Please describe your proposed solution.

Why is it important to create a decentralized reward scheme treasury (DRST)?

The purpose of DRST is to encourage academics, students, or anyone wishing to write and publish papers related to Cardano blockchain topics to well-known and high-ranking journal and conference databases. Apart from the initial payment (details in Feasibilities below) to implement the web-based platform for Cardano-related published papers to upload or share information so that the Cardano community members can access, view, and vote on per paper content. The remained fund will stay with Project Catalyst (IOG) until stage 2 is completed by the Cardano key stakeholders. See Flowchart 1 for the detail of stage 2.

With this consensus-focused design, Cardano community members and key stakeholders will fully decide on which paper will get voting and the amount to be rewarded. And the proposer is not involved nor has any type of influent in the voting and reward process entirely.

What is the reason to encourage? Are there not enough published papers on the Cardano blockchain available for the Press, government agencies, academics, and students to refer to when searching from the public and private search engines?

Experiment 1: Search “Cardano ecosystem” or “Cardano blockchain” without quotes from a public search engine like google.com. The results show <https://docs.cardano.org> and <https://iohk.io> sites and if you have experience searching and filtering out websites are reliable sources.

The first point, from a conservative view, is how independent and reliable information sources of these papers can be confidently used and embedded into learning courses and curriculum design, Press and government agencies the legislation based on these two sources? The answer to this should base on the individual’s needs, purpose, and intentions.

Second point, at the time of this proposal writing, with 143 papers listed in IOHK [1] and some being published in a top-ranking journal [2], a German-based non-profit organisation, The International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) [3]

In the scenario, someone intends to go this far as to look for a peer-reviewed paper on Cardano Ecosystem.

How easy to search for the peer-reviewed paper contains the comparison between the Cardano blockchain to public blockchains in terms of 1) network node or validator’s energy efficiency; 2) the feasibility at the moment of another dApp or layer 1 or 2 blockchains on the top of Cardano network nodes in compare to all the public blockchain which is available on the current Web3 [4] for example.

Experiment 2: Search “Cardano ecosystem” or “Cardano blockchain” or “Ouroboros: A Provably Secure Proof-of-Stake Blockchain Protocol” [5] without quotes from paid or private searching engines where subscription is involved, and authorized databases usually been used in universities or higher education providers. Please see three exhibits to support in case of Proposal Assessors are not able to assess a paid search databases to validate this experiment.

Some of the questions or concerns for examples below and answer to these questions are up to you as an individual, job’s background, experiences, education, country legislation on cryptocurrency adoption situation and the deepness of your exposure to the Cardano ecosystem in compared to other established public blockchains.

Why do higher ranking peer-reviewed publications matter to education providers, news, government legislation and regulation bodies overall and the sustainability of the Cardano ecosystem in the intermediate and long-term growth?

Why do higher education institutions, research firms and government agencies tend to start with well-known journals rather than conference publishers and yet to look at web sources, blogs or webinars, etc.?

In conclusion, for the impact if the proposal is accepted by the Cardano communities and funded would be great to have more coverage in vast content areas and reach further in the general public domain, not only narrow to a few peer-reviewed publications and major in Cryptography Software Engineering, Distributed Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Networks, Formal Verification, Programming Languages, Trusted Hardware, Economics, Policy and Regulation regarding securities/foreign exchange/businesses, Tax Law [6]. Furthermore, the DRST proposal is decided by Cardano community members and possibly it is a strong instrument to make the Cardano ecosystem shine, differentiate and stand out in comparison to other the public blockchains currently on the market.

Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Ecosystem maturity requirements, increased quality of existing products & integrations: After seven years [7] of hard work for all parties involved and communities, Cardano keeps growing and proven of resilient regardless how the market fluctuates, technology testing, legislation and taxation lobby adoption, etc. This proposal will go the extra mile to increase awareness and encourage academics, students, or anyone to publish a Cardano-related paper in a variety high ranking publishers, which will be another adoption and integration for the Cardano ecosystem in a sustainable future.

