- An update has been given on Project Shelley by IOHK.
- Project Shelly aims to decentralize Cardano (ADA).
- The project has completed the research stage and is now in the design stage.
IOHK has released their September update for project Shelley in form of a forum post which has an accompanying video where IOHK project manager, Liz Bancroft-Turner recapped the progress made in September and the work done so far.
The project’s goal, according to the post is “a path to full decentralization in Cardano”. Cardano is a distributed computing platform which runs the blockchain for the ‘ADA’ cryptocurrency. Cardano has ambitions to become the top contracting platform and compete with platforms such as Ethereum.
The Ada currency, which is based on Cardano’s blockchain, is in the top 10 digital currencies in the market.
The post also highlighted the roadmap for the project which is divided into three stages.
Research
This part, according to Bancroft, is already complete and was scheduled for Q2 of 2018.
The research involves writing and publishing two research papers which are Delegation research paper and incentives research paper. The papers can be found on the IOHK website.
The project makes use of three work streams which are incentives, delegation, and networking. Incentives refer to ‘encouraging stakeholders to follow protocol, ensure the system runs smoothly’, delegation refers to getting users of the service to delegate their rights to a third party and networking refers to enabling an infrastructure that can support decentralization.
The first two papers have been compiled and published and thus, mark the completion of the first stage.
Design
This is the stage currently in progress. The text documents are being translated into mathematical notations to ensure consistency and efficiency.
The detailed technical implementation plan is also in progress with work breakdown packages being worked on. According to the post, the team is looking into ‘what the dependencies are, what can be worked on in parallel, what is sequential, how long will it take, what skills are required’
An initial design of the comms protocol has been made as well as two experimental descriptions of the protocol. The design and implementation of the peer to peer discovery have also been given significant attention to enable it to function in a universal environment.
A new deliverable, Test and Quality Plan, has been added which includes test strategy, test execution strategy, and test management.
All this will help the transition of Cardano towards a decentralized ecosystem.
Implement
Not much was said about the Implementation stage but it will begin after the design stage is completed and is scheduled for Q3-Q4 2018.
