Decentralized Threshold Signing Service

applications/DecentralizedThresholdSigningService.md

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+# Decentralized Threshold Signature Service Implementation
+
+- **Team Name:** Rui Morais
+- **Payment Address:** 
+    - FIAT (Sent by email to [email protected] on 09/08/2024, 16:07 UTC+1)
+    - Polkadot: 14bBGQFAgKqdbGVDSWkm6dA8ZQzt9GxGSTALrD8SeafWW9gL
+- **[Level](https://github.com/w3f/Grants-Program/tree/master#level_slider-levels):** 2
+
+## Project Description :page_facing_up:
+
+### General Overview
+
+This project is a continuation of [this one](https://github.com/w3f/Grants-Program/pull/2250) and aims to build a decentralized threshold signing service leveraging the Olaf protocol. The service will operate off-chain, providing a secure and cost-effective alternative to on-chain threshold signature mechanisms within the Substrate/Kusama/Polkadot ecosystem.
+
+### Technical Details
+
+Each participant in the threshold signing group will run a dedicated node application. This application will include:
+
+- Core Threshold Signing Protocol: The service will use the Olaf threshold signature protocol, which was implemented in the previous grant.
+
+- Peer-to-peer networking via [`rust-libp2p`](https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p) (Milestone 1):
+
+    - Peer discovery: nodes will identify and discover each other through a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) that maps their Substrate/Polkadot/Kusama public addresses to their peer IDs.
+
+    - Secure communication: [`libp2p_noise`](https://docs.rs/libp2p-noise/latest/libp2p_noise/) provides secure, authenticated channels between participating nodes for exchanging protocol messages.
+
+- Integration of the Olaf protocol with the underlying network (Milestone 2), managing:
+    - Distributed Key Generation (DKG) and signing rounds.
+
+    - Local storage of key shares and protocol state.
+
+- A Command Line Interface (Milestone 3) that allow users to:
+
+    - Configure node settings (network addresses and peer IDs).
+
+    - Configure protocol settings (threshold and number of participants).
+
+    - Execute the Olaf protocol.
+
+### Ecosystem Fit
+
+This project is useful for any Substrate/Kusama/Polkadot based project that wants to use a secure off-chain decentralized threshold signature service that is cheaper than using the theshold signing funcionality of the network directly. 
+
+### Related Projects
+
+The most similar project we found is [this](https://github.com/nulltea/tss-libp2p), but it is out of date and unmantained. 
+
+### Team members
+
+- Rui Morais
+
+### Contact
+
+- **Contact Name:** Rui Morais
+- **Contact Email:** [email protected]
+- **Github:** https://github.com/fiono11
+- **Linkedin:** https://www.linkedin.com/rui-morais
+
+### Team's experience
+
+- Obtained a PhD in Computer Science with the thesis *"Contributions to Permissionless Decentralized Networks for Digital Currencies Based on Delegated Proof of Stake"* (awaiting for the defense).
+- Published the following papers:
+  - [Echidna: A New Consensus Algorithm for Efficient State Machine Replication](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10338927) (IEEE BCCA 2023)
+  - [Nero: A Deterministic Leaderless Consensus Algorithm for DAG-Based Cryptocurrencies](https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4893/16/1/38) (Algorithms 2022)
+  - [A tool for implementing privacy in Nano](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9126023) (IEEE DAPPS 2020)
+  - [Adamastor: a New Low Latency and Scalable Decentralized Anonymous Payment System](https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.14159) (Arxiv)
+- Has graduated the PBA Hong Kong cohort. 
+
+## Development Roadmap :nut_and_bolt:
+
+### Overview
+
+- **Total Estimated Duration:** 3 months
+- **Full-Time Equivalent (FTE):** 1 FTE
+- **Total Costs:** 30,000 USD
+
+### Milestone 1 - Development of the Node
+
+- **Estimated duration:** 1 month
+- **FTE:** 1
+- **Costs:** 10,000 USD
+
+| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
+| -----: | ----------- | ------------- |
+| **0a.** | License | GPLv3 |
+| **0b.** | Documentation | We will provide **inline documentation** of the code. |
+| **0c.** | Testing and Testing Guide | Core functions will be fully covered by comprehensive unit tests to ensure functionality and robustness. In the guide, we will describe how to run these tests. |
+| **0d.** | Docker | We will provide a Dockerfile(s) that can be used to test all the functionality delivered with this milestone. |
+| **1.a** | Development of the Node | Two peers running on different machines are able to discover each other through their Substrate/Kusama/Polkadot address, establish a connection, and exchange messages. |
+
+### Milestone 2 - Integration of Olaf into the Node
+
+- **Estimated duration:** 1 month
+- **FTE:** 1
+- **Costs:** 10,000 USD
+
+| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
+| -----: | ----------- | ------------- |
+| **0a.** | License | GPLv3 |
+| **0b.** | Documentation | We will provide **inline documentation** of the code. |
+| **0c.** | Testing and Testing Guide | Core functions will be fully covered by comprehensive unit tests to ensure functionality and robustness. In the guide, we will describe how to run these tests. |
+| **0d.** | Docker | We will provide a Dockerfile(s) that can be used to test all the functionality delivered with this milestone. |
+| **1.a** | Integration of Olaf into the Node | Two peers on different machines exchange messages and successfully produce a threshold signature using the Olaf protocol with hardcoded protocol parameters. |
+
+### Milestone 3 - Decentralized Threshold Signature Service CLI
+
+- **Estimated duration:** 1 month
+- **FTE:** 1
+- **Costs:** 10,000 USD
+
+| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
+| -----: | ----------- | ------------- |
+| **0a.** | License | GPLv3 |
+| **0b.** | Documentation | We will provide both **inline documentation** of the code and a basic **tutorial** that explains how the service can be used. |
+| **0c.** | Testing and Testing Guide | Core functions will be fully covered by comprehensive unit tests to ensure functionality and robustness. In the guide, we will describe how to run these tests. |
+| **0d.** | Docker | We will provide a Dockerfile(s) that can be used to test all the functionality delivered with this milestone. |
+| **1.a** | Decentralized Threshold Signature Service CLI | Two peers on different machines exchange messages and produce a threshold signature using the Olaf protocol with protocol parameters defined by user input from the CLI. |
+
+## Future Plans
+
+- Develop a webwallet for the user interface or integrate it in an established webwallet of the ecosystem, if there is interest.