Making something easier to use that benefits the broader ecosystem: From 143 peer-reviewed research papers [1] listed and if looked at closely, there is a lot of mathematical and cryptography or similar contents. Thus, this proposal aims to encourage academics, students, or anyone to publish Cardano-related that can reach the wider community, be more accessible and read and understood.

The overall impact and address in this challenging and Cardano mission on research that is not only limited and focused on Cryptography Software Engineering, Distributed Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Networks, Formal Verification, Programming Languages, Trusted Hardware, Economics, Policy and Regulation regarding securities/foreign exchange/businesses, Tax Law [6], but anything else that needs for integration and adoption into Cardano ecosystem rather than within Cardano communities but for wider communities.

What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Stage 1 – Published paper reward requester:

Possible risk:

How to validate the identity and genuine of the published paper’s main author in the reward claim before moving to the next stage 2?

Risk mitigation:

For the most accepted and published paper in peer-reviewed journals or conferences, there is always a corresponding email listed on the published paper itself. Therefore, the DRST team only accept the communication from/to this published email address, and there are no other acceptable methods.

Stage 2 – Decision is on Cardano community members:

Possible risk 1:

To accept paper into the next phase of stage 2 is key stakeholders voting (see Feasibility for key stakeholder selection details). How does the DRST team ensure the number collected from Project Catalyst’s Telegram or Discord is genuine and acceptable by the reward requestor regardless result greater or equal to 51% or less than 50%?

Risk mitigation 1:

Every paper will be provided space of 3 days with the details and list it in Project Catalyst’s Telegram or Discord for three days; if the result full between 51 and 50, there is an extra 24 hours for the community to read and vote to avoid the marginal sitting point.

Possible risk 2:

How do avoid conflict of interest or a mal activity arise from any part of the key stakeholders’ process in voting and comments for each proposal?

Risk mitigation 2:

The web platform/system will have the mechanism to protect the key stakeholders’ actual comments. See Tables 2 and 3 from Flowchart 1. The key stakeholder names will displace in one of the columns. However, every time whoever visits the page to check the comments, the comments order will be randomly rearranged. The purpose of this is in case the stakeholder gives a low percentage of the Cardano ecosystem’s impact for a particular paper and lower reward as a result. So, the main author may have a negative view of the key stakeholder. Therefore, this would protect the stakeholder to some degree and encourage the key stakeholders to provide an independent thought and expression.

See the details of selecting key stakeholders and communicating with them in Feasibility.

Possible risk 3:

Why do DRST proposer and team members have no role in Stage 2 voting?

Risk mitigation 3:

To ensure that treasury operation spells out any conflict of interest from the beginning, and to maximise decentralisation and community-focused and decide how to use the treasury from Stage 2.

Stage 3 – Proposer’s admin/marketing/due diligent tasks:

Possible risk 1:

How to ensure the proposer will pay for the accepted paper after votes are completed in Stage 2 and the invited key stakeholders?

Risk mitigation 1:

Apart from the initial fund after onboarding the project for the proposer to deliver the web platform to the functional stage, there is NO fund that will be released to the proposer unless Stages 1 and 2 from Flowchart 1 are completed every single paper. In any circle month that needs to report to IOG, if there is no paper submit and go through state one state to there is no report. See details in Audibility for further information.

Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

How long decentralized reward scheme treasury (DRST) go on?

The process of writing and publishing a peer-reviewed paper is not an overnight task. It does not depend on the proposer pushing or intervening with the intended writer. It is entirely up to academics, students, or anyone wishing to write and publish papers related to Cardano ecosystem topics. Once it is published and available for public access, they can go to start with stage 1 for this DRST per Flowchart 1.

There is a clear difference between this proposal from regular proposals.

After the initial fund releases, the proposer will build the web platform for the published paper to submit the information and go through Stages 1 and 2. There are no ongoing tasks that the proposer can claim if there is no paper submitted and completed in both voting stages. The remaining fund will stay with IOG. For that reason, if more papers are submitted and approved by the Cardano community, the fund will release quicker, and the project will be closed sooner. Therefore, DRST has no estimated closing date.

So, after the initial fund is released, the proposer has no more incentive. How does the web system be maintained and all other communications back and forth from the paper published reward requester to key stakeholders or to the Cardano community for voting be carried out sufficiently? See the budget breakdown for the possible answer.

