. He has been with the company for ten years and is continually learning how Wolfram technology can be applied in new areas. He has a background in theoretical atomic physics. Jesús enjoys cooking, listening to almost all forms of music, and watching his favorite sports teams inevitably lose.

[AUDITABILITY]

KPI Technical Deliverables vs KPI of Performance or Community Seminars

Discovery (Phase 1)

Number of answers to these key questions:

• of Catalyst Community generated use cases
• # of Cardano generated use cases
• # of Wolfram generated use cases
• # of IOG generated use cases
• # of immediately available use cases identified
• # of existing cross-chain use cases identified
• # of 3 month executable cross-chain use cases identified
• # of 6-9 month executable cross chain use cases identified
• # of cross-chain entities/developers identified
• # of attendees to virtual engagements
• # of virtual engagements hosted
•  (measured by surveys, zoom calls, breakout rooms, meaningful interactions)
• Number of blockchain collaboration discussions
• (measured by outside cardano blockchain interactions - to date, we have 12 already)

Experimentation (Phase 2)

• # of technical ideas attempted
• # of technical ideas implemented
• # of technical ideas carried through to template
• Rate of experimentation 
• (how quickly can we take a community idea and experiment on it?)

Experimental Implementation (Phase 3)

• # of template libraries created for cross-chain NFTs
• # of template libraries created for cross-chain Tokens
• # of template libraries created for cross-chain transactions
• # of template libraries created for cross-chain oracle events
• # of template libraries created for cross-chain smart contracts

Completion of all proposed items:

1. Initial research report (Full analysis from research phase including internal and external)

2. Virtual Seminar presentation and brainstorming (Education event)

3. Experimentation of cross-chain ideas (Technical team implementations)

4.Demonstration of cross-chain ideas (What works and does not work)

5. Proof-of-Concept framework documentation (Templates, documentation)

6. Wrap up Presentation (Completion)

1.) Research and education on cross-chain data use cases

• A complete report from internal partners and external community members that shows 
• How we accepted feedback
• How we sought feedback
• How we structured the report
• How we gave presentations
• How we fared based on the KPIs established above.

2.) Proof-of-Concept using oracle system on Cardano for a cross-chain a simple use case

• A simple use case completed as a Proof-of-Concept

3.) Defined program for attracting additional blockchain ecosystems to work on cross-chain use cases inside Cardano.

This is a new Catalyst proposal. We expect this can build across future Catalyst Funds.