A total financing of 38 million USD, what are the characteristics of the public chain Agoric that is about to launch on Coinlist?

Source: Coinlist

Compiled by: Jinse Finance Maxwell

Mars Finance Note: Last month, the Cosmos-based smart contract platform Agoric raised $32 million through a token private placement and launched its mainnet, AMM, and native stablecoin RUN. Agoric's investors include Polychain, Naval Ravikant, Placeholder, NGC Ventures, Spartan Group, Compound VC, Acrew Capital, Figment, and Chorus.One. Agoric's total funding to date has reached $38 million.

CoinList announced last week that it will start selling Agoric tokens from 18:00 UTC on December 29. Agoric is a proof-of-stake public chain that enables developers to quickly build and deploy dapps using JavaScript smart contracts.

The official CoinList blog recently discussed the smart contract public chain Agoric being built with several Agoric contributors, as well as how Agoric saves developers time and resources while preventing reentrancy attacks and other common smart contract errors.

1. What is Agoric, and how does it leverage JavaScript smart contracts for dapp development?

Agoric is the first proof-of-stake public chain designed to enable developers to quickly build secure smart contracts using JavaScript, the most popular programming language on Earth.

The Agoric blockchain and crypto ecosystem is a smart contract platform that can quickly bring millions of developers to the forefront of DeFi. Agoric's enhanced JavaScript allows over 100,000 JavaScript developers to access blockchain programming. Enhanced JavaScript provides a secure and stable environment, enabling developers to build, deploy, and operate complex dapps, NFTs, and DeFi markets. The Agoric public chain is part of the Cosmos ecosystem, built on the battle-tested Tendermint proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus system, with native IBC support. Additionally, the Agoric programming model, supported by native market infrastructure, aims to create exponential growth in the composability of crypto economic standards and lead to exponential growth in Node.js, React.js, and other JavaScript ecosystems.

In addition to the JavaScript programming language, the Agoric platform introduces Zoe, a "first-of-its-kind" platform service that enables secure economic composition between smart contracts. Zoe brings a modern, pluggable component framework for web3 developers on the Agoric platform, akin to mainstream web2 development.

2. What is the Agoric token? What is the intrinsic value and use case of Agoric's BLD token? And what about the RUN token?

The Agoric chain has two native tokens, BLD and RUN. BLD is the base token sold in this CoinList sale and is the native staking token of the Agoric blockchain. BLD secures the network and is used for governance. RUN is a fee token used to pay for on-chain services (e.g., gas), implement smart contracts on-chain, and support cross-chain activities. RUN will be created on-chain through governance by smart contracts authorized by BLD holders. The BLD and RUN tokens serve complementary purposes, prioritizing network security and expanding the ecosystem.

Chain Security: BLD holders provide security for the chain by staking with validators. The Agoric blockchain is a proof-of-stake chain operated by a network of validators using the Cosmos-proven Tendermint BFT consensus algorithm. Validators come from an open ecosystem of contributors and infrastructure providers. BLD stakers will receive rewards in BLD and RUN tokens.

Protocol Governance: BLD provides governance rights for the Agoric chain. BLD holders are the stewards of the chain's progress; they initiate and vote to approve new proposals. Governance includes various activities, including direct token voting on proposals and electing committees to manage critical infrastructure. We expect this governance function to extend to core economic primitives in the Agoric ecosystem, such as the RUN system.

RUN Protocol: BLD creates the platform and foundation for the RUN token. The RUN token—part of the Agoric token sale—is the chain's fee token. It is envisioned as a stablecoin pegged to the value of the US dollar (USD), built as a set of smart contracts called the RUN protocol. As expected, RUN is fully backed by user-provided collateral, which may include BLD, assets built on the Agoric chain, and assets from a $75 billion cross-chain ecosystem provided through the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC).

3. How do BLD holders earn staking rewards? How do locked BLD tokens achieve this?

BLD holders delegate their BLD tokens to validators to support network security, thereby earning BLD and RUN rewards. The two sources of staking rewards are:

Issuance of new BLD tokens. In the early stages of the chain's lifecycle, new BLD tokens will be issued to provide rewards to stakers. The details of this issuance depend on the governance of BLD holders, but the expected plan is to issue an additional 250 million BLD tokens over three years. For more details, please refer to the CoinList trading page (http://coinlist.co/agoric).

