Hi Antoine, Thank you for bringing this proposal to the Apache Incubator. So I gladly give my +1.
Having a background in accounting and being one of the Apache OFBiz contributors I am very interested in blockchain technology, while being very interested in applying its functionalities in an ERP setting like Apache OFBiz is. While the Apache Trafodion project was in incubation I was very much involved in helping (mentoring) that project towards graduation, which it has successively done. I would like to help out as one of the mentors, and as a contributor/committer (of the other kind). Best regards, Pierre Smits *Apache Trafodion <https://trafodion.apache.org>, Vice President & PMC Chair* *Apache Directory <https://directory.apache.org>, PMC Member* Apache Incubator <https://incubator.apache.org>, committer *Apache OFBiz <https://ofbiz.apache.org>, contributor (without privileges) since 2008* Apache Steve <https://steve.apache.org>, committer On Tue, Feb 5, 2019 at 11:42 PM Antoine Toulme <anto...@toulme.name> wrote: > Hi all, > > We’d like to start a conversation around a new proposal for a set of > Java-based blockchain project. > > I have written a proposal available here, and reproduced below: > https://wiki.apache.org/incubator/CavaProposal < > https://wiki.apache.org/incubator/CavaProposal> > > At this time, we have a champion, Jim Jagielski (thanks Jim), and would > like to recruit additional developers and mentors. > > We have deliberately left room on the project charter to engage openly > with the community. That said, we would start the project with code coming > from ConsenSys, and we will recruit developers from there and elsewhere > actively. > > The goal of this thread is engage with the community and gather interest > for participation in the project. Please let us know what you think! > > Cheers, > > Antoine Toulme > > == Abstract == > Cava is a set of libraries and other tools to aid development of > blockchain and other decentralized software in Java and other JVM languages. > > Please note: Cava is a contraction of "ConsenSys Java". The community > should consider an alternate name. > > = Proposal = > > Cava is a set of libraries and other tools to aid development of > blockchain and other decentralized software in Java and other JVM languages. > It includes a low-level bytes library, serialization and deserialization > codecs (e.g. RLP), various cryptography functions and primatives, and lots > of other helpful utilities. > Cava is developed for JDK 1.8 or higher, and depends on various other FOSS > libraries. > > === Background === > > Cava was built as an open source project from the grounds up to accelerate > the maturation of the blockchain ecosystem, particularly in relation with > enterprise products predominantly built in Java. > Cava is used by several products today: Orion, Pantheon, and Artemis from > Pegasys. > > Cava libraries are also used in various experiments regarding scalability, > such as Canto. > > Several other community members would want to leverage Cava and would > benefit from working directly on the project outside of the influence of > the original corporate sponsor, ConsenSys. > > === Rationale === > > Cava is organized as set of libraries that form the basis of most > blockchain, distributed ledgers or cryptography work. > > Most of the work built for Cava was meant for Ethereum, but can be reused > across other blockchain technologies. > > There is a need for blockchain implementors to use well trusted, > production-ready software to bootstrap their efforts. > > === Initial Goals === > > The goal is to form a community of developers and adopters who will be > able to collaborate openly around blockchain technologies and mature > frameworks > to reduce risk when implementing blockain-related projects. > > === Current Status === > > The project is well established and counts 2 active committers. Some > contributions were made from the community. > > The project has made several releases, distributed through Maven Central, > with GPG signatures and proper Maven metadata published. > > '''Meritocracy:''' > > Active discussions on github issues and PRs has helped identify new > possible commiters. > > Our main goal, moving to Apache is to promote our project as a meritocracy > under the guideline of the Apache Way to help foster a community around our > efforts. > > * '''Community:''' > > Blockchain protocol developers organize well in communities, and some > lively discussions take place over Twitter, Gitter, Telegram. > > We would like to create a community for dedicated Java developers to > contribute to the blockchain space. > > We currently have a little activity through the channels mentioned above, > but no channel dedicated specifically to Cava is seeing a lot of traction. > > * '''Core Developers:''' > > Cava was built by two developers with a long experience in open source > work. Both lead separate open source projects. > One of the developers is the PMC Chair for Apache Buildr and a committer > for Apache ODE. > > * '''Alignment:''' > > We believe there isn't a blockchain TLP for Java at Apache at this time > and would like to participate in establishing a presence in