CIP-0079: SV Readiness — Demonstrate Third-Party Price Feed Integration for CC Listing

CIP-0079

Abstract:

This CIP requires all Super Validator (SV) operators to demonstrate operational readiness to ingest, validate, monitor, and expose a reference price feed (e.g., CC/USD) no later than October 15, 2025, in support of the Canton Coin (CC) listing. The Kaiko reference price (see attached Kaiko proposal) is cited as an example of a feed SVs may use to meet this requirement.

Specification:

This CIP requires a Daml model upgrade to allow Super Validators to replace their manual on-chain vote for the $USD-Canton Coin conversion rate with a price feed. These changes are defined in https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/splice/pull/1980?

Motivation

The Canton Coin (CC) / Dollar (USD) conversion rate is fundamental to the Canton Network's tokenomics, essential for understanding expected featured app reward behaviors and traffic fees. Currently, Super Validators manually upload this rate based on their individual assessments.

With a future Canton Coin listing and the emerging OTC market, it is imperative for Super Validators to base the CC/USD conversion rate on market prices to avoid price dislocation which could disincentivize use of the chain.

Deliverables for SV Readiness:

Deliverable	Acceptance Criteria	Deadline
R1 - Ingest a reference price feed	Subscribe to at least one feed delivering CC/USD to the SV	Must be live on MainNet by 2025-10-15
R2 - Publish on-chain	Update your on-chain conversion rate as the reference rate changes at least every 10 minutes	Must be live on MainNet by 2025-10-15

Provider guidance: The Kaiko reference price feed (see Attached: Kaiko CIP — Reference Price for CC) is an acceptable example for R1. Comparable providers (e.g., other institutional price feeds offering authenticated delivery and documented methodology) are acceptable.

Copyright

• This CIP is licensed under CC0-1.0: Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

Changelog

• 2025-09-18: Initial draft of the proposal.

Appendix I - References

Ambre Soubiran, CEO, Kaiko

This proposal outlines a strategic shift in how the CC/USD conversion rate is integrated into the network, anticipating the Canton Coin's listing.

This CIP addresses:

• The existing CC/USD conversion rate mechanism (both infrastructure and price formation)
• Establishing a Canton Price Index, an IOSCO, BMR-regulated standard approach and associated governance model. The index would evolve in phases, matching the successive listings of the Canton Coin (CC). The initial phase would leave the price formation process unchanged.
• Infrastructure: how to improve the setup and void hard coded prices without functionally changing price formation, applicable immediately

Appendix II - The Current CC/USD Conversion Rate Mechanism

Price Formation:
At present, the CC/USD conversion rate is uploaded by Super Validators based on their internal assessments, primarily because the Canton Coin is not yet listed, and public price data or OTC transaction details are not transparently available.

Technical Dissemination:
The process involves Super Validators manually uploading a rate via their UI on an as-needed basis. The most recently uploaded rate is then utilized in each 10-minute round. SPLICE computes the median of these rates and registers it in AMULET, the Canton Coin’s smart contract, which makes the rate public.

Appendix III - Establishing a Canton Benchmark Reference Rate (BRR)

Kaiko Proposal:
Kaiko proposes to set-up an Index price to ultimately feed SVs and the network for subsequent operations. The use of a Reference Price, established by relying on a Reference Price unlocks several compliance and fairness elements for the Network:

Participants of the network will be free to use a different reference for the use of their applications, leading to a de facto transparency of their mark-ups or mark-downs applied on the reference price, putting the emphasis on transparency, and maximising value for the Network users, who will benefit from a business model transparency

Governance:
Under IOSCO and BMR framework, Kaiko will establish an oversight committee, and act under Kaiko Indices, a regulated entity (LEI:969500BKJ2X29T7NJH85), registered and licensed ESMA benchmark administrator, as the Canton (CC) - US Dollar (USD) Benchmark Reference Rate (Kaiko CC-USD BRR) administrator. The oversight committee can include any Canton Super Validators on a voluntary basis, represented equally regardless of their weight on the Network. All resolutions of the oversight committees should be documented by writing, with the resolutions made public on Kaiko's public facing interfaces.

