Work Package #4

Name

WP4 — Demand Signal Ingestion & Adaptor Framework

High-Level Description

This work package implements the demand signal layer — the mechanism by which real-world economic events generated by teams in the field are converted into protocol-legible signals and read from the Cardano network. Demand signals are the external currency of the system: they represent actual revenue-generating activity (payments, contracts, transactions) in a team’s local economy, mapped through an adaptor into a dollar-denominated value. This work package covers the design and implementation of the adaptor framework (A_h,i), the on-chain event recording mechanism on Cardano, and the indexer that reads and routes those signals into the contribution computation layer (WP3). This is the most context-sensitive component of the protocol, as each hub and team may interact with different economic environments.

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Core Objectives

• Design and implement the demand adaptor framework, defining a composable interface for converting economic events into demand signals (d_h,i).
• Implement at least one reference adaptor for a defined economic event type (e.g. payment confirmation).
• Implement the on-chain event recording mechanism on Cardano, enabling demand signals to be written to and read from the ledger.
• Build the indexer that continuously reads Cardano chain state, identifies relevant demand signal transactions, and routes them to the aggregation layer.
• Ensure demand signals are attributable to specific teams and hubs, and timestamped for temporal coherence.
• Document the adaptor interface specification to enable third-party or hub-specific adaptor development in future.

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Expected Value — Why does this matter to Cardano?

Demand signals are what connects the protocol to real-world economic activity. Without this layer, RCPs have no basis for revenue distribution — they would be speculative instruments rather than structured claims on real value. The adaptor framework makes the protocol extensible to any economic context, and the Cardano-based indexer creates a transparent, auditable record of all demand events. This is the component that makes the protocol’s core promise — revenue-linked participation backed by real activity — technically realisable.

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Success Metrics

• Adaptor interface specification published and implementable by third parties.
• At least one reference adaptor implemented, tested, and documented.
• Demand signals from reference adaptor successfully written to Cardano testnet and indexed by the indexer.
• Indexed signals correctly attributed to specific team/hub pairs and available to WP3 aggregation layer.
• Indexer demonstrated processing at least 100 simulated demand events without loss or misattribution.

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Initiative Type

[x] New initiative

Primary Nature of Work

[x] Technical

Milestones

Milestone #1

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Budget Breakdown — Work Package #4

Supporting Materials

[To be added]