2024-06.md

Monthly reporting for Catalyst: June 2024

Common links & group KPIs:

• These reports: https://github.com/rphair/cip-editing
• Discord invite to CIP Editors Meetings: https://discord.gg/kyaTyzkBqd
• CIP open pull requests: https://github.com/cardano-foundation/CIPs/pulls
• CIP open issues: https://github.com/cardano-foundation/CIPs/issues

Quantitative contributions:

• GitHub activity overview: @rphair
• CIP pull requests @rphair involved in, by last update time
• CIP issues @rphair involved in, by last update time

Qualitative contributions

Private discussion among CIP editors not to deprecate CIP-0013, which in my opinion would derail the very slow-going attempts to universally support Cardano payment URIs and the as-yet unsupported //stake links directly to pools & delegation sets; with the result defining the conditions for a new Cardano Problem Statement to coordinate work about this issue: cardano-foundation/CIPs#836 (comment)

... with rationale given here (not posted yet in GitHub CIPs repo):

... I think the last revision of CIP-0013 was comprehensive (and final) mainly since from this point onward there is never going to be any protocol extension that won't be handled by an //authority with its own CIP. That covers everything but the undisputed yet unimplemented //stake and the legacy bare "payment" standard that we can't change but which is insufficient for modern needs.

If you think (as I am coming to think) this needs clarification in a new ## Versioning section for CIP-0013 then please say so... I'll provide it roughly as above & probably should have done so in cardano-foundation/CIPs#559

I don't think it's necessary to break up CIP-0013 on account of //stake links any more than CIP-0068 needs to be deprecated in favour of 3 or 4 separate token standard CIPs. The difference between Payment and Stake links at the time CIP-0013 was written is that Emurgo was already doing payment links ad-hoc at the time, and Sebastien & Vicente just documented it there after the fact. Gutting CIP-0013 to overwrite that history would be blurring an unknowable set of payment implementations that I would rather leave well alone.

But now there is a clear commercial need to provide a new //payment standard, and a clear path forward to outline these in a new CIP that handles the native tokens properly. If done that way, wallet providers will line up to implement it & likely be more enthusiastic about the other protocol extensions as well.

Community discussions

Plan for Ledger parameters to be founded on Wiki for separate respository, in anticipation of CIP-1694 focus on governance-based adjustments to parameters (cardano-foundation/CIPs#847 (comment))

Continuing issue about precedent for code in CIPs: generally code is insulated from the CIP process to keep questions about support an accountability focused on the responsible developers, but holding up this principle for review & re-affirmation (cardano-foundation/CIPs#848 (review))

Work on pull requests

#441 - CIP-???? | Post Quantum signatures and native wallets

• Attempt to un-stall work on this matter which has not progressed since February (cardano-foundation/CIPs#441 (comment))

#469 - CIP-0092? | First-class errors in Plutus

• Detailed re-review in response to author request to bring CIP in line with modern standards (both in content + response to community reviews so far) (cardano-foundation/CIPs#469 (review))

#488 - CIP-0124? | Extend token metadata for translations

• Quick re-write for author to get this old CIP back in review cycle after apparent author abandonment (https://github.com/cardano-foundation/CIPs/pull/488/commits/d98440167087e8cd9a1778064a2c79442a4ef8b1)
• Attempt to validate translations in use by NFT production services (cardano-foundation/CIPs#488 (review))
• In meeting have arranged CIP number to help confirm interest in adoption (cardano-foundation/CIPs#488 (review))

#499 - CIP-0096? | On-chain dApp Certification Metadata

• Attempt to re-engage with author following some proposal updates in this period (cardano-foundation/CIPs#499 (comment))

#617 - CIP-0106? | Web-Wallet Bridge - Multisig wallets

• Helping author through final proposal edits, beginning here (cardano-foundation/CIPs#617 (comment))
• Merging proposal after 7-month review process & repeated meeting review (cardano-foundation/CIPs#617 (review))

#635 - CIP-0107? | URI Scheme - Block and transaction objects

• Insisting upon final point that we should know if this protocol includes height= terms in //block Cardano URIs (cardano-foundation/CIPs#635 (review))
• Revitalising stalled review process & progressing at CIP meeting(s) (cardano-foundation/CIPs#635 (comment))

#747 - CIP-0117? | Explicit script return values

• Pushing through to completion at recommendation of IOG Plutus team lead (cardano-foundation/CIPs#747 (review))

#779 - CPS-0015? | Intents for Cardano

• Confirmation of IOG's Polina as new advocate replacing original author Michael P-J of this proposal & the related CIP "Validation Zones" (cardano-foundation/CIPs#779 (comment))

#784 - CIP-0069 | add Datum to ScriptContext

• Merging after long period of community interaction & some urgent requests / comproposed before next hard fork (cardano-foundation/CIPs#784 (comment))

