Triage

Updated: 2 Sept 2024

Items on the triage have been reviewed by the CIR-WG and accepted to develop further through the process flow. Items in this list may require further input and/or wider discussion at TWG or SIGs as appropriate. From time to time the items on this list will be re-assessed to align with the evolving product direction.

OBL-1. Ouroboros Leios

Ouroboros Leios is a novel protocol extending Ouroboros Praos that aims at dramatically increasing the throughput of Cardano network. Leios is based on the key idea of input endorsers. Whereas in a classical blockchain, the blocks' body directly contains transactions, in Leios the blocks' body can also contain references to Endorser blocks which themselves contain references to so-called Input blocks containing the actual transactions. Those references are certified through a voting mechanism that guarantees a majority of validators agree on the content of Endorser blocks. By decoupling the logic of validating blocks' payload and extending the blockchain, and limiting the work needed to verify the chain, much higher throughput can be achieved and new use cases can be unlocked.

Simulating Leios is a critical precursor to subsequently implementing it because Leios aims to make full use of network bandwidth in a heterogeneous environment where input blocks, endorser blocks, votes, certificates are diffused in addition to the ordinary Ouroboros Praos traffic. Simulation will provide detailed statistics on Leios performance under normal conditions, during congestion, and in the face of adversarial activity. Formal methods are required to verify that the network simulations are faithful to the Leios protocol.

OBP-1. Ouroboros Peras

Ouroboros Peras modifies the chain-selection rule to include the "boosting" of the dominant chain's blocks by a quorum of votes from periodic randomly-selected voting committees. It reduces the settlement time by orders of magnitude without weakening the existing security guarantees. It is compatible with and orthogonal to Leios and Genesis, and it only has a very minor impact on the resource consumption of block-producing nodes. It requires modification of the chain-selection rule, a small change the the CDDL of the block body, and the creation, transport, and verification of votes and the certificates that witness a quorum of votes. It adds several new protocol parameters.

Peras has synergies with Leios and other proposals that involve voting, certificates, or transport/storage of additional data beyond what Praos and Genesis already handle. The Peras task involves (a) implementing this protocol in the Haskell-based Cardano node, (b) providing node-oriented conformance tests (which are distinct from the already existing protocol-level conformance tests) so that non-Haskell nodes (in Rust, Go, etc.) can be verified, and (c) updating the relevant node documentation and specifications.

One of the key benefits is Peras will dramatically shorten the "settlement" or "finality" time for transactions, providing near-certainty within a couple of minutes regarding whether a block will forever remain on the main chain.

BAB-1. Marketplace application for Babel fees

For the purpose of allowing atomic swaps, DApp fee sponsorship, fee coverage, etc., a proposal is raised for ledger changes that (1) add new fields to Tx which allow a top-level tx to contain sub-txs (2) allow individual sub-txs to be unbalanced, and not provide their own collateral inputs or witnesses, but the full batch (top level+sub-txs) must be fully valid, i.e. is balanced, has collateral, etc. (3) showcase how this approach can be extended to other types of intent processing

There are multiple key benefits to this implementation, including (1) transactions can be unbalanced, which allows for performing implicit trades within batches (including covering each others' collateral, fees, minUTxO) (2) scripts can inspect other transactions in the same batch (3) allows deduplication of script and datum data across multiple transactions in one batch and (4) possibility of extension to other intents

HYD-1. Hydra Development

There are various scopes that can be potentially developed for this item. Please follow this page and the Hydra working group for future updates to this item.

Interconnecting Hydra heads approaching the full heterogenous vision on scaling solutions for Cardano. By building a lightning-like system for processing payments off-chain at near zero cost and instant finality, we will enable several payment use cases and pave the way for generalized interconnection of Hydra heads isomorphic script execution across off-chain ledgers using Interhead Hydra.

The key benefits are (1) Payments of any fungible Cardano native asset unimpacted by L1 congestion (2) Re-usable payment channels for B2B, B2C and C2C micro-payments (3) Interoperability with Bitcoin Lightning (4) Near-zero cost, instant finality, and full security Cardano transactions processing for small groups of validators (Head protocol)

TLM-1. Timeliness Market

Provides the ability to ensure the insertion of a transaction over a given (short) time frame into the chain with a high level of assurance irrespective of the load on the chain at that time

Key benefits are the assurance that key transactions occur in a given time frame - eg oracles for dApps, payments with real-world deadlines, etc

PUW-1. Proof of Useful Work for Deep Learning

Use the training process of deep learning as “useful work” for validators to elect a block producer ensuring traceability of dataset and models trained, and obtained accuracy.

While PoW is secure, PoUW is a greener solution in which validators compute useful tasks instead of solving mathematical puzzles that have no other purpose than selecting a block producer

MTH-1. Mithril

Mithril is a stake-based multi-signature scheme that leverages the Cardano network to provide certified snapshots of all or part of the blockchain state. These snapshots are valuable for various use cases, including secure voting, data exchange, and synchronization between applications, sidechains, and light wallets.

The beta version of Mithril was successfully launched on the mainnet in July 2023, enabling faster bootstrapping of Cardano nodes. Since then, numerous improvements and optimizations have been made, enhancing the protocol’s functionality and robustness. While Mithril has reached a mature state, two critical areas require further development to ensure readiness for real-world use cases: decentralization and sustainability.

Use cases include: snapshotting / fast bootstrap, more secure light wallets, trustless bridges (related catalyst proposal)

PAC-1. Partnerchains

Partner Chains toolkit empowers Cardano Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) to validate and produce blocks for specialized blockchains directly connected to Cardano. This enables SPOs to increase their earning potential while actively contributing to the expansion and diversification of the Cardano ecosystem. By introducing native cross-chain transaction capabilities, Partner Chains enhance scalability and foster seamless interoperability with EVM-based applications, significantly boosting the connectivity and utility of the Cardano network.

If implemented, this item can potentially unlock new revenue streams for Cardano SPOs and supercharge the ecosystem's growth by enabling scalable, cross-chain Partner Chains that enhance connectivity and interoperability across blockchain networks.

ARN-1. Rust Node (Amaru)

Amaru is an open-source project that aims to build a new fully interoperable block-producing node for improving the overall performance the Cardano blockchain. The Amaru node provides a simplified entry point for building things on Cardano by using a modular design and Rust as its main coding language.

If implemented, this item aims to improving all the performance aspects of a Cardano node, enable less resources used for better performance and creating a modular design, giving the opportunity to tailor to the operator use case

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Last updated 16 days ago