Overview
Agoric is an open-source development company that has launched a layer 1, proof-of-stake public blockchain designed to enable JavaScript developers to rapidly build safe smart contracts. The project was initiated with the goal of making blockchain programming safe and accessible to the 17+ million JavaScript developers worldwide. By providing a hardened JavaScript environment, Agoric allows developers to build, deploy, and operate sophisticated decentralized applications (DApps), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized finance (DeFi) markets.
The Agoric public blockchain is part of the interchain ecosystem and is designed to mitigate novel risks posed by decentralized financial systems built upon Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus. The Agoric programming model, supported by its native market infrastructure, aims to enable the formation of a cryptoeconomic standard library with the same exponential composability that led to the explosive growth of the Node.js, React.js, and other JavaScript ecosystems.
Agoric Economy Assets
The Agoric chain features two native tokens: BLD and IST. The BLD token is used for securing the network and governance. It also provides stability for IST, the second asset of the network. IST is a local currency used to pay for goods, services, and execution fees. The IST asset is easily adaptable as payment for DApps built on the blockchain and is the primary mechanism for paying validators. Additionally, IST is what makes it easy for developers to glue DApps together in the Beta Testnet.
Mainnet Launch and Development Phases
In November 2021, Phase 0 of the Agoric mainnet went live. During this phase, early investors and validators set up their BLD tokens on the Agoric chain in order to launch a decentralized public chain. In Phase 1, Agoric will launch the Agoric virtual machine, the RUN token and protocol, vault contracts, and native automated market maker (AMM). In Phase 2, Agoric will allow permissioned smart contracts to be deployed on-chain subject to BLD holder governance. In Phase 3, Agoric will add permissionless smart contracts that any developer can deploy onto the Agoric public chain with no approval process required. All Phases should be complete in 2022 with Phase 3 expected to be complete by Q4 2022.
Governance and Future Developments
Agoric has established an Economic Committee in charge of reducing risk, growing usage, and mitigating extreme events for Inter Protocol. The network has also launched the Inter Protocol MVP and Hardened JavaScript VM. Future developments include the support of Liquid Staking on Agoric in collaboration with Rockaway Labs, aiming to help blockchain projects support a performant and decentralized validator network by allocating stake to validators that contribute most toward these goals.
