Hi, all!
Project is called Ara, released whitepaper, has few demo, and its open-sourced.
Example
Let me start with the concrete example of potential.
To reply to your post on this topic, I have to visit the forum on my browser. I want to reduce the friction: any time when I reply to the email notification, it’s automatically posts here. I’m thinking, let me write an app that connects discourse API with email API to solve it.
Then, another guy starts “Grant for SEA region meetup“ topic, he has the same friction and come up with the same solution. He opens up three tabs: email API docs, forum API docs along with the code editor. Then, his computer suggests my solution, to avoid re-inventing a wheel.
Let’s say his grant has been approved, and he is tasked with the monthly updates. He modifies my app it to pipe reports with his marketing channels.
Other approved grants seats in a similar situation, to prepare monthly report, share the content with the announcements on marketing channels. This third user opens up Zcash forum, twitter, and a document titled “what we achieved in a month”. Computer suggests to use auto-report from the “Grant for SEA region meetup” authors, to avoid re-inventing a wheel. Perhaps adjusting it adding new features.
And it could go on and on changing, modifying apps by various people.
The website has “use case“ section with more examples in a comics format.
Big picture
These examples are called malleable systems (or dynamic medium), today largely is a experimental niche among UI, UX researchers.
Ara achieves the malleable environment with the blockchain and oss, as no one till today combined those three together.
Ara’s Goal: users personalize the computer, computers coordinate themselves.
In analogy, it’s like Roblox. But instead of the video-game world, it’s your device, instead of the game assets its your data and software with minimal change to the stack: users compose, adapt softwares, while computers communicate with each other to share solutions made by users in a same situation.
How it works
The devices communicate using OSS semantics.
Semantic oss describes software’s components, SBOM, relationship to other apps.
It’s stored on a blockchain. Which means, computers communicate with each other via blockchain.
Why blockchain to store semantics?
Immutability and cryptocurrency makes the blockchain as a “game with a mod-making tool” of the Internet, while computers are like the mods. If a user wants to earn from his mod, or get inspired and built own mod, its done without worry on distribution or discovery or not getting credits.
A blockchain also acts as a recommendation system. It tracks user behavior over semantic layer without actual data, and this is how suggestions are provided by the computers in a context.
Why recommendation engine on blockchain?
To verify its algorithm publicly, especially when the user apps are made for earning. Blockchain’s consensus keeps the algorithm evolvement in a real time, so that all users share the same context and improve it together.
Cryptocurrencies are representing the node’s reputation. It works with “traditional” blockchains such as Zcash for the payments. Whitepaper has more details and arguments.
Before implementing Ara as the malleable system connected to a blockchain, I was trying to form a community of the OSS maintainers and end users since the OSS maintainers forms a foundation of this Web3.
Last two years I was faced the main obstacle preventing this to happen: OSS sustainability and lack of collaboration between non-tech ideas and open-source community in general.
I want to submit the pilot version addressing those two challanges, that’s becomes as a foundation for the “computers connecting to each other”.
Pilot version: CascadeFund
OSS sustainability is hard, and users don’t want to donate for “free” things. Addtionally, maintainers are not obligated for customer support. Also, on average codes are maintained by small group of core devse. Who knows what will happen to the projects if core team abandon their projects due to burn out?
CascadeFund is the guild of open-source maintainers who sign up for Ara’s protocol agreement:
“making a user-centric software”.
Ara’s protocol agreement means two things:
- open-source softwares are gradually refactoring into MVC pattern, to keep data locally, split interface from the app logic.
- make open-source compatible with each other with the shared data models and protocols.
CascadeFund is the “subscription” platform for users who wants to have local-data first, interoperable open-source. Difference than dual licensed open-source/cloud is that users pay to the bundle, without being tight a certain project, and more apps users use more his stack gets aligned semantically.
For monthly subscription users receive three minimal options to affect the softwares:
- Prevent API deprecation (1/3 of donation)
- Add new features that benefits the users (1/3 of donation).
- Make the open-source pledged to Ara’s protocol agreement. (1/3 of donation)
The last option is required, and that fund goes to the CascadeFund itself. It acts as a medium between users and open-source to ensure the protocol agreement. With it CascadeFund analyzes, curates and chooses the alternatives, ensuring compatibility between them. Think of it as the centralized version of the recommendation system, instead computers its suggested for the bundle of OSS used for the the workspaces.
Hyperpayment
The subscriptions cascades to all OSS software including their dependency tree.
It’s designed as the hyperpayment protocol. It’s a protocol for payment flow between 3 or more parties. Difference than other multi-payout systems is that, protocol works on the category of parties and could join or leave any number of parties without changing the flow of cascading.
For Grant
Its to run the first version of CascadeFund with the first ten projects and 10 regular users at least, and projects getting bundled together. As I’m technical guy, its largely for community building, marketing side as my experience is thin there.
I want to implement the hyperpayment protocol using Zcash shielded transactions.It’s to hide the origin of sender and use the viewing keys to ensure cash flow goes according to the hyperpayment specification.
P.S.: I will add milestones and deliverables when applying for the grant.
For readers of this post
Feedback I need from community are few answers for the questions:
- Is the Ara model, where computer is the creative workspace coordinated through shared semantics a compelling direction?
- Does CascadeFund’s approach to OSS coordination seem valuable to you?
- Do these grant asks make sense for the Zcash community specifically, or is the Zcash connection not strong enough to justify applying here?
With excitement, Medet!
