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Web3 Energy level-2 grant applicaiton.
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‎applications/web3-energy.md‎

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# W3CP Core: Polkadot-Anchored Device Identity for Real-World Energy Infrastructure
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- **Team Name:** Web3 Energy Ltd.
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- **Contact Name:** Y. Boev
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- **Contact Email:** contact@web3-energy.com
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- **Level:** 2
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- **Total Costs:** 30,000 USD
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- **Payment Address (DOT):** 5HQeazrFTcG6zjgCRu74hUiWRJ2zBAuvV6PXHhUwsgjjHC3u
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- **Payment Address (USDC, Polkadot Asset Hub):** 5HQeazrFTcG6zjgCRu74hUiWRJ2zBAuvV6PXHhUwsgjjHC3u
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---
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## Project Overview :page_facing_up:
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### Overview
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**Tagline:**
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Polkadot-anchored decentralized identities for charge points, vehicles, and energy infrastructure.
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**Brief Description:**
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Web3 Energy Ltd. is building W3CP (Web3 Charging Protocol), an identity-first protocol for EV charging and energy infrastructure.
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This proposal requests a Level 2 grant to deliver a Polkadot-anchored device identity verification core that enables real-world infrastructure devices to authenticate without centralized allowlists or pre-registration.
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---
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### Motivation & Real-World Context
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Electric vehicles and charging infrastructure are transitioning from closed ecosystems to **open, heterogeneous networks** involving multiple manufacturers, operators, and jurisdictions.
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In this environment:
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- Charge points must authenticate without fragile backend allowlists
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- Vehicles must identify themselves across vendors and borders
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- Infrastructure lifecycles span 10–20+ years
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- Regulatory and security requirements continue to increase
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**Identity is the missing layer across the entire charging stack — from vehicles and charge points down to embedded meters that must cryptographically sign and attest measured values — while backend systems remain verifiers, not trust anchors.**
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Web3 Energy’s core belief is:
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- Cars need identities
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- Charge points need identities
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- Independent meters inside charge points need identities to sign and attest measured values
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- Infrastructure needs verifiable, long-lived identities
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- Backends should not be the root of trust
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Polkadot provides a uniquely suitable foundation:
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- **Native, addressable runtime storage**, enabling deterministic, constant-time verification of identity and attestation state without block scanning or external indexers
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- **Long-term governance and upgradeability**, allowing trust and attestation models to evolve over time without breaking deployed infrastructure
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- **Neutral, non-vendor-controlled trust**, suitable for multi-operator and multi-jurisdiction infrastructure
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- **Strong cryptographic and economic guarantees**, aligned with long-lived physical devices
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This foundation allows the project to start with a minimal, production-ready verification model, while enabling more advanced governance-based trust and attester models to be introduced in later phases.
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---
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### Current State & Proof of Concept
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Web3 Energy already operates a **working proof-of-concept**, including:
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- A **publicly accessible backend** implementing the W3CP protocol
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- A **user-facing UI** (public access via Gmail login)
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- A **public charge-point simulator / reference firmware**, implementing the W3CP device handshake
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- A **public W3CP protocol specification**
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- An initial **Polkadot-based identity proof-of-concept deployed on the Westend testnet**, which will be **open-sourced as part of this grant**
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In the current PoC:
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- Device identities are available to the backend at connection time
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- Polkadot is used experimentally to anchor and validate identity data
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- Verification logic demonstrates feasibility, but is not yet production-grade
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This grant focuses on **strengthening this PoC**, formalizing the identity model, and upgrading it to a **real DID-based verification flow** suitable for mainnet usage.
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---
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## Project Details
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### Core Concept
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The project delivers a **verified connection flow** where:
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- A device connects to a backend **without being pre-registered**
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- The backend **does not store a static device allowlist**
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- The device presents a decentralized identity (DID)
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- The backend verifies the DID **in real time against Polkadot**
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- The connection is upgraded to **VERIFIED** only after successful proof
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- Invalid or unknown identities are **explicitly rejected**
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Compared to the existing PoC, this grant introduces:
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- A formal DID model
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- Real-time attestation checks
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- Clear separation between backend logic and identity verification
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- A migration path from Westend to Polkadot mainnet
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This pattern is applicable beyond EV charging:
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- IoT
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- DePIN
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- Energy infrastructure
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- Industrial systems
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---
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### Attesters & Trust Assumptions (Scope Clarification)
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For the scope of this grant, **device attestations are assumed to be issued by a small, known set of bootstrap attesters**.
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- Attesters are represented by cryptographic keys whose public identifiers are **anchored on Polkadot**
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- The identity sidecar verifies:
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- the device’s cryptographic proof of key ownership
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- the validity of the attestation
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- the presence of the attester reference in on-chain state
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- The backend itself does **not** maintain issuer or device allowlists and derives trust exclusively from on-chain verification results
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**Governance mechanisms for permissionless attester admission, registrar workflows, deposits, slashing, or reputation systems are intentionally out of scope for this grant** and are planned as future work once the core verification flow is production-ready.
