OnchainCore Infrastructureonchain
Blockfrost: Maintenance and Next Generation Indexing
Blockfrost
Two-component proposal: (1) Project Cayley — decentralized slice indexing allowing SPOs to index only the chain portions they choose, lowering infrastructure costs projected to grow 3,637-8,492% under Leios; multi-chain architecture (Cardano, Midnight, Bitcoin) via unified API. (2) Operational subsidy — treasury assumes $900K of the Blockfrost free-tier infrastructure cost that Blockfrost has self-funded since inception; free tier currently serves ~90% of all Cardano free-tier API traffic.
Ask (ADA)
7,916,666
Ask (USD)
$1,900,000
Peg
$0.24
Eff. ADA @ spot
7,180,650
Peg vs market
✓ conservative
Scorecard
13 of 19 criteria answered
Amber · 91%· pending review
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)
{
"schema_version": "1.2.0",
"id": "onchain-blockfrost-cayley-indexing",
"ingestion": {
"ingested_at": "2026-05-11T16:40:00Z",
"ingested_by": "claude-opus-4.7",
"source_documents": [
"https://www.cardanocube.com/governance/gov_actions/gov_action1w0shrfxqwv95kk0v4cn34wylz25a2cmqkq5jpc0e2yrahhqava3qwt8k9fx",
"https://ipnso-com.ipns.dweb.link/?cid=QmUdbgB3eHms52HY4oha5u2V4mrpCZkhBw2AaozeMiz8sL"
],
"extraction_notes": "Same tx batch as IO proposals (73e171a4...#7) but Blockfrost is the proposer, not IO. This creates an anomaly: the prior treasury receipts table lists IO/Blockfrost history, and the admin template matches IO proposals — suggesting Blockfrost is using the IO administrative template. Proposer_id should be 'blockfrost' not 'io-research'. HIGHEST EXPLICIT NO in this corpus (316.62M) — DReps appear strongly opposed to the operational subsidy component ($900K for free-tier infrastructure costs). The 90% free-tier claim and the cost-table for Leios data growth are the strongest demand signals. Yes is only 92.78M — 2nd lowest Yes in the IO batch. Milestone 1 is partially in the past (Q2 2026 = current)."
},
"source": {
"channels": [
"onchain"
],
"hydra_id": null,
"onchain_tx_hash": "73e171a4c0730b4b59ecae271ab89f12a9d56360b02920e1f95107dbdc1d6762",
"onchain_action_id": "gov_action1w0shrfxqwv95kk0v4cn34wylz25a2cmqkq5jpc0e2yrahhqava3qwt8k9fx"
},
"identity": {
"title": "Blockfrost: Maintenance and Next Generation Indexing",
"proposer_name": "Blockfrost",
"proposer_id": "blockfrost",
"proposer_type": "organisation",
"proposer_url": null,
"doxxed": true,
"primary_contact": null,
"team_size_disclosed": 9,
"team_size_disclosed_note": "1 project manager + 1 community coordinator + 4 engineers + 3 devops, all for 9 months. Budget split: Product/Engineering ₳3.33M (42%), Security Audits ₳833K (10.5%), Ops & Infrastructure ₳3.75M (47.4%)."
