Agora: Verifiable Off-chain compute

[NikhilKottoli]

Project Abstract

Agora is a Polkadot parachain template extended with a verifiable computation marketplace. It enables parachains to outsource off‑chain jobs (API fetches, computations) to a network of staked workers. Results are verified on‑chain using a crypto‑economic commit‑reveal game. Cross‑parachain requests and result delivery use XCM.

By requiring workers to stake DOT as collateral, Agora rewards honest workers and slashes dishonest ones. The marketplace addresses a critical gap in Polkadot's infrastructure: while parachains excel at consensus and state management, they lack a standardized way to outsource computation-heavy or I/O-intensive tasks trustlessly. Rather than each parachain building isolated solutions or paying external cloud providers, Agora enables specialization and resource sharing across the ecosystem

Grant level

• Level 1: Up to $10,000, 2 approvals
• Level 2: Up to $30,000, 3 approvals
• Level 3: Unlimited, 5 approvals (for >$100k: Web3 Foundation Council approval)

Application Checklist

• The application template has been copied and aptly renamed (project_name.md).
• I have read the application guidelines.
• Payment details have been provided (Polkadot AssetHub (USDC & DOT) address in the application and bank details via email, if applicable).
• I understand that an agreed upon percentage of each milestone will be paid in vested DOT, to the Polkadot address listed in the application.
• I am aware that, in order to receive a grant, I (and the entity I represent) have to successfully complete a KYC/KYB check.
• The software delivered for this grant will be released under an open-source license specified in the application.
• The initial PR contains only one commit (squash and force-push if needed).
• The grant will only be announced once the first milestone has been accepted (see the announcement guidelines).
• I prefer the discussion of this application to take place in a private Element/Matrix channel. My username is: @_______:matrix.org (change the homeserver if you use a different one)

[github-actions]

CLA Assistant Lite bot All contributors have signed the CLA ✍️ ✅

[NikhilKottoli]

I have read and hereby sign the Contributor License Agreement.

[NikhilKottoli]

Hey the MR was marked as stale, is something pending from my side?

[PieWol]

Hey @NikhilKottoli ,

No worries. Simply due to the fact that most of the team was out of office during the holidays, we missed the expected review timeline that the bot is expecting. Thus the "stale" label. I'll remove it and go ahead with the review.

[NikhilKottoli]

Hi @PieWol ,
Wanted to check if there’s any update on the review, or if any changes are needed from my side. Happy to address them.

Thanks.

[PieWol]

Hey @NikhilKottoli ,
Congrats on winning the Hackathon! 🎉

I'm very sorry for the long delay. Unfortunately your grant proposal does not align with our updated grant guidelines. We have moved away from funding purely technical infrastructure focussed projects and reduced our funding for external teams as a whole with Parity's shift to a product vision.

Nevertheless, thank you very much for the detailed writeup. I'd like to see your vision come to life and be successful but sadly we will not be able to help you on this journey. I want to emphasize that this decision is motivated by a shift in our guidelines and not a reflection of your work quality. I hope you will manage to get funding through different means. All the best going forward!

Let me know if you have any questions.