CB-23Q2-04.1 : sBTC Stacks-Signer Management Tool UI

[will-corcoran]

Introduction:

Maintaining a well-decentralized graph of Stacks follower and mining nodes is important to the health of the Stacks network. Stacks 3.0 will require stackers to run a new signing application. Current users who are unable to securely run a signer application may be incentivized to delegate their signing responsibility. While potentially more convenient, delegating signing responsibility reduces the number of independent entities responsible for securing the sBTC threshold wallet and lowers decentralization.

Critical Bounty Mission Statement:

To address these challenges, this Critical Bounty seeks a solution that provides sBTC Stacks-Signers a simple web-app interface by which they can sign transactions related to:

• Depositing funds
• Withdrawing funds
• Casting votes
• Propose elections (related to sBTC script security, fee recovery parameters, and Nakamoto release related block production rules)

This will allow a wide range of Stackers/Signers to participate directly in the sBTC Threshold Signature protocol in a trustless manner. This application will have a high security consideration.

Functionality / Deliverables (shall include, but not be limited to):

• The sBTC Stacks-Signer Management Tool shall be a Hiro Wallet- or Stacks Connect-authenticated full-stack application consisting of:
  — Typescript React-based web front-end
  — Typescript Deno-based back-end
• The back-end business logic should be implemented in Typescript and provide for wrapper Rust library and binary to spawn the serving process.
• The user’s wallet would sign a message provided by the back-end providing proof-of-knowledge of the Stacking address private key.
• Communication between front-end and back-end applications to be mediated via HTTPS
• The sBTC Stacks-Signer Management Tool shall comply with sBTC-related requirements including, but not limited to:
• Ability to monitor sBTC Stacks-Signer health and metrics via RPC-API
• Ability to provide secure access control to Stacks-Signers via password or cookies, similar to Bitcoin-node and/or Stacks-node RPC API’s
• The sBTC Stacks-Signer Management Tool code repository shall provide:
  — Full documentation
  — Integration tests
  — Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment infrastructure via Github Actions
• Rust integration:
  — rustfmt, rustc, tests
  — Documentation and publishing to docs.rs
  — Crate publishing to crates.io
• Product 'roadshow', feedback, and improvements: All recipients will be responsible for demonstrating functionality, championing early adoption, gathering feedback, and making one to two rounds of high-impact, feedback-based improvements.

Required Knowledge / Skills:

• Demonstrable experience building full-stack applications using Typescript and React or Svelte
• Strong familiarity with Rust
• Familiarity with Dune is helpful, but not required

References:

1. sBTC Whitepaper
2. Stacks Nakamoto Release Whitepaper
3. sBTC project dashboard
4. Clarinet Docs (reference for design system req’d for Typescript applications wrapped within a Rust application)
5. TM Repo (code & documentation standard)

Critical Bounty Fee:

• Maximum Fee: $26,000

Reviewers / Advisors:

Igor Sylvester, Core Engineering Lead, Trust Machines
Mike Cohen, EcosystemDAO
Andre Serrano, sBTC Resident and sBTC Go To Market Working Group Lead
Jesse Wiley, Integration and Security Lead, Stacks Foundation
Kenny Rogers, Developer Advocate, Stacks Foundation
Will Corcoran, Grants Lead, Stacks Foundation

Additional Comments:

Recipient will be expected to attend sBTC Core Engineering Working Group calls while the bounty is in development and provide weekly updates.

APPLY HERE

---

NOTES ABOUT CRITICAL BOUNTIES:

If you have thoughts, questions, or comments on the rough outline for this Critical Bounty above, please comments below.

Please note, all 2023 Q2 Critical Bounties that have funding approved for them will be moved to the Issues page (here) on Tuesday 03/21/2023.

Some procedural items to keep in mind with 2023 Q2 Critical Bounties:

1. Each Critical Bounty will have a pre-approved minimum and maximum budget listed within the issue.
2. All applications will be submitted via a BlockSurvey which will be linked within the Issue.
3. Applications will be open from 03/21/2023 to 04/03/2023.
4. Critical Bounty applications will be reviewed by relevant members of the sBTC Core Engineering Team and technical staff from the Stacks Foundation.
5. The selected recipient will be the low, qualified bidder (in the eyes of the reviewers).
6. Selected Critical Bounty recipients will be announced on 04/07/2023 and will be expected to start work immediately and attend sBTC Core Engineering meetings to provide weekly updates on their work.

[will-corcoran]

Congrats on being awarded this Critical Bounty @setbern

This discussion thread should be used for all payment requests for your grant. Please follow these steps:

• Create a Gitbook for your project (watch this video for details on how)
• Once you complete a milestone, update your Gitbook and post a message below summarizing which milestone was completed and the updates you made to your Gitbook.
• When you post your request please tag @will-at-stacks
• Once I have a chance to review your deliverables I will begin the process of disbursing the associated payment.

Your CB fee of $26k will be paid out in (2) $13k payments at the following milestones:

1. At contract signing
2. Substantial Completion

Work with @Macxim

[igorsyl]

@will-at-stacks : Can we add @jferrant as a reviewer given she's leading the signer tool from the protocol side?

[will-corcoran]

@setbern just a reminder to request payments here. let me know when you are ready for the next disbursement.

[setbern]

Notifying of completion for next disbursement. With the core user journey working with auto generated mocked data. The app still requires plugging in too the alpha back end which I've been collaborating with trust machine team on a consistent basis.

What's Completed

• Generated request model from initial version of the signer-api
• Displaying all request
• Filtering top level type of request
• Approving a request that requires manual approval
• Rejecting a request that requires manual rejection
• Reviewing detailed data regarding specific transaction
• Keeping a running state of transactions that come in

What's Missing -> Why

• Real request to stress test. A deployed signer-api which the client app can connect to and respond/manage request.
• Configuration. While this will be minimal at initial iteration, working with Trust machine team for drafts of the configuration schema/mocked.

Below I've linked the repo, a video demo & a live link for anyone to try out. Outside of development items that are blocking further advancement my main focus until unblocked is gather client feedback from the community and possible users (pool operators, stackers, etc). From the feedback we have received, we've learned about some features that could improve the app & allow for greater adoption. (Improved delegation, public facing signer metrics are some examples)

I've greatly enjoyed working with the Grant & Trust Machine teams to help push this forward & looking forward to building a great product.

Repo

Video demo

Site live demo

[igorsyl]

Thank you, @setbern, for your dedication to this grant. Working with you has been a pleasure, and I look forward to working with you again!

[Macxim]

@setbern Could you please edit the link to the repository? There's a small typo in it.
Thanks for your work on this!
Is there going to be further work regarding design implementation?