Trust Registry with Smart Contract

[IMPACT]

Our objective is to:

1. Define an open source Cardano smart contact (SC) template that describes a Trust Registry wherein Atala PRISM DIDs in that Trust Registry have the right to issue a credential.
2. In addition to verification of the issued credential, we would implement verification of the issuer in the trusted registry.
3. Implement a no-code flow in ProofSpace for customizing the logic of the smart without programming, to allow non-programmers to create and maintain trust registries.

Our audience is:

• Any DAO or institution with an interest in utilizing decentralized models of governance to fulfill high-trust and efficient voting, access, certification or verification goals (herein “voting”).
• Because the proposed solution will be available through our existing no-code SSI SaaS platform (ProofSpace), the audience may include both technical and non-technical people who wish to create and maintain trust registries.

The output will be:

1. Open source Cardano SC template for defining trust registries
2. User interface for no-code customization of SC logic
3. User interface for utilization of SC workflows by end-users.

The impact will be:

1. High-quality R&D made available to the Cardano community.
2. Accelerated production deployment for high-value and repeatable use cases due to:
3. Low cost and fast set-up, testing and deployment of trust registries in the ProofSpace Dash.
4. Low cost of voting due to utilization of PRISM verifiable credentials in the smart contract.

In a linked F9 or F10 proposal we hope to extend this offering to include more sophisticated voting capability, thereby expanding the number of production deployments. A rough proposal outline:

• Objective: implement voting in smart contracts to be done via the ProofSpace mobile App.
• Output: UI updates for voting in dashboard and mobile App
• Impact: Easy configuration and publication of voting workflows for end users in the ProofSpace App, which may also utilize the KYC-verified token to enable “one-person, one-vote" and liquid democracy scenarios.

The proposed solution addresses the challenge in the following ways:

The overall question to be addressed by the challenge is: “How can we take the next step to support the principles of self-sovereign identity”.

• Trust registries represent a key pattern for SSI and being able to create them with no-code and fast execution enabling low-cost, efficient and reliable formation of new use cases leveraging PRISM and Cardano.

One of the areas of focus of the challenge is: “Trust registries”.

• This proposal directly addresses the challenge focus area.

The project is highly relevant to the key metrics for the challenge:

• The number of proposals that directly address SSI in a quantifiable manner: the number of projects that launch projects and growth in the number of credentials and verifications through smart-contracts.
• Awareness of Cardano inside the SSI community, working groups and governance entities: no-code trust registries and voting in smart contracts should attract interest from the SSI community, working groups and governance entities with an interests in decentralized governance and DAO management.

1. Risk: Schema for packaging voting in a smart-contract can be inefficient (i.e. same as baseline for voting transaction) without implementing cryptographic primitives in plutus. In this case we will formulate the proposal and use a baseline - voting transactions.
2. Mitigation: Voting oracle is an optional output, which can be implemented later.
3. Risk: There are a few ways of developing storage of trust registries in a smart-contract. Some of them can be impractical for performance or cost reasons.
4. Mitigation: Run R&D phase. If the cost of storing trust registry in blockchain us too high, think about using second-level storage.
5. Risk: Smart contract may be 'too basic' and not contain such features as advanced voting schemas or liquid democracy.
6. Mitigation: This will be the work of an F9/F10 proposal – wherein we will determine the required features during a pilot with some concrete partners in the community.

[FEASIBILITY]

We expect the proposal to be implemented during the 6-months after the first tranche of funding is received.

Tasks

1. Create a Minimal DAO smart-contract template which defines:
2. Dependency between voting power and token ownership
3. Voting rules
4. And representation of a trust-registry, including:
5. A basic schema which credentials must satisfy
6. Set of DIDs, which can be defined as a set of transactions, and which add or remove DIDs with votes
7. Update UI for no-code defining of parameters of smart-contract in the ProofSpace dashboard. 
8. Develop specifications for Voting Oracle inProofSpace mobile App.  
9. Implement Voting Oracle in ProofSpace mobile App.
10. Specification and implementation of issuer verification (in addition to PRISM verification).
11. Demo the working flow to prospective pilot partners

Tasks for an F9 or F10 proposal:

1. Create a “proof schema” for voting
2. Implement Voting Oracle in ProofSpace mobile App.
3. Optimize voting schema and Oracle API, such as using Schnorr signatures.
4. Improve UI representation of smart-contract state.
5. Enrich smart-contract template by introducing liquid democracy features (voting delegation) and a range of possible voting scenarios.

