Hi guys. I am reviewing some of the research available on Cardano Founation (CF). I am doing this as I want to keep scrutinizing Cardano Foundation given the open letter of the community at www.guardiansofcardano.com and given the petition to have the leader of Cardano Foundation step down and reorganize CF. One of the concerns in the open letter is how little work Cardano Foundation has done for the Cardano ecosystem. So with that in mind I looked at currently 6 out of the 8 published papers and will review more every day. I highly recommend all of you to read the open letter from the community, consider the petition, and also read the open letter from IOHK and Emurgo that you can find here:https://iohk.io/blog/an-open-letter-to-the-cardano-community-from-iohk-and-emurgo/
Lets start with the general view of the research first: It starts off bad with the fact that they are not research papers only for Cardano but for Long Finance and Distributed Futures as well. I could understand this if Cardano Foundation also had research purely for Cardano. But they don't. I also would note I would not really call these research papers but more like summaries of issues as there is very few sources cited and there are no experiments or hypothesizes investigated. I could stretch myself to call these meta research as they do give overview of issues.
https://assets.ctfassets.net/0yp3dpf0x1n7/3eTAqgnPVu4I8yqS0QqMiW/cc6fa344c7ba7837277fadd2123b2fcf/Smart_Ledger_Geostamping_-_Steps_Towards_Interoperability_And_Standards_v2.1.pdf
Smart Ledger Geostamping Steps Towards Interoperability & Standards Published 20th December 2017 The core of the article is finding an efficient way to geostamp (time + geographical information) and this can be applied to for example in a smart contract the next step in a smart contract once a ship docks at a harbor with the goods included in the smart contract. The implications are large for flow of goods and people. What is lacking in the article is how does this apply to Cardano. For example IOHK have been interested in devices that have built in trust systems like more modern cell phones - why no research in how to apply geostamping that is deemed secure and verified to be true as a way to have information in smart contracts by Cardano? While the research has value it is not very much related to current application in Cardano.
https://assets.ctfassets.net/0yp3dpf0x1n7/3lwyhu5SJWwMmyIw8YQwUk/952728a917762cdbc50e30bda4a93fd3/Timestamping_Smart_Ledgers.pdf
Timestamping Smart Ledgers Comparable, Universal, Traceable, Immune Published 6th June 2018
Focus on the article is on time stamping and how smart ledgers unlike other 3rd parties do not form monopolies. They also argue how time stamping on a smart ledger is very granular as the information always is sequential in a ledger and can be built up or re winded to find the exact information you want. They then discuss how this could be applied to trading, auctions and found management compliance. They then have a historic review of timekeeping and then discuss desirable properties of a time stamping scheme. While these are worthwhile goals in general again the pattern is that the research does not much relate to current Cardano developments. Why is there no applied research into how this would relate to practical applications like verified information from mobile phones and how they can be used as part of time stamping transactions. You could then look into stuff like trading of coffee beans in Africa and get a real time overview of where trades are going on and connect this information with transportation of goods for a much more efficient flow of goods. Again why is none of the research of Cardano Foundation tied to actual projects by Cardano?
https://assets.ctfassets.net/0yp3dpf0x1n7/6cb1fjs3TOWWO8ea68uiCg/7129189fd6a809e4695bf2cf80317599/Get_Smart_About_Scandals.pdf
Get Smart About Scandals Past Lessons For Future Finance Published 7th March 2018
This is more of a regulatory framework article than a technology research article. The core premises is that financial transactions have become more complex and the answer has so far been more regulation. This has caused many scandals as regulations have been broken. They have an historic review of factors causing scandals like for example political instability during ancient Rome times and try to identify what exactly is a scandal and how to prevent it. They look at ethics, training, transparency, due regulation, proper procedures and fraud & whistle blowers. I find this ironic given how little transparency Cardano Foundation itself has shown. The research has some general application that applies to any organisation but again the research is so far far from Cardano and its current problems. Why are there no research on the treasury voting system? Why are there no research on liquid democracy? These are governance issues where one needs to not only avoid scandals (for me the wrong perspective) but also have a smarter and more efficient governance system than what has been in the past and certainly have potential for this given all the possibilities an immutable ledger gives. For me this is extremely frustrating to read the article as it seems so stuck in the past when one could move forward into a better future.
https://assets.ctfassets.net/0yp3dpf0x1n7/MGwNsa3CO4M6YaseomAwa/e25cb4ea2ba0ff91c3a5eabe63f38e74/Liquidity_Or_Leakage_KQg79GR.pdf
Liquidity Or Leakage Plumbing Problems With Cryptocurrencies Published 21st March 2018.
