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.

• @BlairVee gave a talk with Grassroots Economics at the MetaFEST - find it here.

• 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.

• We met with@KERNEL0x 2 Fellow @hollygrimm, who is building @0xDynamiculture - a DAO for Indigenous tribes to track their environmental projects using satellite imagery and sensor inputs We'll be looking at using GeoDIDs in their technical architecture
• 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.

• Fairlaunch session in@KERNEL0x with@0xMaki - hard-earned words of wisdom on early community growth.

• 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!)