Progress
Weekly updates from the Astral team
15 Jun 2022
Finalized Spatial Data Registry Data Structure (Kolektivo)
MongoDB v6 evaluation of timeseries, indexing, and analytics (MRV Collective)
8 Jun 2022
Mocked up GeoNFT and Spatial Data Registry Contracts with hardhat testing (Kolektivo)
https://github.com/ openmrv-server Currently building out provider/role/user security infrastructure (MRV Collective)
1 Jun 2022
Ingestion layer first look (MRV Collective)
Added backend service for circuit and contract generation (zkMaps)
23 May 2022
Began development of MVP for decentralized MRV registry (MRV Collective)
20 May 2022
Completed Astral Geospatial Data Registry PoC (dClimate)
18 May 2022
Met about use cases for GeoNFT minting, approval, metadata, and ecological data (Kolektivo)
Met about ArcGIS and weather station data (Kolektivo)
27 Apr 2022
Supported the Oika project at the Planet Positive NFT Hackathon
Met with Regen Network on Data Module v4
Met with dMeter
20 Apr 2022
Presented Astral GeoNFT specs (Kolektivo)
13 Apr 2022
Completed data registry requirements document (Kolektivo)
6 Apr 2022
Reviewed ArcGIS food forest survey app (Kolektivo)
Completed Ocean Protocol v4 test dataset and paper (Kolektivo)
Completed lo-fi map of Curacao and food forests (Kolektivo)
23 Mar 2022
First meeting of the "Survelliance Squad" now known as "dMeter"
3rd and final meeting of KERNEL Regen Guild, discussed locus of control
16 Mar 2022
Reviewed use cases related to badges, weather stations, and monetization with Ocean Protocol (Kolektivo)
Second KERNEL Regen Guild meeting, discussed Donella Meadows leverage points and ran an ecosystem mapping exercise with Ale Borda
9 Feb 2022
Hardhat/React dApp for GeoNFT (Kolektivo)
2 Feb 2022
Draft GeoNFT Contract (Kolektivo)
12 Jan 2022
PoC decentralized data storage using Ceramic on Alfajores (Kolektivo)
5 Jan 2022
Defined initial bounds for computation and tree data storage limits (Kolektivo)
27 April 2021
Call with Ryan John King, CEO of FOAM space, a pioneer in the geospatial decentralized web. FOAM recently launched their FOAM Lite Ethereum transaction relay device, and is working on trustless "presence claims".
Reviewed the draft whitepaper for the Kolektivo Framework, a crypto-institutional framework that seeks to promote socio-ecological sustainability through cryptoeconomic mechanisms. Watch this space ...
Exploring ways to keep pushing forward with the Web3-native geospatial vision, which we first explored with a Filecoin development grant. More soon ...
13 April 2021
Met with jabyl from Distributed Town, where they're building a DAO for DAOs and a universal "skills wallet" enabling you to port your reputation with you in the mutual credit network .
Spencer and the Commit Pool team joined the Astral Discord - really exciting work designing an app to help people hold themselves accountable. Set goals and stake money - by exercising claim your crypto back.
On Discord we're discussing verifiable impact claims - a common problem that many teams are solving. One take: Impact NFTs.
6 April 2021
Submitted the GeoDID Explorer client application to Filecoin, completing our Development Grant. You can explore the Astral Studio - live on Ropsten - here. Working on docs.
Lots of community building this week:
Max from Earthify is building a data DAO that is crowdsourcing, standardizing, and publishing public / government records, with a focus on real estate data. We are advising Max and got to listen in to his design sprint with @RaidGuild.
Connected with David from KERNEL0x, started a conversation about privacy and data markets.
Another check-in with Grant and Pylyp from Copernic Space, building a Web3 marketplace for space assets including satellite imagery.
One-to-one with community member @BlairVee talking through verifiable impact claims and community inclusion currencies.
Drafted a concept note: Impact NFTs, which represent impact claims made by people doing some environmental or social project. Reviewers would analyze evidence referenced by the NFT - threshold approvals could trigger bounty transfers to Impact NFT minters. https://hackmd.io/@astral/B1Cl4YUBd
Community
207 followers on Twitter
58 Discord members
31 March 2021
Completed initial implementation of IPLD-encoded GeoTIFFs in Typescript for our Filecoin Development Grant - docs here.
Finishing the GeoDID Explorer client interface.
Spoke on Web3 Spatial at the Open Geospatial Consortium Blockchain Domain Working Group - recording forthcoming.
Met with the innovation team at a national land registry to talk about their research and development efforts to digitize the real estate conveyancing process.
Community:
205 followers on Twitter
24 new Gitcoin grant supports
50 Discord members
23 March 2021
Work week.
16 March 2021
Coming into the final weeks of our Filecoin development grant - developing IPLD-encoded GeoTIFFs, which will complement the GeoDID spec we designed. The idea is to use DIDs to create permanent, resolvable identities for satellite images. More soon.
We started outlining v0.2 of the GeoDID spec - a brief summary below.
We want to build DIDs that support spatial querying and raster clipping, so a DID can represent a subset of a larger spatial dataset.