},
"classification": {
"official_pillar_primary": [
"Infrastructure & Research Excellence",
"Adoption & Utility"
],
"official_pillar_secondary": [
"Community & Ecosystem Growth",
"Ecosystem Sustainability & Resilience"
],
"official_pillar_confidence": "stated",
"working_category_suggestion": "Core Infrastructure",
"working_category_confidence": "high",
"tags": [
"blockfrost",
"indexing",
"project-cayley",
"slice-indexing",
"data-availability",
"api",
"graphql",
"bitcoin",
"midnight",
"spo-icebreakers",
"free-tier",
"operational-subsidy",
"leios-scaling"
]
},
"ask": {
"ada_amount": 7916666,
"ada_amount_note": "Two components: Project Cayley ₳4,166,666 ($1M) for new indexing architecture; operational subsidy ₳3,750,000 ($900K) for free-tier infrastructure. Security audit ₳833,333 ($200K) within Cayley allocation.",
"usd_amount": 1900000,
"usd_peg_price": 0.24,
"pegged": true,
"currency_basis": "usd_pegged",
"usd_peg_vs_market": "conservative",
"implied_buffer_pct": -8,
"duration_months": 9,
"milestone_count": 6,
"milestone_payments_disclosed": false,
"milestone_schedule_disclosed": "names_only",
"raw_ask_text": "Total funding ask: ₳7.92M ($1,900,000 at $0.24/₳). Project Cayley: $1,000,000. Operational subsidy: $900,000. Milestones: Q2 2026 (Milestone 1: Indexer first release + Milestone 2: SLA compliance); Q3 2026 (Milestone 3: Provider API Layer + Milestone 4: SLA compliance); Q4 2026 (Milestone 5: Bitcoin Indexer + Milestone 6: SLA compliance)."
},
"treasury_return": {
"has_return_clause": true,
"mechanisms": [
{
"type": "unspent_funds",
"trigger": "Funds undisbursed at end of delivery period OR partial delivery / scope reduction",
"deadline": "End of Q4 2026",
"excluded_costs": [],
"estimated_return_pct": null,
"estimated_return_pct_note": "Proportional to undelivered scope"
}
],
"treasury_favourability": "moderate",
"treasury_favourability_confidence": "high",
"treasury_favourability_note": "Standard proportional return clause. No revenue share or price-peg surplus. The operational subsidy portion ($900K) is effectively spent-on-delivery with no return pathway — if the free tier is maintained, that money is gone. Moderate rather than weak because the Cayley development component ($1M) has genuine deliverables.",
"treasury_favourability_set_by": "ai",
"raw_return_text": "All funds not disbursed by the end of the delivery period will be returned to the Cardano Treasury. In the event of partial delivery or scope reduction, unspent funds associated with cancelled or reduced deliverables will be returned proportionally."
},
"lifecycle": {
"pipeline_state": "onchain_live",
"hydra_submitted_at": null,
"hydra_close_at": null,
"hydra_support_pct": null,
"onchain_submitted_at": "2026-04-22T00:00:00Z",
"onchain_vote_close_at": "2026-05-24T00:00:00Z",
"onchain_result": null,
"status_last_checked_at": "2026-05-11T16:40:00Z"
},
"links": {
"hydra_url": null,
"adastat_url": null,
"ipfs_cid": "QmUdbgB3eHms52HY4oha5u2V4mrpCZkhBw2AaozeMiz8sL",
"ipfs_gateway_url": "https://ipnso-com.ipns.dweb.link/?cid=QmUdbgB3eHms52HY4oha5u2V4mrpCZkhBw2AaozeMiz8sL",
"github_url": null,
"website_url": null,
"forum_thread_url": null,
"other": [
{
"label": "Cardano 2030 Pillars",
"url": "https://product.cardano.intersectmbo.org/vision/strategy-2030/"
}
]
},
"content": {
"abstract": "Two-component proposal: (1) Project Cayley — decentralized slice indexing allowing SPOs to index only the chain portions they choose, lowering infrastructure costs projected to grow 3,637-8,492% under Leios; multi-chain architecture (Cardano, Midnight, Bitcoin) via unified API. (2) Operational subsidy — treasury assumes $900K of the Blockfrost free-tier infrastructure cost that Blockfrost has self-funded since inception; free tier currently serves ~90% of all Cardano free-tier API traffic.",