that domain of > expertise. > > We would rely and integrate closely with a number of projects hosted by > the ASF such as Apache Camel. > > '''Known Risks''' > > * '''Orphaned products''': > > The contributors are committed to the development of the blockchain space > and are employed by a leading vendor in blockchain. > > The source code is used in a production setting by critical projects. > > However, the number of initial developers and contributors is small, and > we will need to ramp up our recruitment efforts. > > * '''Inexperience with Open Source:''' > > The project was started from scratch as an open source project. All > committers have experience with open source projects. > > We did not make the effort of creating a detailed roadmap and organizing a > collaborative approach to reaching to the community for feedback. > We aim to rely on the ASF infrastructure, especially Jira, to help create > more visibility in this regard. > > * '''Length of Incubation:''' > > We will remain in incubation for a period of no less than a year so we > can properly invest and build a community of users, contributors and > committers around our goals. > > * '''Homogenous Developers:''' > > The current list of committers is made of folks working or having worked > for the same company. > We will aggressively expand to new populations of developers, from a > geographical and domain perspective. > > We believe there is a category of enterprise Java developers who are not > experimenting with blockchain technologies because it looks immature or is > built in other languages. > We believe addressing this gap will help create a healthy community around > the project. > > * '''Reliance on Salaried Developers''': > > The project is made first and foremost of volunteers. One of the initial > committers is salaried by one of the sponsors. > > Given the level of interest into the project, we firmly believe the > project would continue without salaried developers contributing to the > project. > > * '''Relationships with Other Apache Products:''' > > We will work with other Apache and open source projects to help ensure we > offer developers using our framework a cohesive approach to building > blockchain middleware products. > Currently the project doesn't have strong tie ins to other Apache > projects, but we will investigate how to strenghten our relationships with > middleware integration projects such as Apache Camel, queues and transport > projects such as Apache Kafka, and database projects such as Apache Ignite > and Apache Cassandra. > > * '''A Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand:''' > > We rely on the Apache Way to help bake in the best community around our > project. We are educated about the sensitivity of the Apache brand and how > to best preserve it. > We will make sure to work with the Incubator PMC and the PRC to ensure > the brand policies are respected. > > '''Documentation''' > > You can read more about Cava at our current github repository: > https://www.github.com/consensys/Cava > > We publish as part of each build a complete project documentation in Dokka > and Javadoc formats: > https://consensys.github.io/cava/docs/kotlin/0.6.0/cava/ > > '''Initial Source''' > > All initial source is under the git repository present at > https://www.github.com/consensys/Cava. > > The source is under Apache License v2.0. All source files have headers > with a copyright notice. > > All contributors have signed a ICLA to assign copyright to ConsenSys, AG. > > > '''Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan''' > > The source is under Apache License v2.0. All source files have headers > with a copyright notice. > > All contributors have signed a ICLA to assign copyright to ConsenSys, AG. > > We have no web properties (domain names or hosted content) outside of the > github repository and the bintray repository. > > '''External Dependencies''': > > The dependencies all have Apache compatible licenses. These include > BSD, CDDL, CPL, MPL and MIT licensed dependencies. > A report of the dependencies is compiled and checked for valid licenses > for each build, the latest is: > > https://851-137528592-gh.circle-artifacts.com/0/reports/license/license-dependency.html > > > '''Cryptography''' > > The proposal involves cryptographic code directly and indirectly. > > '''Required Resources''': > > * '''Mailing lists:''' > > * priv...@cava.incubator.apache.org (with moderated subscriptions) > * d...@cava.incubator.apache.org > * us...@cava.incubator.apache.org > * comm...@cava.incubator.apache.org > > * '''Subversion Directory:''' > > https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/cava > > * '''Git Repositories:''' > > https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator-cava.git > > * '''Issue Tracking:''' > > JIRA Cava (CAVA) > > '''Initial Committers''' > > Antoine Toulme (toulmean at apache dot org) * > > '''Interested Developers''' > > TBD > > '''Sponsors''' > > ConsenSys would sponsor this project. > > * '''Champion:''' > > Jim Jagielski ( jim at apache dot org ) > > * '''Nominated Mentors:''' > > Jim Jagielski ( jim at apache dot org ) > > * '''Sponsoring Entity''': > > TBD - the incubator? > >