RUN protocol fees. BLD stakers provide the necessary security for the existence of the RUN protocol and will be rewarded for this service. The protocol fees paid in RUN are distributed to BLD stakers. Protocol fees will include: fees from user vaults created for RUN; and protocol fees from native Agoric automated market maker transactions.

Both locked and unlocked BLD tokens can be staked with validators to help secure the chain. Locked tokens cannot be transferred but can be staked with validators to help secure the chain and earn rewards just like unlocked BLD. All staking rewards are unlocked, ensuring that active network participants will have available liquid tokens before the unlocking event of BLD tokens purchased during the sale.

4. What is the RUN protocol, and why is it important for the Agoric ecosystem?

The RUN protocol implements the RUN stablecoin. RUN is the native fee token of the Agoric platform and is poised to play a larger role in the $75 billion cross-chain ecosystem.

Opportunities: The envisioned RUN protocol provides a stablecoin for the IBC ecosystem and the broader inter-chain economy. The RUN token is fully collateralized by assets from the inter-chain system and pegged to the US dollar (USD) for broad accessibility.

The competition for stablecoins in the cross-chain ecosystem is heating up; currently, there is no stablecoin supported by widely available assets (such as ATOM, OSMO, SCRT, etc.) in the cross-chain ecosystem. The Agoric blockchain provides an ideal platform for building applications that support healthy stablecoins and more in the cross-chain ecosystem.

The RUN protocol consists of several economic primitives written using Agoric's smart contract framework, closely tied to chain functionality: vault systems and getRUN, automated market makers, and staking reward distribution. We will look at each part of the RUN protocol in turn.

Vault System: Allows holders of crypto assets like BLD, ATOM, OSMO, etc., to lock these assets in vaults to create RUN. As mentioned, the accepted assets are determined by protocol governance.

Automated Market Maker (AMM): The native Agoric AMM supports the RUN protocol by ensuring sufficient market depth to liquidate user vaults. In addition to its role in the RUN protocol, the native AMM will also support trading of assets launched on Agoric or brought to the Agoric chain via IBC.

getRUN: BLD stakers can lock their already-staked BLD to create RUN, similar to a vault. This allows BLD stakers to participate in the ecosystem while still securing the chain.

Rewards and Reserves: The fees generated by the RUN protocol flow to BLD stakers. A portion of the fees is retained by the RUN protocol. The reserve fund further protects the RUN protocol from fluctuations in collateral value by compensating for shortfalls in vault liquidations.

5. What is the Zoe smart contract framework? How does Zoe help developers build on Agoric?

The Zoe smart contract framework provides developers with a means of security and composability on Agoric. Despite significant success in recent years, blockchain development is still in its infancy. Contracts with simple business logic still require months or years of development time to ensure security and often still fail.

Zoe supports the development of smart contracts within a modern, pluggable component framework, which has been the dominant paradigm for web 2 applications. The platform is designed to accelerate development speed and reduce the risks of using and building smart contracts.

A core distinction between Zoe and other smart contract platforms is offer-safety, which ensures that all on-chain transactions either settle and close or return what they offered in the proposed transaction back to the user. On blockchains like Ethereum, users do not have such protection: users directly provide tokens as part of a request to smart contracts like UniSwap; if the contract fails due to vulnerabilities, malicious code, etc., users cannot retrieve the assets they provided. In contrast, on Agoric's Zoe, users make such exchange requests in the form of offers—"I will give you X tokens if and only if you give me Y tokens"—and provide the X tokens to the Zoe smart contract infrastructure rather than the contract itself. The contract then receives the provided exchange notification and will only receive the X tokens when it provides the Y tokens that the user wants to the infrastructure. The infrastructure itself ensures that users receive what they want or the assets they provided. Offer-safety is a pervasive transaction model in Agoric that allows developers and users to avoid catastrophic errors that frequently occur in other systems.

The Zoe smart contract framework also includes the Electronic Rights Transfer Protocol (ERTP), which is Agoric's token standard for creating and transferring tokens and other digital assets. The growing component library uniformly supports various types of digital assets and contracts, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and remote assets from other chains.