"problem_statement": "As Leios scales Cardano throughput, full-chain indexing costs grow from ~$3.5K to $15K-40K/year per operator. Today's model (every provider indexes the full chain) will price out smaller operators. Blockfrost has self-funded 100% of its free-tier infrastructure since inception — serving ~90% of all free-tier Cardano API traffic — and asks the treasury to assume a fair share of that cost.",
"proposed_solution": "Project Cayley: DSL 0.1 + Mandoline indexer with Cardano support (Q2 2026) → Provider API Layer via GraphQL (Q3 2026) → Bitcoin Indexer extension (Q4 2026). SPOs become 'Icebreakers' — choosing which chain slices to index and serve. Operational subsidy: 3 DevOps engineers (follow-the-sun), 1 developer for maintenance, support staff — maintaining 99.9% uptime SLA through Q4 2026.",
"deliverables": [
"Project Cayley: DSL 0.1 and Mandoline indexer MVP with Cardano support (Q2 2026)",
"Project Cayley: Provider API Layer via GraphQL (Q3 2026)",
"Project Cayley: Bitcoin Indexer (Q4 2026)",
"Project Cayley: Security audit",
"Operational subsidy: 99.9% uptime SLA maintained for free tier each quarter (Q2-Q4 2026)"
],
"milestones": [
{
"name": "M1 Indexer first release (Q2 2026)",
"deliverable": "DSL 0.1 + Mandoline indexer MVP with Cardano support",
"ada_release": null,
"deadline": "2026-06-30"
},
{
"name": "M2 SLA compliance Q2 (Q2 2026)",
"deliverable": "99.9% uptime demonstrated Q2 2026",
"ada_release": null,
"deadline": "2026-06-30"
},
{
"name": "M3 Provider API Layer (Q3 2026)",
"deliverable": "GraphQL API interface for indexed Cardano data",
"ada_release": null,
"deadline": "2026-09-30"
},
{
"name": "M4 SLA compliance Q3 (Q3 2026)",
"deliverable": "99.9% uptime demonstrated Q3 2026",
"ada_release": null,
"deadline": "2026-09-30"
},
{
"name": "M5 Bitcoin Indexer (Q4 2026)",
"deliverable": "DSL 0.1 + Mandoline extended to support Bitcoin",
"ada_release": null,
"deadline": "2026-12-31"
},
{
"name": "M6 SLA compliance Q4 (Q4 2026)",
"deliverable": "99.9% uptime demonstrated Q4 2026",
"ada_release": null,
"deadline": "2026-12-31"
}
],
"team": [],
"risks_disclosed": []
},
"metadata": {
"open_source": "partial",
"open_source_url": null,
"has_prior_funding": true,
"prior_funding_sources": [
"₳1,137,500 Blockfrost allocation from 2025 Treasury Withdrawal (88% drawn)"
],
"has_prior_delivery": true,
"prior_delivery_evidence": "Blockfrost has operated since inception, serving ~90% of free-tier Cardano API traffic. 88% drawdown of prior ₳1.14M allocation. 100+ 'Icebreaker' node operators already in the decentralized indexing network.",
"admin_model": "intersect",
"administrator_name": "Intersect",
"oversight_committee": [
"Sundae Labs",
"Cardano Foundation",
"DQuadrant",
"Xerberus",
"NMKR"
],
"administration_fee_pct": 3,
"duplicate_of_existing_solution": {
"value": "partial",
"confidence": "medium",
"set_by": "ai"
},
"duplicate_notes": "Blockfrost is the dominant incumbent in its own space (90% free-tier traffic). Competing providers exist: Koios (decentralized community-run), Maestro (commercial), Demeter (TxPipe's managed dev platform), Ogmios/Kupo (self-hosted). Cayley's decentralized slice indexing is novel vs the full-chain indexing requirement today. The operational subsidy for free-tier infrastructure is the unusual part — it creates a treasury-funded commercial subsidy, which is why DRep opposition is high."
},
"relationships": {
"bundle_with": [],
"supersedes": [],
"competes_with": [],
"depends_on": [
"onchain-io-consensus-initiative-leios"
],
"notes": "Cayley is explicitly motivated by Leios data growth projections (3,637-8,492% indexed storage growth at CIP-164 parameters) — makes it implicitly dependent on Leios being funded and deployed. Blockfrost filed under same tx batch as IO proposals but is NOT an IO proposal. CV26 explicitly includes 'decentralized API/indexer solutions for trust-minimised wallet interaction' as a research workstream in WP3 — that research complements Cayley but is separate scope."
