About 🪡 NCN Track (Jito & Fragmetric)

Cook with us in the Jito (re)Staking track and leverage JitoSOL or other SPL tokens to secure your node consensus network (NCN). By developing an NCN, you can develop novel consensus mechanisms for use cases such as DePIN, oracles, and bridging, seamlessly manage administrative authorities for your protocol, and harness Jito Network effects, including working with professional node operators and Fragmetric, to build utility on Solana.

📝 Notes from Seoulana Hackathon:

• Every project must apply for the Grand Prize — this is required!

• Hackers can also apply to multiple sponsor tracks, but only after submitting to the Grand Prize first.

📌 Example:
Once you're done preparing your submission, submit to the Grand Prize track first,
then go ahead and apply to any sponsor tracks you’re interested in.

Prizes

🥇 $4,000

🥈 $2,000

🥉 $1,000

NCN track ideas

1. On-chain cron job (permissionless cranker) (e.g. clockwork)

   1. A network oversees a periodic job queue and sends txns to complete tasks (such as updating data structures, managing defi positions, etc.)

      1. You don’t want one node managing tasks. You want multiple nodes

      2. But you also don’t want thousands of nodes because you don’t want every node sending a txn to crank everything 

      3. Therefore, you need some kind of coordination between nodes and a way for the network to check each other’s work (perhaps a leader schedule):

         1. If they do the work at the right time, then they get rewarded 

         2. If they do not, they don’t get rewards, or they get slashed

   2. Sunsetted clockwork code

2. Geographic location by IP 

   1. Use cases/clients

      1. Stakenet, DoubleZero, DePIN (Pipe)

   2. A service that figures out where IP addresses are in the world, without relying on permissioned databases such as maxmind

      1. Problem with permissioned solutions like maxmind 

         1. They have to maintain a manual ledger of where everything is 

         2. But companies like google are always moving things around so databases are out of date

   3. Solution: A probe network (like Ipinfo)

      1. Spin up a bunch of servers around the world 

      2. Ping IPs (people request location of an IP and then probes ping it)

   4. Build on-chain Ipinfo using restaking

      1. Users request IP address locations 

      2. They pay a fee for each request

      3. This fee gets distributed to nodes that fulfill requests 

      4. Restaked nodes ping IP in question, and upload info on-chain (or somewhere else)

      5. Maybe location is a stake-weighted average of how much stake the operator has 

      6. Node get slashed if they are uploaded bad locations 

3. VRT ideas 

   1. “Sanctum for VRTs”: allow operators to create a VRT that just delegates to that operator, for all the NCNs its running, and make some shared liquidity pool for them

   2. Borrow-lend + looping for VRTs

4. Storage solutions (i.e. filecoin)

   1. Store data across a bunch of servers and retrieve it

      1. Especially for ledger data 

      2. Solana ledger is huge (~300 terabytes)

   2. Sharded blocks from all of solana history across a network of operators

   3. Operators prove they are storing the blocks by posting a hash of a random slice of their data, which is then verified by other operators that store the same data

   4. Slashed / punished for missing or incorrect data

5. (re)StakeNet:

   1. StakeNet takes permissioned management of JitoSOL and turn it into an on-chain program 

      1. You have a set of solana validators from which a subset subset is added to JitoSOL stakepool

      2. Need to continuously delegate stake to whatever distribution you want (and unstake)

      3. You need high quality info about node operators on-chain 

      4. You need logic to take in that information and distribute it accordingly 

   2. Rebuild StakeNet for VRTs ie (re)StakeNe: a basic program for on-chain management of operator delegations

      1. You have a set of restaked operators and figure out which node operators are added to which VRTs 

      2. Need to continuously delegate stake to according to whatever distribution criteria you want (and unstake)

      3. You need high quality on-chain info about restaked node operators 

      4. You need logic to take in that information and distribute VRTs accordingly 

6. Insurance protocol 

   1. People contribute an asset to a pool for rewards from the protocol that they’re insuring 

   2. If there’s an exploit, or a bug, you can have operators that agree on what happened and decide whether to distribute claims using funds from vault

   3. Validators could look at on-chain data or something else, to achieve consensus on incident and therefore payouts

7. Proof of compute 

   1. decentralized computation for AI and machine learning tasks

   2. secures nodes that perform inference, data labeling, or distributed model training, incentivizing reliable computation.

      1. Stake assets to secure nodes that provide computation services.

      2. Ensure nodes are delivering accurate computations.

      3. Builders leverage AI services while ensuring data integrity and reliability. Example:

8. Cross-Chain Oracle Network

   1. An NCN that provides real-time data feeds across multiple blockchains, enhancing DeFi protocols, NFT pricing, and lending platforms. Restakers provide economic security to nodes fetching and verifying off-chain data.

      1. Secure oracle nodes by restaking JitoSOL or USDC.

      2. Ensure data accuracy and reliability.

      3. More secure, high-performance oracle networks for cross-chain DeFi.

9. Decentralized Solver Networks

   1. An NCN that provides solver services for AMMs, lending protocols, and liquid staking platforms. Solvers optimize trading paths, rebalance liquidity pools, and minimize impermanent loss.

      1. Provide economic security for solver nodes.

      2. Ensure solvers operate honestly and efficiently.

      3. Enhanced liquidity optimization for DeFi platforms. Example:

10. Privacy-Preserving Compute Network

    1. An NCN offering privacy-preserving computations for sensitive data (e.g., healthcare, finance). Nodes use zero-knowledge proofs or multi-party computation, secured by Jito’s restaking infrastructure.

       1. Back nodes providing secure, private computations.

       2. Verify computation results without compromising privacy.

       3. Secure, private computations in DeFi and beyond. Example:

11. Carbon Credit Verification Network

    1. An NCN that verifies and tracks carbon credits on-chain. Jito’s (Re)Staking secures nodes responsible for validating carbon offset projects and maintaining accurate data.

       1. Support verification nodes.

       2. Ensure accurate tracking and verification of carbon credits.

       3. Decentralized sustainability initiatives on Solana. Example:

12. Runtime things 

    1. Keccak signatures for Bitcoin / Ethereum bridge

       1. Upload and verify bitcoin / ethereum txns on solana