Please describe your proposed solution

Orcfax will collect Xerberus risk scores from its centralized API. The signed payload will be verified against the Xerberus public key and notarized by Orcfax for publication on-chain in a new in-line datum type which will enable Cardano users to reference them on-chain.

The proposal, and its deliverables, can be further broken down as follows:

1. Orcfax nodes will execute off-chain collection of Xerberus API data
2. Orcfax nodes will execute verification of Xerberus signature against its public key.
3. Orcfax will aggregate the collection data and public key information into new Orcfax message objects
4. Orcfax will create a Xerberus risk-rating archival package for verification of published data.
5. Orcfax will create a new datum body for use in Orcfax publishing transactions.
6. Orcfax will publish Xerberus risk scores as UTxO as part of Orcfax’s publication processes.
7. Orcfax will create the ability to request specific risk scores for specific Cardano Native-tokens (CNTs).
8. The Orcfax Explorer will Integrate Xerberus risk rating data as a new feed type and visualization in the Orcfax explorer dashboard
9. The Orcfax Explorer will provide the ability to navigate back to the Xerberus risk explorer.

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

The Cardano ecosystem is desperate for viable oracle service providers. In the absence of trustworthy, audited oracle providers we lag behind other Layer 1 blockchains in DeFi adoption and expansion. Orcfax has become a key player in the Cardano oracle landscape.

The risk ratings provided by Xerberus are a critical resource for Cardano users that allow them to assess their risks in real-time. By surfacing this data and visualizing it next to orcfax CNT and CEX feeds, Orcfax will provide the Cardano community with an efficient and streamlined way to

Review all data pertinent to their business needs.

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?

For more than two years the Orcfax team has researched and developed a comprehensive solution to the oracle problem for Cardano-native dApps and smart contracts. We have developed an open oracle publishing protocol and have been using it to publish an ADA/USD price feed to Cardano Mainnet since Q1 of 2024, and many others (including CNT feeds) since the Q3 of 2024.

We have an active Discord and Twitter community where our ideas, requirements and deployment progress are scrutinized and debated. We participate widely in conferences such as Cardano Summit and Rare Evo; we also frequently take part in live events and interviews in order to raise awareness about our mission and product offering.

We expect to discuss and share the findings and deliverables of this project in the same community-driven way to ensure trust and accountability.

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

Milestone 1: Milestone 1

a. Output: Design of a Xerberus risk feed package type for verification of Orcfax publications.

b. Criteria: A risk feed package specification is written and made available.

c. Evidence: Specification will appear in the Orcfax documentation for the Xerberus risk feed package type.

Milestone 2: Milestone 2

a. Output: Output of a conformant risk feed package from Orcfax tooling.

b. Criteria: Orcfax tooling can aggregate risk data and output a package conformant with its specification.

c. Evidence: Generated output will be made available on the Orcfax fact-statement repository.

Milestone 3: Milestone 3

a. Output: Scale feed aggregation to preview.

b. Criteria: Orcfax can scale collection of risk data and package output to publish at regular intervals on preview.

c. Evidence: Risk status will be published on preview at a rate of approximately one update per day per token.

Milestone 4: Milestone 4

a. Output: Integration with Orcfax explorer

b. Criteria: The Orcfax explorer can display the risk-feed type and other associated visualizations. It is linked back to the Xerberus risk explorer.

c. Evidence: Users can access risk scores for Preview on the Orcfax explorer.

Milestone 5: Milestone 5

a. Output: Transition to mainnet.

b. Criteria: Orcfax transitions Xerberus risk feed to mainnet and launches a series of showcase feeds for a given set of tokens.

c. Evidence: Risk scores are visible on the mainnet explorer and available for integration with mainnet plutus scripts as reference inputs.

Final Milestone: Final Milestone

a. Outputs: PDF report and MP4 video.

b. Criteria: close-out report and video accepted by Project Catalyst.

c. Evidence: Close-out report shared on Github. Close-out video shared on YouTube.

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

Project lead & System Analyst: Christian Koch

Christian is an analyst, researcher and information systems professional who holds a Masters Degree in Archival Science with a focus on blockchain technology. Christian serves as the primary liaison between the development team, Orcfax clients and our community management team.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-mk/>

Lead developer: Ross Spencer

Ross is Orcfax’s senior systems architect and leads the development and implementation of the Orcfax architecture infrastructure. Ross has over two decades experience developing and maintaining open-source digital preservation software that is in use at major memory institutions worldwide.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-spencer-b6b9b758/>

DApp developer: Dominic ‘waalge’ Wallis

Former Math PhD, ML/NLP engineer, and full stack dev, waalge has been developing dApps on Cardano since the Alonzo HF.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-algernon-wallis-123b42187>

Frontend Developer: Gabriel Chartier

Gabriel is the Orcfax teams’ front-end web developer and leads our Explorer development efforts. Gabriel has significant industry expertise and focusses on projects that improve upon the liberation, accessibility and decentralization of information and knowledge.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-chartier/>

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

To accommodate for the fluctuation in ADA price, which creates a conversion risk and a potential budget shortfall, we established a budget base price of $0.25 ADA for calculating our expenses.

We will employ 3 software engineers at part time ($100/hr = 400 ADA/hr) and 1 system analyst at part time ($75/hr = 300 ADA/hr) to complete this work over a six month period. The systems analyst role includes requirements analysis, documentation, user acceptance testing, reporting and community management.

M1. 12d == 84

M2. 20d == 140

M3. 40d == 280

M4. 20d == 140

M5. 20d == 140

M6. 6d == 43 hrs

Contingency (10% avg task size) = 83

Total hours: 827 + 83 = 910

Total budget: 910 x 375₳ (avg cost) = 341,250

Orcfax will work with Xerberus towards the completion of this proposal.

Authentication will require cooperation between Orcfax and Xerberus as an appropriate signature scheme will need to be established. This will enable Orcfax, and downstream users, to verify the authenticity of the Xerberus risk rating data collected and published by Orcfax.

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The integration of Xerberus risk ratings into the Orcfax Explorer feeds will provide critical information to users relating to their assets which will provide them the ability remain informed.

Without development like this, the Cardano infrastructure will continue to lag behind other Layer 1 blockchains in its oracle infrastructure and maturity. The Orcfax project has delivered its CEX and CNT data feeds on Cardano mainnet in mid-2024 as promised. We have implemented a unique approach to data provenance verification and have introduced the most cost-effective model for publishing oracle data in Cardano’s eUTXO model. Our team continues to prove itself as an ambitious and responsible Cardano development shop.