SARP - Milestone 1 Research

[masapr]

Milestone Delivery Checklist

• The milestone-delivery-template.md has been copied and updated.
• The invoice form 📝 has been filled out for this milestone.
• This pull request is being made by the same account as the accepted application.
• I have disclosed any and all sources of reused code in the submitted repositories and have done my due diligence to meet its license requirements.
• In case of acceptance, the payment will be transferred to the BTC/ETH/fiat account provided in the application.
• The delivery is according to the Guidelines for Milestone Deliverables.

Link to the application pull request: w3f/Grants-Program#1706

[niklasp]

Thank you @masapr for the submission of your research milestone 1. I have started an external evaluation here: #885

Based on my evaluation, you can improve the submitted documentation and engagement. I would like to see more progress in solving the major issues with MIRAI as stated in your Findings and Open Issues 1, 2 before accepting the deliverable. As I understand your granted application, the overall idea was to find if MIRAI is a suitable tool for statically analysing substrate code. By providing more details (with code examples and error outputs) it would be easier to evualuate your findings.

I am rejecting the delivery in its current state but will accept the delivery when the points stated in the evaluation are resolved or commented.

See the full evaluation in the PR above. If you have any questions or comments ask away.

[masapr]

@niklasp thanks a lot for your evaluation.

We pushed an updated version on the Milestone_Research1 branch. The main points we worked on are:

• stating clearer the feasibility of using MIRAI for analysing pallet code
• adding information on how to reproduce the open issues 1 and 2

Apart from that, see my review comments on your PR for further details

[semuelle]

Thanks for the submission and thanks for updates, @masapr!

I see that you already addressed most of the issues raised by @niklasp. Therefore, I only have one last request: your Documentation deliverable is specified as, among other things, "describing the approach we plan to implement in milestone 2, incl. its limitations." I see that you added a summary, but what I don't understand is what the implications of your findings are. Is the work you are suggesting doable in a reasonable amount of time? Or does it justify looking into alternative implementations? And are you planning to continue this analysis? It sounds as if your plan for a follow-up grant is to implement this further, so I assume this is something that needs to be dealt with beforehand.

[masapr]

Thanks for your feedback @semuelle

After the evaluation I had removed the Next Steps, as it is similar to the Feasibility of Approach. I added it back now.

To answer your question: yes, we want to continue, with the steps I described. Overall our impression is, that MIRAI works well with "not-so-complex" code. So, if we manage to separate the substrate macro code from the pallet logic, so that MIRAI only runs on the newly created pallet logic, I'm positive that this should lead to good results. The biggest risk I see, is that we might not find a solution that Parity agrees with resp. that all solutions have too big of an impact on the substrate code base.

Apart from that, my idea was to make a cost estimate and formulate a complete proposal on this once we've got the current milestone approved. "Reasonable amount of time" is a vague term, but yes, I believe it's worth it to do this additional step and I believe it can be done in a reasonable amount of time.

Let me know, what you think. If you're positive that we get this milestone approved and that there is a good chance we can do a follow-up grant, I'm also happy to specify the next package before getting the approval.

[semuelle]

Thanks for the update, @masapr. Your milestone is hereby accepted.

You can find the evaluation notes here. I have forwarded your invoice for processing.

[github-actions]

We noticed that this is the last milestone of your project. Congratulations on completing your grant! 🎊

So, where to from here? First of all, you should join our Grants Community chat, if you haven't already, so we can stay in touch.
If you are looking for continuative support for your project, there are quite a few options. The main goal of the W3F grants program is to support research as well as early-stage technical projects. If your project still falls under one of those categories, you might want to apply for a follow-up grant. However, depending on your goals and project status, there are other support programs in our ecosystem that might be better suited as the next step. For example, projects with a Business Case/Token should look into the Substrate Builders Program or VC Funding. Common Good projects have a good chance of receiving Treasury Funding.

For a more comprehensive list, see our Alternative Funding page. Let us know if you have any questions regarding the above. We are more than happy to point you to additional resources and help you determine the best course of action.
Lastly, we hope your W3F grant was a success and we want to thank you for being part of the journey!

[fededubbi]

Hi @masapr,

I noticed you included on the invoice both USD bank account and USDC.
In which currency do you prefer to be paid in?

Many thanks,
Federica

[masapr]

Hi @fededubbi

Both would be fine. But USD on the bank account would be more convenient for us.

Thank you!
Sabine

[fededubbi]

Hi @masapr,

I noticed that you put UBS SWIFT code also with USD account, is it correct or is it another bank?

Many thanks,
Federica

[masapr]

Hi @fededubbi

Yes, that's correct. The account is with UBS.

Best
Sabine

[masapr]

Hi @fededubbi
Just to check: we haven't received anything yet. So, I'm assuming it's still to come?

[fededubbi]

Hi @masapr,

The invoice will be paid tomorrow, but since is in USD it will take 2-3 business days for you to see it.

Many thanks,
Federica