stage-1-project-discovery.md

Stage 1: Project Discovery

Previous: Stage 0: Getting Started | Next: Stage 2: Project Exploration

Identifying Potential Projects

• Official Go implementation of the Ethereum protocol https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum

  • Enhance documentation ethereum/go-ethereum#23813
  • Add informational metrics to prometheus endpoint ethereum/go-ethereum#21783

• Go implementation of Verkle trees by Guillaume Ballet

  • #64: use a pool for polynomial allocations : Performance optimization for Leaf Nodes
  • Goal: Analyse pool of nodes for polynomial allocations and explore verkle trees in depth and fix this issue.
  • Fix/Implement the issues/features listed at Github

• Rust implementation of Verkle trees by Kevaundray_ Wedderburn

  • Fix/Implement the issues/features listed at Github

• Nanoeth : implementation of Ethereum's execution layer by Nicolas Laurent

  • Fix/Implement the issues/features listed at Github

Finalizing Potential Projects

On one fortunate day I stumbled upon a talk by Piper Merriam, Angela Lu : Stateless Ethereum and The Portal Network

Exploring Portal Network Exploring Public Goods Funding

1. Project Proposal

Make Documentation Great Again ( MDGA )

• Write documentation/tutorials for Portal Network.

Comprehension (insight) is best learned from who first achieved said understanding — an "original communication".

The idea that communication directly from those who first discovered an idea is the best way of gaining understanding.

• Mind Map to visually organize information and provide better context from the early ethereum journey to Portal Network.

  • Sample Mind Map Work In Progress: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lkXlE3s=/?invite_link_id=696443224967

• Sample Write Up by Leo Zhang : https://medium.com/@chiqing/merkle-patricia-trie-explained-ae3ac6a7e123

I was trying to wrap my head around the Ethereum block architecture. Had difficult times connecting the dots and here is the best visual diagram I found. https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/a/6413 Still believe we can do better with more useful block diagrams and mind maps to help connect the dots better.

With tools like mind maps/good documentation/tutorial, we will be able to bridge the gap of better context to pave way for meaningful contributions to Portal Network or any other project in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Author an EIP and corresponding POC implementation for creating a transparent system to contextualise and rank ideas.

Create a ranking mechanism to value ideas and contexts a share of any profits that arise from them.

The main objective is to accelerate the revelation and realisation of valuable ideas and create a idea-value tree

Potential features:

• That every new idea creates a potential context in which to rank other ideas. A tree-like structure of linked contexts is formed and used to visualise ideas in a sequence of ranked lists. This is called the idea-value tree.

  • Example. Ethereum --> Distributed Ledger --> Blockchain --> CryptoGraphy --> Computer science --> Maths. You can go all the way to the end to find its root. And that's the root of Idea Value Tree( check the image above).

• The ability to claim ownership of a new idea or context, and to transfer those claims to others. This offers the potential for a market for ideas and contexts using the trade of verifiable idea ownership claims.

Potential Use Case:

• Incentivize the EIP authoring process
• Ideas and Patents
• Ideas and Copyrights

2. Explore New Territory

Deep dive into Portal Network

• Use Rust-Lang docs for documentation of Portal Network

  • Cargo documentation: https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/tree/master/src/doc
  • Target Group
    • New Contributors
    • People interested in building their own portal clients
    • People who want to contribute to the testnet by running trin

• Deep dive into Transaction Architecture of Portal Network

  • State
  • Gossip
  • History
  • more??

• Learn Rust

  • Small exercises to get you used to reading and writing Rust code: https://github.com/rust-lang/rustlings
  • Writing an OS in Rust: https://os.phil-opp.com/

• Meaningful contributions to Trin project, once the fundamentals are good enough.

Gather context for my POC on creating a transparent system to contextualise and rank ideas.

• Understand the EIP authoring process in-depth and explore a few ERCs/EIPs

  • ERC-721 Non-Fungible Token Standard: https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-721/
  • ERC-1155 The Crypto Item Standard: https://blog.enjincoin.io/erc-1155-the-crypto-item-standard-ac9cf1c5a226
  • Contribute to https://www.nftstandards.wtf/ by Anett Rolikova (founder of Ethereum Magicians) to gain in-depth understanding on NFTs

• Understand the relationship between ideas and patents

  • Wikipedia Link

3. Expand Your Knowledge

• Deep dive into existing Ethereum client protocols and how Portal Network is doing it better?
• Study the existing authoring EIP process and implementation at the client side.

4. Externally Beneficial

• A well organized technical write-up of Portal Network

  • Documentation/Tutorials for better understanding of the former and existing protocols

  which should be beneficial to the overall Ethereum ecosystem and to the target group below.

  • Target Group
    • New Contributors
    • People interested in building their own portal clients
    • People who want to contribute to the testnet by running trin

• Creating a transparent system to contextualise and rank ideas. Who benefits?

  • EIP Authors