Please describe your proposed solution.

RESEARCH OUTLINE

Cardano has valued academic rigor and community participation since its inception, and this tradition continues with the “Cardano Open: Ecosystem” campaign question: ‘What research and development is required to advance the state of the art of the Catalyst Voting System?’'

RESEARCH SOLUTION

Our proposed solution, the Blockchain Governance Report, aims to address the complex challenges of collective decision-making within the context of Project Catalyst, and abroad. The theory and mechanics of voting draws from various research fields such as voter and social choice theory, game theory, political sciences, mathematics, law, economics, ethics, and governance. Our experienced research team will conduct a comprehensive review of current governance and voting systems across fields, including blockchain communities, organisations, societies and national governments. The objective is to identify novel approaches and provide recommendations for advancing the state of the art of the Catalyst Voting System.

RESEARCH PURPOSE

The “System Improvements (Discovery)” campaign provides researchers and developers from within the Project Catalyst Team and broader community an opportunity to propose solutions to the question of voter system advancement. The purpose of this community-driven study will be to identify and distil best practices across decision-making domains, and to propose solutions that support integration with current voting system development within Project Catalyst. These findings can then be leveraged by researchers and builders to develop future blockchain research, proposals and implementations in voting system development. This research will be enhanced by its alignment with the following campaign goals:

• Produce Detailed Studies: ‘Detailed studies of a Catalyst-specific subject, especially in order to discover (new) information or reach a (new) understanding for the benefit of servicing the broader innovation community building on Cardano’
• Catalyst-specific Research: ‘Research that clearly defines a known Catalyst-specific problem-space where the intention is to identify facts and/or clearly stated opinions that will likely assist in producing novel, Catalyst-specific technical requirements’
• Voting-System Research: ‘Architectural design research for engineering of decentralization and/or distribution of decision-making advances for the Catalyst Voting System’

PROJECT OUTLINE

This study will be based on the following outline:

PROJECT START (March/Q1 2024)

• Project Commencement
• Team onboarding

MILESTONE 1 (REQUIRED): PROJECT PLANNING (10% of time budget/4 weeks)

• Project Plan (comprehensive)
• Planning: A concept map of key solutions, gaps and opportunities found in the literature
• Planning: An identification of key documents, platforms and researchers invested in solving voting system issues

MILESTONE 2-4 (REQUIRED): LITERATURE REVIEW (30% of time budget/12 weeks)

• Literature Review: Document collation, Interviews (if required)
• A review of Challenges, Solutions and Future Applications across the following environments:
• Review Stage 1: Industry
• Review Stage 2: Academic
• Review Stage 3: Government

MILESTONE 5 (REQUIRED): NICHE OVERVIEWS (SNAPSHOTS) (5% of time budget/2 weeks)

• Niche overviews include brief research focus and insights in the following areas:
• An overview of governmental/social voting systems (human consensus)
• Automated (machine consensus) voting system development incl. hybrid approaches, DAO Mechanics
• Theoretical considerations across academic fields: Voting Systems overview across fields (political and computer sciences, mathematics, law, economics, ethics and governance), voter and social choice theory, game theory

MILESTONE 6: CATALYST EVALUATION (15% of time budget/6 weeks)

• Catalyst Evaluation (interviews): an evaluation of Project Catalyst voting implementations to date
• An evaluation to outline current voting system issues and solutions within Project Catalyst (including interviews)

MILESTONE 7: ANALYSIS (15% of time budget/6 weeks)

• Literature Analysis
• Overview Analysis
• Evaluation Analysis
• Synthesis of findings

MILESTONE 8: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS (5% of time budget/2 weeks)

• An exploration of key considerations and findings
• A list of recommendations drawn from the analysis
• Final recommendations for Voting System advancements

MILESTONE 9: DRAFTING (15% of time budget/6 weeks)

• Draft Report v1: Editing / Review

MILESTONE 10: FINALISATION (5% of time budget/2 weeks)

• Final proofing/citations
• Final Report.pdf
• Dissemination

MILESTONE 11 (FINAL): PROJECT COMPLETION (Dec/Q4 2024)

• Project Close-out report
• Project Completion

RESEARCH DISSEMINATION

In the event that this project is funded, the final report including a list of recommendations drawn from the overall findings, will be disseminated publicly so that the Project Catalyst team and community can initiate actions immediately, or use the findings to support or merge future Catalyst funding proposals. The report will be minted as an NFT on the Cardano blockchain, and promoted and disseminated via social channels (see project links).

