18. Data Sources

18.1 Primary Sources

Structured stakeholder interviews (30–45 respondents across categories detailed in Section 10)
PRISMA hub network engagements and Action Learning Journey facilitation in priority regions
Expert panels where direct institutional access is constrained
Workshop sessions with local practitioners in priority regional clusters
CATS26 participant and hub network ecosystem intelligence

18.2 Desk Research and Secondary Sources

IMF Regional Economic Outlook reports and country assessments relevant to priority regions
World Bank Doing Business indicators, financial inclusion data, and development reports
GSMA Mobile Economy reports for sub-Saharan Africa and other priority regions
Central bank and financial services regulatory publications in priority regions
Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index and regional blockchain reports
UNCDF and GIZ financial inclusion ecosystem assessments
IFAD agricultural market and supply-chain reports relevant to candidate use cases
Cardano Foundation and Input Output Research published materials relevant to regional adoption
Publicly available records from prior Cardano ecosystem engagements in priority regions
Peer ecosystem case studies: Ethereum-based and Stellar-based public-sector and humanitarian deployments as benchmarks

18.3 Evidence Governance

Every major factual claim in the final report will be traceable to a source, interview, dataset, or explicitly identified research-team judgment. Sources will be categorised by type (primary interview, public secondary, proprietary/restricted, or team judgment) and by confidence level (High, Medium, Low). Sources that are proprietary, paid, incomplete, or require validation will be explicitly marked.

PRISMA will not invent statistics, manufacture counterparty access, or present findings with a confidence level that the evidence does not support.

20. Confidentiality and Data Handling Approach

All primary research participants will be informed in advance of the purpose of the research, who commissioned it, how their responses will be used, and the expected output formats. Each participant will be asked to confirm their preferred attribution status before any interaction is recorded: attributable, anonymised, or fully confidential.

No recording will be made without explicit prior consent. Where consent is given for recording, recordings will be stored in encrypted format and access will be limited to the core research team.

20.2 Data Classification

Research outputs will be classified into four data categories:

Public Findings: Suitable for community publication without modification. Included in the public summary.
CPC-Only Findings: Suitable for the Product Committee and Intersect governance purposes, but not for public publication. Includes commercially sensitive counterparty information, sensitive government views, and preliminary findings that require further validation before public release.
Confidential Raw Data: Interview notes, transcripts, and raw evidence. Not to be published in any form. Retained securely by PRISMA for the duration of the project and deleted according to the agreed retention schedule.
Restricted / Proprietary Data: Paid or third-party datasets used to inform findings. CPC can inspect methodology and findings derived from these sources, but the underlying data cannot be published unless separately licensed.

20.3 Storage and Access Controls

All raw data will be stored in encrypted, access-controlled cloud storage with access limited to named members of the research team. Recordings and transcripts will be deleted within 12 months of project completion, or immediately following final report delivery where respondents request earlier deletion.

20.4 Publication Boundaries

The public summary will include methodology overview, key findings, publishable recommendations, and evidence caveats. It will not expose: respondent identities (unless explicit public attribution consent was obtained); sensitive government or regulatory views; commercially sensitive partner or implementation details; security-sensitive information; or findings that would put respondents at institutional, regulatory, or political risk.