Deliverables & Milestones

May

• Draft DAO smart contract template

June

• Draft representation of trust registry

July

• UI drafts for Dashboard
• Utilise drafts to engage prospective pilot partners

August

• Implement ProofSpace Dashboard UI with no-code smart-contract parameter definition
• Finalize App specifications for Oracle Voting

September/Oct

• Demo working flow to Catalyst community members (prospective pilots)

Our budget for this project is $27,685 (see Main Budget below).

Our budgets are calculated based on the cost of deliverables using the following format:

Deliverable

• $Cost

MAIN BUDGET

Create a Minimal DAO smart-contract template

• $5,933

Update UI for no-code defining of parameters of smart-contract in the ProofSpace dashboard

• $7,910

Specification of voting Oracle in mobile App

• $3,955

Specification and implementation of issuer verification (in addition to PRISM verification)

• $5,933

Demo the working flow to prospective pilot partners

• $3,955

TOTAL

• $27,686

Viktor Radchenko - CTO and mobile dev for ProofSpace. 20-year R&D track record. Skilled in project and product management, solution architecture, science consulting, blockchain, mobile, web, game, and embedded development. 6 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Ruslan Shevchenko, PhD - Solution Architect and BE for ProofSpace. Skilled architect and scientific researcher with 30-years’ experience across blockchain, telecom, advertising and financial services. Researcher in the Institute of Software Systems and Founder of several successful ventures including NBI (an Internet Provider), GradSoft (a software development firm) and UA Scala user group. 10 publications in peer-reviewed journals, co-authored book entitled “Methods of Algebraic Programming” and is an active columnist for the Ukrainian developers' community portal.

Alexey Hodkov - FE/BE for ProofSpace. Talented web backend and frontend solution architect and developer with 17-years’ experience. Team leader, tech mentor and CTO in complex projects for various companies like Yandex LLC and Megogo.

Viacheslav Zhelobkov - Senior Mobile Dev for ProofSpace. Enthusiast software developer with 20 years experience in wide variety of IT areas including embedded, mobile, web, backend, etc. in roles from solo founder to Solution Architect and CTO.

Ilya Che - UI/UX for ProofSpace. Talented and multi-displinary UI/UX designer with 10+yrs experience and a skill for making complex things simple for end users. Past experience with Leantegra, ScanForce, SingleCare and others.

Nick Mason - CEO for ProofSpace. Experienced social entrepreneur and venture analyst with a proven track record of social venture funding and of starting and growing ventures in Europe and Africa. Background as Consultant venture analyst at Toniic, Head of Portfolio and Operations at BeyondMe, UK Director for Sierra Leone based education charity and Trustee for Street Child. Co-Founded ProofSpace (formerly ZAKA in 2019).

[AUDITABILITY]

Project progression will be measured by openly reporting on the state of deliverables (see below) in the monthly Catalyst reporting form and end of project reports.

May

• We will publish a draft DAO smart contract template

June

• We will publish a draft representation of trust registry

July

• We will share screenshots of UI drafts for Dashboard

September/Oct

• We will share a video demo of the working flow to Catalyst community members (including prospective pilots)
• We hope to announce collaborations with pilot partners from the community

We will measure the project’s success according to the following criteria being met during and after the project’s completion:

1. Project in progress: Published documentation for SC template for trust registries published.
2. Project almost complete: Video demo of no-code set-up, deployment and working use of SC template in ProofSpace.
3. Project successful: Named pilot implementation partners.
4. Project sustained success: growing number of production use cases utilizing the solution developed in the proposal.
5. Related: we hope to also see an increase in (i) collaborative Catalyst proposals that specifically utilize this capability in use cases that we may or may not be currently aware of, (ii) independent or collaborative Catalyst proposals where our own, or joint, R&D results in ways to deepen the related capabilities of the proposed solution.

This proposal builds on an F7 proposal entitled “No-Code SSI SaaS for Mass Adoption” (see https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/385204). The implementation of Atala PRISM credentials in ProofSpace SSI no-code platform will support the use of PRISM credentials in the SC workflows that result from this proposal.

SDG Rating

SDG Goals

• Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

SDG Subgoals

• 8.2 Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors
• 8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services