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Pre-stage 1: Building web portal or system budget includes: US$10,000

· New domain name with .io and hosting with AWS for better security and moderate cost for the long run.

· The web system comprises the encrypted database features.

· Basis algorithm can randomise the comment. Only key stakeholder knows which comment belongs to them, and the rest would not be able to trace or map. Include the web system implementer and the proposer.

· The feature of selecting and inviting key stakeholders into the system and following up on most administration tasks.

· All the above services will be available 24/7 and project for 18 months, hosting

· The pre-stage fund covers the marketing awareness task of contacting up to 100 Universities and higher education providers around the globe by email that has blockchain courses and research topics focused on cryptocurrency and the Carrano ecosystem related. The reward for their published paper if it is Cardano blockchain-related publications.

Stage 1, 2 and 3: Decentralized reward scheme treasury (DRST): US$100,000

Why is Q1 up to US$ 4000 or 500 but no other amount?

In the typical effort to compile a paper, whether it relates to the Cardano ecosystem or not, the author(s) would need to spend months, not weeks, to test the experiment, project the research methodologies or empirical experiments for peer-reviewed publication. The duration of publishing a paper in low or non-fee publishers can take up to 18 months for the paper to be reviewed and accepted by professional and expert bodies in some topic areas.

With cryptography, algorithms, blockchain and related fields, especially like Cardinal ecosystem. Suppose a manuscript submits for review and takes more than a year. In that case, the data and information collected in those papers may not be relevant or even obsolete when they become available in the public domain.

Therefore, the amount of $500 to $4000 is above average for an open-access journal and conference publications [8] [9] and should consider the reward from the DRST is an encouragement and possible support a portion of publication fee for the writers rather actual write to earn approach.

Why propose five key stakeholders a journal and three for conference paper voting?

As mentioned above that, writing and publishing a journal in a high-ranking peer-reviewed publisher is a month-to-month job with a lot of effort and concentration. Once the paper is accepted and published, that is a well-done job for any academic or researcher writer.

If the published paper contains a Cardano ecosystem topic, we should carefully revise and incentivise the author right. To recognise their effort fairly and professionally, the number of Cardano ecosystem industries key stakeholders who exercise their voting right along with a short comment for each requested paper. Thus, due to the length and body knowledge of the journal paper, five Cardano key stakeholders voting for the journal and three for the conference are proposed to provide fairness and transparency outcomes. Tables 2 and 3 as sample result calculation.

What is the incentive amount for the DRST team members for ongoing administration after pre-Stage and key stakeholders?

Time constraints for key stakeholders are reading published papers due to the volume of the pages number of journals and the difficulty. Thus, DRST wish to offer an incentive of $100 per short comment as symbolic value and application for caring Cardano ecosystem

Fact: How feasible to invite some Cardano blockchain key stakeholders such as Ray Network, SundaeSwap, Meld, or Minswap etc.. technology/architecture chief or similar to comment on liquidity provider (LP) related papers and return your request in 7 days in the pre-defined web fill-in page?

For each Stage 2 completed paper, 10% of the result will be paid to the DRST administration team as encouragement.

In conclusion, the sample cost of a completed journal or conference will cost the treasury, as shown in Table 5.

Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

The proposer has been an Australia-based computer network and security consultant since 1997 and turned into an academic in 2004 and delivered on cyber security, cloud computing, digital forensics and intro to the blockchain courses and topic areas. Co-host of Eastern Hemisphere Townhall. Challenge team member of Fund7 - Disarm Cyber Disinformation Attacks, Team Lead for both Fund8 and 9 for Grow East Asia, Grow Cardano challenges. The proposer is currently assisting in running Eastern Catalyst School, a Fund8 funded proposal, in curriculum design and taking charge of delivery.

Any questions, comments, feedback, or support can be reached by Telegram: @Elpidanang and Discord: LinhCrypt#5099 and live Zoom in bi-weekly Eastern Hemisphere Townhall meetings.

Will the proposer solely deliver the project if funded in an entire timeline?