6. How does Agoric facilitate cross-chain activities, and what opportunities does this provide for developers and users in the Agoric ecosystem?

Agoric uses the Cosmos IBC protocol to realize the original idea of interoperable smart contracts, adapting to the specific needs of Tendermint and the Cosmos SDK. The Agoric team has been deeply involved in the development of the protocol in collaboration with teams such as Informal, Interchain Foundation, and Tendermint Inc.

What sets the Agoric platform apart is that it was built from the ground up to enable applications to span multiple blockchains. This makes the Agoric platform an ideal place to build IBC-native applications.

Agoric will launch with IBC enabled and integrated into the platform. Assets from the Agoric chain, such as BLD and RUN, will be available on IBC applications, including Osmosis DEX, Evmos, and other IBC-supported environments. Cosmos users will be able to use IBC assets like LUNA, ATOM, and OSMO within the Agoric platform. As the IBC network effects strengthen, bridged assets from other L1 (Layer 1 chains) will also be usable within the platform.

With the smooth integration of IBC, other chains and their assets will appear as more intelligent contract Lego blocks for JavaScript developers to use!

7. What are the plans for network decentralization and foundation tokens?

Agoric is a large project that encompasses many important elements. The primary allocation of BLD tokens is reserved for various support purposes or for entities engaged in long-term tasks to incentivize the development of the Agoric platform. In most (but not all) cases, this will result in the tokens being locked. Before BLD tokens are truly locked, they are classified as "potentially circulating."

Network Decentralization Fund: The purpose of the network decentralization fund is to expand the system's decentralization by staking BLD with a wide range of validators, designing liquidity mining, and incentivizing early component developers. Most such allocations will be locked for 2-4 years, just like all currently circulating BLD tokens. For example, testnet rewards are allocated from the network decentralization fund, with a lock-up period of 2 years (reflected in the token circulation chart on the CoinList trading page). However, if some of these funds are allocated to an on-chain DAO in the future, that DAO may make them liquid. Since the BLD tokens in the network decentralization fund are not yet locked, they are currently classified as "circulating," even though there are no plans to put them into circulation before the public sale token unlock.

Foundation: The foundation is being formed, and once established, it will be managed by various Agoric stakeholders to promote the interests of decentralized technologies built on or using the Agoric blockchain and related technologies. The foundation may choose to lock a portion of its BLD tokens at its discretion. Like the network decentralization fund, foundation tokens are currently classified as "circulating," although there are no plans to put them into circulation before the public sale token unlock.

8. What crypto trends are you most interested in at the beginning of 2022?

The crypto ecosystem experienced astonishing growth in 2021, and we believe that 2022 will have some catalysts that will continue this growth.

Increased demand for decentralized stablecoins: The demand for stablecoins surged dramatically in 2021. This is a critical turning point, as stable mediums of exchange reduce economic friction and accelerate economic growth. The Agoric platform envisions RUN precisely for this purpose: to make it easier to build, deploy, and grow new economic applications and services. The timing is ripe for further development in the cross-chain ecosystem.

Rapid expansion of IBC and interoperable L1s: A year ago, interoperability was a distant future idea. Today, with the emergence of "layer 2" chains like Polygon, major inter-chain bridges like Wormhole and Gravity Bridge, and the increasing adoption of the market-leading IBC protocol, interoperability has become a reality. Currently, multiple chains are competing to offer greater, better, and cheaper interoperability. As IBC activity continues to increase, and more projects (including Agoric) enter the mainnet, users will begin to see vibrant alternatives to EVM-based crypto activity. Upcoming releases like Interchain Accounts and Interchain Staking may drive new cross-chain functionalities never seen before.

Entry of mainstream developers: While the growth of developers in the crypto space is strong, the community of smart contract developers remains small relative to the global developer population. As more options open up for developers, we believe activity will surge. Agoric has a unique advantage in reaching the world's largest developer community—JavaScript developers—and providing the necessary scalability for the next wave of decentralized applications.

Integration of financial services: For compliance reasons, mainstream financial institutions have largely been excluded from decentralized financial innovations. By 2022, we expect to see regulated smart contract insurance enter the market—partially driven by Agoric—which will allow these institutions to participate. New capital will mean new opportunities for builders leveraging innovations in the space and more mainstream applications.