Security Threat Assessment Guard (STAG): Continuous Security Assurance for the Cardano Ecosystem
Ensurable Systems Ltd (consortium: ES, QuviQ AB, PNSol, Well Typed LLP)
ID: 69e90478d699758cde5d4a5e
This programme exists because no other programme does. Cardano is now a multi-client blockchain. Amaru is enacted; Dingo and Gerolamo are in active development; Leios will introduce further implementation surface. Wherever two independent implementations handle a consensus edge case, a state transition, or a mini-protocol message differently, an exploitable inconsistency exists — invisible to any review examining a single node. That is the class of vulnerability STAG is built to find. STAG is an independent, continuous red team programme for the full Cardano protocol stack: UPLC smart contract execution, compiler toolchains, ledger rules, consensus, peer-to-peer networking, wallet interfaces, and mainnet performance monitoring. All critical findings are reported within 24 hours under responsible disclosure to the Security Council and relevant development teams. The programme costs $1,972,622 over 18 months — approximately $110,000 per month for continuous, full-stack adversarial analysis by the original protocol architects, across four independent organisations: QuviQ AB, Predictable Network Solutions, Well Typed LLP, and Ensurable Systems. Community opt-out checkpoints at Month 6 and Month 12 give DReps oversight throughout without locking in an 18-month commitment from day one. Community treasury funding — not IOG, the Cardano Foundation, or Intersect — is the structural basis of STAG's independence. An adversarial security team whose funding runs through the institutions whose code it tests faces pressures that compromise adversarial thinking. Community funding removes those pressures. All deliverables are dedicated to the public domain under CC0. The sandboxed AI tooling infrastructure is handed over to Intersect at programme end for use by any successor programme.
Scorecard
How this score works
Each criterion is worth between 1 and 4 points. The score is the points earned out of the points on criteria that have been answered — shown as a percentage. Green is 75% or higher, Amber is 50–74%, and Red is below 50%.
Some criteria are checked automatically against the proposal data (open source, doxxed team, treasury return clauses, etc.). Others are human-judgment calls — value for money, public good, whether the deliverables are realistic. Those stay blank until a DRep ticks them.
Criteria can also be marked Not applicablewhen they don't fit the proposal — for example, "open source" doesn't apply to a DAO governance proposal with no software output. Those are excluded from the score entirely, neither helping nor hurting.
Green requires 80% coverage. If less than 80% of the applicable criteria (by points) have been answered, the verdict stays at Amber — "pending review" — even when every answered criterion passes. This proposal's coverage is currently 68% (13 of 19 applicable criteria answered). The auto-calculated band would have been Green, but coverage is below the threshold so the verdict is shown as Amber to flag that judgment criteria are still pending.
Vote intent
Export & audit
↓ Download scorecard.mdRaw payload · Treasury (true) / Admin (intersect)
{
"_meta": {
"schema_version": "1.2.0",
"ingested_at": "2026-05-11",
"ingested_by": "ai",
"proposal_id": "69e90478d699758cde5d4a5e",
"title": "Security Threat Assessment Guard (STAG): Continuous Security Assurance for the Cardano Ecosystem",
"proposer": "Ensurable Systems Ltd (consortium: ES, QuviQ AB, PNSol, Well Typed LLP)"
},
"id": "hydra-stag-continuous-security-assurance",
"title": "Security Threat Assessment Guard (STAG): Continuous Security Assurance for the Cardano Ecosystem",
"proposer": "Ensurable Systems Ltd (consortium: ES, QuviQ AB, PNSol, Well Typed LLP)",
"administrator": "Intersect",
"identity": {
"doxxed": true,
"doxxed_notes": "Kevin Hammond PhD, Philipp Kant PhD, Duncan Coutts, Neil Davies, John Hughes (QuviQ founder), Ulf Norell — all publicly named with verifiable credentials."