Quicker answer: NO

First of all, it is inevitable to collaborate with a web developer to work on web building and the system design, which the proposer is keen to look after.

For Stages 2 and 3, template creation and other decentralisation voting terms and information sheets for key stakeholders would need support from other community members to reduce the workload and to live the project as practical as possible.

What are the criteria to invite and select a Cardano key stakeholder?

Simple criteria that any CEO, CTO, or technology chiefs that their product listed in CardanoCube [10] and have a similar background in the content of the intended review paper will be considered as Cardano blockchain industry key stakeholders and invite to review the paper if they have spare time.

If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Yes, wishing to build further educational services to serve Project Catalyst and Cardano ecosystem communities.

Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

There are two key auditable for decentralized reward scheme treasury (DRST):

Key auditable one:

Pre-stage 1: up to 3 months

1) The web platform will be up, tested, security auditing and serve

a. Cardano ecosystem published reward registration functional

Audit: available on the website for anyone can access

b. System in place where requester needs a minimal effort to check their reward progressing without email direct to DRST team to ask.

Audit: available on the website for anyone can access

c. A set of templates and how-to procedures in place that other DRST team members can carry out to assist in Stages 2 and 3 with minimal support from the main proposer.

Audit: available on the website for anyone can access

d. A complete guide to invite Cardano key stakeholders for the DRST team and for an information sheet for key stakeholders to read and willing to provide their comments.

Audit: available on the website for anyone can access

2) Summary of degree, course, and research topic areas of up to 100 Universities and higher education providers around the globe. This info will be listed on to be a Web platform with full support evidence.

Audit: available on the website for anyone can access

Key auditable two:

Stage 1, 2 and 3: When pre-stage 1 is completed, an author submits their information to request the reward in stage 1 and proceeds onto stages 2 and 3. As mentioned in impact and feasibility, the remaining fund will stay with IOG until anyone submits a paper, and go through stage 2 and 3 voting. The result would be reported to IOG to release funds per feasibility and Flowchart 1. All information reward requester and relevant papers will be available on the web-based platform for validation and audit.

What does success for this project look like?

1) When using a public searching engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo etc., to search for Search “Cardano ecosystem” or “Cardano blockchain”. A reliable source from well-known publishers would appear more frequently than it is now, and this would be similar to the subscribed private searching engines used by universities, higher education providers, government agencies or research firms.

2) The integration and adoption of Cardano blockchain content would blend further into the course and curriculum design than it is now.

These two successful keys would be excellent outcomes for the decentralization voting module and simple funding for the $110,000 treasury requested fund.

Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is new proposal.

References:

[1] "IOHK | Library." INPUT | OUTPUT. <https://iohk.io/en/research/library/> (accessed 10 Jun, 2022).

[2] "SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)." National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. <https://www.nitt.edu/home/rc/q1journals/> (accessed 20 Jun, 2022).

[3] "International Association for Cryptologic Research." International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR). <https://iacr.org/> (accessed 20 Jun, 2022).

[4] B. Ramamurthy, Blockchain in action, 1st edition ed. Shelter Island, New York: Manning Publications, 2020.

[5] A. Kiayias, A. Russell, B. David, and R. Oliynykov, "Ouroboros: A Provably Secure Proof-of-Stake Blockchain Protocol," in Advances in Cryptology – CRYPTO 2017, Cham, J. Katz and H. Shacham, Eds., 2017// 2017: Springer International Publishing, pp. 357-388.

[6] "IOHK Research." INPUT | OUTPUT. <https://iohk.io/en/research/> (accessed 10 Jun, 2022).

[7] "What is the cardano roadmap?" Cardano. <https://roadmap.cardano.org/en/> (accessed 20 Jun, 2022).

[8] "IEEE Article Processing Charges." IEEE. <https://open.ieee.org/for-authors/article-processing-charges/> (accessed 20 Jun, 2022).

[9] "Article Publishing Charges (APCs)." Elsevier. <https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/pricing> (accessed 20 Jun, 2022).

[10] "Cardano ecosystem interactive map." CardanoCube. <https://www.cardanocube.io/cardano-ecosystem-interactive-map> (accessed 27 Jun, 2022).