PROJECT CATALYST TEAM – COLLABORATION

This project aims to integrate and align with the Project Catalyst Team’s ongoing (F10) proposals in the areas of Catalyst Voices and the Catalyst Ecosystem Accelerator; and recent (F11) proposals for Working Groups Research and Scoping Analysis, and Alternative Catalyst Voting Schemes. However, with the Project Catalyst Teams understandable expertise in the area of its own platform, it is highly unlikely that “Catalyst System Improvements” proposals will be competitive enough to generate funded initiatives outside of the Project Catalyst Team itself. As such, this proposal and project team are offered as a further resource for the Project Catalyst Team, in the area of its present or future system improvement research.

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

IMPACT FOR CARDANO

The Blockchain Governance Report aims to significantly enhance the understanding and implementation of robust governance mechanisms and optimal voting system approaches for the wider Cardano community. This work will build upon the wealth of effort already shared by the Catalyst Team (through their Fund 10 Catalyst Voices and Ecosystem Accelerator projects), funded Catalyst community implementations, as well as research and practices across fields of academia and industry. The success of our project will bring value to the Cardano community by providing comprehensive insights into voting systems, fostering more informed decision-making processes, and strengthening the overall governance framework.

MEASURING IMPACT

The measure of this projects impact will be determined quantitatively, through the number of report reads, shares and citations accessed by research databases (such as ResearchGate). These metrics can be captured through academic and social channels, particularly targeting engagement with the wider academic and enterprise network. Qualitatively, impacts are also measured by the quality of collaborative input the RG team has with the Project Catalyst community, particularly the Catalyst Team. These impacts may be captured through engagement metrics, including online or meeting engagements, leading to info-sharing, problem-solving or implementation discussions.

PROJECT AIM

The overall aim of the project is to provide unique research and development insights that can enhance Catalyst Voting system development, and the contribution of this system to decentralised governance.

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?

CAPABILITY

The Research Guild is part of the Project Catalyst F8 funded cohort, having two research projects funded and delivered in the areas of Cross-Chain Collaboration and Blockchain Scalability solutions. We were able to complete these projects through the experience of our team members, which included independent researchers and PhD candidates studying blockchain applications in land management, intellectual property, peer production and data analysis; a PhD in Law and International Relations; and team expertise in research, project management, community development, governance, teaching, license compliance and auditing. These projects were completed by adhering to internal systems of documentation and accountability, as well as being guided by Project Catalyst’s emergent reporting processes.

Our teams track record of academic and professional achievements in the above areas, as well as project completion and familiarity in the Project Catalyst environment, have helped to position the Research Guild as a community-based research leader. We believe it is important to capture community voices in the tech sector, as well as those of industry, academia and government. We are grateful to be part of an exciting and thriving community of entrepreneurs, developers, community managers, explorers and visionaries working in the space.

PRIOR WORK

You can view our completed projects here:

Final Reports: <https://pool.pm/$research.guild/>

RG001 Close-Out Video:

<https://youtu.be/uYvaYa508Rk>RG002 Close-Out Video:

<https://youtu.be/tdbYpJjrpAk>VALIDATION

Our approach is simple – we offer customised research reports for Catalyst campaigns. However, like software development, it takes grunt work. To achieve this work in a scalable way, we have formed the Research Guild as a collective of independent researchers investigating blockchain solutions on Cardano. Our broader vision is to build a global research network that draws independent researchers to Cardano, increases adoption as well as knowledge capital for DLT enterprise development.

Our validation process rests on the track record of our projects, the capabilities of our contributors, and the replicable nature of the research process. Since research processes are fairly predictable in their structure and approach, we are able to apply and replicate our research offering to a diverse range of campaigns and proposals within Project Catalyst – essentially tailoring projects to meet campaign and community need.