},
"ask": {
"total_ada": 7890487,
"usd_equivalent": 1972622,
"usd_peg": 0.25,
"usd_peg_vs_market": "neutral",
"duration_months": 18,
"milestone_payments_disclosed": true,
"milestone_schedule_disclosed": "amounts_and_dates",
"work_packages": [
{
"id": "WP1",
"title": "UPLC & Smart Contract Execution Layer Security",
"ada": 1550000
},
{
"id": "WP2",
"title": "Compiler Toolchain Security",
"ada": 956667
},
{
"id": "WP3",
"title": "Ledger Security & Specification",
"ada": 1170000
},
{
"id": "WP4",
"title": "Consensus & Network Protocol Security",
"ada": 785000
},
{
"id": "WP5",
"title": "CLI Security, Risk Assessment, AI Tooling & Reporting",
"ada": 849000
},
{
"id": "WP6",
"title": "Wallet & Client Security",
"ada": 875000
},
{
"id": "WP7",
"title": "Mainnet Performance Monitoring & Operational Assurance",
"ada": 1475000
},
{
"id": "admin",
"title": "Intersect Budget Administration Fee",
"ada": 229820
}
]
},
"metadata": {
"open_source": "yes",
"has_prior_delivery": true,
"prior_delivery_notes": "ES/WT/PNSol/QuviQ have individual track records on Cardano codebase (hard forks, consensus, formal methods, QuickCheck). No prior STAG programme specifically — this is a new initiative.",
"admin_model": "intersect",
"duplicate_of_existing_solution": {
"value": "no",
"confidence": "high",
"set_by": "ai"
}
},
"treasury_return": {
"has_return_clause": true,
"return_description": "Unspent ADA from exchange rate upside returned at project close. Early termination (Month 6 or 12 opt-out) returns all undisbursed ADA immediately.",
"treasury_favourability": "moderate"
},
"ecosystem_demand": {
"evidence_level": "strong",
"evidence_level_confidence": "high",
"evidence_level_set_by": "ai",
"active_users_known": true,
"active_users_examples": [
{
"name": "Cardano mainnet / all SPOs and dApp users",
"kind": "user"
},
{
"name": "Intersect (Security Council, TSC)",
"kind": "integrator",
"url": "https://intersectmbo.org"
}
],
"developer_demand_signals": [
"November 2025 chain partition (14.5hr mainnet disruption) directly demonstrates the risk class STAG targets",
"Amaru, Dingo, Gerolamo alternative nodes in active development — cross-implementation divergence risk is real and growing",
"Anthropic April 2026 Mythos disclosure confirms AI-assisted vulnerability discovery is a live offensive threat",
"Ethereum and Solana operate continuous red teams; Cardano does not — documented gap",
"UPLC compiler toolchains, ledger CDDL schemas, and wallet libraries have not been independently adversarially audited"
],
"adoption_risk_notes": "Demand is structural/existential rather than market-driven. The November 2025 incident and multi-client roadmap create unambiguous need. Primary adoption risk is governance continuity (Month 6/12 opt-out checkpoints are a feature, not a risk)."
},
"incumbents": {
"has_existing_solution": "partial",
"has_existing_solution_confidence": "high",
"has_existing_solution_set_by": "ai",
"existing_solutions": [
{
"name": "IOG internal security/performance team",
"status": "in_progress",
"overlap": "partial",
"notes": "IOG conducts internal testing but outputs are not public, not independent, and not designed as adversarial red-teaming across all node implementations."
},
{
"name": "Intersect bug bounty programme",
"url": "https://intersectmbo.org",
"status": "in_progress",
"overlap": "partial",
"notes": "Reactive bug bounty, not continuous proactive adversarial analysis. Complementary, not a substitute."
}
],
"differentiation_claim": "Independent, continuous, full-stack adversarial red team funded by community (not IOG/CF/Intersect) — covers UPLC, compilers, ledger, consensus, networking, wallets, and mainnet performance monitoring. No equivalent exists.",
"differentiation_credibility": "high"
},
"risk_flags": {
"aggressive_peg": false,
"self_administered_no_oversight": false,
"incumbent_already_delivering": false,
"no_evidence_of_demand": false,
"competes_with_in_batch": false,
"concentration_risk": false
},
"source": {
"hydra_id": "69e90478d699758cde5d4a5e",
"channels": [
"hydra"
]
}
}