Aurora Scholar

Decentralized scientific publishing platform on Solana blockchain

🎥 Demo Video & Pitch

Watch the 3-minute demo and pitch of Aurora Scholar:

Click the image above or watch on YouTube

🔗 Smart Contract (Devnet)

Program ID: HoRNS4q7T69m6YHYx8Qsg4kAffwNNu8R25XpReZnvWAe

• Solana Explorer (Devnet): View on Explorer
• Network: Solana Devnet
• Status: ✅ Deployed and Active
• Cluster: Devnet

Contract Details

The Aurora Scholar smart contract is deployed on Solana Devnet and handles:

• Article registration with content and intuition hashes
• Timestamp recording for immutable proof of authorship
• AI scope declaration (transparency about AI assistance level)
• Public/private article visibility control
• On-chain verification of article authenticity

🎯 Vision

Assisted Academic Writing Monitoring - A platform where users write their own academic texts with ethical AI guidance (never substitution), ensuring authenticity, transparency, and immutable authorship through blockchain. The AI acts as a monitor that guides, explains, and validates - never writes for the user.

✨ Main Features

• Academic Editor with Ethical AI Assistant (always-active agent)
• Three-Layer Ethical System (Declared Intuition, Linguistic Mediation, Coherence Monitoring)
• Declared Sources - User uploads PDFs, links, etc. - AI uses only these as reference
• Internationalization (i18n) - Full support for Portuguese (PT-BR) and English (EN)
• AI Features:
  • Structure suggestions based on content
  • Coherence checking against declared intuition
  • Interactive chat for specific questions
  • Language-aware responses (respects user's selected language)
• Dashboard - Manage your articles (public and private) with access control
• On-Chain Publishing on Solana (immutable hash + timestamp)
• Permanent Storage on Arweave
• Access Control (Public/Private with expiration and wallet-based grants)
• On-Chain Journal (public article listing with search and filters)
• Evaluation Board System (Phase 2)

🌐 Aurora Scholar Ecosystem

Aurora Scholar operates as an integrated ecosystem where each component works together:

9-Step User Flow:

1. Declare Intuition - User states their initial idea/declaration
2. Upload Declared Sources - PDFs, links, videos, etc. (AI uses only these)
3. Write with AI Guidance - Real-time ethical assistance (AI never writes)
4. AI Monitors Coherence - Continuous validation of consistency
5. Review and Refine - User reviews suggestions and improves
6. Generate Final Version - User finalizes their work
7. Register on-Chain - Hash + timestamp on Solana (immutable proof)
8. Store Permanently - Full content on Arweave (permanent, single payment)
9. Share - Public (On-Chain Journal) or Private (temporary links)

Three-Layer Ethical System:

• Layer 1: Declared Intuition - User's initial idea is captured and registered
• Layer 2: Linguistic Mediation - AI guides structure and language (never writes)
• Layer 3: Coherence Monitoring - AI validates consistency between intuition, sources, and final text

Key Components:

• Editor + AI Assistant: Real-time ethical guidance as user writes
• Declared Sources Processing: Vectorization and embedding for AI reference
• On-Chain Registration: Hash + timestamp + AI scope on Solana
• Permanent Storage: Full content on Arweave
• Verification: Anyone can verify authenticity via Solana Explorer

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• pnpm 8+
• PostgreSQL
• Solana CLI (for development)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-username/aurora-scholar.git
cd aurora-scholar

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Configure environment variables
# See docs/ENV_SETUP.md for detailed instructions
# 
# Quick setup:
# 1. Create apps/api/.env with required variables (see docs/ENV_SETUP.md)
# 2. Create apps/web/.env.local (optional for dev, required for prod)

# Start the database (using Docker Compose)
docker compose up -d postgres

# Run database migrations
cd apps/api && npx prisma migrate dev

# Start development (runs both web and api)
pnpm dev

Important: See docs/ENV_SETUP.md for complete environment variable configuration.

📁 Project Structure

aurora-scholar/
├── apps/
│   ├── web/          # Next.js frontend
│   └── api/           # Express backend
├── packages/
│   ├── contracts/     # Anchor smart contracts
│   ├── sdk/           # Shared SDK
│   └── ui/            # Shared UI components
├── docs/              # Complete documentation
└── pnpm-workspace.yaml

🛠️ Technical Stack

• Frontend: Next.js 16.1.0, React, Tailwind CSS, TipTap, next-intl (i18n)
• Backend: Express, TypeScript, Prisma
• Blockchain: Solana (Anchor framework)
• Storage: Arweave via Irys
• Database: PostgreSQL
• AI: Google Gemini API (with language-aware responses)
• Authentication: JWT with Solana wallet signature

📚 Documentation

• MVP - MVP features for hackathon
• Architecture - Technical decisions
• Roadmap - Project evolution
• Use Cases - Detailed flows
• Pitch - Project presentation

🎓 Hackathon

This project was developed for the Solana Student Hackathon Fall 2025.

Timeline:

• Development period: 11/24/2024 - 12/19/2024
• Submission deadline: 12/19/2024

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or pull request.

🔗 Links

• Complete Documentation
• Smart Contract (Devnet)
• Solana Explorer
• Arweave
• Demo Video & Pitch (YouTube - 3 minutes)

---

Status: MVP completed - Hackathon submission ready

Recent Updates:

• ✅ Full internationalization (PT-BR / EN)
• ✅ Dashboard with access control management
• ✅ Enhanced Journal with search and filters
• ✅ AI structure suggestions and coherence checking
• ✅ Language-aware AI responses
• ✅ Consistent navigation menu across all pages