Through rigorous collation, analysis and synthesis, the end goal of the research process is to distil valuable insights from a wealth of data, insights that others may have missed and that may contribute to new opportunities and innovations. For us, this begins with identifying key needs and opportunities in the area of research and development, aligning with areas of team interest and expertise, and shaping proposals (timeframes and deliverables) in relation to past experience and future availability.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Finally, in terms of fund management, the total funds distributed to the Research Guild to date for project salaries, administration and completion equates to US$168,738 or ₳410,000. The processes we use to manage these funds are visible in the RG Payment Pathway document:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t_W_7428QuP3WaslxitsRAnnVK1kFYua/view?usp=sharing

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

Milestone: Project Planning

Output: Project Plan completion

Criteria: Clarifying research methodologies, repositories/databases per literature review stage, document collation targets, team role allocations, communications and accountability processes, project questions and goals, timeframes and reporting.

>Milestone: Literature Review (Stage 1) – Industry Overview

Output: Successful document collation, summarisation and snapshot of Industry approaches to voting systems and governance

Criteria: Achieving stage targets for document collation, summary tabling, summarisation and snapshot documentation (1-3 pager) for this milestone.

>Milestone: Literature Review (Stage 2) – Academic Overview

Output: Successful document collation, summarisation and snapshot of Academic approaches to voting systems and governance

Criteria: Achieving stage targets for document collation, summary tabling, summarisation and snapshot documentation (1-3 pager) for this milestone.

>Milestone: Literature Review (Stage 3) – Government Overview

Output: Successful document collation, summarisation and snapshot of Government approaches to voting systems and governance

Criteria: Achieving stage targets for document collation, summary tabling, summarisation and snapshot documentation (1-3 pager) for this milestone.

>Milestone: Niche Overviews (Snapshots)

Output: Successful document collation, summarisation and snapshot of Niche approaches to voting systems and governance

Criteria: Achieving stage targets for document collation, summary tabling, summarisation and snapshot documentation (1-3 pager) for this milestone.

>Milestone: Project close-out

Output: Project close-out report and Report video completion

Criteria: That the project close-out report and video link are forwarded to the Project Catalyst Team to confirm completion

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

Research Guild: Troy Egan

Research Lead, Project Manager, PhD Candidate (2019-Current)

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/troyegan/>

Troy is a PhD candidate at The University of Auckland in New Zealand, studying peer production strategies within the transmedia industry. He has a Masters in Cultural Leadership from the University of New South Wales, Sydney; as well as 20 years’ experience in the creative, health and community development sectors in New Zealand and Australia. Troy supports the Research Guild’s project management, research and reporting contributions.

Research Guild: Zubeka Dang

Research Assistant, Bachelor of International Economics and Trade, Data Science Student (2021 – Current) <https://www.linkedin.com/in/zubeka-dang-95193a2b/>

Zubeka has worked in many areas such as trading, technology and linguistics. Her broad areas of interest have fuelled her passion for data analysis. She earned her Bachelor of International Economics and Trade from Renmin University of China and is currently enrolled in a Bachelor of Data Science and Analytics at Seneca College, Toronto, Canada. Zubeka supports the Research Guild’s research and reporting contributions.

Research Guild: Eva Gentner

Independent Researcher, Masters of History of Art and Visual Culture, University of Oxford, England <https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-gentner-a46413140/>

With an interdisciplinary background in art, architecture, philology and technology, Eva is interested in universal concepts, mutual influences and the intersections between disciplines. Eva holds a Master of Studies in History of Art and Visual Culture from Oxford University, England. She completed a dissertation investigating the role of NFT’s and blockchain art as an emergent artistic and democratic medium, and she organised the Project Catalyst-funded OxBAT – Oxford Blockchain, Art and Technology – Conference (26-28 Sept. 2022). Eva supports the Research Guild’s research and reporting contributions.

Research Guild: Research Contributors

The Research Guild is a collective of independent researchers investigating blockchain solutions on Cardano. We are a professional research network within Project Catalyst that aims to support initiatives at all levels by forming problem-solving scrums around key issues. Past contributors have included Masters and Doctoral researchers in the fields of blockchain applications, law, international relations, land management, information systems, the arts and enterprise.