Looks at the aspect of liquidity or how assets can be converted to value in a certain amount of time. Cryptocurrencies have been plagued with being very volatile and not easy to convert into value aka FIAT historically. The article discuss the tendency to hoard cryptocurrencies currently instead of converting it to other forms of value or using it for goods purchases. They also look at legal risks with smart contracts and how this relates to liquidity. One example in the finality issues of automated contracts where when a goods is delivered an automatic release of value happens but the goods turned out to be of not sufficient quality. How do you rectify this situation in an ill liquid system where the price is highly volatile. They also look into how smart contracts can be deployed to reduce credit risk and thus make sure there is liquidity in the system. All of this is very fine and is fintech but again it is not related to issues faced by Cardano currently. Traxia is an example of a fintech that will deploy on the Cardano ecosystem that tries to provide better liquidity in the system. Why is there no collaboration with this project? Why is the research not related to the Cardano ecosystem?
https://assets.ctfassets.net/0yp3dpf0x1n7/1x7lwG5eY0K0eos8ccwMIs/5e348a4e6505f056aec4bbc76136381e/Quantum_Countdown.pdf
The Quantum Countdown Quantum Computing And The Future Of Smart Ledger Encryption February 20th 2018
The field of problem solving is going through a paradigm shift as for example new AI's do not compute faster but smarter and more closely resembling the human mind and its instinctive thinking process (as an example the previous chess AI's use far more calculations per second than newer generations yet the new generations dominate.) This also applies to the encryption field where a new form of computation called quantum computation applies a new problem solving way for computers. As far as my understanding goes quantum computers can hold several states at once and not just a binary 0 or 1 and thus they can evaluate in parallel faster than current computational models. The premises of the article is that quantum computers will be able to break current encryption methods and thus the security of for example smart ledgers. The article has good explanation of quantum computation principles (at least for me not a domain expert) and goes on to discuss how one can protect secrets with encryption in smart ledgers that are quantum resistant. They also discuss the time frame for making sure a cryptocurrency is quantum resistant and what is a best model to approach this with. While this research do have practical implications for Cardano - not only does Cardano already research ongoing on this subject - they already implement it into Deadalus. And they let the USER decide when to apply it to transaction not the other way around with a central authority deciding for them. The whole idea that some central authority are the ones who will decide and model when it is useful is for me flawed thinking and a way backwards not forward.
https://assets.ctfassets.net/0yp3dpf0x1n7/Jlo8JWi2gEAgi2sAQ6Qu2/ad8e847f3903a89b222e431f1f7e100c/Economic_Impact_Of_Smart_Ledgers_On_World_Trade.pdf
The Economic Impact Of Smart Ledgers On World Trade 19th April 2018
Article looks at the economical potential of using smart ledgers on world trade. For example the article looks at how a Maerks shipment of avocados from Mombasa to Rotterdamn in 2014 entaield more than 200 communications involving 30 parties. By automating contracts and responces in a smart ledger you could get a lot of efficiencies in the trade system. They cite Cebr that sees an economic benefit of between 35 billion usd per year to as much as 140 billion usd per year. They then detail how smart ledgers work and detail the model Cebr used to get to the numbers they have. In short it is an interesting article from the perspective of economical benefits and they do use scientific methods of detailing the model used for the estimates given. However again the problerm is that they do not relate this at all to Caradano. Why is there no study of the impact of smart ledgers on coffee beans in africa? That is an example of real work going on and that would be far more interesting to know the impact on for Cardano in the current situation. A overview for all cryptocurrency is nice but given that one of the purposes of Cardano Foundation is to forward the Cardano Protcoll one can only help but ask why no research is focused on anything usefull for the Cardano ecosystem.
