Modification: Review of E-Fil+ Project Guidelines and Details - (Pilot Kickoff October 2022)

[kevzak]

Issue Description

Below is a confirmation of guidelines and details for the E-Fil Pilot starting October 2022.

Note: this issue is a continuation of the original Fil-E issue: #559

Proposed Solution(s)

The pilot phase is representing v0 of the E-Fil+ program and will include the following process changes to the current Fil+ DataCap flow:

• (New) Data Owner registration form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeAaM0duQFDGUmQ5c7e--FVez7fXGOkLZlUPSkfpbBMfmwXsw/viewform) Business contact information to enable Fil+ team to perform any needed due diligence and also collect feedback from the business.
• (New) Business Verification KYB solution (https://diro.io/products/business-verification-service/) - a secure and private process to verify corporate identity and proof of address with a bank statement and utility bill real-time check. If the check is completed successfully, a verification certificate will issued to the blockchain and can be shared on the LDN application.

Note: The above new registration and verification information is in addition to existing KYC processes (see: https://github.com/filecoin-project/notary-governance/discussions/606) and is only shared with the governance team, not the Notary WG team and will not be public on the LDN application.

• LDN DataCap Github Application (https://plus.fil.org/ldn-application)
• (New) LDN Github Application Exception Proposal (https://github.com/filecoin-project/notary-governance/issues/new/choose) - this extra proposal step will provide notaries with additional transparency details needed to support the LDN application by ensuring Lead SPs are providing more information about the data, project, data allocation plan details, SPs involved, and any notaries involved
• (New) Notary WG auto assigning function - uses the current two notary approval system but randomly tags, in the GitHub application, two different notaries from the WG (via a separate multisig) at each approval step and gives them 48 Business Day Hours (Mon-Fri) to comment. Note: Any notary assigned that is involved as a client or SP in the project is asked to decline approval responsibilities. If so, an additional notary will then be assigned to take their place.
• (New) Lead SP role introduced - E-Fil+ SP applicants will fill the role of Lead SP for their project, ensuring a positive client onboarding experience. Responsibilities include:
  • Service level agreements + contracts are completed:
    • The service the client requires to support redundancy, distribution, retrieval, data security & sustainability are defined as part of application and deal making.
    • Client is bound contractually up front including clarity of consequences of system abuse.
  • Lead SP submits distribution plans as part of exemptions proposal:
    • All SP geographies, miner IDs involved (ensuring proper distribution of copies)
    • Client data transfer plan e.g. network/ offline
    • Distribution timeframes for successful onboarding of their clients
    • DataCap allocation plan:
      • details of any copy rewards for Lead SP or other parties involved in client onboarding success (Ex: 2x copies being stored by Lead SP)
      • Note: 2x in this case means two miner IDs, two locations. One copy in each location.
      • Ex: of two copies of the dataset
      • Copy 1 to SP1 (miner ID 1234)
      • Copy 2 to SP2 (miner ID 5678) - different miner and different location than SP 1
      • In the case of the 2x copies reference, it always means one copy on one miner ID and an additional copy on a different miner ID.
      • Never is it one miner ID storing multiple copies of the same CIDs

Impact

Because of the private nature of a majority of E-Fil+ datasets:

• The added solutions are meant to provide valuable opportunities for the Lead SPs and their clients to provide more details and build up adequate trustworthiness regarding the businesses and plans involved in their specific projects, ultimately enabling easier due diligence and approval decision making for any notaries involved.

Additionally, the auto assignment of two random notaries at each allocation stage is meant to:

• Create more notary accountability and make the approval process more efficient overall
• Provide a trustworthy approval process, while also limiting the number of notaries required/exposed to sensitive client data information

Timeline

The program is available starting in October 2022 to E-Fil+ SP applicants and is expected to run up to 6 months as needed to confirm validity and usefulness of E-Fil+ solutions being tested

The E-Fil+ project team will work with SP applicants on:

• Fil+ Focused Tasks

  • LDN DataCap application and exception proposal support
  • Data owner registration support
  • KYB process completion support