Advisory calls with@MaxGlass - we'll be helping him design a spatial data crowdsourcing protocol with@RaidGuild
The community put together a response to a post on ethresear.ch on local + community tokens. Astral member @BlairVee is working with@grassEcon on this, and@johnx25bd prototyped a location-aware smart contract wallet at ETHParis 2019.
Community:
200 followers on Twitter
7 new Gitcoin grant supporters
31 Discord members
11 March 2021
Still building for our Filecoin Development Grant - working on IPLD-encoded GeoTIFFs and a front end GeoDID browser for Web3-native satellite imagery ...
Working with a new community member building to collect land parcel data - watch this space
Initial security reviews of Spatial.sol - much more to come.
Architecting verifiable spatial data registries built on GeoDIDs and IPFS. Who do we know who would find a smart contract registry of geographic zones useful? Congestion zones - insurance protocols - local currencies - voting - what else??
4 March 2021
Initial tests for Spatial.sol. Point in Polygon is *mostly* working.
Submitted initial implementation of the @astralprotocol Typescript modules for the Filecoin Development Grant. GeoDID client libraries and solidity contracts are functional.
Release of the vision and roadmap for community review.
Community
176 Twitter followers
5 new Gitcoin grant supporters
23 Discord members
23 February 2021
Our Discord is gathering steam. We've seen new members this week from startup projects, the GIS world, economics graduate schools and more. Join if you want to learn more: https://discord.gg/9Kv8tRvWVG
Discord member Econometrie raised some great points about how systems built on Astral could solve an interesting problem: how do we know where we can park rental e-bikes and e-scooters? We are working out how to adapt Hyperaware to help solve this.
A new member - Kiran - joined and shared a draft post he's writing about applying principles of token engineering to manage road network usage.
We have written a master document with overviews of the different tools and protocols we are building. This is open - feedback very welcome: https://hackmd.io/0p7uwOijSMuFXcNE_anDWA
Community
160 Twitter followers
18 Discord members
5 new Gitcoin grant supporters - plus a 246.98 DAI CLR match
16 February 2021
Commits on modules for working with GeoDIDs, plus a check-in call with @filecoin on development grant progress.
Call with @blairvee and Jonny, talking about GIS, Grassroots Economics and truly local currencies.
Core community call. We talked through the road up to this point, and where it should lead.
We created a Discord! If you are doing *anything* at the intersection of spatial / location data and Web3, join and say hi. https://discord.gg/W2nFZF75
Community:
146 Twitter followers
6 new Gitcoin grant supporters
9 February 2021
Broke ground on a research report on the intersection of spatial data and Web3.
Progress on the GeoDID Browser interface development and Astral modules for working with GeoDIDs - part of our work on a Filecoin Development Grant.
Spoke with an American entrepreneur working to onboard land parcel data onto Ethereum.
Advisor calls.
Community:
132 Twitter followers
5 new Gitcoin grant supporters
2 February 2021
Submitted the GeoDID Method Specification for feedback - if you're interested, read it here, and give feedback by creating an issue on the Github repo.
Fixed a bug in our prototype implementation of the Hyperaware Protocol - a spatial governance protocol for connected devices.
KERNEL Fairlaunch seminar with Brian Flynn from Rabbit Hole - got us thinking about the value of community.
Community
113 Twitter followers
13 new Gitcoin grant contributors
26 January 2021
Completed the draft GeoDID Method Specification - now we're architecting software modules for working with GeoDIDs
Spoke with @KERNEL0x Fellow @mattgcondon - the grandfather of NFTs - about trusted location proofs and using location in smart contracts.
Kicking ideas around with @naz about NFT markets and the NFT community.
First talk from @fairlaunch Capital in KERNEL Block 2 - learning about newfound paths to independent sustainability.
Early tests on Spatial.sol, a Solidity library of geometric and topological functions - watch this space ...
Community
89 Twitter followers
19 January 2021
Refinements of the draft GeoDID Method Specification.
Chat with a VC about the past, present and future of the spatial Web3.
Chatting about trusted location proofs with a security-minded developer in KERNEL.
Community
80 Twitter followers
2 new Gitcoin grant contributors
12 January 2021
Joined KERNEL 2 - Fairlaunch track!
Published our Gitbook with Astral documentation.
Drafting GeoDID Method Specification, working on scaling problems with IPLD-encoded GeoTIFFs for the Filecoin Development Grant.
Advisory call with Andrew Hill, CEO at Textile - great advice on how to approach to building Web3-native geospatial technologies.
Community
61 Twitter followers
29 Gitcoin grant contributors
5 January 2021
Astral received a Filecoin Development Grant to develop a few key pieces of the Astral Protocol: a GeoDID Method Specification (more soon!) and IPLD-encoded GeoTIFFs, for Web3-native geospatial imagery. Our grant details.
The Astral team won the Ceramic Bounty for the SkyDB hackathon for building a version of Geolocker, a verifiable spatial data registry.
Launched our new website, https://astral.global. (Thanks for the awesome template, @marrrguerite!)
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