12th Feb 25

Attendees:

Name	Attendance	Role	Voting Seat
Kevin Hammond	Yes	TSC Chair (IOE)	Yes
Adam Dean	Yes	TSC Vice-Chair	Yes
Markus Gufler	Yes	TSC Member (Cardano Foundation)	Yes
Johnny Kelly	Yes	TSC Member	Yes
Ben Hart	Yes	TSC Member (MLabs)	Yes
Neil Davies	Yes	TSC Member (PN Solutions)	Yes
Nicholas Clark	Yes	TSC Member (Tweag Modus)	Yes
Duncan Soutar	Yes	TSC Secretary	No
Matt Davis	Yes	Intersect - Tech Ops Lead	No
Christian Taylor	Yes	Intersect - Opensource Head	No
Terence ‘Tex’ McCutcheon	Yes	OSC Secretary	No
Abbie Yeates	Yes	Intersect - Delivery Assurance	No
Ricky Rand	Yes	IOE General Manager	No
Duncan Coutts	Yes	Welltyped -Technical Engineer	No

Agenda:

1. Maintenance Contract Update - Duncan/Neil/Adam/Ricky

• Status and Outstanding Issues - Neil/Adam

2. 2025/6 TSC Budget Update - Duncan

• Review total request (USD)

• Split across Maintenance and Dev

• Split across 25 & 26

• Initial Comments from the community

3. Review Proposed Scope for IOE development work items - Ricky

• Sharing of proposed scope -

  • Audit Deliverables Related to Peras,

  • Capacity & security improvements,

  • Selected Enhancements based on residual Capacity,

  • Provide specifications for Leios,

  • Blueprint Documentation

4. Work Prioritisation Update

• Status - Adam/Johnny/Ben/Kevin

• Initial priority areas to be put forward to Tender: Leios, Peras, Midgard, Hydra & Revised Stakepool Incentive Scheme - Duncan

• Items passed on to PC/OSC/MC - Duncan

• Blog Post - Matt

• Engagement with DReps

5. Tenders - Matt

• Blog about process

• Information Days

• Calls for Tender

• Tender Submission Form Template - Matt

• Tender Evaluation Process and Criteria

6. Cardano Node Emulator Maintenance - Nick

• Need for a maintenance contract

• How to handle other maintenance activities

7. OSC Project Incubation Proposal - Christian

The OSC have conditionally approved the project incubation docs and are passing for TSC to add their thoughts, since everyone is part of the approval process for submitting projects. the condition on the approval was conducting a 60 days pilot test of the program utilizing the 2 Emurgo project submission requests.

8. Operation of Maintenance Contract - Adam / Neil / Abbie

• deliverables review

• process for setting directions/agreeing additional work items with IOE

Minutes & Actions:

Discussion Point	Notes	Actions: Responsible / Note
Intersect Fee Structure	Concern that Intersect's 5% fee, tied to the amount spent, creates a perverse incentive to maximize spending. Discussion of alternative models, such as a flat fee, and the desire for a more transparent and aligned funding model in the future.	- TSC to document concerns about the current fee structure. - Advocate for a change to the funding model when the current contract expires.
Ongoing Management & Maintenance Contract	Review of the ongoing management and maintenance contract with IOG. Discussion of items added to the scope of work that were not in the original statement of work.	- Duncan to clarify the scope of new items added to the maintenance contract. - TSC to review and approve/reject the new items.
Documentation (Blueprint Project)	Discussion of the Cardano Blueprint project aimed at improving documentation. Concerns raised about the scope, potential for redundancy, and the need for clear user needs and goals. Suggestions for prioritizing documentation efforts and ensuring ongoing maintenance.	- Survey community developers (e.g., those working on Amaru, Go node) to identify documentation pain points and needs. - Define clear user needs and goals for the documentation project. - Explore the possibility of using executable specifications to facilitate automatic updates and maintenance.
Budget	Discussion of the overall budget for 2025. Concerns about fluctuations in the budget numbers, misrepresentation of the maintenance costs, and the need for greater transparency and clarity. Suggestions for reallocating funds to different committees (OSC) and creating internship programs.	- TSC to review and refine the budget numbers. - Provide more granular detail on AWS costs. - Explore moving the Tooling Working Group and budget allocation to the Open Source Committee (OSC). - Consider establishing an internship program in collaboration with the OSC.
Work Prioritization Update	Update on the prioritization of proposed projects. Discussion of the need to filter and categorize proposals, identify key areas for community support, and develop a clear tender process.	- TSC to continue reviewing and prioritizing proposals. - Publish clear evaluation criteria for tenders. - Hold information days for prospective bidders. - Conduct workshops and facilitate community discussions for contentious items.
Node Emulator and Other Tools Maintenance	Discussion of the Cardano node emulator and other tools not currently covered by the maintenance contract. The need for ongoing maintenance and potential for community involvement.	- Nicholas to provide a statement of work for the node emulator and other tools, including identified customers. - TSC to review and approve/reject the proposed maintenance work. - Consider developing a policy for managing and maintaining critical tools and repositories.

Decisions:

1. Scope and refine the Cardano Blueprint documentation project: The TSC decided to move forward with this project but with a greater focus on identifying user needs, surveying developers, and setting clear deliverables. This includes potentially exploring executable specifications.

2. Investigate AWS cost breakdown: The TSC wants more detailed information about the AWS costs, breaking them down by service and usage. This is in response to community concerns about the high AWS expenditure.

3. Take on maintenance of the Cardano node emulator: The TSC agreed that maintaining this tool is important and will review the statement of work provided by Nicholas.