Please describe your proposed solution.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Cardano has valued academic rigor and community participation since its inception, and this tradition continues with the “Cardano Open: Ecosystem” campaign question: ‘What open source tooling is needed to enable the Cardano developer ecosystem to thrive?’

RESEARCH SOLUTION

The proposed project, Cardano AI Tools and Applications Review, aims to investigate opportunities for the development and implementation of open-source AI tools and applications for the Cardano blockchain. This project aligns with the goals of the "Cardano Open: Developers (technical)" category, focusing on contributing to and improving the Cardano developer experience by creating developer-friendly tools and approaches. The Research Guild will conduct a research review of open-source AI tools and applications, including a survey of relevant and emergent implementations, to explore their potential applications within the Cardano ecosystem.

RESEARCH PURPOSE

The purpose of this community-driven review will be to explore open-source solutions and opportunities around AI-for-Blockchain on Cardano that can be leveraged by researchers and builders to develop future blockchain research, proposals and implementations in AI-for-Blockchain development. This research will be enhanced by its alignment with the following campaign goals:

• Research for New Technology Development: Develop new technology or contribute to or support existing open-source technology
• Research for Open-Source Development: Proposals that are seeking to develop technology that is open-source rather than producing proprietary software or hardware.

PROJECT 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 investigating open source approaches to AI-for-blockchain integrations

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

• Niche overviews include brief research focus and insights in the following areas:
• Decentralized Identity Systems: Snapshot of AI applications in the development of decentralized identity solutions, considering privacy, security, and user control.
• AI-Enhanced Smart Contracts: Investigating the integration of artificial intelligence techniques to optimize the functionality and efficiency of smart contracts on blockchain platforms.
• Tokenomics and AI: Exploring the intersection of tokenomics and artificial intelligence, analyzing how AI can enhance token design, distribution, and economic models.
• AI-Powered Governance Models: Researching innovative governance models that leverage artificial intelligence to enhance decision-making processes within blockchain communities.

MILESTONE 6: AI PRODUCT TESTING (15% of time budget/6 weeks)

• AI Product Reviews: Product Identification and testing
• An evaluation of AI Product Reviews

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 AI-for-Blockchain on Cardano

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

• Draft Report: 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

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).

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

IMPACT ON CARDANO

The Cardano AI Tools and Applications Review will investigate the ways AI is being integrated with blockchain technologies as a means to enhance understandings and provide insights for the wider Cardano community. This work will build upon existing research and implementations within Cardano and the wider blockchain community, as well as research and practices across fields of academia and industry. As such, this project aims to bring significant value to the Cardano community by providing comprehensive insights into how open-source approaches to blockchain and AI integrations are currently being employed, and what kind of opportunities these explorations provide for developers, researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators in the space.

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 ultimate goal of this project is to support greater global adoption of democratised tools and services, as well as increase efficiencies in blockchain development, applications and adoption through open-sourced AI-assisted solutions.

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, research 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 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 open-source AI-for-blockchain applications.

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 open-source AI-for-blockchain applications.

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 open-source AI-for-blockchain applications.

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 a specialist rate 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 salary 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 Cardano AI Tools and Applications Review is as follows:

PROJECT COSTS - RESEARCH TEAM SALARY

RESEARCHER (ASSISTANT) (x1 @ 12 hours per week)

• @ US$35.50 per hour
• @ 12 hours per week = $426
• @ 40 weeks = $17,040
• Sub-Total = US$17,040 (₳44,031)

RESEARCHER (x1 @ 20 hours per week)

• @ US$35.50 per hour
• @ 20 hours per week = $710.00
• @ 40 weeks = $28,400
• Sub-Total = US$28,400 (₳73,385)

PROJECT MANAGEMENT (x1 @ 15 hours per week)

• @ US$42.64 per hour (project manager rate)
• @ 15 hours per week = $639.60
• @ 40 weeks = $25,584
• Sub-Total = US$25,584 (₳66,109)

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) x 2 = 2,600 (₳6,718)