Phases and practical considerations

• Phase 1: No change to price formation rules

  • As long as the oversight committee and the governance is not in place, the Kaiko CC-USD BRR shall replicate existing price formation mechanisms. Only the technical delivery (next section of the CIP) could be amended.

• Phase 2: Transitional price formation mechanism

  • The Canton Coin will be iteratively listed on venues, and liquidity will increase over time. Ultimately, the CC-USD BRR will have to match Kaiko's BRR framework (vetted venues to source price form, liquidity thresholds, and all components as described in the overall Kaiko Reference Rates rulebook). However, during the intermediary phase, the price formation of CC-USD will have to iteratively mature to include price sources and market setting of the CC-USD price without risking market and price dislocation for the network.
  • The CC-USD BRR committee will as such convene monthly after the first listing, decide on monthly rebalancing of the price sources and methodology adjustments to the CC-USD BRR provisional methodology until CC becomes eligible to a standard Kaiko BRR. The oversight committee could set an extraordinary meeting as required. Kaiko as Administrator will be responsible to propose and implement voted changes until Canton Coin is eligible for a standard BRR. The overall process will require full transparency.

• Phase 3: Official CC-USD BRR, underlying ISIN and regulatory supervision

  • Oversight committee will have to vote the transition to phase 3
  • Kaiko will be required to have an ISIN issued for the CC-USD BRR
  • The CC-USD BRR will have to fall under regulatory supervision of Kaiko's regulated indices

Appendix IV - Upgrading the Onchain Price Technical Dissemination

Super Validators will no longer have to hardcode the CC/USD conversion rate but will instead have the ability to access it on-chain using Kaiko's on-chain feeds within the Canton Network. Super Validator can access across all phases to the CC-USD BRR through Kaiko's On-ramp facility and on-chain price feeds, ensuring that there will be no technical implication of the approach.

The implementation of the underlying infrastructure does not imply dependencies with the above approach, except for phase 1 price input. During the initial phase, Kaiko will have to expose a price collection facility allowing SVs to submit publicly their prices in order to replicate the current price formation mechanism at the time of writing of this CIP.

The revised process will be as follows:

Specific to phase 1: Replicating current process

• CC/USD Price contributions from SVs

  • Kaiko will collect the CC/USD prices from Canton through an interface accessible to all Super Validators. SVs will have the ability to change their prices for the next publication. If no changes are submitted by an SV, their previously submitted value will be used.

• CC/USD Price calculation from SVs

  • Once Super Validators have uploaded their prices to Kaiko, the median price will be calculated off-chain by Kaiko, replicating SPLICE methodology, and Kaiko will publish the median price back on the Network.
  • In subsequent phases, the price calculation will no longer rely on SV price input but the CC-USD rate will be a Mark-to-Market rate. As such, SVs will only be required to choose the source, and the downstream process and integration with SPLICE and AMULET will be fully automated.

• Generic: publishing the CC-USD price

  • The price feed will be published on-chain via Kaiko's Canton Price feeds on the network, initially every 1 min, then eventually in the future up to second/real-time level updates if required or beneficial. The technical price format, Data contract standard shall match the standard of the overall facility, and be maintained by Kaiko with that regard. The technical interfaces must not be price discovery phases dependent. SVs can then use the Kaiko CC-USD price to programmatically (vs manually at the time of writing) submit their price to SPLICE, or choose another on-chain source. The DSO will publish the consensus price from SPLICE to AMULET, regardless of their sources. SVs will thus be able to choose to rely on the Kaiko CC-USD BRR directly into SPLICE (vs manual update). They could also choose to use another source.

Appendix V - Conclusion

This CIP intends at equipping the network with a highly resilient, operational and regulatorily compliant price standard for Canton Coin to operationally enable the network and its economy, protect it from price bias and market dislocation, reducing arbitrage exposition for users and application builders, with a dedicated governance and process that matches both the need for a price consensus framework as well as regulatory compliance. The CIP aims at providing the network and its users with transparency, utility and fairness.

Note: this CIP is independent from CIP-0063. Kaiko does not seek, nor will it be eligible to unlock additional SV points per the CIP-0063 through the approval of this CIP.