#796 - CIP-0120? | Constitution specification

• Minor nomenclature change, suggested by cross-reference with community review (cardano-foundation/CIPs#796 (review))

#806 - CIP-0122? | Logical operations over BuiltinByteString
#825 - CIP-0123? | Bitwise operations over BuiltinByteString

• Final review & merging latest round of CIP-58 replacements
• (cardano-foundation/CIPs#806 (review))
• (cardano-foundation/CIPs#825 (review))

#809 - CIP-0068 | Allow [* bounded_bytes] for images

• Committing documentation change for NFT metadata after long period allowing challenges by developers & the community (cardano-foundation/CIPs#809 (comment))

#816 - CIP-???? | Efficient Proofs for Dynamic Sets

• Efforts to split an innovative but very specific proposal into general (CPS) and specific (CIP) components (cardano-foundation/CIPs#816 (comment))

#826 - CIP-???? | Integration of ripemd_160 into Plutus

• Working on Path to Active to synchronise author's suggestions with whatever Plutus Team might be doing (cardano-foundation/CIPs#826 (comment))

#832 - CIP-0125? | Arrestable native assets

• Obtaining a comparative treatment with other(s) among "programmable tokens" CIPs (cardano-foundation/CIPs#832 (comment))
• Resolving (with co-editor Ryan) potentially objectional name with term "asset seizure" plus standardise other technical term(s) (cardano-foundation/CIPs#832 (review))

#833 - CIP-0010 | Misspelled keyword for 1694 label
#837 - CIP-0010 | Validation by GitHub workflow

• Typo in Cardano metadata tag schema which led to attempts to automate syntax checking of this file (and maybe other CIP assets) (cardano-foundation/CIPs#833 (comment))
• Ensuing presentation from community offering this integration:
  • reasons "against": (cardano-foundation/CIPs#837 (comment))
  • reasons "for": (cardano-foundation/CIPs#837 (review))

#835 - CIP-0100, CIP-0108, CIP-0119 | Hash raw content directly

• Resolving critical metadata standards issue required to maintain support of Cardano db-sync (cardano-foundation/CIPs#835 (comment))

#840 - CIP-0105 | Add missing test vectors

• Reviewing potential infrastructure improvement before beginning of Conway era (cardano-foundation/CIPs#840 (review))

#841 - CPS-0016? | Cardano URIs
#843 - CIP-???? | Cardano URIs - Enhanced Payments

• Comprehensive review (not much to add) for container proposal of past, current & future extensions to Cardano's URI Scheme (cardano-foundation/CIPs#841 (review))
• Introducing new //payment URIs (encapsulating my prior feedback from related issue) (cardano-foundation/CIPs#843 (comment))

#846 - CIP-1694 | French - Clarify note on info actions

• Helping author separate (or combine, if editorially acceptable?) translated language style updates from re-translations of updated original language documents; beginning here (cardano-foundation/CIPs#846 (comment))

#847 - CIP-1694 | Updates and semantics

• Governance proposal edit from key member of community: validating & confirming with Ledger team (cardano-foundation/CIPs#847 (review))

#848 - CIP-0102 | Reference Implementation

• Progressing documented state of "Royalty token" standard, while separating its new reference implementation from management by the CIP process (as per "Community Discussions") (cardano-foundation/CIPs#848 (review))

Work on issues

#783 - CIP 100 | Provide directions on how to create signatures for the body without circular dependencies.

• Continuing visibility in this requets from db-sync lead to rationalise this part of Cardano's data structures (cardano-foundation/CIPs#783 (comment))

#836 - CIP-0013: Current state of integration and further advancements

• Review of work so far on my co-authored CIP-0013, especially whatever way forward there may be for "stake pool links" support (cardano-foundation/CIPs#836 (comment))
• Bringing into community discussion (cardano-foundation/CIPs#836 (comment))
• Further refinements to potential addressing schemes, addition of Cardano payment handles & metadata related syntax (to be incorporated into related CIPs and CPS going forward).

Meetings held

#90 - Tuesday 11 June 2024 (4PM UTC) - https://hackmd.io/@cip-editors/90

• Positioning MLabs / Kos Ross Plutus language developments as official evolution of CIP-0058 for improved language capabilities.
• Combination of progress on old CIPs and community progress on new ones.
• Changes: cardano-foundation/CIPs#844

#91 - Tuesday 25 June 2024 (4PM UTC) - https://hackmd.io/@cip-editors/91

• Urgent confirmation of hashing standards update to ensure db-sync & Cardano tooling remain supportable during & after Governance launch (CIP-0100, CIP-0108, CIP-0119).
• Completing merge of latest round of Plutus developments.
• Changes: cardano-foundation/CIPs#849