Project Manager Liz Bancroft-Turner from IOHK explains the Shelley Project and how it is broken down into manageable workstreams. You can find further details on Liz here.
What is Shelley
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A path to full decentralisation in Cardano.
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Currently at Byron stage, allowing users to trade and transfer ADA.
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Primary goal of Shelley: to upgrade the network node protocol and to upgrade it in a decentralised fashion so that Cardano will no longer be dependent on IOHK and other Bootstrap stakeholders to maintain the network.
Shelley Workstreams
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Consists of Delegation, Incentives and Networking:
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Delegation: Allows stakeholders to delegate their right and obligations to sign blocks to a third party.
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Convenient, as stakeholders don’t have to run their own nodes; and good for stability of the system
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Incentives: Provide stakeholders with monetary incentives to follow the protocol and make the system run smoothly.
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Design of incentive schemes should ensure that they meet the needs of individual’s self interest but also pave a way that makes the entire operation stable - including having a proper reward operating for nodes and incentivize delegating stakes and setting transaction fees etc.
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A very delicate scheme, to be built on sound foundation of mathematics and game theory.
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Networking: To provide network infrastructure to support decentralisation
Shelley Deliverables:
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Delegation:
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Research Paper - how the delegation can satisfy specific criteria.
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Examples- how rewards can be given to people who are delegating, how stake pools can recover if keys are compromised, and how security of the funds do not get compromised, when delegated.
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Design Document: To ensure the design of the delegation is compatible with the incentives scheme
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Implementation Plan: Breaks down Design Document into tasks for developers
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Development
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Incentives:
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Research Paper: a Mathematical paper showing why the incentives mechanism should work
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Design Document: Technical details of how to implement the incentives mechanism
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Networking:
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Peer 2 Peer Discovery
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Delta Q Measurements: Performance of the network
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Communication Protocol: Simplify the internode communication protocol
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Cord DIF: Approving the communication quality
Shelley Plan
- Those that are ticked show significant process/near completion
Shelley Testnet Registration Update:
- Stakepool registration closed in May
- Staking expected to arrive at the end of Q3 2018