Invitations for graduate and professional researchers to join the Guild are open: <https://forms.office.com/r/T3fmuMv79g>

Sév | Independent Researcher, Compliance / IP Auditing, PhD Candidate (2021-Current)

Sév has a professional background in license compliance and intellectual property auditing in the software industry, both open source and proprietary. He started his PhD with The University of Osnabrück in Germany, focusing on the impact of distributed ledger technology for the management of the intellectual property life cycle. Sév has research interests in NFT’s, DAO’s and has contributed to governance building within several Catalyst projects. Sév supports the RG project.

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

PROJECT COSTS – SALARY BASE RATE

The core cost for Research Guild projects goes toward researcher salary and wages. We have determined a base hourly rate for researchers, based on the average of five online career surveys. We have selected surveys from the US, Canada, New Zealand, England and Germany. USD is the native currency for Project Catalyst recipients, while Canada, New Zealand and Europe are where our research team resides. These rates will not include specialist rates which take into consideration education level, skills or experience, which have been factored into previous funded proposals.

• Indeed.com (US) = US$80,114

<https://www.indeed.com/career/researcher/salaries>

• Talent.com (CA) = CA$91,150 (or US$67,110)

<https://au.indeed.com/career/researcher/salaries>

• Payscale.com (DE) = €60,031 (or USD $66,033)

https://www.payscale.com/research/DE/Job=Research_Scientist/Salary

• Salaryexpert.com (NZ) = NZ$102,656 (or US$63,583)

<https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/researcher/new-zealand>

• Reed.co.uk (UK) = £50,483 (or US$63,999)

<https://www.reed.co.uk/average-salary/average-researcher-salary>

• Average Researcher salary across RG contributor countries = US$68,167.80

The base rate for this project will be:

• US$68,167.80 per annum (₳176,144)
• US$1,420.16 per week @ 48 weeks
• US$35.50 per hour @ 40 hours

The budget requirement for the Blockchain Governance Report is as follows:

PROJECT COSTS - RESEARCH TEAM SALARY

RESEARCHER (ASSISTANT) (x1 @ 15 hours per week)

• @ US$35.50 per hour
• @ 15 hours per week = $532.50
• @ 52 weeks = $27,690
• Sub-Total = US$27,690 (₳71,550)

RESEARCHERS (x2 @ 20 hours per week)

• @ US$35.50 per hour
• @ 20 hours per week = $710 x 2 = $1,420
• @ 52 weeks = $36,920 x 2 = $73,840
• Sub-Total = US$73,840 (₳190,801)

PROJECT MANAGEMENT (x1 @ 20 hours per week)

• @ US$42.64 per hour (project manager rate)
• @ 15 hours per week = $639.60
• @ 52 weeks = $33,259
• Sub-Total = US$33,259 (₳85,941)

PROJECT COSTS - ADMINISTRATION

• LINKED IN SALES NAVIGATOR

https://www.findymail.com/blog/linkedin-sales-navigator-pricing/

$149.99/month

US$1,300/year ($108.33/month) (₳3,360)

• GOOGLE BUSINESS EMAIL

https://workspace.google.com/intl/en_nz/business/new-business/

$9 per user per month/$108

$108 x 4 = US$432 (₳1,116)

• ACCOUNTING

US$1,500 (₳3,876)

• MARKETING/PUBLICITY

US$1,000 (₳2,584)

• LEGAL FEES

US$408 (₳1,054)

• ACADEMIC JOURNAL SUBSCRIPTIONS

US$308 (₳796)

• SUB-TOTAL = US$4,948 (₳12,785)

TOTAL = US$139,737 (₳361,078)

(Note: The USD to ADA rate is $0.387 at the time of writing. NZ Tax has been factored into costings)

PROJECT COSTS - BUDGET PER PROJECT STAGE

PROJECT START

• Timeframe: March 2024 (Q1)

MILESTONE 1 (REQUIRED): PROJECT PLANNING

• 15% of Financial Budget: ₳54,162
• 10% of Time Budget: 5 weeks
• Timeframe: April 7 2024 (Q2)

MILESTONE 2 (REQUIRED): LITERATURE REVIEWS (Industry)

• 20% of Financial Budget: ₳72,216
• 10% of Time Budget: 5 weeks
• Timeframe: May 14 2024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 3 (REQUIRED): LITERATURE REVIEWS (Academic)