• Enterprise Focused Tasks

  • Support Lead SPs to collect needed client requirements and details to create a trustworthy LDN application
  • Support SPs to become "Enterprise qualified" as needed
  • Support BD/Pre-Sales efforts for Lead SPs and their clients as needed

Technical dependencies

• Once the E-Fil+ Multisig is finalized, all Notary WG members will need to be trained on any new E-Fil approval processes/expectations within GitHub
• Processes/solutions to complete data validation checks on encrypted data still need to be discussed and confirmed

End of POC checkpoint (if applicable)

• After three months:

  • Feedback regarding the processes will be collected from Data Owners, SPs, and Notaries involved
    • Focus on experience and success of each group
  • v0 of the E-Fil+ solutions being utilized will be reviewed and assessed for all active projects:
    • Value of the Registration form
    • Value of KYB solution
    • Value of exceptions proposal
    • Success of the auto assign notary approval system

• Early 2023:

  • Depending progress and outcomes of of the v0 pilot (above), v1 of the E-Fil+ program will be developed and will look to incorporate any needed requirements, enhancements, or system design changes to improve and automate the next phase of the program.

[bmcnabb25]

Thanks for putting this together @kevzak !

Couple of quick question regarding this point:
"(New) Notary WG auto assigning function - uses the current two notary approval system but randomly assigns two different notaries from the WG (via a separate multisig) at each approval step and gives them 36 hours to comment. Note: Any notary assigned that is involved as a client or SP in the project is asked to decline approval responsibilities. If so, an additional notary will then be assigned to take their place."

1. How will notaries be notified? Via slack? Via Github? something else?
2. 36 hour window - is that business hours, or total hours? If it's 36 total hours, how do weekends come into play (i.e. if someone was assigned an app on Friday, would they have to review and respond by Sunday)?

Thanks!

[kevzak]

Hi @bmcnabb25 - thanks for the feedback. I'll also ask @galen-mcandrew to chime in as I know he had a few ideas as well.

In terms of how notaries will be notified - I'm working to finalize requirements for this with the Fil+ team. We were talking about an out of the box slack integration that pushes to github, as an option. It might be a manual process for the very beginning of the pilot in a few weeks with myself slacking/tagging in github, until we get the automation setup.

Also a good Q about the 36 hour window. We can likely stick with business hours, as its more realistic. I need to talk to tech team and @dkkapur about programming those settings in.

[UnionLabs2020]

Hi Kevin, how to join Fil+ Trust and Safety team? @kevzak

[kevzak]

Hi Kevin, how to join Fil+ Trust and Safety team? @kevzak

@UnionLabs2020 - Trust and Safety is an internal team on the PL/Filecoin Foundation side. They will continue to lead the extra due diligence outside of LDN application review by notaries.

[kevzak]

Hi @bmcnabb25 - thanks for the feedback. I'll also ask @galen-mcandrew to chime in as I know he had a few ideas as well.

In terms of how notaries will be notified - I'm working to finalize requirements for this with the Fil+ team. We were talking about an out of the box slack integration that pushes to github, as an option. It might be a manual process for the very beginning of the pilot in a few weeks with myself slacking/tagging in github, until we get the automation setup.

Also a good Q about the 36 hour window. We can likely stick with business hours, as its more realistic. I need to talk to tech team and @dkkapur about programming those settings in.

@bmcnabb25 quick update: We'll make this 48 Hour Business Day window. So basically, Monday-Friday timeframe will be included. I'll update in the proposal above.

[monicatu333]

Hi Kevin, may I ask how do SPs sign for lead SP for E-Fil?

[kevzak]

Note: I'm editing information about the Lead SP bonus copy above to include:

For E-Fil+, if a "Lead" SP oversees the data onboarding for a client, they are eligible to a “lead origination bonus” where they can store 2x copies (that is: 2 different miner IDs, with each copy in different locations)

Ex: of two copies of the dataset

Copy 1 to SP1 (miner ID 1234)
Copy 2 to SP2 (miner ID 5678) - different miner and different location than SP 1

In the case of the 2x copies reference, it always means one copy on one miner ID and an additional copy on a different miner ID.

Never is it one miner ID storing multiple copies of the same CIDs