Argument-0007: Retention at Rank II

Member details

• Matrix username: @cisco:parity.io
• Polkadot address: 129EYiTbv2J4LkYqRNssUfMuxNLYN8TW2LgfG1Gqyj8wCcs7
• Current rank: 2
• Date of initial induction: 2024/05/31
• Date of last report: 2025/12/03
• Area(s) of Expertise/Interest: XCM, Bridges, Smart Contracts, JAM, Storage

Reporting period

• Start date: 2025/12/02
• End date: 2026/03/02

Argument

This period I expanded my focus to include decentralized storage and fellowship tooling, and continued work on GrayMatter, our JAM client at JamBrains.

I spent the bulk of my time this period working on decentralized storage: improving Bulletin Chain and prototyping a file transfer protocol usable in the upcoming Polkadot App.

I created a UI for Bulletin Chain[1] to reduce barrier of entry for product teams wanting to use decentralized storage, as well as accelerate our own development and testing of the chain. I tweaked Bulletin's XCM configuration[2] to change it from a system parachain to a regular parachain, making it easier to launch multiple ones if needed for scale.

The most substantial piece of work was designing the hand-off protocol[3], or HOP for short. It is meant to enable file attachments in the Polkadot App, among other use-cases. This took most of my time during the period. The problem required reasoning about authorization, incentives, fallback mechanisms, peer-to-peer networking and latency trade-offs.

I made XCM configuration adjustments in both Collectives and Asset Hub[4] to make sure fellows can manage their own treasury without the need to create a proposal on OpenGov's Root track. I also created a tool I call Xcm Wizard[5] to allow anyone to create a DCA proposal for managing the fellowship treasury. The goal in both of these is to facilitate and improve ongoing fellowship operations.

During this period, I submitted our JAM client, GrayMatter, for Milestone 1 acceptance[6]. I continued working on the client to prepare for the future Milestone 2 submission.

My work during this period demonstrates continued depth in XCM and runtimes while expanding into storage infrastructure design. The hand-off protocol took me into the unfamiliar territory of peer-to-peer networking and required both independent research and collaboration with people who knew the topic better than I did. The fellowship tooling work made use of my XCM knowledge and came from recognising that the operational layer needs as much attention as the technical one.

Voting record