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---
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### Architecture (High-Level)
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- **Device / Simulator:** Implements W3CP handshake and cryptographic proof
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- **Polkadot Identity Sidecar (Open-Source):**
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- Resolves device DIDs
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- Verifies signatures
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- Validates attestations in real time against Polkadot
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- **Backend (Reference Integration):**
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- Performs live verification
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- Does not maintain a device registry
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- **Demo UI:** Visualizes verified vs rejected connections
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The backend trusts **on-chain state**, not its own database.
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![W3CP Polkadot-Anchored Device Identity Verification Flow](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/web3-energy/polkadot/main/polkadot-trust.svg)
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---
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### Technology Stack
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- **Backend:** Java (Quarkus)
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- **CP-Firmware** Java, open-source
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- **Identity Sidecar:** Node.js, open-source
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- **Frontend:** Web UI (Vue.js, hosted on AWS CloudFront; publicly accessible, Google Auth)
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- **Infrastructure:** AWS
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- **Blockchain:** Polkadot (Westend for proof-of-concept, mainnet-ready design)
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- **Cryptography:** Standard public-key signatures, challenge–response authentication, and cryptographic hashes
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No proprietary cryptographic primitives are introduced.
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---
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## Ecosystem Fit
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### Why This Matters to Polkadot
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- Demonstrates **real-world device identity usage** in production-like environments
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- Aligns with **DePIN, IoT, and decentralized identity** verticals
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- Creates **tangible Polkadot usage** through on-chain identity anchoring
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- Positions Polkadot as an **invisible but critical infrastructure layer** for physical systems
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- Provides a **practical reference implementation** that can be evaluated, tested, and reused by the foundation and the broader ecosystem
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This project is designed to be **actively used, tested, and extended**, not merely demonstrated.
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---
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## Scope & Deliverables
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### Milestone 1 — Polkadot Device Identity Verification Core
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**Duration:** ~6 weeks
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**Cost:** ~$15,000 USD
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**Deliverables:**
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- Extension of the existing PoC into a **formal DID-based identity model**
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- Polkadot identity sidecar (open-source reference attester)
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- Real-time on-chain verification and attestation checks
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- Verified connection flow (unauthenticated → verified / rejected)
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- Charge-point simulator implementing the upgraded W3CP identity handshake
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- Protocol documentation and trust-model explanation
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---
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### Milestone 2 — Demo, Documentation & Developer Experience
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**Duration:** ~6 weeks
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**Cost:** ~$15,000 USD
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**Deliverables:**
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- **Public Demo UI**
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- Visualizes device connection attempts
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- Shows real-time identity verification outcomes
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- Allows anyone to experiment end-to-end
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- **Public HOW-TO Documentation**
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- How the **W3CP protocol** works
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- How devices perform DID-based identity handshakes
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- How the Polkadot identity sidecar verifies identities and attestations
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- How to migrate from testnet-based PoCs to mainnet-ready setups
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- **Open-Source Components**
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- Charge-point firmware simulator / reference implementation
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- Polkadot identity sidecar
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- Stateless
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- Unauthenticated
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- Backend-agnostic
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- Reusable by other projects
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The backend itself is **publicly accessible and testable**, but its internal implementation is **not part of the open-source deliverables**.
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It serves as a **reference integration of the W3CP protocol**, demonstrating how decentralized identity verification can be embedded into real backend systems.
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---
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## Explicitly Out of Scope (Context & Rationale)
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The following activities are **intentionally out of scope for this grant**, but are **actively ongoing and financed through other means**:
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- Commercial backend and frontend product development
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- Integration and pilot discussions with charge-point vendors
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- Integration and pilot discussions with vehicle manufacturers
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- Secure hardware modules, certifications, and manufacturing
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- OCPP protocol extensions
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- Payments, wallets, and settlement logic
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These activities are **essential for real-world adoption** and are being pursued in parallel.
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This grant **explicitly focuses on the Polkadot-based identity layer**, which must remain **open, reusable, and ecosystem-facing**.
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---
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## Why This Split Is Intentional
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Real-world infrastructure adoption requires **both**:
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1. **Open, neutral infrastructure primitives**
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(Polkadot-anchored decentralized identity)
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2. **Commercial execution and market integration**
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(vendors, pilots, operations, compliance)
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This grant funds **(1)**, while **(2)** ensures that the work leads to **real-world usage** rather than isolated experiments.
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This reflects how infrastructure is built and adopted in practice.
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---
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## Team :busts_in_silhouette:
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**Web3 Energy Ltd.** is a company focused on building real-world energy and EV charging infrastructure software.
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The team combines backend engineering, protocol design, and deep domain knowledge of charging systems and identity.
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- **Company Website:** https://web3-energy.com
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- **GitHub Organization:** https://github.com/web3-energy
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We are happy to provide live demos, walkthroughs, or additional context in a call if helpful during the review process.
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## Final Note
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This project is intentionally pragmatic.
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It does not attempt to solve everything at once.
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It demonstrates how Polkadot’s decentralized identity stack can be applied to real-world infrastructure, connecting on-chain identity with physical devices in a concrete, testable, and extensible manner.
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