},
"community_signals": {
"comment_count": 0,
"notable_objections": [],
"notable_endorsements": [],
"forum_thread_urls": [],
"live_voting_state": {
"as_of": "2026-05-11",
"drep_yes_ada": 92780000,
"drep_no_ada": 5630000000,
"drep_explicit_no_ada": 316620000,
"drep_no_confidence_ada": 201000000,
"drep_not_voted_ada": 5110000000,
"drep_total_active_stake_ada": 14940000000,
"cc_yes": 1,
"cc_no": 0,
"cc_not_voted": 6,
"interpretation": "FAILING. HIGHEST EXPLICIT NO IN ENTIRE CORPUS (316.62M). Yes only 92.78M — 2nd lowest in this batch. The operational subsidy component is almost certainly driving DRep opposition: DReps appear unwilling to directly fund a commercial provider's free-tier infrastructure costs, even one that serves 90% of the ecosystem."
}
},
"ecosystem_demand": {
"evidence_level": "strong",
"evidence_level_confidence": "high",
"evidence_level_set_by": "ai",
"active_users_known": true,
"active_users_examples": [
{
"name": "~90% of Cardano free-tier API users (unnamed)",
"kind": "user",
"url": null
},
{
"name": "100+ Icebreaker node operators (existing decentralized indexing network)",
"kind": "user",
"url": null
}
],
"developer_demand_signals": [
"90% of all free-tier Cardano API traffic flows through Blockfrost — structural evidence of centralized dependency",
"Leios-projected data growth makes full-chain indexing unviable at scale (cost table: 3,637-8,492% indexed storage increase at CIP-164 parameters)",
"Cayley's SPO-as-Icebreaker model has 100+ operators already in the network",
"Bitcoin + Midnight multi-chain API addresses upcoming ecosystem expansion"
],
"adoption_risk_notes": "Demand for Cayley (decentralized indexing) is strong. Demand for the operational subsidy is the contested question — DReps appear to reject the idea of treasury funding a commercial entity's free-tier costs, even if that service is ecosystem-critical."
},
"incumbents": {
"has_existing_solution": "yes",
"has_existing_solution_confidence": "high",
"has_existing_solution_set_by": "ai",
"existing_solutions": [
{
"name": "Blockfrost (existing service)",
"url": null,
"status": "maintained",
"overlap": "full",
"notes": "Blockfrost is proposing to upgrade and subsidize its own existing service — the incumbent IS the proposer. Cayley is an improvement to Blockfrost's architecture."
},
{
"name": "Koios",
"url": null,
"status": "maintained",
"overlap": "substantial",
"notes": "Community-run decentralized Cardano API. Different model (no single commercial entity) but serves similar use cases."
},
{
"name": "Maestro",
"url": null,
"status": "maintained",
"overlap": "substantial",
"notes": "Commercial Cardano API provider. Has an MCP server (maestro-mcp-server, seen in search results). Competing provider."
},
{
"name": "Demeter (TxPipe)",
"url": null,
"status": "maintained",
"overlap": "partial",
"notes": "Managed development platform for Cardano — adjacent but different product focus."
}
],
"differentiation_claim": "Project Cayley's decentralized slice indexing is technically novel — no existing Cardano indexer allows SPOs to serve partial chain slices rather than indexing the full chain. The multi-chain (Cardano + Midnight + Bitcoin) unified API is also unique.",
"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,
"failing_live_vote": true,
"operational_subsidy_controversy": true
},
"risk_flags_note": "operational_subsidy_controversy: The ₳3.75M operational subsidy for Blockfrost's own free-tier costs is the primary driver of high Explicit No (316M ADA — highest in corpus). DReps appear to distinguish between funding infrastructure development (Cayley) and subsidizing a commercial operator's service costs. failing_live_vote: Yes 92.78M vs No 5.63B, expires May 24.",
"_meta": {
"title": "Blockfrost: Maintenance and Next Generation Indexing",
"proposer": "Blockfrost"
}
}