• 20% of Financial Budget: ₳72,216
• 10% of Time Budget: 5 weeks
• Timeframe: June 21 2024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 4 (REQUIRED): LITERATURE REVIEWS (Government)

• 20% of Financial Budget: ₳72,216
• 10% of Time Budget: 5 weeks
• Timeframe: July 7 2024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 5 (REQUIRED): NICHE OVERVIEWS (Emergent & Convergent Fields)

• 10% of Financial Budget: ₳36,108
• 5% of Time Budget: 3 weeks
• Timeframe: July 28 2024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 6: CATALYST EVALUATION

• 15% of Time Budget: 8 weeks
• Timeframe: September 21 2024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 7: ANALYSIS

• 15% of Time Budget: 8 weeks
• Timeframe: November 15 2024 (Q4)

MILESTONE 8: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

• 5% of Time Budget: 3 weeks
• Timeframe: December 7 2024 (Q4)

MILESTONE 9: DRAFTING

• 15% of Time Budget: 8 weeks
• Timeframe: January 31 2025 (Q1)

MILESTONE 10: FINALISATION

• 5% of Time Budget: 2 weeks
• Timeframe: February 15 2025 (Q1)

MILESTONE 11 (FINAL): PROJECT COMPLETION

• 15% of Financial Budget: ₳54,162
• 100% of Time Budget: 12 months
• Timeframe: March 2025 (Q1)

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

VALUE FOR MONEY

This project will seek to fund 3 PTE researchers and 1 Project Manager/Research Lead over the course of a year, at an average rate of salary (as outlined in our Cost Breakdown section). Each team member, with experience in blockchain research within the Catalyst framework, will be assigned to a specialist reporting outcome for the project, requiring comprehensive data identification and collation, documentation, summarisation, distillation, analysis and drafting. Along with additional project management costs, this project will achieve campaign outcomes at lower cost than other specialist researchers working in government and industry, and in less time than a study of this nature might warrant. As the Catalyst System Improvements (Discovery) campaign has been allocated ₳1,500,000 (3% of the total ₳50,000,000 available), for the express purpose of researching and advancing the Catalyst Voting System, we believe that our team can achieve this outcome with less than 25% of the full funding amount, less hours and at an average cost (lower than a project of this nature warrants). The extra funding can then provide opportunities for other community members to explore more individualised solutions.

RESEARCH EXPERTISE

Open-sourcing and community collaboration are values held highly by the community, which ensure open and accessible info-sharing to support ecosystem growth and optimization. This is an environment our team are familiar with, having completed Catalyst-funded research in the areas of Cross-Chain Collaboration and Blockchain Scalability. A comprehensive Blockchain Governance report that includes evaluations of voting systems and consensus within on and off-chain domains, as well as within Project Catalyst to date, fits directly into our area of scope. Within the "Catalyst System Improvements (Discovery)" campaign, our experienced research team will ‘explore new strategic requirements’ for Catalyst ‘by following a data-driven approach to design and testing that benefits Project Catalyst.’ This is achieved through our customised and replicable research approach, which tailors’ solutions to campaign questions, for the purpose of achieving campaign insights and outcomes within timeframes. It is also achieved through our research and project management experience across fields (see Capability section). We are confident we will successfully deliver this project and its outcomes to the Catalyst community, having done so twice before.

SCALE & SUPPORT

Some industry or government-funded longitudinal studies tackle comprehensive research topics that can take 2-5 years to complete, and that are presented as proprietary information, that is sold to help industry clients gain competitive advantage. However, Project Catalyst is situated in a rapidly growing tech industry that requires information sooner rather than later. This is evidenced in the 12-month time-cap on projects in Fund 11, which helps to focus short-term project outcomes and delivery, while trading-off on longitudinal research or initiatives that require longer time horizons. Such initiatives are dependent on contestable stage funding. One solution to this is the Catalyst System Improvements campaign, which increases the funding cap for proposers. However, this fund is driven by the Project Catalyst Team, which pursues a clear platform development pathway in a collaborative setting. As the Project Catalyst Team are likely to receive the bulk of funding in this campaign for the foreseeable future, the Research Guild will offer itself as a research support and collaborator in the area of Cardano Systems Improvements.