• GOOGLE BUSINESS EMAIL

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

$9 per user per month/$108

$108 x 3 = US$324 (₳837)

• ACCOUNTING

US$1,500 (₳3,876)

• MARKETING/PUBLICITY

US$700 (₳1,809)

• LEGAL FEES

US$752 (₳1,943)

• SUBSCRIPTIONS

US$500 (₳1292)

• SUB-TOTAL = US$6,376 (₳16,475)

TOTAL = US$77,400 (₳200,000)

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

PROJECT COSTS - BUDGET (PER PROJECT STAGE)

PROJECT START

• Timeframe: March 2024 (Q1)

MILESTONE 1 (REQUIRED): PROJECT PLANNING

• 15% of Financial Budget: ₳30,000
• 10% of Time Budget: 4 weeks
• Timeframe: April 2024 (Q2)

MILESTONE 2 (REQUIRED): LITERATURE REVIEWS (Industry)

• 25% of Financial Budget: ₳50,000
• 10% of Time Budget: 5 weeks
• Timeframe: May 024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 3 (REQUIRED): LITERATURE REVIEWS (Academic)

• 25% of Financial Budget: ₳50,000
• 10% of Time Budget: 5 weeks
• Timeframe: June 2024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 4 (REQUIRED): LITERATURE REVIEWS (Government)

• 20% of Financial Budget: ₳40,000
• 10% of Time Budget: 5 weeks
• Timeframe: July 2024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 5: NICHE OVERVIEWS (Emergent & Convergent Fields)

• 5% of Time Budget: 2 weeks
• Timeframe: July 2024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 6: AI PRODUCT TESTING

• 15% of Time Budget: 6 weeks
• Timeframe: September 2024 (Q3)

MILESTONE 7: ANALYSIS

• 15% of Time Budget: 6 weeks
• Timeframe: October 2024 (Q4)

MILESTONE 8: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

• 5% of Time Budget: 2 weeks
• Timeframe: October 2024 (Q4)

MILESTONE 9: DRAFTING

• 15% of Time Budget: 6 weeks
• Timeframe: December 2024 (Q4)

MILESTONE 10: FINALISATION

• 5% of Time Budget: 2 weeks
• Timeframe: December 2024 (Q4)

MILESTONE 11 (FINAL): PROJECT COMPLETION

• 15% of Financial Budget: ₳30,000
• 100% of Time Budget: 10 months
• Timeframe: January 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 2 PTE researchers and 1 Project Manager/Research Lead over the course of 10 months, 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. In the “Cardano Open: Developers” campaign, our team will be asking for ₳200,000 (1.9% of the total ₳10,500,000 available), for the purpose of researching AI-for-Blockchain tooling to support the Cardano developer ecosystem. We believe that our team can achieve this outcome at a reasonable funding amount and timeframe, at an average cost.

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 review of Cardano AI Tools and Applications, including an exploration of existing open-source solutions on and off-Cardano, fits directly into our area of scope. Within the “Open Ecosystem: Developer” campaign, our experienced research team will study new technology development, open-source implementations and AI applications in the blockchain space, to gather insights for applications on Cardano. 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 campaign timelines. 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.

CROSS-CAMPAIGN ALIGNMENT

Finally, one strategic approach our projects can offer is to build research scope around more than one campaign outcome. We achieve this through our Project and Literature Review design, which will focus on various degrees of scope particular to a topic area. Along with this campaign, this project will also address cross-campaign goals found within the “Cardano Use Cases: Solution” category, particularly ‘Disruptive innovations for industrial use cases’ and ‘Blockchain research as it converges with other exponential technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine-to-machine, next generation distributed compute’(*) Since this research project does not generate a prototype as such, the review will scope the intersection between blockchain and AI to highlight key insights and opportunities for advancing open-source initiatives on Cardano between the two technologies. The project may also add value to AI implementations for the “Catalyst Systems Improvements: Discovery” campaign, potentially generating value across multiple campaigns.

(*) <https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/campaigns/407/about>