User:Dandv/Agoric

Agoric Systems Operating Co is a startup developing a distributed interoperable object capability platform for smart contracts, using a subset of JavaScript as a secure alternative to perceived flaws in the Solidity language. The Agoric platform is built on top of the Cosmos SDK and uses the Tendermint proof of stake consensus engine. It enables developers to create decentralized applications and contains built-in decentralized finance primitives such as collateralized loans or options.

Agoric is part of the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol working group, together with Cosmos Network contributor Tendermint, and the non-profit Interchain Foundation, which has funded Agoric and awards grants towards Cosmos development.

History
Agoric was announced in May 2018, with a founding team consisting of computer scientists Mark S. Miller, Dean Tribble, and Brian Warner, and economist Bill Tulloh, and with a seed investment from backers including Naval Ravikant, Polychain Capital and Electric Coin Company (then Zcash Company). The name "agoric" comes from the Agoric Open System Papers, published by Miller with K. Eric Drexler in 1988, which laid out the concept of software agents creating and participating in markets for digital assets and computational resources.

The founders, as well as software engineer Chip Morningstar, came together once again to realize Phil Salin's vision of a transaction-oriented global marketplace, after working together on various projects since the 80's. Miller and Tribble worked in the late 80's at Xerox PARC on the Vulcan language, were lead architects of Project Xanadu, and later worked on the E language. Tulloh met Miller in August 1989 at the American Information Exchange (AMIX), part of Autodesk together with Xanadu. The two later co-directed George Mason University's Agorics Project (which researched market-based computing ideas from the viewpoint of the Austrian school of economics) and co-authored papers on software security. Tulloh also worked as a market manager at AMIX, where Chip Morningstar was chief architect. Morningstar had also worked with Miller at Xanadu and on E; he joined Agoric in January 2020. Brian Warner worked with Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn (Agoric investor and advisor ) on the Tahoe-LAFS distributed file system and later on a security review of Ethereum which identified the re-entrancy bug that enabled The DAO hack of 2016. In 2017, Warner and Miller participated on a panel on blockchains and object capabilities organized by The Foresight Institute.

Agoric launched its testnet in September 2019, featuring Cosmos SDK integration, an Electronic Rights Transfer Protocol, and an inter-chain communications protocol as a precursor to the IBC.

In October 2020, Agoric announced the integration with Chainlink oracles, which can provide reliable market price and activity data.

Technologies

 * Secure EcmaScript (SES) - maximally secure backwards-compatible subset of JavaScript that allows for object-capabilities. Championed by Mark Miller as part of TC39. Used by blockchain system Cosmos, software cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask to help prevent malicious dependencies from compromising a user’s wallet,  IoT company Moddable to enable safe end-user scripting on IoT products, Salesforce (which co-developed SES with Agoric), and others.
 * Jessie - much narrower subset of SES designed for writing highly reliable code for use in smart contracts
 * Electronic Rights Transfer Protocol (ERTP) - Agoric's set of APIs for transferring tokens and other digital assets in JavaScript (fungible and nonfungible), among users and smart contracts
 * Zoe - a framework for building smart contracts (e.g. auctions, swaps, decentralized exchanges). Zoe performs escrow and other smart contract tasks and is itself a smart contract written in JavaScript and running on the Agoric platform. Zoe comes with pre-built contracts including oracles, loans, options, atomic swaps, and minting.
 * SwingSet - VM providing a secure distributed JavaScript runtime for deploying SES smart contracts that operates consistently across single machines, clusters, or public blockchains. Enables blockchain interoperability at the logic layer and writing crypto-network agnostic smart contracts (offering a ‘smart-contracts-as-a-service’).
 * Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC) - an end-to-end, connection-oriented, stateful protocol for reliable, ordered, and authenticated communication between heterogeneous blockchains arranged in an unknown and dynamic topology. Co-developed by Agoric and other blockchain infrastructure companies, including Cosmos contributor Tendermint, it gives Agoric chain users access to the protocols, liquidity, and assets in the Cosmos ecosystem.